Showing results by author "Amberley Ember" in All Categories

Listen to a modern re-telling of "The Elves and the Shoemaker" and you might conclude it's a tale in praise of gratitude: "Gratitude is noble. If someone does you a kind turn, be nice in return."

According to the legend, The Pied Piper lured children to their graves with his evil, enchanting flute music after town leaders refused to pay him for ridding Hamelin of rats. One question: When did the children of Hamelin stop being children? At what age did children become immune to his tune? Twelve? Sixteen? Eighteen? Or was it a more gradual process?

Tommy escapes from her rural school bus after bullies pelt her with tomatoes. Alone in the middle of nowhere, she decides to walk all the way home. But the Australian summer day grows dangerously hot. She comes across a tiny, one-room school from another century, which wasn't there before. She decides to spend her day with the unusual kids who attend, and makes a new friend—a ghostly friend, who will come in very handy next time Tommy rides that school bus.