Look up on a clear night far from city lights and you will see about 6,000 stars. That is less than 0.00001 % of the stars in the Milky Way alone, which holds 100 billion to 400 billion suns. This book opens 100 doors into that scale, each is a strange but true fact that makes the sky feel less like a ceiling and more like a map you can read.You start with the nearest furnace, the Sun, a middle aged yellow dwarf that holds 99.8 % of the solar system's mass and turns 4 million tons ...

The first in a middle-grade action-adventure series from Roland Smith! Chase Masters and his father are "storm runners," racing across the country in pursuit of hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. Anywhere bad weather strikes, they are not far behind. Chase is learning more on the road than he ever would just sitting in a classroom. But when the hurricane of the century hits, he will be tested in ways he never could have imagined.

Roland Smith, the master of middle-grade adventure, returns with a new novel full of high-speed chases, secret identities, and a dangerous underground world.What waits Beneath?Pat O'Toole has always idolized his older brother, Coop. He's even helped Coop with some of his crazier plans -- such as risking his life to help his big brother dig a tunnel underneath their neighborhood in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Coop is . . . different. He doesn't talk on the phone, doesn't use emai...

In this unputdownable, spine-tingling coming-of-age adventure of a lifetime called “a winner at every level,”* fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello attempts to be the youngest climber to summit Mount Everest.After Peak Marcello is arrested for scaling a New York City skyscraper, he's left with two choices: wither away in juvenile detention or go live with his long-lost father, a world-famous mountaineer who runs an overseas climbing company.But Peak quickly learns that his fathe...

A little yellow duck is hungry and looks for its breakfast. While it is searching for something to eat, it meets some of its friends and asks them to help it find something tasty to eat, Its friend aren't much help as they have either already eaten their own breakfasts or have a different idea of what would be a suitable meal, so it solves the problem on its own.

This is a story that I used to tell to my grandchildren until they got too old to believe it any more. It gave us some fun at the time and I would even play the Bogle songs on a guitar or using a computer to generate a "bogle organ" sound.The story is based on the idea that our highly washed and fragrant offspring could not possible be responsible for the naughty things they seem to do and that there must be some other, more sinister, agency involved. It is suggested that the bogles...

This is a story based on domestic animals who lived in a European village and belonged to my wife and myself. Everything in the story was real - even the wicked witch - although her house was not made of gingerbread.In this particular European country, there is a festival in the Spring where the locals dress up in costumes that are made from animal skins. Because of this, any animal with an attractive skin had better watch out!The story was intended for my granddaughter who g...

The fourth book in the CAHILLS VS. VESPERS series, the follow up to the worldwide bestseller THE 39 CLUES. After pulling some spectacular heists, Amy and Dan have become two of Interpol's most wanted criminals. So when Vesper One orders them to steal the world's largest diamond, they know they're facing life in prison . . . or worse. But with the Cahill hostages still in peril, Amy and Dan have no choice but to launch a mission that leads them to an ancient city full of dangerous secrets. ...

The Wildes have made some serious enemies in their last two adventures--and now they've all shown up in the little Texas town of Glen Rose with vengeance in their hearts. Moving the vaquitas to the Wilds has created quite a controversy and raised a national debate about how to save severely endangered species. Go behind the scenes of the Wilds facility with Ring and Asia and discover how a modern animal park operates--and the dramas they face. Asia and Ring are home and it turns out that h...

In this thrilling climbing adventure from bestselling author Roland Smith, summiting one of the most isolated mountains in the world may be the easiest thing Peak does.After conquering the mountains in Afghanistan, Peak Marcello goes to Myanmar, a country that has been in the grips of a brutal military regime for more than fifty years, to visit Alessia.When he’s invited to climb the remote Hkakabo Razi, Peak can’t pass up the opportunity. But getting to the...

Ring and Asia Wilde's life is anything but ordinary. Some of their closest friends are endangered monkeys and rare birds. Instead of attending middle school, they accompany their parents (scientists who work to save endangered species) on adventures around the world. They spend more time climbing trees, tracking animal prints, and taking on three-hundred-pound anacondas than they do filling out worksheets. But a research trip to the Amazon rainforest turns into a dangerous mystery when the...