In this science fiction story a clone named Matteo Alacrán lives in a society that hates and fears his kind. Having grown up in seclusion, Matt is shocked to find out his very personal connection to El Patrón, a 142-year-old drug lord who rules over Opium, a parcel of land between the United States and the country that was once known as Mexico. Winner of the 2002 National Book Award in the young people's literature category. Named one of the Best Children's Books 2002 by Publishers Weekly. A 2003 Newbery Honor book.

Berserkers kidnap 11-year-old Jack and his sister Lucy from their small island in A.D. 793, and they're enslaved by Viking chieftain Olaf One-Brow. A harrowing ocean voyage takes them to Ivar the Boneless, a fierce king dressed in a cape stitched together from the beards of men he's killed, and Queen Frith, Ivar's shape-shifting half-troll wife. Frith's beauty is destroyed when Jack sings to her: "Her features rippled and twisted like the beasts carved on the walls." Frith threatens to kill Lucy if Jack doesn't restore her appearance, so he must seek out a magic well in the trolls' stronghold. He grapples desperately with gigantic spiders, a troll-bear, and dragons before finally returning home with a fire-wizard's staff. Author Nancy Farmer weaves Saxon and Nordic historical and cultural details into this imaginative seafaring adventure. A Kirkus Editor's Choice for 2004.

This futuristic tale, which is set in Zimbabwe in the year 2194, centers on Tendai (age 13), Rita (age 11), and Kuda (age 4), the children of the very strict General Matsika. One day, tired of living within the confines of their father's rules, they sneak out of the house, and are promptly, kidnapped. Determined to get them back home, General Matsika hires the Ear, the Eye, and the Arm--three nuclear-mutated detectives whom he hopes will be able to use their unusual powers to track down his children. Meanwhile, Tendai, Rita, and Kuda have a series of amazing adventures--all of which keep them always just out of reach of the Ear, the Eye, and the Arm. A combination adventure story and science fiction tale, THE EAR, THE EYE AND THE ARM is a 1995 Newbery Honor Book.

The sixth book in the Riftwar series, and the first of a new subseries called the Serpent War Saga. Two unlikely, and decidedly reluctant, heroes are called into service when an evil queen unleashes her other-dimensional lizard army on the world of Midkemia.

In this, the third book in the Empire series, Lady Mara faces her greatest challenge when a secret conspiracy, brewing since she came to power, culminates in a series of assassination attempts.

In this, is the final volume in the Serpent War Saga, and the ninth of the Riftwar books. the Queen's henchmen, General Fadawah, renews his threats against Midkemia.

Jasper Fforde's third Thursday Next novel finds his heroine pregnant and working for Miss Havisham in the department of Jurisfiction. The legal stuff is getting her down, and a temporary assignment at the Well of Lost Plots, subbing for a vacationing character in a truly awful unpublished detective novel, sounds like more fun. But the crime, vice, and general mayhem Thursday discovers top anything she has seen yet. And to make matters just slightly worse, someone seems to want to kill her....

In this sequel to THE EYRE AFFAIR, literature rules in Fforde's alternate universe otherwise known as Wales, where the Crimean War is far from over. (Huge crowds flock to Shakespeare's plays, kids trade bubble gum cards featuring literary figures, and Miss Havisham is still alive and working for the literary police.) When Thursday Next's husband is imprisoned in a book, she goes in search of him, barging into everything from THE TRIAL to ALICE IN WONDERLAND in an attempt to get him back. A New York Times Notable Book for 2003.

In an alternate 1985, where the Crimean War still rages 130-odd years later, Thursday Next works for a special operations unit that prevents criminals from damaging the world of literature. Though normally a fairly low-stress job, it heats up for Thursday when one of the three most evil villains in the world is accused of permanently altering the Charles Dickens classic MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT. And as if that weren't enough, Thursday has more than enough work ahead of her when the scoundrel sets his dastardly sights on the world's most beloved book, JANE EYRE.

Three interlocked short novels about an alternate 19th century. In the first story, a sexually voracious newt that looks like Queen Victoria is cloned to replace the missing monarch. In the second, naturalist Louis Agassiz searches for some magic genitals. In the third, Walt Whitman amorously pursues an only slightly unwilling Emily Dickinson.

The story of Simon Morley, a young Manhattan illustrator selected by a secret government agency to test Einstein's theory that the past actually co-exists with the present. Morley is transported back 90 years to New York in the 1880s.

From a noted Australian writer, this novel, set in a Tasmanian prison colony in the early 20th century, is about a former thief (based on an actual character) who is set the task of illustrating a book of fish. (His illustrations are reproduced in the novel.) He also reminisces about his wild past, which included a stay in Louisiana with John Keats's brother, and the crossing of paths with the notorious Australian outlaw, Ned Kelly. A New York Times Notable Book for 2002.

During the 1800s, several inventors manage to extend the capabilities of Charles Babbage's proto-computer, using it to predict the future and, where it suited them, to alter it. Almost two hundred years later, those alterations begin to collapse, threatening the fabric of late-20th-century culture.