Francesca Ficorilli

While vacationing in Thailand for the holidays, Tara and her mother are thrown into survival mode when a massive tsunami sweeps through Phuket. When her mother announces a holiday vacation to Thailand, Tara isn't thrilled. She'd rather stay home with her friends, but Mom is determined they use the girls' trip to explore their Thai heritage. Tara is reluctant to travel so far from home, especially to a country she doesn't feel connected to. But then...

"When Moto brings home a dream eater toy to get rid of his nightmares, he must decide if the toy can be trusted or if it will eat him instead. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standard"--Provided by publisher.

"On the eve of Ghost Month, Moto Maki discovers a box of lost things, but is disappointed by the old, broken umbrella inside it until the haunted umbrella starts to follow him. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards"--Provided by publisher.

The people of fourteenth-century Florence, Italy, starving after years of bad weather and natural disasters, now face the Black Plague but twelve-year-old Maria is determined to survive.

During the evacuation after Hurricane Katrina, twelve-year-old Claudia and her younger sister are separated from the rest of their family, and now it is up to Claudia to protect and comfort her sister through the tragedy.