Parsifal's Page
by Gerald Morris
(Check Catalog)

Knight - a mounted warrior of feudal times serving a king

Now that you have a picture in your mind of what a knight is, let me tell you that the knight in this book does not fit this description at all. His page, Pierre, relates to us just how un-knightly his master behaves. For example, "Pierre could see a table set with a large dinner, and a beautiful woman seated at one end of the table. She was alone, and Pierre's heart began to race. This looked like the beginning of an adventure, if his mother's stories were anything to go by.
Parsifal stopped and dismounted awkwardly. 'How do you do?' he said. 'I hope you are well today.' The lady started to reply, but Parsifal did not wait for her. 'I am hungry,' he said.
Pierre then watched in astonishment as Parsifal strode to the table and picked up the whole roast chicken and began gnawing on it. 'Sir!' Pierre cried out, dismounting at once. 'You mustn't---' Then he caught himself. A page should never reprove his master in front of a lady."
Unfortunately, the situation goes from bad to worse. Parsifal eats everything set out for dinner and drinks all the wine, commenting on how badly it tastes. Then, he kisses the lady and steals the ring off her finger. All while Pierre looks on in astonishment. Is there any way for Pierre to turn Parsifal into a "real" knight?

Stormbreaker
by Anthony Horowitz
(Check Catalog)

Alex only knows two things. One-his uncle is dead; he supposedly died in a terrible car accident. And two-everything he thought he knew about his uncle is not true.
But let's start at the beginning. Alex lives with his uncle because his parents were killed in a car accident weeks after he was born. Alex thought that his uncle worked for the Royal and General Bank. But what Alex comes to discover is that his uncle had a totally secret life that Alex never knew about. Have you heard of James Bond and 007? Well, Alex's uncle worked for MI6 as a secret agent for Britain, and he was killed by someone who thought he was getting too close to the truth during the last case he worked on. And now, MI6 has approached Alex about continuing the case where his uncle left off. They think a fourteen-year-old boy will be totally unsuspected and be able to ferret out the information Alex's uncle took to the grave with him. After being blackmailed into assisting MI6, Alex begins a two-week twenty-four-hour-a-day training course designed to mold him into the perfect teenage spy.

The Book of the Lion
by Michael Cadnum
(Check Catalog)


In twelfth - century England, after his master, a maker of coins for the king, is brutally punished for alleged cheating, seventeen -year-old Edmund finds himself traveling to the Holy Land as squire to a kinight crusader on his way to join the forces of Richard Lionheart.

Sacajawea:
The Story of Bird Woman and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
by Joeseph Bruchac
( Check Catalog)

Sacajawea, a Shoshoni Indian interpreter, peacemaker, and guide, and William Clark alternate in describing their experiences on the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Northwest.

Touching Spirit Bear
by Ben Mikaelsen
( Check Catalog)

"What was he doing a million miles from nowhere, sitting in a freezing pond beside a bizarre Tlingit Indian with a stick? 'What's the stick for?' he asked loudly.

Edwin opened his eyes as if coming out of a sleep. Calmly he held up the stick. 'The right end of this stick is your happiness, the left end is your anger,' Edwin said. He handed the stick to Cole. 'Break off the left end and get rid of your anger.' Shivering, Cole took the stick in his fists and broke off one side.

Edwin shook his head. 'You broke off the left end, but a left end still exists. Go ahead, break it off again.'

Again, Cole broke the stick, and again Edwin shook his head. 'Why did you leave the left end on the stick when I asked you to break it off?'

'That's stupid,' Cole muttered. 'The left end will always be there.'

Edwin nodded. 'People spend lifetimes breaking their stick to get rid of anger. But always anger remains, and they think they've failed.'"

Edwin's point is that what you focus on-the anger or the happiness-becomes your reality. Follow Cole through his travels in the juvenile justice system ending up on a deserted, remote Alaskan island, facing an entire year of isolation from the world, until he is mauled by a mysterious white bear of Native American legend.

Peregrine
by Joan Elizabeth Goodman

Driven by fear that King Stephen will force her to marry the odious Sir Runcival, fifteen-year-old Lady Edith takes leave of Cheswick Manor. On the second day of April in the year of our Lord 1144 she and her faithful nurse, Dame Joan, set forth on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In going, Edith hopes to close the door on her secret sorrows.