Showing results by publisher "Blackstone Audio, Inc." in Growing Up & Facts of Life

An ordinary boy, a mysterious letter, a royal birth, a giant trout, a near-death experience, and an unexpected romance magically come together to create a touching and good-hearted novel about the search for self and the power of belief.

Joey Jordan loves gymnastics: the thrill of performing a backflip on the beam, the cheers of the audience when she sticks a landing. But even with all her talent and style, she's never quite made it to that gold medal stand. Now big changes shake up Joey's life in and out of the gym. Joey wants to break out some daring new beam and floor routines - but she'll have to defy her strict coach to do it. Her best friend, Alex, is thinking about quitting gymnastics for good. And an old friend named Tanner just moved back to town, and he's suddenly gotten very, very, cute.

Twelve-year-old Ruby Clyde Henderson's life turns upside down the day her mother's boyfriend holds up a convenience store and her mother is wrongly jailed for assisting with the crime. Ruby and her pet pig, Bunny, find their way to her estranged Aunt Eleanor's home. Aunt Eleanor is an ornery nun who lives in the midst of a peach orchard on Paradise Ranch. With a little patience, she and Ruby begin to get along. But Eleanor has secrets of her own - secrets that might mean more hard times for Ruby.

Motherless Olivia and Nellie go to live with their elderly Great-Aunt Minty, who knows little about children, but a lot about her overgrown garden. Then one day, Olivia finds an old teacup in a flowerbed - and, later, an old story about eight children transformed into flowers. Only the person who finds their teacups can bring them back. Now the two sisters know what they must do.

Severkin is an elf who slinks through the shadows of Wellhall's spiraling stone towers, plundering ancient ruins and slaying mystical monstrosities with ease. He's also a character in a video game - a character that 12-year-old Nick Reeves plays when he needs a break from the real world. And lately Nick has really needed a break. His mother had an "incident" at school last year, and her health has taken a turn for the worse. Nick is convinced his mother's illness has been misdiagnosed, but no one believes him. His only escape is the online world of Wellhall.

Baz has always dreamed about leaving his dusty little town, so when a stranger comes to his family's home and asks him to be a weaver's apprentice, Baz is eager to start his journey. He and the stranger travel for several sunrises and sunsets until they reach the land of Kallah, where Baz starts his apprenticeship - and soon learns that his master is very cruel. Baz is disheartened, and when the master trades Baz for a sword to a magician, Baz expects no better from his new owner.

Rivers' real father left him and his mom six years ago, and Uncle Daddy has been taking care of Rivers in all the ways a dad cares for a son, even teaching him how to play baseball. When his real father returns, Rivers is confused and angry.

Mattie, Ariel, and Nicki are fast friends facing the pitfalls of life at 13. Mattie's kitschy pig collection and agoraphobic mother might completely derail her social life. Ariel's attempts to follow in Rachel Ray's culinary footsteps have landed her in hot water. And Nicki is carrying a secret that threatens to cut her off from her best friends. After discovering a mysterious book of spells and performing a ritual, the girls leave their troubles far behind - or so they think.

Amid the sparkle and hum of a New York City winter, Jed and his best friend, Flyer, are filming a documentary of their neighborhood. In the process, Jed confronts painful memories of his older brother, Zeke, a poet who loved jazzman Charlie "Bird" Parker and who died, leaving behind his CDs, a notebook, and a lot of unanswered questions.

When 11-year-old Katy Sue loses her mother, Edna, to meningitis, she and her family must adjust to life without her. The rural farm in the 1940s provides a natural backdrop that is rhythmic and routine but unforgiving, even when a family member dies.

After a tumultuous first semester in seventh grade, Jed Rivers returns triumphant - or so he thinks. After embracing his undeadness to put his archenemy Robbie in his place, the 13-year-old zombie thought he'd have a much easier time surviving the second semester relatively intact. That was before he came across the antizombie propaganda published by the mysterious NZN Network, a group trying to push Hollywood stereotypes as the truth.

In this rousing coming-of-age story set on the American frontier, one ornery twelve-year-old has a lot to learn if he’s to survive his new life as a mountain man. Having run away after hitting Pa in a bout of rage, Jesse decides to fend for himself. Too much uncontrollable anger and inexplicable emotion since Ma went away have taken their toll. All he wants now is to be left alone. At first, every day on the mountain is a struggle.

An original novella from award-winning children's author and poet Gary Soto. Jason Rodriguez is a 12-year-old who never had muchluck - until he wins $3,700 in the lottery and becomes an Instant Winner! Jason can't believe he's won the lottery and decides he will use the money to get his crazy Uncle Mike out of jail. That's where the real adventure begins.

When a dragon is discovered up on the Downs, the Boy is not in the least surprised. He's always known the cave there was a dragon cave, so it seems only right for a dragon to be living in it. The Boy decides to pay a visit to the cave, and he thinks he knows just what to expect. But this particular dragon is not a bit like the ones in fairy tales!

Welcome to Cliffside High, the school of your nightmares. It’s run by the Huns, a ruthless clique of rich students - and, as poor Charity Chase discovers, messing with them can be murder. There’s Tiffany, avid reader of every beauty magazine available; Brooke, desperate for a date; Danielle, Al Capone in Miss America’s body, with her sights set firmly on millionaire’s son Drew. Unfortunately, like every other boy at Cliffside, Drew only has eyes for Helga, the ravishing new student from Norway....

Before she became the legendary Joan of Arc, the child Joan lived the simple life of a farm girl in the village of Domremy in France. Joan saw the work of God all around her, in the tall gnarled grandfather tree, in the small gentle sheep on the family farm, and in the faces of her dear friends and neighbors. Then one day Joan had a dream.

Life at Deacon Smith’s Home for Waifs would be completely dreary if it weren’t for Possum’s best friend, Billy, who “thinks up lies faster than he can talk” and provides plenty of excitement for the other boys. When Billy hears that gold is hidden in the mountains - “Great big chunks of it, some of ’em big as your fist” - he plans to escape, taking Possum with him. The two runaways embark on a journey in search of their dream - the gold that will lead to a better life.

It’s 1895 in New York City. Hard times have hit, and life isn’t going to get noticeably better any time soon. Almost-13-year-old Chipper Carey is running with the Midnight Rats kid gang just to survive. Ma died of consumption when he was six. He knows Ma wouldn’t have approved. But what ultimately has to matter is reality, and without the Midnight Rats, Chipper would have nothing. He’d starve. Fortunately for Chipper, fate takes over and introduces him to the wealthy Miss Sibley.

Seventeen-year-old Olivia hasn’t seen her father since she was eight months old. But when he summons her out of the blue, Olivia travels cross country to New Hampshire to meet him. That summer, she learns to adapt to rural life and to try to understand her reclusive father. The next summer, following high school graduation, she returns to recreate her father’s seventy-mile annual bike ride - reflecting on her own personal journey to understand the true meaning of love and kinship.

Believing in miracles can be hard work. Twelve-year-old Amelia Forrest has a lot to pray for: improving her bad grades, fixing her strained relationship with her mama, and most importantly, dealing with her guilt over the role she played in her daddy's death.