Showing results by author "Bruce Coville" in All Categories

One stormy night, sixth-grader Jacob Doolittle finds a baby in a basket on his front porch. To Jake's surprise, his mother decides to care for the baby, hoping its mother will return. However that surprise is nothing compared to what happens to "Little Dumpling" the first time there's a full moon….

An anthology of 13 monster tales features writings by Jack Prelutsky, Jane Yolen, Patrick Bone, Joe R. Lansdale, and others. By the author of My Teacher Is an Alien.

Nina Tanleven and her best friend Chris are delighted to spend the remainder of the summer with Nina’s architect father at the rambling old country inn he has been hired to restore. On the afternoon they arrive, the girls pause for a closer look at some faded Civil War photographs hanging in the hallway, fascinated by one picture in particular of a handsome Confederate soldier whose dreamy eyes hold them enthralled. But in the midst of all their oohing and aahing a shivery sensation passes between them, like an icy hand on the back of their necks.

Moongobble must complete one last Mighty Task before he is accepted into the Society of Magicians. But this one is a doozy: he must retrieve "The Queen's Belly Button", an enchanted stone that has turned an entire elf village bad! Soon Edward and Moongobble, along with Urk the Toad, Fireball the Dragon, and the Rusty Knight, are off on their greatest adventure yet. Can they regain the stone without turning evil themselves?

Meet Gerald. Gerald is a griffin - a creature with the body of a lion and the head of an eagle. According to the Code of the Griffins, that means he should be: 1. Brave and fierce in all situations! 2. A guardian of a great treasure! 3. Completely and totally hidden from the human realm! But what if a Griffin isn't brave or fierce? What if he's never found a great treasure (or any treasure, for that matter)? What if he feels like such an embarrassment that the only thing left to do is run away?

A story described by Katherine Paterson as "didactic camp", a very funny but also thought-provoking fantasy about the issue of gayness. This controversial tale has given enormous comfort to many young people struggling with their own sexual identity.

Moongobble and Edward are off on another Mighty Task, even more dangerous than the first. Urk the toad, Fireball the dragon, and the Rusty Knight are coming along, too, of course. This time their adventures will lead them right into the fearsom Forest of Night.

Ned is not just any troll. Even though Ned is nearly seven feet tall, with a nose the size of a pickle, Ned has a heart full of love! A heart that swoons over poetry and craves true friendship! And when it comes to humans...it's complicated. So complicated that, long ago, Ned fled the Enchanted Realm for the one place no one would notice a troll hiding in plain sight: New York City. But one human boy - Cody - has noticed.

A sixth grade student is convinced that an odd substitute teacher is from another planet. Will she be able to prove she's right before he completes his evil plan? Starring Lisa Bonet as Susan Simmons. Adapted for radio. A BBC co-production recorded at KCRW in Santa Monica in October 1992.

It's not easy being shy, especially when you suddenly find yourself at the center of a widening circle of lovesick boys. But this is exactly the predicament Juliet Dove ends up in after she receives a strange amulet in Mr. Elive's magic shop.

There is no finer way to welcome young people (or adults!) to the pleasures of Shakespeare than with these four masterful retellings of the Bard's most beloved plays. Ranging from the pure magic of A Midsummer Night's Dream to the heartbreak of young love in Romeo and Juliet, featuring the spine-tingling tragedy of Macbeth (complete with ghost and witches) and culminating in the laugh-out-loud hijinks of Twelfth Night.

Set in a chilling future that seems more and more possible each year, this unforgettable story asks the question, "When the government becomes too controlling, what does it really mean to be a patriot?"

The aliens have made contact! But because they consider Earth a small, backwater planet, they send only one ambassador. The ambassador brings along his son, Pleskit, and (for political reasons) insists the boy should attend a regular school. Science-fiction loving Tim Tompkins is desperate to befriend the alien...and Pleskit is going to need a friend, because someone is trying to sabotage the mission.

Pleskit Meenom, the first alien to go to school on Earth, is starting to fit in with his new class. It's not easy, given how slippery the language is. (Just how many meanings does the word "cool" have, anyway?) But the biggest problem is Jordan Lynch, the class bully who just can't resist picking on the new kid. Finally Pleskit and his new best friend, Tim Tompkins, decide to take action. But taking action when you have alien technology at your disposal can mean taking things just a little too far...and we do mean little!

"There is a disease that can twist men’s hearts and make them mad, and the name of that disease is jealousy." So begins this engaging retelling of one of William Shakespeare’s last plays - a fascinating and unique combination of intensity and whimsy. When King Leontes unfairly accuses his wife of infidelity, he sets off a terrible chain of events. But this is not one of Shakespeare’s tragedies. It’s a romance, and one with a healthy dose of fancy and surprise.

Keeping her promise to her dying father, young Fortune Plunkett is leading his acting troupe west. But fulfilling his dream of establishing a successful theater in San Francisco is an immense challenge for someone who is only 16. Since Plunkett’s Players have joined a wagon train, they have had one adventure after another. Fortune has almost died in a fire, drowned in a flood, and slid over the edge of a cliff with their wagon. Despite the danger, she has managed to find romance with a stranger whose real identity will surprise everyone in the troupe.

When the messiest kid in Minnesota is saddled with her family's obsessively tidy brownie, the sparks are sure to fly. Warning: you may not want to listen in public, since this story will have you laughing out loud!

Jonathan is attracted to the ornate mirror from the first moment he sees it in the antique shop where he works after school. But there is something wrong with the mirror, something evil - as Jonathan will discover after he accidentally gets a trace of his blood on its surface in this disturbing tale of terror.

The first day of seventh grade is probably the worst day of Duncan Dougal's life. He knows that things are really bad when he finds an alien's hand in a Dumpster and then gets plugged into an alien brain fryer! Can Duncan find out which of the four new teachers in his school is an alien before his brains get fried to a pulp - or before the aliens try to fry the whole planet?

The first of Bruce Coville's acclaimed "Oddlies". This collection of stories is performed by some of Full Cast's favorite narrators (including Bruce himself). Some are funny, some are scary, some are both. The topics range from unicorns to werewolves, vampires to angels to brownies.