Jane Louise Curry, Children's Books Author

	ON THIS PAGE My Worlds of... Fantasy Adventure Time Tales Mystery Indian Tales		MY WORLDS OF... THE EGYPTIAN BOX A Margaret K. McElderry Book, Simon & Schuster Tee (short for Leticia) Moore and her family have moved into a big, old house that is a part of her father’s inheritance from Great Uncle Sebastian Fall. While exploring the contents of Great-Uncle’s antiques-and-junk store, they find a parcel marked For Leticia—my Shabti Box. The decorated Egyptian box inside holds the shabti, a colorful wooden figure of a girl in painted mummy wrappings from the waist down. The writings on those wrappings are ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Charles, Tee’s younger—and very curious—brother, borrows the figure and is able on the Internet to discover what sounds the old hieroglyphics stand for, and to read the Egyptian words to Tee. And then strange things begin to happen... TO LEARN MORE about the book and about Egyptian magic, click on the title THE EGYPTIAN BOX.   BENEATH THE HILL A Backinprint.com Paperback The Arthur and Griffith cousins of BENEATH THE HILL always do exciting things together when the Griffiths visit the Arthurs' farm during summer vacation, but this year is going to be better than ever: Miggle Arthur has planned a treasure hunt as tantalizing as she can make it. However, to Miggle's great surprise and puzzlement someone else seems interested in the “treasure,” too. Her clues, so carefully planned and planted, lead the children in unexpected directions-- and to high adventure beneath the far-from-ordinary hills above the farm. To read an excerpt from the adventure, click on the title BENEATH THE HILL.   BRAVE CLOELIA A New Picture Story Book from Getty Publishing Cloelia is a true-life young hero who lived two and a half thousand years ago in Ancient Rome, and this is the story of her Great Adventure. Held hostage by Rome's enemy, the great Etruscan king Larth Porsena, she leads the other captive girls in a daring, dangerous escape. She is sent back into captivity in exchange for the other girls' freedom, but her courage wins King Larth's admiration, and an unexpected reward... To read more about the story, click on the title BRAVE CLOELIA.   A STOLEN LIFE A McElderry Book, Simon & Schuster, and a Scholastic paperback Lively Jamesina Mackenzie is left her in the care of her grandfather and aunts and uncles in their clan's homeland on the west coast of the highlands of Scotland when her father is forced to flee to France. Yet danger reaches her even surrounded by Mackenzies. She is snatched from the shore by “spiriters,” men who kidnap children and young people to sell to planters and farmers in America as bond slaves, and wakes to find herself a prisoner aboard the Sparrowhawk, bound for Virginia. Hardship, danger, and adventure are to follow. Click on the title A STOLEN LIFE, to learn more about the book and to read an excerpt.   POOR TOM'S GHOST A Backinprint.com Paperback A ghost story with a difference-- to break the hold the ghost of "Poor Tom" Garland has on his father, young Roger must follow it out of the haunted house and into the dangers of the world of four hundred years ago. "Absolutely enthralling..." --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY TO LEARN MORE about this book, and to read a chapter, click on the title POOR TOM'S GHOST.   THE ICE GHOSTS MYSTERY A Backinprint.com Paperback Professor Bird of Caltech, in Austria for a conference on seismology, is no sooner reported lost in a snow crevasse on a skiing weekend than his family in Pasadena receives a cablegram from his skiing companion: DO NOT BELIEVE AVALANCHE STORY... IT WAS TCE GHOSTS... Mrs. Bird and Perry, Mab and Oriole promptly fly off to Austria to unravel a mystery that mixes the Ice Ghosts of legend with the silence of the Reisenmoos villagers, the sinister Dr. Pfnur and his wife, and a plot to gain world power. Perry and Mab follow the clues, from Perry’s aching tooth and the low milk yield of local cows, to the suspicious goings-on at the mountaineering school, and land themselves deep in danger when they discover... Listed in MYSTERIES TOO GOOD TO MISS, Children's Book Council To find out more and to read an excerpt from the book, click on the title THE ICE GHOSTS MYSTERY.   HOLD UP THE SKY A Margaret K. McElderry Book, Simon & Schuster Here are twenty-six Native American stories of comedy, adventure-- and monsters!-- retold from the traditional Indian tales of Texas and the Southern Plains. From the Tejas story of how the universe began, to the Lipan Apache tale in which a small lizard outwits hungry Coyote, and the Wichita tale of the monsters and the flood, these are adventures to delight and amaze. (Texas and the southern Plains seem to have been THE place for monster stories!) TO LEARN MORE about the Indian storytellers and to READ A STORY from the book, click on the title HOLD UP THE SKY.   THE WONDERFUL SKY BOAT A Margaret K. McElderry Book, Simon & Schuster This, my fourth collection of old tales from North American Indian cultures includes stories of creation, tricksters, magic, and mystery retold from the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and other Native American peoples of the American Southeast. From tales like the comical Creek “Rabbit’s Horse” to the Cherokee “Bigfoot Bird” and Apalachee “How Men First Played the Game of Ball,” and from the Tunica “The Country Under the Water” to the Alabama “The Wonderful Sky Boat,” the tales inspire wonder, laughter, curiosity, and amazement. TO LEARN MORE, and to READ A STORY from the book, click on the title THE WONDERFUL SKY BOAT.   BACK IN THE BEFORETIME A Margaret K. McElderry Book, Simon & Schuster Back in the Beforetime, Old Man Above made the world and furnished it with trees and hills and water, and all that would be needed by the creatures who would live there—who will include Weasel, who unleashes winds and weathers and darkness upon the world, Coyote, who finds the Sun and places it in the sky for light and warmth, and many others. Coyote often gets into trouble with the others, so—to show off—he decides to make the first men and women, and make them as wise and clever as he... To learn more about these tales, and to read a sample story, click on the title BACK IN THE BEFORETIME   A longtime favorite, BACK IN THE BEFORETIME also comes in an Aladdin paperback edition.   DOWN FROM THE LONELY MOUNTAIN A Backinprint.com Book Through the first twelve of these tales from the Californian Indians, all of the characters are magical animals—“animal people”—with highly individual and colorful personalities, but then the clever, tricky, boastful Coyote decides to gather two feathers from each tribe of birds and make them into the first human people. In the stories that follow, the human people, too, live in a magical world where women marry stars, the daughter of South Wind marries kind-hearted Tsakiak, and wicked Wus, the fox, turns the two beautiful girls who run from him into ugly old crones — but sharp wits, kindness, and bravery always win the day. To read a story from the book, click on the title DOWN FROM THE LONELY MOUNTAIN.   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE EGYPTIAN BOX artwork © 2002 by Robert Crawford; A STOLEN LIFE artwork © 1999 by Mark Elliott; MOON WINDOW artwork © 1996 by Elizabeth Miles; THE WONDERFUL SKY BOAT artwork © 2001, TURTLE ISLAND artwork © 1999, and BACK IN THE BEFORETIME artwork © 1987 by James Watts; and the Aladdin paper edn. of BACK IN THE BEFORETIME © 2001 by Donna Perrone, all used by permission of Margaret K. McElderry Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division.
	BOOK PAGES: Brave Cloelia The Egyptian Box Beneath the Hill A Stolen Life Poor Tom's Ghost The Ice Ghosts Mystery Hold Up the Sky The Wonderful Sky Boat Back in the Beforetime Down From the Lonely Mountain

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