When a boy finally gets exactly what he wants from Santa, he learns that owning a real penguin may not have been a good idea after all.

Ladies First introduces young readers to 40 American women of achievement who were first in their field. A full-page portrait begins each informative three-page profile. The life stories of these women are as inspiring as they are diverse. The book provides a vital starting point for report writers and researchers, and a rich source of information for fact lovers of all ages. Who was the first woman to row across the Atlantic? Or to swim the English...

Harriet the hamster is desperate to be adopted, so she gives her sister Patricia and herself glamorous makeovers in hopes they will get more attention when Hamster World has its huge annual sale.

Describes the events of the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition, when the ship the Endurance was crushed in a frozen sea and the men made the perilous journey across ice and stormy seas to reach inhabited land.

After the death of his brother, eight-year-old Bill Cody and his family set out from Iowa to make a new home for themselves in the volatile Kansas Territory.

In a quaint New England town with a history of witches and pilgrims, misunderstood eleven-year-old Norman Babcock (who can see and talk to ghosts) must save his town from pilgrim zombies, take on an angry witch, an annoying sidekick, and his boy-crazy teenage sister, as well as dozens of moronic grown-ups who get in his way!

When the Boxtrolls are targeted by Archibald Snatcher, who is bent on eradicating them, the kindhearted band of trolls must turn to their adopted charge Eggs and rich girl Winnie to bridge two worlds.

When Osbert the penguin shows up on his doorstep with several friends along with an invitation to Aurora Australis' party at the South Pole, the boy decides to transport them there in the helicopter he received this year for Christmas.

Concise and interesting accounts of the men and women who have explored our world--and beyond