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Jenny has an older brother and a younger sister--and a father in the hospital. Feeling like she's always in the way or even invisible to those around her, she's sure nobody cares about her at all. Even as she seeks attention in all the wrong ways, can Jenny's family prove to her she's not only a vital part of them but unconditionally loved as well?
A common theme runs through this otherwise very varied bouquet of short stories: a sympathy for the victim. Contemporary crime, science fiction, fantasy, historical adventure, all of them can be found here.
The Stanton kids once again return to their vacation houseboat. When their old enemy, Mr. Powers, creates a vortex which sends him back in time, the children use their time machine to travel back to 1870, where Mr. Powers is a wanted bushranger who tries to hold them prisoner. In a race against time itself, they try to outwit him by destroying the vortex and leaving him stranded--this time with no possible way of escaping back to their time!
What do you do when you desperately want a pet of your own but your parents put their foot down, insisting pets cost too much to feed and they're messy? Jeremy solves his dilemma by getting a secret pet, hatched from a very odd, large egg. His pet isn't messy and doesn't cost anything to feed. His is also a most unusually nice and helpful pet. Jeremy's very happy to have his new companion, although he's still not ready to tell his parents about it...
Only a few short days from turning ten, disaster strikes for Bernie! While babysitting her stepbrother Kirby, she watched helplessly as he fell from a tree and now he's in a deep sleep the doctors call a coma. Bernie tries everything to wake him--from prayers she's not very good at to intimidation, her second nature. Nothing works until Bernie visits Mr. Ralston, the oldest person in the neighborhood. His house is old, smelly, cluttered and kind of creepy. But Mr. Ralston makes wonderful cookies and has a mysterious secret box he opens only after telling a story from his childhood filled with wonder and a little magic...the kind that might wake Kirby from his long sleep.
Candy shop owner Ava Oosterling has her hands full when her best friend Pauline Mertens takes a summer job as a wedding coordinator--with the nuptials and reception scheduled in mere days in the back yard of Ava's Blue Heron Inn. Then the sheriff informs Ava that a band of thieves storming the country may have targeted this wedding. And that's because there's proof Pauline's mother is associated with the thieves... When the sheriff asks Ava to go undercover, she finds herself in an emotional quagmire. Pauline's mother only recently returned to Fishers' Harbor after years of estrangement from her daughter. And, Coletta Mertens now works as the housekeeper at Ava's inn. Has Ava's fudge-and-wine hospitality provided a hideout for a criminal?
Mike welcomes the chance to spend his holidays with his father on an archaeological dig. But when he stumbles through a time warp into an ancient world, tracing the ancient caravan routes across the baking desert turns into an entirely different kind of adventure...
San Francisco Homicide Investigator and Vietnam veteran Vince Torelli strives to clean up the violence in San Francisco but, after a suspect in a double murder is killed during an attempted arrest, he finds himself also protecting the police officers of the city he considers family. His efforts put him in the line of fire when he's targeted. The brother of the suspect victim wants revenge on the officers responsible and he'll stop at nothing. He kidnaps Vince, a man obsessively loyal to his job as well as those he works alongside, a man as smart and committed to his principles as the criminals he catches almost without fail. Vince knows best, though, a blood debt always demands payment...
An early, deep snow has gifted Fishers' Harbor, Wisconsin, with a perfect setting for the holiday celebration. Unfortunately removing snow from Main Street for the parade reveals the dead tax assessor with a knife in him--containing Grandpa Gil's fingerprints. It's clearly a setup and one that keeps Ava and Grandpa Gil under the watchful eyes of Sheriff Tollefson. Who wants Grandpa to miss playing Santa Claus in the Christmas parade and why? Who's being naughty instead of nice? Grandpa doesn't help his case with talk of leaving town for good--words that chill Ava worse than the weather. She can't imagine life without Grandpa's warm hugs and laughter. When vandals strike the historic shop and someone leaves Ava and fiancé Dillon Rivers for dead in the snow, Ava wonders if she may need the magical help of Santa's elves to solve the holiday folly.
Mike's father goes missing on a remote island. Mike, Alinea and their alien pet Beeper travel through a time gate to retrieve him. Finding him unconscious, they have to protect him. But first they have to escape being dumped once more at the Intergalactic Lost Property. After that, they jump the usual hurdles: illegal dealers that want them silenced, and staying far away from Kloogs forever raiding the protected planets. An odd creature, the Quok, that Beeper distrusts is the only one prepared to help them. However, when they arrive on the mysterious 'Place of the Call', they realize Beeper's distrust of the Quok is terrifyingly well-founded...