The Secret Of Laurel Oaks

Download or read book The Secret of Laurel Oaks written by Lois Ruby and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-09-02 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While staying with her family in Louisiana's Laurel Oaks Plantation, purported to be one of the most haunted places in America, thirteen-year-old Lila is contacted by the ghost of a slave girl unjustly convicted of murder. Story inspired by the author's visit to the Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana.

Download or read book The Secret of Laurel Oaks written by Lois Ruby and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-09-02 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A haunting historical mystery based on real life events, told in the alternating points of view of a contemporary girl and a 19th century slave accused of a horrible crime. When Lila and her family visit Laurel Oaks Plantation in Louisiana, her parents and brother scoff at the claim that the house is haunted. But secretly, Lila suspects there are ghostly presences willing to communicate with her, and her alone. One spirit eager to tell her story is Daphne, a slave girl at Laurel Oaks in the 1840s, who was blamed for the poisoning deaths of two girls and their mother. Daphne's spirit senses that Lila is the very person she's been waiting for, the one who can prove her innocence so her spirit can rest at long last. Shifting back and forth from Lila's world in the present to Daphne's world in the past, the true story of what really happened that fateful night finally comes to light. Laurel Oaks is a thinly disguised version of the legendary Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana, which is on the Smithsonian's list of the ten most haunted places in America. This middle grade novel was inspired by the author's visit to the plantation and her experiences there. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book Rebel Spirits written by Lois Ruby and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2013-05-28 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Haunted by history. Bound by mystery. Lori Chase doesn't know what to think about ghosts. She may have seen a few in the past, but those were just childish imaginings . . . right? Only now that she is living in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, spirits seem to be on everyone's mind. The town is obsessed with its bloody Civil War history, and the old inn that Lori's parent run is supposedly haunted by the souls of dead soldiers. Then Lori meets one such soldier -- the devastatingly handsome Nathaniel Pierce. Nathaniel's soul cannot rest, and he desperately needs Lori's help. Because Nathaniel was not killed in the famous battle. He was murdered. Lori begins to investigate the age-old mystery, stumbling upon shocking clues and secrets. At the same time, she can't help falling for Nathaniel, just as he is falling for her . . . .

Download or read book Steal Away Home written by Lois Ruby and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-03-11 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Dana uncovers a skeleton hidden in the wall of her home, she also uncovers a dark secret that stretches back years. When twelve-year-old Dana Shannon starts to strip away wallpaper in her family’s old house, she’s unprepared for the surprise that awaits her. A hidden room—containing a human skeleton! How did such a thing get there? And why was the tiny room sealed up? With the help of a diary found in the room, Dana learns her house was once a station on the Underground Railroad. The young woman whose remains Dana discovered was Lizbet Charles, a conductor and former slave. As the scene shifts between Dana’s world and 1856, the story of the families that lived in the house unfolds. But as pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place, one haunting question remains—why did Lizbet Charles die?

Download or read book Soon Be Free written by Lois Ruby and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-03-11 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I ask you, why do weird things always happen to me? Thirteen-year-old Dana Shannon is no stranger to intrigue. Not long ago she discovered a skeleton behind a wall in her family's house -- a house in Lawrence, Kansas, that was once owned by a Quaker family, the Weavers. The diary Dana found in the sealed-off room revealed that the skeleton belonged to a runaway slave named Lizbeth Charles. Now Dana's house is a newly refurbished bed-and-breakfast, and the first guests are two shady characters who believed the house is hiding another secret. When Dana gets in their way, she becomes embroiled in a second mystery, this one involving slaves and the Weavers again, and -- somehow - Delaware Indians. As Dana tried to fit the puzzle pieces together, alternate chapters tell the story of James Baylor Weaver, a thirteen-year-old boy, in 1857. It is up to James to fulfill a promise Lizbeth made before her death. He must travel hundreds of miles to retrieve four slaves and bring them to freedom. The journey will test his strength, endurance, and courage; it will also test his character, when he has to make a terrible choice... Readers of Soon Be Free will quickly be caught up in this fast-paced mystery-adventure that links teenagers from two different centuries.

Download or read book Shanghai Shadows written by Lois Ruby and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2015-07-21 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A young girl fleeing Hitler takes refuge in Shanghai, where she learns that she must fight to survive Throughout tomboy Ilse’s childhood, her mother has tried to force her to behave like a proper Austrian lady. But when Hitler annexes their country, the family flees, boarding a packed freighter and sailing around the world in search of a safe harbor. The United States refuses to take them, so they proceed to China and make a new home in steamy, mysterious Shanghai. Their lodgings are cramped, money is tight, and Ilse’s father cannot find work—but Ilse is enchanted by the city’s international flavor. In Shanghai’s shadows she finds the adventure of a lifetime. When the Japanese occupy the city, Ilse and her brother begin working in an underground resistance cell. Each day, the city grows more dangerous, and Ilse must lie, cheat, and steal in order for her family to eat. She is a long way from Austria, but she will do whatever it takes to survive.

Download or read book Secrets of the Oak Woodlands written by Kate Marianchild and published by Heyday Books. This book was released on 2013-08-15 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Californian may vacation in Yosemite, Big Sur, or Death Valley, but many of us come home to an oak woodland. Yet, while common, oak woodlands are anything but ordinary. In a book rich in illustration and suffused with wonder, author Kate Marianchild combines extensive research and years of personal experience to explore some of the marvelous plants and animals that the oak woodlands nurture. Acorn woodpeckers unite in marriages of up to ten mates and raise their young cooperatively. Ground squirrels roll in rattlesnake skins to hide their scent from hungry snakes. Manzanita's rust-colored, paper-thin bark peels away in time for the summer solstice, exposing sinuous contours that are cool to the touch even on the hottest day. Conveying up-to-the-minute scientific findings with a storyteller's skill, Marianchild introduces us to a host of remarkable creatures in a world close by, a world that "rustles, hums, and sings with the sounds of wild things."