Exiled: Memoirs of a Camel
by Kathleen Karr
from Marshall Cavendish Children's Books
Skullduggery
by Kathleen Karr
from Hyperion Book CH
"Interested in medicine?
Dr. ABC seeks bright lad.
Training and board.
Apply number 113, Broadway."
Twelve-year-old Matthew Morrissey can't believe his luck when he spots this ad in the paper. He is interested in medicine--he wants to find a cure for the cholera that wiped out his whole family and left him orphaned. Alone on the streets of 1840s New York, Matthew leaps at the opportunity to help this Dr. ABC, whomever he is. As it turns out, he is the plump, puffy, rumpled Asa B. Cornwall, a kindly-if-obsessed phrenologist who hopes to someday perfect mankind through his study of the contours of human skulls, particularly those of flawed characters. "Give me a skull, and I can conjure up the very soul of a man!" he cries passionately. Matthew is eager to please this eccentric man, if only for a warm bed and all the oatmeal he can eat.
In time, however, his apprenticeship intensifies when he learns he must help his master rob graves for real specimens. And can the doctor really mean that he wants Voltaire's skull from Paris? Things heat up even more when they discover they have a mysterious enemy with a brow "broad and low," clearly the skull of a criminal. Kathleen Karr's delightful, well-crafted adventure is witty, suspenseful, and deliciously Dickensian; most of all, it has a great deal of heart. Watching the older man and his young charge plow forward through near misses and comedies of errors is pure fun. And we, like the dynamic duo, come to learn that their companionship is far more valuable than a chest of gold, an acre of skulls, or Dr. ABC's relentless pursuit of perfection. (Ages 10 to 14) --Karin Snelson
"Interested in medicine? Dr. ABC seeks bright lad. Training and board. Apply number 113, Broadway."Twelve-year-old Matthew Morrissey can't believe his luck when he spotsthis ad in the paper. He is interested in medicine--he wants tofind a cure for the cholera that wiped out his whole family and lefthim orphaned. Alone on the streets of 1840s New York, Matthew leaps atthe opportunity to help this Dr. ABC, whomever he is. As it turns out,he is the plump, puffy, rumpled Asa B. Cornwall, a kindly-if-obsessedphrenologist who hopes to someday perfect mankind through his study ofthe contours of human skulls, particularly those of flawed characters."Give me a skull, and I can conjure up the very soul of a man!" hecries passionately. Matthew is eager to please this eccentric man, ifonly for a warm bed and all the oatmeal he can eat. In time, however, his apprenticeship intensifies when he learns he musthelp his master rob graves for real specimens. And can the doctorreally mean that he wants Voltaire's skull from Paris? Things heat upeven more when they discover they have a mysterious enemy with a brow"broad and low," clearly the skull of a criminal. Kathleen Karr'sdelightful, well-crafted adventure is witty, suspenseful, anddeliciously Dickensian; most of all, it has a great deal of heart.Watching the older man and his young charge plow forward through nearmisses and comedies of errors is pure fun. And we, like the dynamicduo, come to learn that their companionship is far more valuable than achest of gold, an acre of skulls, or Dr. ABC's relentless pursuit ofperfection. (Ages 10 to 14) --Karin Snelson
Bone Dry
by Kathleen Karr
from Hyperion
It is said that the Sahara Desert swallows the past. For Matthew Morrissey and his mentor, the eminent phrenologist Dr. Asa B. Cornwall, there's also the danger of its swallowing their present. In their search for the skull of Alexander the Great, Matthew and Dr. ABC journey across the Great Sand Sea in a camel caravan unaware of the perils-both human and otherworldly-that await them. Overtaken by slave traders, Matthew and the doctor must call upon all of their knowledge and wit to save themselves and some unfortunate others from disaster.
It Happened in the White House: Extraordinary Tales From America's Most Famous Home: It Happened Inside the White House
by Kathleen Karr
from Hyperion Book CH
The Boxer (Sunburst Book)
by Kathleen Karr
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
In the Lower East Side tenements of Manhattan in the late 1800s, there is employment for the city's huge immigrant population--except it's mostly sweatshop labor for little pay. Fifteen-year-old Johnny Woods is desperate to find enough work to support his fatherless family. When he notices a sign in a bar window asking for young men to try their fighting skills, he investigates, hoping to win the five dollar prize. He is unluckily arrested during his first fight, but ironically his luck turns when he meets former lightweight champion Michael O'Shaunnessey in jail. O'Shaunnessey recognizes Johnny's raw talent and begins training him as a serious boxer.
Once out of the clink, Johnny is winning fights, working regularly in the posh uptown New York Athletic Club, and saving money for a new home for his family in Brooklyn. But then Johnny's winning concentration is shot with the return of his alcoholic father. Does he have the stamina to continue as the family breadwinner, confront his father, and still win in the ring? A Rocky for the late 19th century, The Boxer is a good solid story with plenty of heart. Author Kathleen Karr (The Great Turkey Walk) gives Johnny an engaging first person voice: "The mind was a muscle, like any other.... But how you exercised it diagramming sentences ... hadn't dawned on me yet." His troubles with money and family will ring true with contemporary teens, while the historical setting will delight teachers, who will surely want to recommend this book as supplemental reading when teaching about the urban industrial age. (Ages 11 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert
Ever since his father ran off two years before, fifteen-year-old Johnny Woods has struggled to help support his ma and five siblings, sacrificing his own schooling in the process. Still, there's been hardly enough money each month to make the rent, and Johnny's dream of a house in Brooklyn, away from the tenement slums, is out of reach.
Then Johnny discovers boxing. He is a natural-born fighter, with street smarts, determination, and an explosive uppercut. Although boxing is illegal in 1885 New York, Johnny powers his way through every obstacle, believing he has found the means to raise himself and his family out of poverty. But as he moves closer to his biggest fight yet, Johnny must reconcile his need to help his loved ones with a sharpening desire to achieve something outside the ring, starting with his education. In bringing to life Johnny's struggle and ultimate success, Kathleen Karr offers readers a compelling portrait of an appealing young champion.
Gilbert & Sullivan
by Kathleen Karr
from Hyperion
In prison, there are few secrets. But Libby Dodge, the youngest inmate, guards the nature of her crime from the other women, even as they openly recount their former lives as arsonists, thieves, and prostitutes. Libby's hopeless and miserable situation changes unexpectedly with the arrival of a new chaplain, Mrs. Wilkinson. Mrs. Wilkinson has surprising and newfangled ideas about prison reform, which include launching an elaborate production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance. The production transforms the women -their views of themselves, their abilities, their place in the world. In this compelling, sometimes humorous novel, Kathleen Karr masterfully re-creates the world of a women's prison and poignantly evokes the injustices of women's lives in the early 1900s.
Born for Adventure
by Kathleen Karr
from Marshall Cavendish Corp/Ccb
When young Tom Ormsby cons his way onto the great explorer Henry Morton Stanley's "Relief of Emin Pasha Expedition" in 1887, he's looking for adventure. But he has no idea what lies ahead of him. From the exotic bazaars of Zanzibar to the mouth of the Congo River and beyond, Tom soon learns he's signed on for more than the rescue of the mysterious Pasha. He's on a journey through the ravishing beauty and brutality of a jungle world peopled by slavers, warring tribes, cannibals, and colonial masters - all jockeying for survival in 19th-century Africa.
As Karr follows Tom's remarkable three-year trek, she raised some provocative questions about slavery, the right of one country to impose its cultural imperatives on another, and the arrogance that can prevent a man from achieving his ultimate goal. Startling, scary, and surprising, this true story takes the reader deep into the heart of the African past.
Gideon and the Mummy Professor
Gilbert And Sullivan Set Me Free
The Great Turkey Walk
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Publisher's Weekly Best Book of the Year
Big, brawny Simon Green, who's just completed third grade (for the fourth time), may not be booksmart, but he's nobody's fool. When it's time to make his way in the world, Simon hatches a plan that could earn him a bundle. It's no sure thing, though -- he intends to herd a huge flock of turkeys all the way from eastern Missouri to the boomtown of Denver, where they'll fetch a mighty price. In 1860, the hazards of this trek are many -- how to get the birds across a river, for instance -- but young Simon is undaunted as he undertakes the biggest journey of his life.
This title is an Accelerated Reader® Title
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