Showing results by author "Bruce Coville" in All Categories

On a snowy night, Cara and her grandmother are pursued into St. Christopher's church by an unknown man. Clutching her grandmother's mysterious amulet, and following the old woman's instructions, Cara escapes their pursuer and falls into Luster, the world of the unicorns.

The whole situation began when Duncan Dougal was hiding out in a dumpster (it’s a long and smelly story). Stuck in the garbage, he discovered proof that even though the kids drove off the alien named Broxholm the year before, there is still an alien-in-disguise working as one of their seventh-grade teachers! But which teacher is it? That’s the mystery Duncan must solve to protect the school - and himself.

Luster, the world where the unicorns fled to escape the Hunters who have sworn to wipe them out, has dangers of its own - as Cara discovers when she attempts to cross that world in a desperate effort to rescue her grandmother. Each stage of Cara's journey brings new peril, wondrous new characters, and new clues to the mystery of her grandmother's past. And through it all threads the haunting melody of the "Song of the Wanderer."

The story begins when Susan Simmons returns to school from spring vacation. Susan has been looking forward to the big class play her teacher has been planning. But to her dismay Ms. Schwartz is gone... replaced by tall, handsome Mr. Smith, a strictly "by the book" teacher with some very strange habits. Investigating her new teacher, Susan makes a shocking discovery: "Mr. Smith" is actually an alien named Broxholm who is planning to abduct five students.

In the third volume of the Unicorn Chronicles, Cara Diana Hunter journeys to the Valley of the Centaurs in quest of a mysterious lost story that could hold the key to the survival of the unicorns.

A story described by Katherine Paterson as "didactic camp", a very funny but also thought-provoking fantasy about the issue of gayness. This controversial tale has given enormous comfort to many young people struggling with their own sexual identity.

For sixth-grader Nina Tanleven, nothing is scarier than auditioning for a play at the famous old Grand Theater. But Nina changes her mind when she climbs on stage to audition - and sees a ghost sitting in the audience! Then, even stranger things happen. Scripts are ripped up, sets are knocked down, and everyone fears the ghost wants to stop the play. Everyone, of course, except Nina and her best friend Chris.

This rib-tickling new novel was inspired by the old Norse poem The Thrymskvitha which tells what happens when Thor's hammer is stolen and he has to dress as a bride to retrieve it. Told by Thialfi the goatboy, and featuring Norse gods, foolish giants, and a pair of cranky goats, this one will have the whole family laughing out loud.

In the center of Luster towers an enormous tree that is the Heart of the World. Now the tree is wounded, pierced by a tunnel that connects it to Earth. Through that tunnel strides Beloved, the ancient enemy of the unicorns, followed by an army of Hunters eager to destroy every last unicorn. At the center of this great struggle is the human girl, Cara Diana Hunter, who sets out with her friend, the gryphon Medafil, to ask a dragon to aid the unicorns.

The long-awaited audiobook of the third volume in Bruce Coville's international bestselling series MY TEACHER IS AN ALIEN finds Peter Thompson and the alien Broxholm heading for the good ship New Jersey (it's actually as big as the state it's named for!) Once aboard–and properly disinfected–Peter begins to interact with a delightfully strange assortment of aliens, most of all the mysterious (and mischievous) Hoo Lan, who becomes his mentor. But what, exactly, is Hoo Lan up to? And what will it mean for the future of Earth?

One stormy night, sixth-grader Jacob Doolittle finds a baby in a basket on his front porch. To Jake's surprise, his mother decides to care for the baby, hoping its mother will return. However that surprise is nothing compared to what happens to "Little Dumpling" the first time there's a full moon….

As if she didn't have trouble enough after her classmates discovered she had worn her brother's underwear to school (oh, the teasing, the humiliation!), Jennifer Murdley has just stumbled into Mr. Elives' Magic Shop, where she buys a toad named Bufo. Of course the odds of buying a normal toad in that shop are zero, as Jennifer finds out when Bufo starts to talk to her. As it turns out, talking is the least of the toad's strange talents.

Jonathan is attracted to the ornate mirror from the first moment he sees it in the antique shop where he works after school. But there is something wrong with the mirror, something evil - as Jonathan will discover after he accidentally gets a trace of his blood on its surface in this disturbing tale of terror.

Benjie Perkins' parents make their living by buying old houses and fixing them up to sell, so Benjie is used to odd noises in the night. But this time, it's different. This time what he hears is the ghost of Elvira Thistledown, who is kept from moving on to glory by a truly strange curse. Can Benjie free her restless spirit?

The thrilling climax of the international bestselling MY TEACHER series finds Peter Thompson, Susan Simmons, and Duncan Dougal reunited as they face the challenge of a lifetime: How to convince the Galactic Council not to destroy our planet. The kids have one month to save the world. As an introduction to their task, their alien guardians, Broxholm and Kreeblim, lead them on a tour of Earth like no other—a no-holds-barred look at both our glories and our horrors.

For sixth-grader Nina Tanleven, trying out for a part in a play is pretty scary. But nothing can compare to seeing a ghost, a woman in white, sitting in the audience! Nina senses that she has nothing to fear from this apparition, but she is intrigued. Nina learns that 50 years ago, a beautiful actress was murdered - on this very stage! According to legend, she has haunted the theater ever since.

Purple and perplexed, Pleskit Meenom needs advice on how to deal with the challenges of his new life on Earth. Normally he would ask his best friend, Tim Tompkins, but the two boys have been tricked into a feud. So instead he turns to his Grandfatherly One - or, at least, the brain of that wise old man, which is all the family has left of him. But perhaps the Grandfatherly One is not as wise as they all would like to believe, since he convinces Pleskit to take him to school in the portable Brain Transport Device. And that's when things really start to go wrong.

Pleskit Meenom, the first alien to go to school on Earth, is starting to fit in with his new class. It's not easy, given how slippery the language is. (Just how many meanings does the word "cool" have, anyway?) But the biggest problem is Jordan Lynch, the class bully who just can't resist picking on the new kid. Finally Pleskit and his new best friend, Tim Tompkins, decide to take action. But taking action when you have alien technology at your disposal can mean taking things just a little too far...and we do mean little!

The aliens have made contact! But because they consider Earth a small, backwater planet, they send only one ambassador. The ambassador brings along his son, Pleskit, and (for political reasons) insists the boy should attend a regular school. Science-fiction loving Tim Tompkins is desperate to befriend the alien...and Pleskit is going to need a friend, because someone is trying to sabotage the mission.

Ranging from the hilarious to the horrifying, this acclaimed collection of nine short stories - five of them read by full casts - showcases the remarkable variety of Bruce Coville's work. Listeners will meet a ghost who haunts a kitchen after a tragic baking accident, visit the goblin world with an unconventional princess, and fly with Justin Jones to an enchanted island that requires a heartbreaking decision. A rich, varied, and dazzling set of listening experiences!