On his journey, he meets up with a fearless dragonfly, a special blue dragonfly willing to guard the sunflower seed against all odds.

In the end, the little blue dragonfly's persistence pays off. Above and beyond all she could imagine, a field of beautiful sunflowers bloom all because of her faithfulness.

The tale reflects promises that are not broken and the courage to stay through the harsh winter and winds, only to protect the little seed.

It's a story teaching honesty and faithfulness along with a strong sense of respecting nature. The outcome of giving to the earth just one small seed and caring for it. The reward is not just one sunflower, but fields and valleys full of them.

Besides being a suspenseful ghost story, students will want to read Hauntings because it deals with the difficult topics of divorce, alcoholism, bullies, and suicide. Furthermore, these subplots will lend themselves to talking points with the book's secondary audience, parents.

As a middle school counselor for the past four years, and an eighth grade English teacher the 12 years prior to that, I have witnessed first hand how a lack of faith severely handicaps our youth as they face the trials and tribulations of growing up. That is why I have targeted 7th-12th graders with his book.

Fumble the Bumble-Bee is an adventure story about a reluctant Bumble-bee who has to be taught what all bees know. She makes many mistakes in her first quest to find food. Encouraged by big Sister Bee, she goes farther, tries harder, and does not give up easily. These are the themes of the book, and all children learning new skills will identify with this adorable, little bee. The book emphasizes the 3 R's (Rhyme, Rhythm and Repetition) which are important for pre-readers to develop an interest in reading and for beginning and young readers to consolidate their reading skills.

Fumble the Bumble-Bee is the first in the series of "Fumble Bumble Books." Children will be delighted by the adventures of this fumbling, bumbling bee and will enjoy reading it, or listening to it repeatedly. The colourful, detailed pictures and the story will make this a favourite of children everywhere. Fumble the Bumble-Bee is educational, fun to read, and ideal for children three years of age and up.

Once inside the mansion, the girls try to unravel the clues to the old place. Their curiosity takes hold, leading them from one place to another. In the end they find themselves TRAPPED inside the wall of the mansion and fighting for their lives!

Read on to see what happened to them.

Ages: 4 to 8 yrs.

Other stories available:

• Two Little Pigs
• One Little Pig
• Kukumba
• Goo Boo

Eric and Ross are thirteen-year-old conjoined (Siamese) twins living in a remote corner of north-western N.S.W. The year is 1958. The district, once a productive mining area, is in decline, and isolated families find it increasingly difficult to make a living from the sheep that graze among the rocks and disused shafts of the half-wild farms.

Eric and Ross live with their gran and grandfather - a bitter, drunken man with a violent past. Their life is a mixture of the joys and freedoms of the bush, fantasy fuelled by flying saucer comics and the fists and furies of their grandfather.

Further along the Gully Road lives their friend, Jess, and her family - the Hardys. The Hardys are newcomers to the area, having chosen to make a fresh start in the country in a world where cold-war uncertainties have fallen over the cities. Jess, hungry for knowledge and frustrated by her isolation, still yearns for the opportunities of city-life.

Cliff, a shy son of a neighbour, tells them of a terrifying attack by a panther-like beast. Something dangerous is lurking in the bush. Stories of the mysterious beast excite the locals, attract strangers and bring new life to the ghost town of Mudagundra.

As spring turns into summer, the twins and Jess experience their own close encounters with the beast, face floodwaters, fire, and a day in a real school. Sadie, Cliff's 'rough-as-guts', but kind and bush-wise mother, inadvertently tells the twins about Boyd, their uncle who disappeared as a ten year old boy and the murder sentence their grandfather has kept secret. And then, into their lives comes Smith, an odd-looking stranger with a box full of bones and a fear of the authorities. He says he has come to find the panther but seems to have a hidden agenda all his own.

Giggle is a happy, heart-warming little ghost. Although most people can't see her, she stands up for what's right, finds safe homes for animals, and figures out which grown-ups, human or otherwise, can help her get out of trouble. She also loves to think up tricks. Her magic is so strong that she can wish herself and a friend to the moon.

Giggle and her parents are not ghosts in the Halloween sense. They are a family of spirits who live in the bell tower of a church in New England. The pastor, an Irish priest, is proud to call them his friends.

Right above Giggle and her family in the tower is Uncle Pete, a bachelor ghost who plays the piccolo. In the room above him is Mrs. Wigglebone, a skeleton lady who polishes the church bells. Not far away, in the synagogue, is Uncle Morty, a wise old Jewish ghost.

Among Giggle's friends are her third-grade classmates Rusty and Lenore; Bobbi, the only blue ghost on earth; Brenda, an African-American visitor from Florida; and Ryan, a ten-year-old boy with cerebral palsy. With these friends, Giggle celebrates all the happy days of the year, from Hanukkah to St. Patrick's Day.

It's not a good day for Kefir, George, and the others. Forever regretting the fact, that they are living at a stern, submissive, physically abused imprisonment school. Unexpectedly, there has been an unheard of matter, which has been strangely founded. Now the young, disruptive teens are enforced to conduct an experiment with the unspecified matter. Abruptly, the students begin to act out of the ordinary. Shockingly, they are famished for human flesh. Ultimately, the school leads into mayhem, and all the students obtain left for dead. Will Kefir, George, and the others make it out alive, or will they be a gory, extensive meal for the flesh starving, living dead? What they don't know, awaits them on the outside, in the big, steel city.

SICK! DEMENTED! EXPLICIT! VIOLENT! GORY!

Also as the story unfolds, Shannon's relationship with her sister and friends provides some real life events that are both funny and anxiety producing.

The main message is that everything works out OK!