Cynthia DeFelice - children's author and storyteller

Bringing Ezra Back
by Cynthia DeFelice
the sequel to the award-winning Weasel.

Coming in early Fall 2007
Armed with his fiddle and a five-dollar gold piece, Nathan sets out in September 1840 to find Ezra and bring him home. He travels with Orrin Beckwith, a peddler he has only just met and doesn’t fully trust. As Nathan gets farther and farther from home, he encounters more people than he’s ever met and he begins to wonder how to tell one from the other, for people are constantly surprising him. The biggest shock, however, may be Ezra himself, and it will take more than Nathan bargained for to bring him back.

The Missing Manatee
by Cynthia DeFelice
© 2005

Skeet Waters is out cruising in his skiff when he discovers a dead manatee washed up on the shore. Upon closer examination, he sees that it has been shot. Manatees are protected by law, especially in the refuge near Skeet's Florida home. Who would want to shoot one of the sweet, harmless creatures, anyway? Skeet goes to get help, but when he returns with the sheriff's deputy, the manatee is gone.

The Ghost of Culter Creek
by Cynthia DeFelice
© 2004

A sequel to the award-winning The Ghost of Fossil Glen & The Ghost and Mrs. Hobbs
The third adventure featuring Allie Nichols, Ghost Magnet, her best friend Dub, and her teacher's dog Hoover. There's something odd going on at the local pet store, and something very peculiar about L.J. Cutler, the new boy in town.

Under the Same Sky
by Cynthia DeFelice
© 2003

All Joe Pedersen wants for his birthday is "The Streaker," a motorbike like the ones his friends Randy and Jason have. His father, a farmer in upstate New York, tells him he can earn the money to buy the bike over summer vacation, working on the farm with the crew of Mexican laborers who come each summer for the season. Joe learns here's a lot going on at the farm that he ever knew about. The real surprise is what he learns about himself.

The Ghost and Mrs. Hobbs
by Cynthia DeFelice
© 2001

A sequel to the award-winning The Ghost of Fossil Glen
Just a few short weeks ago, sixth grader Allie Nichols encountered her first ghost, the spirit of a murdered girl named Lucy Stiles. Now another ghost has enters Allie’s life! Her best friend, Dub Whitwell, says Allie must be “some kind of ghost magnet.”

Death at Devil's Bridge
by Cynthia DeFelice
© 2000

Thirteen-year-old Ben Daggett, a Martha's Vineyard local, was looking forward to a bust profitable summer working as a first mate on board a charter fishing boat. But Ben's summer gets crazy after he discovers a sunken car. The car's owner, a wealthy tourist, is missing, and the police suspect drugs are involved in his disappearance. Worse, Ben begins to wonder about his friend Donny Madison's role in the events. Donny is sixteen, has his own car, and is the coolest guy on Martha's Vineyard. Ben finds out that Donny, who resents each summer's invasion of vacationers, sank the car and steals from the rich tourists, and he thinks Donny may be involved in more crimes. Ben desperately wants to like him, but how far will he go to win Donny's approval?

Nowhere to Call Home
by Cynthia DeFelice
© 1999

Tramping is for people with nothing to lose and nowhere to call home. Twelve-year-old Frances Elizabeth Barrow thinks that describes her when she clips her hair and, disguised as a boy, "flips" a train west. Left a penniless orphan after her father's bankruptcy and subsequent suicide, Frances is sure that hoboing is better than being sent to live with an unfamiliar aunt in Chicago. On the drag, she meets Stewpot, a fifteen-year-old boy who teaches her the ropes -- everything from the jargon to the signs the hoboes leave for one another, to how to outwit the cops. She also learns that being "free" exacts a price, and comes to appreciate her old life. Cynthia DeFelice captures the despair -- and the hope -- of individuals facing the Great Depression in this story about a spirited young heroine filled with resolve after all she has experienced.

The Ghost of Fossil Glen
by Cynthia DeFelice
© 1998

Allie Nichols is being pursued by a ghost. Her friend Karen calls Allie a liar and doesn't want to hear "stuff like that." But her old pal, Dub, listens eagerly as Allie tells him about the voice that guides her down a steep cliff side, the girl she imagines who begs, "Help me," and a terrible nightmare in which that girl falls to her death. Who is that girl? Is she the ghost? And what does the ghost want from Allie?

The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker
by Cynthia DeFelice
© 1996

After 12-year-old Lucas Whitaker loses his whole family to consumption he learns of a bizarre "cure". When he takes a job as apprentice to the town doctor, he learns about the scientific approach to healing, but seeing so many die, he desperately wants to help other families try the cure that might have saved his family.

Lostman's River
by Cynthia DeFelice
© 1994

Thirteen-year-old Ty is apprenticing with a learned ornithologist, who is researching the various species of birds in the Florida swamps. While working with his mentor, Ty realizes how fragile the balance of nature is and, that to survive, nature often needs the help of humans.

Despite being warned away by old Angus Tull, who may know more than he lets on, eleven-year-old Hadley insists on befriending the hunchbacked woman who dwells on a haunted hill and finds herself with new joys and responsibilities.

Young Ben Dagget cherishes the memory of his late father and takes pride in his father's outstanding record in the Martha's Vineyard annual Striped Bass Derby. When Ben overhears a stranger conspiring to cheat and win the derby, Ben knows he must save the family honor.

Originally hired by the U.S. government to drive the Shawnees from the Ohio Territory in the 1830's, a deranged man known as "Weasel" now kills for the sake of killing since his Indian prey are either dead or have escaped to safety. When Nathan's father is attacked by Weasel, Nathan takes the law into his own hands.

From the acclaimed author of Weasel and Devil's Bridge. Eleven-year-old Callie Williams befriends an elderly woman who introduces her to the exquisite art of calligraphy. But this pair of new friends shares something unique--a power to see into the future through a muse that directs their hands as they practice their art.

novels for young readers