Cranston Public Library

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children. If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company. There are no strangers in the town of Near. These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life. But when an actual stranger, a boy who seems to fade like smoke, appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true. The next night,...

In a village where peculiar things happen every Wednesday, one boy must save the town to save himself.

Fiona is Safe-Keeper in the small village of Tambleham, where neighbors and strangers alike come one by one, in secret, to tell her things they dare not share with anyone else.

In World War II England, orphaned siblings William, Edmund, and Anna are evacuated from London to live in the countryside, where they bounce from home to home in search of someone willing to adopt them permanently.--

"When a mysterious mob sneaks past the village's defenses, Mal and her friends defy the rules and set out beyond Cornucopia's walls for the first time."--

From rooster crow to bedtime, a Kenyan boy plays and visits neighbors all through his village, even though he is supposed to be watching his grandfather's cows.

"The mayor of the noisy city of La Paz institutes new laws forbidding all singing, but a brave little rooster decides he must sing, despite the progressively severe punishments he receives for continuing to crow. The silenced populace, invigorated by the rooster's bravery, ousts the tyrannical mayor and returns their city to its free and clamorous state"--

"Gussy knows that being a village Protector is a big job, even if Grandpa Widow makes the role look easy. So when Grandpa Widow is suddenly called to travel across the desert surrounding the village, and Gussy has to step into the role of Protector herself, she barely feels ready to perform the magical Rites that keep her village safe from the Great Doom, the mysterious power that threatens the residents in the lands outside. On her very first night...

"Moving from the wide world to the snugness of home and back out again, Village by the Sea tells the story of longing for the comforts of home"--

After surviving a plane crash in the jungle, Flash, a photographer, is taken to a remote village where his instant camera works magic for those who have never seen a photo. When Flash's plane crashes in the wilderness, he finds himself injured and alone, armed with nothing but a cheap instant camera. Then out of the sunlight appears a girl in a scarlet dress. Sutira and her brother take Flash home to their remote village, where the people have never...