New Releases by Alison Hart

ABBY IS FREE FROM SLAVERY BUT NOT FROM THE SECRETS OF HER PAST... It''s 1865 in the conquered South and things are not as they were before the war. Thirteen-year-old Abby Joyner still lives on the plantation where she was raised but she and her grandparents are free now and continue on for a small salary. One thing is the same as it has always been, though -- Abby does not know what became of her mother. Why won''t anyone tell her? Abby is determined to find the truth behind her disappearance. But answers are few and she is about to discover that, like freedom, the truth is harder to come by than she could have imagined.

- Fun groups party game for 9 players (8 kids + 1 adult) - Girls get to dress up & solve a mystery themselves by reading a script & clues based on the characters in AG''s Samantha stories. - Same genre as the "murder mystery dinner party" but for kids age 8-12. Very few retail market competitors in this age range. - Everything is included: invitations & envelopes, scripts, clues, name tags, and detailed instructions for the host. What''s Included: - 9 party invitations with envelopes - 9 character cards - 9 scripts, one for each character (8 kids and one adult) - 7 Secret clues and 30 hobo code signs - Party planner for adult - Name tags

In 1864, Samuel, a thirteen-year-old slave, works as a horse groomer on a plantation and dreams of becoming a famous jockey, but when he gets a chance to prove himself in the horse-racing world, he learns that his father has enlisted as a Union soldier, so he is torn between joining his father to fight for freedom or pursue his life-long dream.

A convict escapes from a prison work crew and hijacks a car. State police notify police departments all over the state of Virginia to be on the lookout for a stolen vehicle. When the car is spotted by a Staunton police officer, an exciting chase ensues. Includes a police badge sticker. Full-color photos. Consumable.

Armed robbers take hostages at a bank in downtown Staunton! Specialized units within the police department work together to defuse the dangerous situation.

Kids will leap like grasshoppers at this imaginative pop-up presentation of insect facts. Kids will discover what they would be able to do if they were as strong, fast and powerful as five different bugs. Clever comparisons between bugs and kids, amazing bug facts, and much-larger-than-life pop-outs will delight young readers who are buggy about bugs. Full color.

Young Wolf''s greatest wish is to join his tribe in pursuing buffalo, but his father thinks he is too young. However, Young Wolf prepares himself for the hunt--just in case his father changes his mind--in this moving story of courage and perseverance. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Four roommates at a boarding school with a riding program prepare for an upcoming horse show.

Mary Beth and Lauren are vying for the same horse and the same boy. Their bickering is driving Andie and Jina nuts. When Lauren disappears the girls wonder if she has run away or was kidnapped.

When Jina agrees to show a sweet pony named Applejacks, and help out the pony''s young owner as well, she encounters an ill-mannered pony and a spoiled owner.

Jina brings her three roommates home with her for the Thanksgiving break foxhunt, but she finds they do not all agree about the welfare of the fox.

Lauren suspects that one of the seniors is abusing her horse, so sheand Andie try to catch Melaine in the act.

Nothing is going to spook Mary Beth.

Andie can''t wait for the upcoming Parents'' Weekend to show off Magic, a horse she hopes her father will buy for her, but a freak accident convinces Andie''s father that Magic is too dangerous.