Böcker av Iain Lawrence

Harold Kline is an albino—an outcast. Folks stare and taunt, calling him Ghost Boy. It's been that way for all of his 14 years. So when the circus comes to town, Harold runs off to join it. Full of colorful performers, the circus seems like the answer to Harold's loneliness. He's eager to meet the Cannibal King, a sideshow attraction who's an albino, too. He's touched that Princess Minikin and the Fossil Man, two other sideshow curiosities, embrace him like a son. He's in love with Flip, the pretty and beguiling horse trainer, and awed by the all-knowing Gypsy Magda. Most of all, Harold is proud of training the elephants, and of earning respect and a sense of normalcy. Even at the circus, though, two groups exist—the freaks, and everyone else. Harold straddles both groups. But fitting in comes at a price, and Harold must recognize the truth beneath what seems apparent before he can find a place to call home.

In Deadman's Castle, Igor and his family are on the run from a man bent on revenge and danger is lurking around every corner--perfect for young readers with a taste for mystery and adventure.I told myself it was impossible that the Lizard Man was there. He had never found us on the first day. Twice my father had heard him prowling around a new house in the first week. And in the first month . . . Well, that had happened more times than I wanted to think about. Ever since he was five years old and his father witnessed a terrible crime, Igor and his family have been on the run from the Lizard Man, a foreboding figure bent on revenge. They've lived in so many places, with so many identities, that Igor can't even remember his real name.But now he is twelve and longing for a normal life. When the people his dad calls the Protectors finds his family yet another new place to live, Igor's dad sets down the rules establishing how far Igor can go in any direction and where he can't go at all. Boxed into the smallest area he has ever been allowed to explore on his own, Igor rebels. Much to his surprise, he's allowed to start school and for the first time since Kindergarten he begins to make friends.As the months go by, Igor begins to wonder if the Lizard Man exists only in his father's frightened mind. No one but his dad has ever seen him. But then Igor's little sister tells him she thinks she saw the Lizard Man lurking around the house, and Igor realizes that even if the Lizard Man is real, he would rather risk everything than abandon his friends and go back on the run.

In the forests of Siberia, in the first years of the twentieth century, a white pony runs free with his herd. But his life chages forever when he''s captured by men. Years of hard work and cruelty wear him out. When he is chosen to be one of 20 ponies to accompany the Englishman Robert Falcon Scott on his quest to become the first to reach the South Pole, he doesn''t know what to expect. But the men of Scott''s expedition show him kindness, something he''s never known before. They also give him a name—James Pigg. As Scott''s team hunkers down in Antarctica, James Pigg finds himself caught up in one of the greatest races of all time. The Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen has suddenly announced that he too means to be first to the Pole. But only one team can triumph, and not everyone can survive—not even the animals.

A girl's imagination transports polio-afflicted kids into a fantastic world.The spring of 1955 tests Laurie Valentine's gifts as a storyteller. After her friend Dickie contracts polio and finds himself confined to an iron lung, Laurie visits him in the hospital. There she meets Carolyn and Chip, two other kids trapped inside the breathing machines. Laurie's first impulse is to flee, but Dickie begs her to tell them a story. And so Laurie begins her tale of Collosso, a rampaging giant, and Jimmy, a tiny boy whose destiny is to become a slayer of giants.As Laurie embellishes her tale with gnomes, unicorns, gryphons, and other fanciful creatures, Dickie comes to believe that he is a character in her story. Little by little Carolyn, Chip, and other kids who come to listen, recognize counterparts as well. Laurie's tale is so powerful that when she's prevented from continuing it, Dickie, Carolyn, and Chip take turns as narrators. Each helps bring the story of Collosso and Jimmy to an end—changing the lives of those in the polio ward in startling ways.

A young boy gradually comes to understand the difference between his toy soldiers and the bloodshed of the First World War in this poignant story.