Magic beans quickly lead to danger in this standalone companion to The Brixen Witch, which Kirkus Reviews called “fresh and satisfying” in a starred review.When Rudi Bauer sets out for town one morning to trade, he never dreams that Susanna Louisa will sell his family’s cow—for magic beans, no less! But that’s exactly what she does, and the consequences will be disastrous unless Rudi can return the magic beans to their rightful owner, the evil witch of Petz. The journey to Petz is long and hard, but Rudi and Susanna Louisa soon find a shortcut: a magically sprouted beanstalk leads them straight there...and straight into danger. Because the evil witch of Petz is a terrible giant who has locked away summer and keeps his kingdom a frozen wasteland. And in order to defeat him, Rudi is going to need a little magic of his own.

An enchanted coin. A witch’s curse. And rats, rats everywhere! What’s a boy to do?When Rudi Bauer accidentally takes a witch’s coin, he unleashes her curse. Accident or not, he knows he’s got to fix things, so he tries to return the coin, only to lose it on the witch’s magic mountain just as the snows come. Plagued all winter by terrible dreams, Rudi tries to find the coin again in the spring, but it has vanished—and a plague of rats has descended on his village.Then a stranger arrives and promises to rid the village of rats—for the price of the missing coin. Desperate to get rid of the rats, the villagers agree—but when they cannot pay, the stranger exacts a price too terrible for anyone to bear. Now Rudi is going to need all his courage—and some help from his savvy grandmother and a bold young girl—to set things right in this fast and funny adventure.

A boy who loves baseball must get past his hard-working immigrant parents—and the rhino in the outfield—to become a batboy in this laugh-out-loud middle grade novel in the tradition of The Sandlot.Nick wants to change his life. For twelve whole years, he's done what his hard-working, immigrant parents want him to do. Now he's looking for his own American dream and he thinks he's found it. The local baseball team is having a batboy contest. Nick's goal—to be a Mudpuppy for a day! But the contest is on a Saturday—the day Nick has to work in his father's shop. There's one other tiny—well, not so tiny—problem. A 2,000-pound rhinoceros named Tank. Nick and his friends play ball right in the city zoo—and Tank lives just beyond the right field fence. Nick's experience getting the ball out of Tank's pen has left him frozen with fear whenever a fly ball comes his way. How's a lousy fielder going to win the contest? One...