Lois Ruby

Sixteen-year-old Lorelei is not happy when her family moves into an old bed-and-breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania--and that is before she meets the Civil War ghost, Nathaniel, who needs her help, and discovers that some of the hotel staff are not what they seem to be.

Rebel Spirits

Encountering ghosts who would communicate with her during a family visit to a Louisiana plantation home, Lila learns the story of a mid-nineteenth-century slave girl who was wrongfully accused of three poisoning deaths. 25,000 first printing.

The Secret of Laurel Oaks

Gallows Hill

Unhappy about her new home at Thornewood Manor before discovering its mysterious backyard doll cemetery, Shelby learns interesting but unsettling facts about the dolls, their strange powers and the girl who used to own them. By the author of The Secret of Laurel Oaks. Simultaneous eBook.

The Doll Graveyard

Nightshade can be deadly. Hannah and Scooter's sprawling, ramshackle house is named for the lethal plant that grows in the dark woods behind it. Hannah knows she's not supposed to explore the forest or nearby Moonlight Lake. But she's feeling lonely and desperate for an adventure. And there Hannah meets Cady, a mysterious girl who promises everything Hannah's been missing. Only Cady has a secret: Cady wants Hannah all to herself. Soon Cady is copying Hannah's style so they can be more alike. She lies to Hannah's friends, insults Scooter, and begs Hannah to break her parents' rules and sneak out for a midnight swim. Hannah wants to believe Cady's just a little insecure. But when she discovers a cemetery beyond the lake with an eerily familiar headstone, she must decide whether to trust her new friend or dig for answers that may lead her to a watery grave . . .

A Hauntings Novel

The Secret Grave

Thirteen-year-old Eddie needs to do a community service project in preparation for his bar mitzvah. Against his better judgment, he ends up with a volunteering gig at Silver Brook Pavilion retirement home, where the residents call him "Eddie Whatever" rather than worry about remembering his last name. These old folks soon upend all Eddie's assumptions about the boringness of the elderly. There's a dramatic courtship unfolding, long-hidden secret identities, a rumor of a vengeful ghost, and a thief on the loose. When suspicion falls on Eddie, he teams up with his fellow volunteer (and crush), Tessa, to solve the mysteries of Silver Brook.

Eddie Whatever

A suspenseful and heartfelt story about an era whose uncertainties, controversies, and dangers will seem anything but distant to contemporary readers. If thirteen-year-old Marty Rafner had his way, he'd spend the summer of 1953 warming the bench for his baseball team, listening to Yankees games on the radio, and avoiding preparations for his bar mitzvah. Instead, he has to deal with FBI agents staking out his house because his parents—professors at the local college—are suspected communist sympathizers. Marty knows what happens to communists, or Reds, as his friends call them: They lose their jobs, get deported...or worse. Two people he's actually met, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, have been convicted of being communist spies, and they're slated to be executed in two months. Marty just wants everything to go back to normal, but that's impossible thanks to the rumors that his parents are traitors. As his friends and teammates turn on him and federal agents track his every move, Marty isn't sure what to believe. Is his family really part of a Red Menace working against the United States? And even if they're simply patriotic Americans who refuse to be bullied by the government, what will it cost them? As the countdown to the Rosenbergs' execution date continues, it may be up to Marty to make sure his family survives.

Red Menace

Miriam's Well

Steal Away Home

Hannah believes she has finally found a friend in Cady, but soon Cady is copying Hannah's style to be more like her and begging her to break her parents' rules and venture into the forbidden woods behind Hannah's home.

Haunted by history. Bound by mystery. Lori Chase doesn't know what to think about ghosts. She may have seen a few in the past, but those were just childish imaginings . . . right? Only now that she is living in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, spirits seem to be on everyone's mind. The town is obsessed with its bloody Civil War history, and the old inn that Lori's parent run is supposedly haunted by the souls of dead soldiers. Then Lori meets one such soldier -- the devastatingly handsome Nathaniel Pierce. Nathaniel's soul cannot rest, and he desperately needs Lori's help. Because Nathaniel was not killed in the famous battle. He was murdered. Lori begins to investigate the age-old mystery, stumbling upon shocking clues and secrets. At the same time, she can't help falling for Nathaniel, just as he is falling for her . . . .

In a new town, Dovi’s family befriends a young boy who was abandoned at their restaurant Dovi Chandler collects yearbooks. She has them from all over the country: mementos of every time her parents uprooted her to a new town, and a new crackpot business venture. They’ve managed apartment houses, tried to save failing bookstores, even sold Tupperware, but all it’s ever gotten them is debt and a new yearbook for Dovi to add to the pile. It’s not until her parents take over the Pig-Out Inn that Dovi feels ready to put down roots. It’s just another truck-stop diner, but to Dovi it’s home—and she soon discovers that she and her family aren’t the only ones living there. Hiding out in 1 of the cabins is a 9-year-old boy named Tag. He was stashed there by his father, who is negotiating a painful divorce. Tag is an entrepreneurial genius, and his brilliant business schemes will offer Dovi and her mother a chance to make the Pig-Out Inn a success—and learn the true meaning of family.

Pig-Out Inn

A young girl fleeing Hitler takes refuge in Shanghai, where she learns that she must fight to survive Throughout tomboy Ilse’s childhood, her mother has tried to force her to behave like a proper Austrian lady. But when Hitler annexes their country, the family flees, boarding a packed freighter and sailing around the world in search of a safe harbor. The United States refuses to take them, so they proceed to China and make a new home in steamy, mysterious Shanghai. Their lodgings are cramped, money is tight, and Ilse’s father cannot find work—but Ilse is enchanted by the city’s international flavor. In Shanghai’s shadows she finds the adventure of a lifetime. When the Japanese occupy the city, Ilse and her brother begin working in an underground resistance cell. Each day, the city grows more dangerous, and Ilse must lie, cheat, and steal in order for her family to eat. She is a long way from Austria, but she will do whatever it takes to survive.

Shanghai Shadows

Skin

A terminally ill teenager is forced to choose between her religion and her life Adam doesn’t think much of it when Miriam faints in class. She’s an oddball, a student who hardly talks, never makes eye contact, and wears clothes that seem straight out of the 19th century. She says she’s fine, and he wants to believe her. But when she passes out while they’re working on an English assignment, Adam takes Miriam to the last place she wants to go: the hospital. Miriam has bone cancer. She believes that God will heal her, but if He doesn’t, she plans to let herself die. Miriam is a member of a devout religious sect in which women have little power and medicine is strictly forbidden. In order for Miriam to forgo treatment, Adam’s father sues the state on her behalf—even as Adam himself tries to convince her to accept the doctors’ help. As her illness rages on, Miriam will teach Adam the meaning of love and faith—and he will give her a reason to live.

Six short stories, including "Frail Bridge" and "Inscriptions in Stone," portray the Jew and the adolescent as an outsider in a variety of situations and settings

Two Truths in My Pocket

I ask you, why do weird things always happen to me? Thirteen-year-old Dana Shannon is no stranger to intrigue. Not long ago she discovered a skeleton behind a wall in her family's house -- a house in Lawrence, Kansas, that was once owned by a Quaker family, the Weavers. The diary Dana found in the sealed-off room revealed that the skeleton belonged to a runaway slave named Lizbeth Charles. Now Dana's house is a newly refurbished bed-and-breakfast, and the first guests are two shady characters who believed the house is hiding another secret. When Dana gets in their way, she becomes embroiled in a second mystery, this one involving slaves and the Weavers again, and -- somehow - Delaware Indians. As Dana tried to fit the puzzle pieces together, alternate chapters tell the story of James Baylor Weaver, a thirteen-year-old boy, in 1857. It is up to James to fulfill a promise Lizbeth made before her death. He must travel hundreds of miles to retrieve four slaves and bring them to freedom. The journey will test his strength, endurance, and courage; it will also test his character, when he has to make a terrible choice... Readers of Soon Be Free will quickly be caught up in this fast-paced mystery-adventure that links teenagers from two different centuries.

Soon Be Free

Nightshade can be deadly.Hannah and Scooter's sprawling, ramshackle house is named for the lethal plant that grows in the dark woods behind it. Hannah knows she's not supposed to explore the forest or nearby Moonlight Lake. But she's feeling lonely and desperate for an adventure. And there Hannah meets Cady, a mysterious girl who promises everything Hannah's been missing. Only Cady has a secret: Cady wants Hannah all to herself.Soon Cady is copying Hannah's style so they can be more alike. She lies to Hannah's friends, insults Scooter, and begs Hannah to break her parents' rules and sneak out for a midnight swim. Hannah wants to believe Cady's just a little insecure. But when she discovers a cemetery beyond the lake with an eerily familiar headstone, she must decide whether to trust her new friend or dig for answers that may lead her to a watery grave . . .

The Secret Grave: A Hauntings Novel

An angry teenager is sucked into a gang of neo-Nazis Dan shows up on his first day at a new school with long blond hair, John Lennon glasses, and a shy grin that makes every girl in the hallway swoon. But he only has eyes for Laurel, who’s in his English class. Laurel stirs feelings in Dan that he never knew existed, and suddenly, he understands love. Soon, he will understand hate as well. When a gang of violent young men invades the annual Halloween party, most of Laurel’s friends stay away. The men are white supremacists with shaved heads, steel-toed boots, and a look in their eyes that says they’re ready to fight. But something in their attitude draws Dan toward them. He’s angry at the world, and these skinheads seem to understand how he feels. As he sinks deeper into their twisted world of hate and rage, Dan risks losing not only Laurel, but also his soul.

Skin Deep

When twelve-year-old Dana Shannon starts to strip away wallpaper in her family's old house, she's unprepared for the surprise that awaits her. A hidden room—containing a human skeleton! How did such a thing get there? And why was the tiny room sealed up? With the help of a diary found in the room, Dana learns her house was once a station on the Underground Railroad. The young woman whose remains Dana discovered was Lizbet Charles, a conductor and former slave. As the scene shifts between Dana's world and 1856, the story of the families that lived in the house unfolds. But as pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place, one haunting question remains—why did Lizbet Charles die?

Lois Ruby

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