Nicola Barber

Traces the history of the Arab and Islamic world, the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, their religion, customs, architecture, agriculture, and wars.

"Introduces musical instruments and music from around the world and chronicles the history of music in the Western world from 1100 to the present." --

Discusses such ancient "lost" cities as Machu Picchu, Troy, Knossos, Great Zimbabwe, and Angkor, as well as more modern ghost towns.

As a dark force engulfs the land, the fate of Erdas has fallen on the shoulders of four young strangers who each have forged a rare bond with their spirit beasts -- a bond that gives great powers to all of them.

"By July 1914, the ties between Kezia Marchant and Thea Brissenden, friends since girlhood, have become strained--by Thea's passionate embrace of women's suffrage, and by the imminent marriage of Kezia to Thea's brother, Tom, who runs the family farm. When Kezia and Tom wed just a month before war is declared between Britain and Germany, Thea's gift to Kezia is a book on household management--a veiled criticism of the bride's prosaic life to come....

"Deep in the desert there sits a beautiful oasis, ruled by a monarch unlike any other in Erdas. His name is Cabaro, the Great Lion, and he reigns over a kingdom of animals, jealously guarding his golden talisman. No human has ever set foot on the Great Beast's territory. The journey to his oasis is impossible. As a team, Conor, Abeke, Meilin, and Rollan have achieved the impossible before. But now that team is broken--the friends scattered by a devastating...

Conor, Abeke, Meilin, and Rollan have journeyed across Erdas, racing to stop a merciless foe. Now that journey is about to end. They must reach a place forgotten by time and face off against an ancient enemy breaking free from his prison. They have just one chance to stop him -- or the whole world will shatter.

Four children have discovered that they have spirit animals, a rare bond between human and animal that has launched them on a quest to save their world. The team heads to the forests of Eura, where another Great Beast is hidden.

"Raised in a poor yet genteel household, Rachel Woodley is working in France as a governess when she receives news that her mother has died, suddenly. Grief-stricken, she returns to the small town in England where she was raised to clear out the cottage...and finds a cutting from a London society magazine, with a photograph of her supposedly deceased father dated all of three month before. He's an earl, respected and influential, and he is standing...