Kate Messner

The mysterious box that Ranger the golden retriever found in the garden transports him back to first century Rome, where he must rescue Marcus, a young servant boy, and Quintus, a volunteer gladiator, from the brutal world of the Colosseum.

Celebrates the forms of life that live above and under a pond, including turtles, red-winged blackbirds, blue herons, minnows, frogs, and catfish.

Step one: Find a story. (A good one.) Step two: Find a reading buddy. (Someone nice.) Step three: Find a reading spot. (Couches are cozy.) Now: Begin. Kate Messner and Mark Siegel chronicle the process of becoming a reader: from pulling a book off the shelf and finding someone with whom to share a story, to reading aloud, predicting what will happen, and -- finally -- coming to The End. This picture book playfully and movingly illustrates the idea...

This time Ranger, the time-traveling Golden retriever, finds himself in San Francisco in the middle of the great 1906 earthquake, and his mission is obviously to get a young Chinese immigrant, Lily Chen, to safety, but as they make their way through the ruined and burning city Ranger finds that he must also accomplish something else--finding Lily, who was sold as a servant by her parents, a new family who will care for her.

"Under the canopy of the rainforest, hundreds of animals make their homes--from the slender parrot snake to the colorful poison dart frog. But up in the trees hides a whole other world, where toucans and pale-billed woodpeckers chatter and call, capuchinmonkeys swing from the vines, and sleek-furred jaguars rule the night. In this exuberant book, discover the wonder and activity that lie hidden among the roots, above the winding rivers...and under...

Ranger the time-travelling Golden retriever was trained for search-and-rescue and even though he did not pass the tests he has used his training on his many trips to help people caught up in disasters; now he has arrived at the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001 just as the first plane hits, and he must rescue fifth-graders Risha and Max who are trapped in the wreckage, guide them to safety, and hopefully reunite them with Risha's...

Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia, so when one showed up dead along the side of a Florida highway in 1979, scientists wondered where it came from. No one knew the snakes had launched a full-scale invasion. Pet pythons that escaped or were released by their owners started breeding in the wild, and these enormous predators began eating every animal in their path. Today a group of scientists at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida is tracking...

Step 1: Choose an idea for your story. A good one. Step 2: Decide on a setting. Don't be afraid to mix things up. Step 3: Create a heroine--or a hero. Now: Begin. Accomplished storytellers Kate Messner and Mark Siegel playfully chronicle the process of becoming a writer, guiding young storytellers through the joys and challenges of the writing process.

When tomboy Marty is cast as the princess in the third-grade play, she learns about improvisation, which helps her become more adaptable.

This time the mysterious box that Ranger the Golden retriever found transports him to a Maryland plantation before the Civil War, where he must help a young house slave named Sarah and her younger brother Jesse find their way to the underground railroad and North to freedom, before Jesse is sold to a plantation further South.