Snyder, Zilpha Keatley

When eleven-year-old Cat Kinsey builds a secret hideout to escape her unhappy homelife, she slowly gets to know a poor family who have come to California after losing their Texas home to the dust storms of the 1930s.

Life is never quite the same again for eleven-year-old David after the arrival of his new stepsister, a student of the occult.

Intent on investigating a rash of dog disappearances, eight-year-old Janie forms a detective agency and involves her friends and unwilling family in tracing clues and suspects.

The new boy at school introduces Amy to the secrets of Stone Hollow, where the circles of time converge.

Reluctant to admit that he suffers from claustrophobia and anxious not to alienate his friends, Rudy tries to find a way to distract them from pursuing their plan of exploring an abandoned gold mine.

Melanie and April turn a deserted lot into an imaginary Egypt where they spend many hours enacting rituals and consulting oracles, but there are real dangers and problems lurking outside their make-believe world that almost bring their game to a disastrous end.

Determined to be as strong and powerful as the first Harleigh, who built the rambling Weatherby Hall, twelve-year-old Harleigh Fourth and an equally diminutive new friend try to foil the plans of a distant relative who is seeking the long-lost Weatherby fortune.

Kidnappers in Italy have their hands full when the captive American children advise them on running a better kidnapping and on proper nutrition.