Emily Butler (1)

Freya is a proper penguin and has been living on a remote island all by herself but she would love to see the world. She takes a chance and hides herself in the bottom of a hot air balloon basket with the destination of the North Pole. This is where she meets Zoos, a mouse who has been around places but annoys Freya from the beginning of their trip. They do stick together and after a rough landing on an ice floe their next lag is experienced while stowed away in a small boat. They both have near death experiences and save one another which turns their relationship into a friendship.
Black and gray illustrations accompany this adventurous travel story on multiple pages. Although the main storyline is about the animals, it is mixed with historic accurate facts including the failure of Salomon Andree’s expedition. The expressive language and innocent story is a good fit for advanced readers in lower grades.
Written
3rd - 5th grade
AD +… (mer)

Freya is a penguin who grew up in a comfortable home with loving parents. As an adult, she has lived alone on an island for years but craves adventure. Inspired by a favorite book on travel, she finally takes the daring step of stowing away on explorer Captain Andrée’s hot air balloon expedition to the North Pole. She discovers another stowaway, a scrappy, mouthy mouse named Zoose (for Zeus). Freya has no choice but to put up with him. As the trip has one disaster after another, Freya and Zoose must work together to survive and eventually become unlikely but affectionate friends.… (mer)

It is the year 1784 and Josephine Drollery is writing to a publisher because someone else has written an account of her adventures full of errors and she will now set the record straight. Thirty years ago, her life was a pretty good one – that is, until her parent’s dinner party where everyone including Josephine were murdered. Now, Josephine is a ghost with a mission – she is determined to discover the murderer(s) and bring them to justice. With the aid of two orphaned African American cousins, a Harvard Professor who, though dead, continues to teach, and a fraudulent spiritualist known as The Great Montesquieu who is a bit disconcerted to discover a real ghost contacting him. But before she can solve the murders, she must first learn the skills of being a ghost.

The Drollery Letters Number one: The Devil’s Interval by author Emily Butler is aimed at a Middle Grade audience and is definitely not your typical ghost story. It is more historical mystery with ghost and just a touch of steam punk thrown in so don’t expect any frights or chills. It is, however, a fun fast read – Josephine is spunky, her friends are an interesting lot and there’s plenty of humour to keep the reader engaged.… (mer)