Once

Cleopatra's Moon

Witness

Hatch: The Overthrow

The Testing

The Other Side of Truth

Horse

Deadly Game (Tales of Terror)

"Think, my dear -- just think what it will be like, to be known as the girl who freed the great Napoleon Bonaparte!"

Fourteen-year-old English girl Betsy Balcombe and her family have an unusual Napoleon Bonaparte, former emperor of France and the most feared man on earth. Once lord and master to eighty-two million souls, now, in 1815, Napoleon is a captive of the British people. Stripped of his empire and robbed of his young family and freedom, he is confined to the forbidding, rat-infested island of St. Helena.

The one bright star in Napoleon's black sky is Betsy, a blazingly rebellious teenager whose family is reluctantly housing the notorious prisoner. Betsy is the only foreigner Napoleon's ever met who is not impressed by him -- and Napoleon is more than intrigued.

An unexpected alliance is formed. And a remarkable friendship between emperor and girl spawns gossip, and inspires Betsy to hatch a daring and dangerous scheme that could threaten both their lives and shake entire empires to their foundations.

Discover Your Child's Next Read

Once

Morris Gleitzman, 2005

Cleopatra's Moon

Vicky Alvear Shecter, 2011

Witness

Karen Hesse, 2000

Hatch: The Overthrow

Kenneth Oppel, 2020

The Testing

Joelle Charbonneau, 2013

The Other Side of Truth

Beverley Naidoo, 2000

Horse

Jane Gardam, Janet Rawlins, 1982

Deadly Game (Tales of Terror)

Tony Bradman, Martin Chatterton, 2004