Elaine Marie Alphin Books In Order

The Ghost Cadet

While spending his summer vacation at his grandmother’s old Virginia home, Benjy Stark meets the ghost of a Virginia Military Institute cadet who died at the Battle of New Market during the Civil War. AB.

The Proving Ground

Adjusting to life at a Proving Ground a military base that proof tests ammunition in a Midwestern town where the residents hate the Army turns out to be harder than Kevin, the fourteen-year-old son of a Lieutenant Colonel, ever expected. While struggling to find a way to change one girl’s mind about him, Kevin uncovers a plot to destroy the base. For Kevin, The Proving Ground is no longer only the base where he lives and his father works – it becomes the place where he must decide what he believes in, and whether or not he has the courage to stand up for it.

Tournament of Time

In England, Jessica and her two brothers meet the spirits of the Princes in the Tower and struggle to solve their centuries old murder mystery while trying to deal with English hostility from their classmates toward foreigners.

Counterfeit Son

Cameron Miller is the son of a murderer. All he has ever known is the stench of the locked cellar, where he can hear the blows and cries and his father’s torrent of terror and abuse. Then a miracle happens: his father is killed in a police shootout. In the aftermath, Cameron grabs his one chance for a normal life: he takes on the identity of Neil Lacey, a boy who Mr. Miller had abducted six years ago. As Neil, he has a life with loving parents, a brother and sister, and the comforts only money can buy. But someone knows what Cameron’s doing someone with the power to turn his life back into a nightmare. ‘An engrossing, suspenseful novel that is sure to keep the reader glued to the page.’ Kirkus Reviews

Ghost Soldier

The ghost of a young soldier from the Civil War haunts a troubled teen.’I sat up. The jagged trenches were only soft grassy depressions in the sunny battlefield park. I felt tears burn my eyes, the relief was so strong, and then the misery of losing the ghost hit me.’Alexander has the ability to see ghosts. But it’s been several years since his last encounter. When he reluctantly joins his father on a long trip away from home, a surprise awaits him. In the unfamiliar territory of North Carolina, Alexander is confronted by the ghost of a young soldier who lost his life in the Civil War. As an unusual friendship develops between the two, Alexander is drawn into a new reality where he comes face to face with the haunting past of his soldier friend. But can Alexander help this troubled ghost, and can he, finally, come to terms with his own disturbing past? With deftness and insight, Elaine Marie Alphin tells a gripping story that weaves the supernatural with the historical. Ghost story fans and Civil War buffs alike are in for a real treat.

Simon Says

Charles Weston won’t play games. Even as a child he refused to play the schoolroom game of Simon Says. Not for fun, and not in life. Now an aspiring young artist, Charles enrolls in a private arts high school, not because he thinks he can learn anything from the teachers but because he wants to meet the ‘famous’ Graeme Brandt, a student whose recently published novel touches a chord deep within him. Perhaps at last Charles will share his art with someone. But Graeme Brandt is not at all what Charles expected, and soon the talented artist and the published author are drawn into a clash of wills that threatens to destroy them both. Edgar Award winning author Elaine Marie Alphin is back with a stunning story about life, art, and the pursuit of true self expression.

Time Travel Trap

Ryan and Kelley think that being teamed up for a school science project will be a disaster. Ryan is too busy constructing his ‘living dinosaur village’ to waste time on a boring university fossil dig. And Kelley, who wants to prove herself to her scientist father, fears that Ryan’s wild imagination could ruin her grade. But the fossil dig is anything but boring. Someone is sabotaging the site, and Ryan overhears a suspicious conversation. When he finally convinces Kelley that they need to investigate, they discover that dinosaurs might not be extinct after all!

The Perfect Shot

Someone murdered Brian’s girfriend, Amanda. The police think it was her father. Brian isn’t so sure. But everyone he knows is telling him to move on, get over it, focus on the present. Focus on basketball. Focus on hitting The Perfect Shot. Brian hopes that the system will work for Amanda and her father. An innocent man couldn’t be wrongly convicted, could he? But then Brian does a school project on Leo Frank, a Jewish man lynched decades ago for the murder of a teenage girl a murder he didn’t commit. Worse still, Brian’s teammate Julius gets arrested for nothing more than being a black kid in the wrong place at the wrong time. Brian can’t deny any longer that the system is flawed. As Amanda’s father goes on trial, Brian admits to himself that he knows something that could break the case. But if he comes forward, will the real killer try for another perfect show this time against Brian?

A Bear for Miguel

One day, Mar a’s father takes her to the busy market. There they trade goods for food for Mana’s mother and baby brother. Mar a helps by making her father laugh while he works. But she wants to do more. So Mana finds a very special way to help her family.

Dinosaur Hunter

Wyoming: the 1880s. Bone hunters comb the land, looking for dinosaur fossils. Ned Chapman works on his father’s ranch and dreams of finding a dinosaur skeleton himself. When a violent storm washes out some old bones in the fields, Ned finds himself thrust right into the world of the bone hunters men so competitive that they will do anything to bring back the best specimen, even cheat each other!

Elaine Marie Alphin and Don Bolognese bring this fascinating slice of American history to life.

Vacuum Cleaners

Discusses the history and technical development of the vacuum cleaner, from the first carpet sweepers of the nineteenth century to twentieth century improvements.

Irons

Discusses the history and development of Irons, including a brief description of how the electric steam iron works, and surveys the role of Irons in popular culture.

Davy Crockett

Describes the life and accomplishments of David Crockett, the famous frontier settler, congressman, and defender of the Alamo.

Germ Hunter: A Story About Louis Pasteur

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Growing up in the 1830s, Louis Pasteur saw the horrifying effects of diseases like rabies and tuberculosis. He spent his lifetime searching for answers to his many questions and saved millions of lives with his discoveries.

An Unspeakable Crime

Was an innocent man wrongly accused of murder? On April 26, 1913, thirteen year old Mary Phagan planned to meet friends at a parade in Atlanta, Georgia. But first she stopped at the pencil factory where she worked to pick up her paycheck. Mary never left the building alive. A black watchman found Mary’s body brutally beaten and raped. Police arrested the watchman, but they weren’t satisfied that he was the killer. Then they paid a visit to Leo Frank, the factory’s superintendent, who was both a northerner and a Jew. Spurred on by the media frenzy and prejudices of the time, the detectives made Frank their prime suspect, one whose conviction would soothe the city’s anger over the death of a young white girl. The prosecution of Leo Frank was front page news for two years, and Frank’s lynching is still one of the most controversial incidents of the twentieth century. It marks a turning point in the history of racial and religious hatred in America, leading directly to the founding of the Anti Defamation League and to the rebirth of the modern Ku Klux Klan. Relying on primary source documents and painstaking research, award winning novelist Elaine Alphin tells the true story of justice undone in America.