The Puppeteer's Apprentice - Tapa dura

Taking her destiny into her own hands and escaping a life of drudgery, Mouse, a young orphan and scullery maid, decides to be a puppeteer's apprentice, but she soon discovers that the puppeteer is hiding some dark secrets that could destroy her dream, in a rousing medieval adventure.

D. Anne Love is the author of six previous novels for young readers, including My Lone Star Summer, which won the 1996 Friends of American Writers Prize for Juvenile Fiction, and, most recently, A Year Without Rain. A former journalist and educator, she now divides her time between writing and conducting the extensive research that informs her work. A native of Tennessee, Ms. Love was reared and educated in Texas. She shares a home in San Diego, California, with her husband and a book-loving golden retriever.