by Robert Westall (1988)
In a small village, Ralph, a young shepherd, discovers a weird pile of stones. By digging into the stones, he discovers a strange "sleeping" creature with ointments and a dangerous weapon buried alongside. Before he knows it, he has awakened a dangerous and terrifying secret.
Julia Riding
Eking out a desperate existence as a renegade with the other Portkids who hide in the old tunnels under a spaceport on Mars, the teenager known as Streak stumbles on clues to the sabotage plaguing the entire solar system.
received and decoded by Jon Scieszka
A transmission received from outer space in a combination of different Earth languages tells of an alien schoolboy's fantastic excuse for being late to school again.
Stel Pavlou
While working in a mine on another planet, Daniel Coldstar finds a powerful relic that may help him escape from the masters who have stolen his memories.
Jack McDevitt
"In the year 2204, tragedy and terror forced a scientific team to prematurely evacuate the rare, life-supporting planet of Maleiva III. Nineteen years later, it is hurtling through space and the opportunity to study it is about to be obliterated. With less than three weeks left before disaster, superluminal pilot Priscilla 'Hutch' Hutchins - the only even remotely qualified professional within light years of the ill-fated planet - must lead a small scientific team to the surface to glean whatever they can about its life forms ad lost civilizations before time runs out. But catastrophe awaits when they are stranded on the strange and complex world of puzzles and impossibilities. And now Hutch and her people must somehow survive a hostile world going rapidly mad, as the clock ticks toward apocalypse for a doomed enigma now called Deepsix."--Back cover.