Florence, Italy, 1944: The city is under heavy Nazi occupation, but for thirteen-year-old Paolo, war is a long and boring wait. Too young to fight for the resistance, yet desperate for action and adventure, he sneaks out each night to ride his bicycle along the darkened city streets. For Paolo, the risk is thrilling. But when he is accosted by Partisans - covert members of the anti-Nazi movement - thrilling quickly becomes dangerous as Paolo and his family are thrust into a terrifying and impossible situation. Finally at the center of the action, Paolo must figure out once and for all whether he has what it takes to truly be a hero.
A six-year-old boy goes to spend the summer with his grandmother Alida in a small Minnesota town. With the men all gone off to fight, the women are left to run the farms. There's plenty for the boy to do - trying to help with the chores; getting to know the dog and the horses, cows, pigs, and chickens. But when his cousin Kristina goes into labor, he can't do a thing. Instead, the house fills with women come to help and to wait, and to work on the quilt together. This is no common, everyday quilt, but one that contains all the stories of the boy's family. And as they wait, and work, the women share these stories with the boy. In this spare, affecting novel, ordinary life and ordinary things take on a new meaning, and the bond between a boy and his grandmother shines through.
When eleven-year-old Annie first started lying to her social worker, she had been taught by an expert: Gran. "If you're going to do something, make sure you do it with excellence," Gran would say. That was when Gran was feeling talkative, and not brooding for days in her room - as she did after telling Annie and her little brother, Rew, the one thing they know about their father: that he was killed in a fight with an angry man who was sent away. Annie and Rew spend their days under the birches and oaks of the Zebra Forest, telling stories about their father the pirate, or pilot, or secret agent. But then something shocking happens to unravel all their stories: a rattling at the back door, an escapee from the prison holding them hostage in their own home, four lives that will never be the same. This deeply compelling, emotionally evocative, and grippingly suspenseful look at the complicated fallout from long-held family secrets is at once impossible to put down and impossible to forget.
The Pony Scouts are becoming better at riding with every lesson. But just when they think they've seen it all, a new horse arrives on Jill's farm-one who hasn't been ridden before! Taffy is a beautiful palomino pony that needs Jill's help. With a little patience and a lot of love, Jill and the Pony Scouts will make Taffy a member of the family.
This is the seventh title in the Pony Scouts I Can Read series, making learning to read a galloping good time.
Things aren't looking good for fourteen-year-old Mehrigul. She yearns to be in school, but she's needed on the family farm. The longer she's out of school, the more likely it is that she'll be sent off to a Chinese factory . . . perhaps never to return. Her only hope is an American woman who buys one of her decorative vine baskets for a staggering sum and says she will return in three weeks for more. Mehrigul must brave terrible storms, torn-up hands from working the fields, and her father's scorn to get the baskets done. The stakes are high, and time is passing.
A powerful intergenerational story of a strong, creative young artist in a cruelly oppressive society.
A brave girl flees a ghoul while trying to save her town in this lively, fast-paced companion to National Book Award winner Goblin Secrets.
Kaile lives in Zombay, an astonishing city where goblins walk the streets and witches work their charms and curses. Kaile wants to be a musician and is delighted when a goblin gives her a flute carved out of bone. But the flute's single, mournful song has a dangerous consequence: It separates Kaile and her shadow. Anyone without a shadow is considered dead, and despite Kaile's protests that she's alive and breathing, her family forces her to leave so she can't haunt their home.
Kaile and her shadow soon learn that the troublesome flute is tied to a terrifying ghoul made from the bones of those who drowned in the Zombay River. With the ghoul chasing her and the river threatening to flood, Kaile has an important role to play in keeping Zombay safe. Will Kaile and her shadow be able to learn the right tune in time?
Set in the delightful and dangerous world of Goblin Secrets, Ghoulish Song is a gripping adventure laced with humor and mystery from National Book Award-winning author William Alexander.
At college in New York City, Janie Johnson, aka Jennie Spring, seems to have successfully left behind her past as "The face on the milk carton," but soon she, her families, and friends are pursued by a true-crime writer who wants their help in telling her kidnapper's tale.
Inner beauty wants out. Eighteen-year-old Becky Randle is an ordinary girl who receives an impossible offer. She meets Tom Kelly, the world's top designer, and he promises to create three dresses to transform her from a nothing-special girl into the Most Beautiful Woman Who Ever Lived. Becky thinks Tom is a lunatic, or that he's producing a hidden camera show called Worl'd Most Gullible Poor People. But she accepts, and she's remade as Rebecca. When Becky looks in the mirror, she sees herself - an awkward mess of split ends and cankles. But when anyone else looks at Becky, they see pure five-alarm hotness. Soon Rebecca is on the cover of Vogue and the new Hollywood darling. She then meets Prince Gregory, heir to the British throne, and everything starts to crumble. Because Rebecca aside, Becky loves him. But to love her back, Gregory would have to look past the blinding Rebecca to see the real girl inside. And for that, there's not enough magic in the world. A screamingly defiant, hugely naughty, and impossibly fun free fall past catwalks, red carpets, and even the halls of Bucking-ham Palace, Gorgeous does the imposssible: It makes you see yourself clearly for the first time. Advisory: Contains strong language.
Life at Deacon Smith's Home for Waifs would be completely dreary if it weren't for Possum's best friend, Billy, who "thinks up lies faster than he can talk" and provides plenty of excitement for the other boys. When Billy hears that gold is hidden in the mountains-"Great big chunks of it, some of 'em big as your fist"-he plans to escape, taking Possum with him. The two runaways embark on a journey in search of their dream-the gold that will lead to a better life. To earn enough money for their adventure, they join Professor Alberto Santini, "savant of the healing arts," and his road show. The professor teaches the boys how "spieling" can make a buck, but it's only the professor who seems to be earning any money. Just as Possum and Billy realize that they've been conned, they get tangled up in a murder. The boys try to keep ahead of the law as they continue their search for gold, but their friendship becomes strained as Possum begins to feel more and more different from Billy. Is the boys' friendship strong enough to carry them through to the end of their journey?
"A small gem from an award-winning author...The book's momentum is sustained by the author's wonderful use of vernacular and the friendship / tension between the boys."-School Library Journal
Welcome to the wasteland
At fifteen,
the citizens of Prin marry.
At seventeen,
they reproduce.
And at nineteen,
they die.
Esther thinks there's more to life than toiling at the assignments-Harvesting, Gleaning, Excavating-day after day under the relentless sun, just hoping to make it to the next day.
She doesn't care that her best friend, a variant, is considered "the enemy." She doesn't care that Levi, who controls the Source, is the real enemy and might send his Taser boys after her if she makes one wrong move.
Then Caleb shows up. Could there be another way to fight for survival?
They are four different people with four separate lives: Sue, a young woman distanced from her native roots; David, a traveler in search of a dream; Laura, a student seeking her parents' understanding; and Peter, a rock star struggling to create the perfect sound. One looming fate threatens them all. And everything they love may be taken away in one fleeting second....
