After her father's slow death from cancer, Carlie thought things couldn't get worse. But now, she is forced to confront the fact that her family in dire financial straits. To stay afloat, her mom has had to sell their cherished oceanfront home and move Carlie and her younger brother Keith to the other side of the tracks to dreaded Las Pulgas, or "the fleas" in Spanish. They must now attend a tough urban high school instead of their former elite school, and on Carlie's first day of school, she runs afoul of edgy K.T., the Latina tattoo girl who's always ready for a fight, even on crutches. Carlie fends off the attention of Latino and African American teen boys, and one, a handsome seventeen-year-old named Juan, nicknames her Princess when he detects her aloof attitude towards her new classmates. What they don't know is that Carlie isn't really aloof; she's just in mourning for her father and almost everything else that mattered to her. Mr. Smith, the revered English teacher who engages all his students, suggests she'll like her new classmates if she just gives them a chance; he cajoles her into taking over the role of Desdemona in the junior class production of Othello, opposite Juan, after K.T. gets sidelined. Keith, who becomes angrier and more sullen by the day, spray paints insults all over the gym as he acts out his anger over the family's situation and reduced circumstances. Even their cat Quicken goes missing, sending Carlie and Keith on a search into the orchard next to their seedy garden apartment complex. They're met by a cowboy toting a rifle who ejects them at gunpoint from his property. But when Carlie finds him amiably having coffee with their mom the next day -- when he's returned her cat -- she begins to realize that nothing is what it seems in Las Pulgas.

Christopher Paolini's world of Alagaësia is a magical land, full of mysterious people, objects, and places-one that has captivated millions of fans across the globe. Now, with the Inheritance Fan Book, those fans have a resource in the form of an A-to-Z almanac, where they can find everything they ever wanted to know about this fascinating world.  From Arya to Zar'roc, this is an exhaustive encyclopedia about the land of the Inheritance cycle that also offers little-known facts gleaned from dozens of interviews with Christopher Paolini. Did you know . . .-that Helgrind, the den of the Raz'ac, is based on a real rock formation?-that Saphira's blue-tinted vision was inspired by Paolini's own color blindness?-that the Broddrings are the original humans who traveled to Alagaësia with King Palancar? A must-have book for every Inheritance fan!From the Trade Paperback edition.

Three tales of wonderThree quests for greatnessThree feats of imagination Norton Juster, author of the beloved classic The Phantom Tollbooth, shares spellbinding stories that entertain and delight.  The first is of Alberic and his endless search for wisdom—will his journey satisfy him in the end? The second reveals a boy with no illusions and a princess with no kingdom. The third is the tale of the richest monarch in the world—and the poorest. What they discover is as amusing as it is unexpected.With beautiful illustrations by Domenico Gnoli, Alberic the Wise and Other Journeys is a book as rich in meaning as it is fun to read.

Carmen Navarro rings up customers at the Quikmart, bored to tears. It’s a job, and she needs it. But Carmen’s true love is music: she dropped out of high school to sing with the Gypsy Lovers and land a recording contract, someday. Just a few miles away, Ryan Sweeney hunches over his books, a studious cadet with his eye on West Point. There’s not a single girl at the Valley Forge Military Academy, and that’s fine by him. But when Ryan, on a day pass from campus, spots Carmen, with her shining black hair and snake tattoo, his pulse quickens. Carmen, who normally rolls her eyes at the stiff Academy soldados, can tell this one is different. She slips him a note: “Come hear my band.” A romance begins, unlikely, passionate . . . and quickly imbalanced. In an enthralling narrative of obsessive love, the novel builds to a stunning close.Inspired by the novella and opera Carmen, Jen Bryant creates a strong-minded and alluring heroine in this contemporary tale of tragic love.