Firefly. Cricket. Vole. Peter. Can four creatures from four very different Nations help one another find their ways in a world that can feel oh-so-big? Delve into this “wise and lovely reading adventure” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) in the tradition of Charlotte’s Web and The Rats of NIMH, from the author of the New York Times bestselling Someday.“Firefly Hollow will set your heart aglow” (ALA Booklist, starred review). Firefly doesn’t merely want to fly, she wants to touch the moon. Cricket doesn’t merely want to sing about baseball, he wants to catch. When these two little creatures with big dreams wander out of Firefly Hollow, refusing to listen to their elders, they find themselves face-to-face with the one creature they were always told to stay away from…a giant. But Peter is a Miniature Giant. They’ve always been told that a Miniature Giant is nothing but a Future Giant, but this one just isn’t quite as big or as scary as the other Giants. Peter has a dream of his own, as well as memories to escape. He is overwhelmed with sadness, and a summer with his new unlikely friends Firefly and Cricket might be just what he needs. Can these friends’ dreams help them overcome the past? Firefly Hollow is nothing short of enchanting, reminding us all that the very best friend is the one who encourages you to achieve your dreams. Full-color tip-in illustrations and dozens of black-and-white drawings provide added glow.

Hunting—the predator and its prey—is at the heart of this riveting and suspenseful novel from Newbery Medalist Avi with illustrations from Caldecott Medalist Brian Floca.In the computer game world of Bow Hunter—thirteen-year-old Casey’s world—there are no deaths, just kills. In Nashoba’s world—the wolf world—there have been no kills. For this is March, the Starving Time in the Iron Mountain region of Colorado, when wolves and ravens alike are desperate for food. With the help of a raven, the miraculous Merla, Nashoba must lead his pack of eight to their next meal. The wolf hates being dependent on a mere bird, but Merla is a bird wise beyond her years. When Casey’s path crosses Nashoba’s, the worlds of two very different hunters collide.

When her revenge plan goes awry, fourteen-year-old Dani Burkhart finds herself in unexpected places: the back seat of a cop car, the police station holding room, Juvenile Court. She wants her old life, the one with a family that's not falling apart. She wants to stay in her home with the woods in back, and keep her carefree dog with the windshield wiper tail, and hear her big brother shout "Sweet D-Dawg!" when her curveball dips like a sparrow.Dani has always believed her grandmother's philosophy: Right will win. Now everything is wrong. So why not punish the rotten neighbor who's to blame - who pulled the string that started everything unraveling? Makes sense - unless there's more to the story than Dani wants to admit.FAULT LINES traces Dani's journey through the rubble of loss to the path she finds back home, to forgiveness and hope.

Antale (pronounced An-tal-ee) is an allegory. Written in the tradition of Animal Farm, though with no political message, it explores humanity's challenge at the start of the 21st century to find the collective spiritual enlightenment that has eluded us through the millennia of known history. Antale is the world of the ants. It is a delicate, precious place-a crater world surrounded by the vastness of the Rim, an endless expanse of desolate rock across which faint signals of intelligence reach in tantalizing, mysterious wavelengths, detectable by listeners on Mount Opportunity. Antale is not a peaceful world, though several leaders of its major colonies have dedicated their lives to creating a peaceful federation. These efforts fall apart when aggression and treachery spearheaded by the Red Ants plunge the whole world into a Great War. This conflict rages through most of the first year of the three year period covered by the story. In the second year, when wisdom should have grown out of experience, an uneasy tension envelops the collective consciousness. Technology and expansionism begin to push the ant civilization to its limits. A probe sent across the Rim looking for guidance from beyond the known world, is lost. The one dim light of hope lies in a bold attempt to raise a new generation filled with a new consciousness, born in the whisperings of the universal life force carried through the biology of the Queens in the great brood chambers of the nests. In Year 3, the world of Antale is pushed to the brink of collapse as social folly and natural order exact an unremitting toll. A message from beyond the Rim confirms that consciousness alone contains the life force of the future. This message arrives just in time to strengthen the fledgling spiritual renaissance that steps forward at the end into its rightful place, and allows the crumbling leadership of the old order to find new light. Commentary It might well be asked: Why write an allegory using the social systems of ants to illuminate the human condition? The answer is that it sheds a light with greater resolution, in much the same way as a halogen lamp provides clearer illumination than its incandescent counterpart. Judiciously used, the allegorical format gives greater freedom to the writer-and reader-to see and understand life at a deeper level than the analytical, deeper even than the traditional conventions of literary fiction permit. Why ants? Because their social behaviour so much parallels our own. One need take only a very little license to achieve a telling effect. Beyond its carefully measured message, Antale is a crackling good story, moving along swiftly through tension filled events created by the highs and lows of characters whose predispositions to greatness and folly are readily recognizable. In this one short text the remarkable events of the century just ended, and the great potential of the one now beginning, come alive in a way as fresh as only human imagination can make them.