Robyn's scared of dogs like, really scared. But she agrees to spend her summer working at an animal shelter anyway. (It's a long story.) Robyn soon discovers that many juvenile offenders also volunteer at the shelter--including Nick D'Angelo, a boy from Robyn's past. A boy she hoped to never see again.
Nick has a talent for getting into trouble, but after his latest arrest, Robyn suspects that he just might be innocent. And she sets out to prove it....
STARRED REVIEW
“Michaelis crafts a beautifully written, carefully constructed mystery and love story that will capture the both the reader’s imagination and heart from the first page. The novel weaves a sad and loving spell...this suspenseful, often violent, read will haunt readers long after its final page is turned.”
–Booklist, starred review "The fairy tale is beautifully woven in and out of the contemporary scenes and the characters are well composed.
–School Library Journal Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
“Never be afraid of the darkness,” Daddy always told me. “Darkness is our friend. The shadows protect us.”
In this enthralling vampire novel, V.C. Andrews returns to the story of a beautiful girl desperate to escape her secret family legacy—bred to be a lure for unwitting victims of her father’s blood appetites. Determined to break free and embrace a life outside the shadows, Lorelei runs away from the only world she’s ever known. In a quiet rooming house, she finds refuge among the tenants of elderly Mrs. Winston, and the beginnings of a new love with Liam, her landlady’s handsome grandnephew. But Lorelei soon discovers that burying her past is not so easy: sinister nightmares torment her, and even her waking hours are plagued with the fear that at any moment, Daddy could destroy all she holds dear. Can a child of darkness ever truly feel safe in the light?
This seductive sequel to V.C. Andrews’s Daughter of Darkness will hold readers captive in its irresistible spell.
I'm not the only miracle. There's Odd too.
Polly Furnas had The Plan for the future. Get married to Bridger Morgan, for one. College, career, babies. Etc. All the important choices were made.
It was all happily-ever-after as a diamond-ring commercial.
But The Plan did not include a lethal drug-resistant infection. It did not include 'some more reconstruction and scar revision in the future.' And it certainly did not include Odd Estes, a trip to Portland in an ancient Cadillac to 'tear Bridger a new one,' fly fishing, marshmallows, Crisco, or a loaded gun.
But plans change. Stories get revised and new choices must be made.
Polly and Odd have choices: Survival or not. Catch or release.
Fighting to survive in a ravaged world, a Dweller and a Savage form an unlikely alliance in New York Times bestselling author Veronica Rossi's "unforgettable dystopian masterpiece" (Examiner.com).
Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland—known as The Death Shop—are slim. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He's wild—a savage—and her only hope of staying alive. A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile—everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria's help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption.
In alternating chapters told in Aria's and Perry's voices, Under the Never Sky subtly and powerfully captures the evolving relationship between these characters and sweeps readers away to a harsh but often beautiful world. Continuing with Through the Ever Night and concluding with Into the Still Blue, the Under the Never Sky trilogy has already been embraced by readers in twenty-six countries and been optioned for film by Warner Bros.
Supports the Common Core State Standards
John Carter first appeared in 1912 in the pages of The All-Story magazine and immediately entered the dream-life of American readers young and old. He was Edgar Rice Burroughs’s favorite among his many creations and remains a favorite of lovers of science fiction and fantasy everywhere. On the occasion of John Carter’s centenary, The Library of America invites readers to rediscover A Princess of Mars, the adventure-pulp classic that gave the world its first great interplanetary romance.
At the heart of The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel is the ancient book, The Codex, the Book of Abraham. The story begins with the theft of the pages from the book and, as the story progresses, it becomes clear that not only have the Flamels and Doctor John Dee fought over the book for centuries, but that the entire adventure really began centuries ago, when Nicholas bought the book from a mysterious one-handed stranger.
Fantasy fiction is filled with magical books and scrolls, most famously, The Necronomicon in the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The extraordinary and shamefully neglected Clark Ashton Smith created The Book of Eibon, while Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan, used the Unaussprechlichen Kulten when he wrote about the Cthulhu Mythos. These are all fictional books--but the Book of Abraham is different. It really existed.
Like everyone else in the series (with the exception of the twins), Nicholas Flamel was a real man and we know quite a bit about him. He was a poor bookseller and a scrivener. He would have bought and sold manuscripts and also made a little extra money writing letters for people who could neither read nor write. In his own diaries, he tells how he bought a 21-page metal-bound book from a mysterious stranger. We even know the price he paid for the book: two florens, and Nicholas leave us a very clear description of it. "It was not made of paper or parchment, as other books are, but of admirable rinds (as it seemed to me) of young trees."
Nicholas goes on to give a very detailed description of each page. The book was written in a language he could not understand, so he and Perenelle, his wife, set out on a journey across Europe looking for someone who could help them translate the mysterious text. According to Flamel's own account, in the south of Spain he met a man called Master Canches who helped him begin the process of translation. Canches explained that this book contained the secret of alchemy and that if Nicholas and Perenelle were prepared to spend the rest of their lives studying it, then it would reveal wonders to them.
What is clear is that by the time the poor bookseller and his wife returned to Paris, they had become phenomenally wealthy. The Flamels put their money to good use and established churches, hospitals and schools and were so well known and beloved in Paris that there are streets named after them both. The streets exist to this day.
The original of the Book of Abraham is now missing--Cardinal Richelieu is supposed to have had a copy, and in the Flamel's will there is a suggestion that it passed to a nephew, but Nicholas made copies, and these still exist.
Legend has it that The Codex was a book of alchemical formulae--a sort of chemistry text book. And of course it reputedly contained the great secret of alchemy: how to create a lapis philosophorum--a philosopher's stone (which was more of a white or red powder or sometimes a purple glass, rather than a stone). This powder could turn ordinary metal into gold and help to prolong life, making the alchemist virtually immortal.
Did it make the Flamels immortal? Shortly after they died, their graves were opened by grave robbers looking for jewels and fine clothes. The graves were empty. And of course, there are reports of the Flamels appearing all across Europe for many years after their deaths.
I spent many years working as a dealer in rare and antique books--and I loved the idea of not only making a bookseller the hero of a story, but making the story about an antique book. And, before you ask: no, I do not have The Codex.
Monsters. Bloodsuckers. The evil. The damned. Eryn McCain knows they exist-she's been hunting them since she was a child. At sixteen, she's ready to take on all comers. Being a shapeshifter gives her an advantage when it comes to her unusual part-time job. The hours suck and the pay is, well, non-existent, but bonuses like inhuman strength and night vision make tracking scary beasties a dream come true. Especially in a town like Redgrave.
When an ancient demon targets Redgrave High, Eryn and her crew of hunters must face their innermost fears to prevent the Harvest Moon Dance from becoming one serious Monster Mash. Loyalties are tested and temptations abound. With questions ever brewing, can Eryn share a future with the brooding, noble, human Alec-the hunter after her heart? Or will she succumb to her enemy's son, Wade, a seductive predator as bloodthirsty as she is?
What happens when you're both the beauty and the beast?
Kelly Milner Halls is the author of nonfiction books and articles for young readers on a variety of quirky topics, including In Search of Sasquatch. Chris Crutcher is the award-winning author of several young adult novels, including Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes and Whale Talk. They recently had a conversation about collaborating on a pair of linked stories for Kelly Milner Halls' Girl Meets Boy, a he-said/she-said anthology of collaborative short stories.
Kelly Milner Halls on Girl Meets Boy: Creating Girl Meets Boy, a he-said, she-said anthology for Chronicle books was a new challenge for me because I am best known for creating high interest nonfiction. But picking the writers I wanted for my YA project was a no brainer. I wanted the writers about whom I’d written and I wanted the best. My friend Chris Crutcher is the best of the best, and he was my partner in our interactive story pairing. So I caught up with him to ask a few questions about writing for Girl Meets Boy, as well as a few questions about his upcoming Fall 2012 release, Period 8.
Kelly Milner Halls: How did you feel about contributing to Girl Meets Boy --the concept of two authors exploring the same plot points from two different points of view?
Chris Crutcher: It's a very interesting idea, and novel. Perspective is always an author's friend, and the idea that perspective alone can create two different stories from one point of view is intriguing.
Milner Halls: You created the lead story for the pair of stories we wrote together. Were John Smith and Wanda Wickham characters you created just for Girl Meets Boy or were they rooted in other creative projects?
Crutcher: They were created for Girl Meets Boy. I'm sure I've used pieces of their personalties elsewhere, but they were specific to this anthology.
Milner Halls: Have you ever considered writing a book from alternating points of view as Joyce Carol Oates did in Big Mouth & Ugly Girl?
Crutcher: I haven't read that particular book. Angry Management contains a novella that tells the story from three different perspectives. It's not all that hard to do.
Milner Halls: Girl Meets Boy is often controversial in the topics it examines including sexual abuse, homosexuality, transgenderism and inter-racial relationships. Is there emotional value in fictionalizing realistic life issues?
Crutcher: I'm sure there is, but the emotional value of any story comes from the reader.
Milner Halls: Which is more difficult, writing a full-length novel or writing a short story for an anthology like Girl Meets Boy?
Crutcher: It's probably a toss-up. Short story is easier from a plot point of view because usually it's about a single thing and there's not room for great complexity like there is in a novel. But short story requires word economy and straightforwardness to a degree that a novel might not. Writing Short Story is a great way to train for writing longer material.
Milner Halls: What can you tell us about your new novel, Period 8?
Crutcher: I can tell you to read it.
Milner Halls: Period 8 is highly suspenseful, in the tradition of Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. Was it fun to write such a gripping page turner?
Crutcher: It's more in the tradition of The Deep End. Writing is seldom "fun" for me. It's interesting and intriguing and challenging. When I write taut suspense I rely a lot on good editing. My editor at HarperCollins (Greenwillow) is excellent at knowing when I drift, and she's quick to let me know.
Milner Halls: Your friend Charlie Price is now a critically acclaimed, Edgar Award winning mystery writer. Did he have any influence on the development of Period 8?
Crutcher: Only in that he read an early on and we talked about the structure of mystery and suspense. Charlie is a master of structure.
Milner Halls: It's premature to ask, especially considering Period 8 is a Fall 2012 release, but are you working on anything else?
Crutcher: I'm working on my next novel (though it's on hold until I put the finishing touches on Period 8).
Milner Halls: Is it possible you'll contribute to another anthology for me in the future?
Crutcher: I'm not big on writing for anthologies, partly because I have a harder time writing when someone else comes up with the focus of the stories, but I certainly wouldn't rule it out if you comes up with another great idea. A lot of my willingness to write for anthologies comes from timing. If I'm working on something and I'm behind, which I almost always am, there is little chance. But if I do have time and the subject is interesting to me, I can be talked into it.
Most cupids have soft straight hair, rosy cheeks, and silky white wings. Not Willa Bean! She has a crazy mess of hair, a million-bajillion freckles, and bright purple wings with silver tips. And lately those bright purple wings with silver tips have been giving Willa Bean an awful lot of problems. They won't fly! Cupid Academy is starting soon, and what if she's the only cloudbound cupid there? Nope, nope, nopeity, nope. Willa Bean just has to make her wings behave!
Willa Bean is all wiggly with excitement. Her best friend Harper is coming for a sleepover! Willa Bean wants to make Snoogy Bars and play tricks on her big sister. But Harper has a different idea. She wants to go for a night flight. Willa Bean is not okay with that. Why? Willa Bean is scared of two things . . . flying up high . . . and the dark!