David Gershwin's summer is about to take a turn for the weird. When his dad's new patient Zelda tells him shes from outer space and on a quest to take Johnny Depp back to her planet, he knows he should run away screaming. But with one look from her mean, green eyes, David's hooked, and soon he's leaping across rooftops, running from police, and stealing cars just to stay by her side. He might not be a typical hero, but David's going to get the girl even if it takes him to the ends of the earthor beyond.

Destiny has big plans for 16-year-old Jenny Martinson. Or maybe it's all a mythtake. Like any typical teen, Jenny has questions about life, fate and destiny. Such as: Why are hideous creatures trying to kill her? Is her father actually a c-list god? Is she really the ruler of a mythical realm - and the prophesied destroyer of its enemies? And finally, how will all of this impact her love life? From the honky tonk shores of Lake George, NY to a fortress at the edge of an alternate universe, Jenny and her two best friends will face the terrors of fantastic creatures, dark magyks, hovering mothers and a clueless guidance counselor. Humor. Adventure. Fantasy. Sarcasm. Welcome to the The War On Destiny: Book One. A young adult novel recommended for ages 13 and up, and fans of humor and fantasy.

“You all believe that losing one-hundred-plus pounds will solve everything, but it won’t. Something far heavier is weighing on you, and until you deal with that, nothing in your lives will be right.” –Betsy Glass, PhD, at first weekly group counseling session for ten severely obese teens admitted into exclusive weight-loss surgery trial Patient #1: Female, age 16, 5'4", 288 lbs.Thrust into size-zero suburban hell by remarried liposuctioned mom. Hates new school and skinny boy-toy stepsister.Body size exceeded only by her big mouth. Patient #2: Male, age 16, 6'2", 335 lbs.All-star football player, but if he gets “girl surgery,” as his dad calls it, he’ll probably get benched.Has moobies—male boobies. Forget about losing his V-card—he’s never even been kissed. Patient #3: Female, age 15, 5'6", 278 lbs.Morbidly obese and morbid, living alone with severely depressed mother who won’t leave her bed.Best and only friend is another patient, whose dark secret threatens everything Patient #3 believes about life. Told in the voices of patients Marcie Mandlebaum, Bobby Konopka, and Annie “East” Itou, Teenage Waistland is a story of betrayal, intervention, a life-altering operation, and how a long-buried truth can prove far more devastating than the layers of fat that protect it.Contains an afterword by Jeffrey L. Zitsman, MD, director of the Center for Adolescent Bariatric Surgery at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital

Ancient names come to rich and fascinating life in this lavishly illustrated gift book for mythology fans and word lovers.Did you know that “museums” were initially temples built to worship the nine muses, the goddesses of the arts? That “Janus” was the god of the doorways and hallways, and we have named our janitors after him?Where did these words — and other words, such as chaos, genius, nemesis, panic, echo, and narcissus — come from? From the ancient stories of the Greeks — stories that rang so true and wise that the names of the characters have survived for centuries as words we use every day. The brief stories here not only impart the subtle wisdom of these ancient tales, but make us understand the words, and our own world, more deeply.