City of Thirst

New York Times bestselling author Carrie Ryan and John Parke Davis transport readers back to the boundless world of the Pirate Stream in this engaging and exhilarating sequel to the highly acclaimed The Map to Everywhere that is equal parts adventure, humor, and heart! When the magical waters of the Pirate Stream begin flooding Marrill's world, the only way to stop the destruction is to return to the Stream and find the source of the mysterious Iron Tide. Reunited with her best friend Fin--who has been forgotten all over again--Marrill, her disbelieving babysitter, and the Enterprising Kraken crew must make the treacherous trek to the towering, sliding, impossible world of Monerva and uncover the secrets of its long-lost wish machine. Only there can Fin wish to finally be remembered. Only there can Marrill wish to save her world and all the people she loves. But to get everything they've ever wanted, Marrill and Fin may have to give up on the most important thing they already have: each other.
Views: 735

The Black Stallion Legend

Alec Ramsey has fled Hopeful Farm in order to alleviate his grief over Pam’s sudden death. He and the Black are aimlessly wandering through the Arizona desert when they hear an amazing Native American legend: The end of the world is near, but help is promised from a rider on a black horse. Alec shrugs off the wild tale–until disaster strikes from the sky. Suddenly the fate of an entire native tribe is in his hands . . . and the mighty Black is faced with a challenge greater than any race! From the Trade Paperback edition.
Views: 733

Papilionaceous

***Updated version***A chance encounter reunites two people who have never met. Papilionaceous is a story about being trapped in a life you don't want and the hope of escaping into something better.A chance encounter reunites two people who have never met. Papilionaceous is a story about being trapped in a life you don't want and the hope of escaping into something better.I hope everybody enjoys this short story! Please rate and review. Also, visit my blog about this journey I'm taking to being published. Thanks! https://munboy.com/Special thanks to Sahara Foley for pointing out the fact that I rushed to get this short story up, failing to take the proper time to make sure it was properly edited. Hopefully I have all the mistakes fixed.
Views: 731

Maskerade

Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, the Discworld's greatest witches, are back for an innocent night at the opera. Naturally there's going to be trouble, but at the same time there'll be a good evening's entertainment with murders that you can really hum to. The Ghost in the bone-white mask who haunts the Ankh-Morpork Opera House was always considered a benign presence—some would even say lucky—until he started killing people. The sudden rash of bizarre backstage deaths now threatens to mar the operatic debut of country girl Perdita X. (nee Agnes) Nitt, she of the ample body and ampler voice.Perdita's expected to hide in the chorus and sing arias out loud while a more petitely presentable soprano mouths the notes. But at least it's an escape from scheming Nanny Ogg and old Granny Weatherwax back home, who want her to join their witchy ranks. Once Granny sets her mind on something, however, it's difficult—and often hazardous—to dissuade her. And no opera-prowling phantom fiend is going to keep a pair of determined hags down on the farm after they've seen Ankh-Morpork.
Views: 730

A Terrible Price

The story continues...An eagle and an angry grizzly bear. Can they work together to help an injured boy who once saved them?The myth continues with a lonely eagle and a soulful boy. Reunited, but unable to help one another. Only the surly grizzly can help the boy become a hunter. But will he?A middle grade short story.A sequel to The Boy Who Flew With Eagles.
Views: 730

Puck of Pook's Hill

When Dan and Una stage a performance of A Midsummer Night\'s Dream in a fairy ring, they are astonished by the appearance of Puck in person. He explains that he is the last of the People of the Hills, who started as gods before descending into this world. Puck leads the two children in a series of extraordinary historical adventures in which they meet, Romans and Crusaders, Saxons and Vikings. Kipling\'s charming songs and verses, including the famous Smuggler\'s Song are placed between each thrilling story. The book is beautifully illustrated by H.R. Millar.
Views: 727

Sanity is Boring

This debut collection of poems and prose presents an eclectic view of a literary career in its infancy. Drawing on the universal consciousness of love, hate, insanity and the Reader's Digest, everyone will be able to find something of value in these pages. Read the customer reviews to see what others have said!Poetry may inspire directly, or it may do so by first challenging the reader. These two poems, "Why a Hermit?" and "The Truth-Tellers" don't, in any obvious way, point the way out of predicaments. Instead, they draw attention to what is wrong with the picture of society.Whether it's the American, Canadian, English, Australian Dream, or any of a variety of other national dreams, competition clearly becomes negative and overall destructive when democratic government itself is subverted for the sake of connected individuals' personal gain. That is the backdrop to these two poems. What occurs in each is testimony to the frailty of social fabrics, and the very real consequences of a society poisoned by cruel and negative competitiveness.The ways out are not pointed to; the only purpose of these poems is to make an argument that there are influences on our society that are destroying individuals, and our collective future.No adult-only content.
Views: 727

A Better Way to Stop Pirates

Headstrong Flossy Fairweather knows nothing of Port Isabel when she's captured by pirates and carried off before she can even draw her sword. After years at sea exploring with her parents, imagine her surprise when she's rescued by talking animals who think humans have been extinct for a thousand years. And the pirates want her back. Or are they after something else altogether?Headstrong Flossy Fairweather knows nothing of Port Isabel when she's captured by pirates in the middle of the night and carried off before she can even draw her sword. After years at sea exploring with her parents, imagine her surprise when she's rescued by talking animals. But the seaside town they come from is panicked by her arrival. Humans, who have a reputation for cruelty and cannibalism, haven’t been seen for a thousand years. And the pirates want her back. Or are they after something else altogether?By the end of the next ice age, all that remains of the once great, world-spanning human civilisation are myths and ancient, inexplicable artefacts lying at the feet of melting glaciers. Thanks to the red-hot Heat Tree reefs that keep the ice at bay, the lands above the Gulf of Mexico are some of the few places still warm enough to support life. On the western shores of the Gulf is Port Isabel, a town conceived and built by owls who mysteriously vanished hundreds of years before. The animals that live there are industrious, peaceful and vegetarian; except for those that aren't, which is where all the trouble starts. Mark is an award winning writer living in Sydney, Australia. His novels, fables and short stories are adored by children and adults alike.
Views: 727

Making Money

The revered international writer--one of the more significant contemporary English satirists (Publishers Weekly)--delivers another brilliantly clever Discworld novel filled with the trademark insight and humor readers the world over have come to expect. Amazingly, former arch-swindler-turned-Postmaster General Moist von Lipwig has somehow managed to get the woefully inefficient Ankh-Morpork Post Office running like . . . well, not like a government office at all. Now the supreme despot Lord Vetinari is asking Moist if he'd like to make some real money. Vetinari wants Moist to resuscitate the venerable Royal Mint—so that perhaps it will no longer cost considerably more than a penny to make a penny.Moist doesn't want the job. However, a request from Ankh-Morpork's current ruling tyrant isn't a "request" per se, more like a "once-in-a-lifetime-offer-you-can-certainly-refuse-if-you-feel-you've-lived-quite-long-enough." So Moist will just have to learn to deal with elderly Royal Bank chairman Topsy (née Turvy) Lavish and her two loaded crossbows, a face-lapping Mint manager, and a chief clerk who's probably a vampire. But he'll soon be making lethal enemies as well as money, especially if he can't figure out where all the gold has gone.
Views: 724

Island of Legends

Uncover adventure and dangerous secrets in book four of the New York Times bestselling Unwanteds series, which Kirkus Reviews called The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter. As Alex grows more confident in his role as the mage of Artime, he expands his skills and brings his first creature to life with results that are both painful and wonderful. A team from Artime heads out to rescue Sky and Crow's mother from underwater Pirate Island and discovers there are more creatures than they ever imagined in the ocean surrounding the islands and not all of them are friendly. Meanwhile in Quill, Aaron faces threats to his leadership as Gondoleery hones her rediscovered magical abilities and Eva and Liam form a secret alliance against him. But Aaron's distracted with a discovery of his own, a hidden jungle that holds a dangerous secret. His time there yields a startling truth about himself, and a potential opportunity to increase his power.
Views: 722

Better Off Friends

For Macallan and Levi, it was friends at first sight. Everyone says guys and girls can’t be just friends, but these two are. They hang out after school, share tons of inside jokes, their families are super close, and Levi even starts dating one of Macallan’s friends. They are platonic and happy that way. Eventually they realize they’re best friends — which wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t keep getting in each other’s way. Guys won’t ask Macallan out because they think she’s with Levi, and Levi spends too much time joking around with Macallan, and maybe not enough time with his date. They can’t help but wonder . . . are they more than friends or are they better off without making it even more complicated?
Views: 721

Roverandom

Wayne G. Hammond (Editor) A classic children's story by the author of The Hobbit Rover should never have bitten the wizard's trousers. His punishment was to be transformed into a toy, and now he is forced to track down the magician so he can be returned to normal. His adventures will take him to the moon and under the sea, introducing him to many fabulous - and dangerous - creatures. Inspired by the loss of his own child's favourite toy, this charming tale was written by J. R. R. Tolkien long before The Hobbit, yet remained unpublished for more than 70 years. This new paperback edition includes a full introduction and detailed notes about the story. This is an old-fashioned story, yet it still speaks freshly today. . . would leap to life when read aloud to a child. - INDEPENDENT Lord of the Rings buffs will enjoy picking out bits of Nordic mythology and will relish Tolkien's fabulous sense of landscape - THE TIMES Cover illustration by J. R. R. Tolkien
Views: 720

Fifty Years in the Doghouse

Fifty years ago, William Michael Ryan joined the staff of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or, as it is affectionately known to its friends, the "Doghouse." Today he is Special Agent No. 1. This frequently touching, often hilarious, and always entertaining book describes Ryan's adventures with animals during this span of half a century -- adventures that have brought him into contact with more than half a million beasts, birds, and reptiles. Among the animals he has met are such improbable characters as the Professor, a simian genius who disrupted New York harbor for weeks; Rosebud, who became the subject of the most hysterical elephant hunt in the history of Yonkers; Mukluk, the Eskimo husky with a fondness for beer; Dushka and Sachka, two giant Russian wolves who terrorized the guests of one of New York's most fashionable hotels. In a city like New York many animals have not yet come to terms without civilization. A cat sometimes mistakes a chimney for a brick-lined mouse hole and gets trapped in it. A horse may find himself unintentionally in somebody's living room. Chimpanzees wake up in roominghouse beds. A bull suddenly materializes in a powder room, a fourteen-foot snake, uninvited, decides to take a bath in a lady's tub, and lions with no other pressing engagements may stroll nonchalantly through Manhattan's streets. These are only a few of the situations with which Bill Ryan has had to cope. This book is not only the warmhearted, amusing account of Bill Ryan's incredible true adventures with animals -- it is also the absorbing story of a unique organization, the oldest and largest humane society in the Western Hemisphere. In telling of Ryan's career with the ASPCA, Lloyd Alexander has written an engaging book that will be thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who loves animals. At the same time, Fifty Years in the Doghouse offers important insights into the relationships between people and their pets. Underlying it is a sense of respect for all living things. As Lloyd Alexander says: "Laws assure animals of protection -- formally, officially, set down in black and white. But in the long run the best protection is the human heart."
Views: 718

Stay Where You Are and Then Leave

The day the First World War broke out, Alfie Summerfield's father promised he wouldn't go away to fight - but he broke that promise the following day. Four years later, Alfie doesn't know where his father might be, other than that he's away on a special, secret mission. Then, while shining shoes at King's Cross Station, Alfie unexpectedly sees his father's name - on a sheaf of papers belonging to a military doctor. Bewildered and confused, Alfie realises his father is in a hospital close by - a hospital treating soldiers with an unusual condition. Alfie is determined to rescue his father from this strange, unnerving place . . .
Views: 717