He had no name, and no one to love him. He has only the silent, empty countryside, and a few crumbs and bare bones he could pick up. He had only himself, and he was afraid. Along the way, the little dog found a few friends, people who gave him shelter for a while, but always he moved on -- until he found a place he could call home forever.

    Eight stories based on traditional Jewish themes from Eastern Europe include: Shrewd Todie & Lyzer the Miser; Tsirtsur & Peziza; Rabbi Leib & the Witch Cunegunde; The Elders of Chelm & Genendel's Key; Shlemiel, the Businessman; Utzel & His Daughter Poverty; Menaseh's Dream; When Shlemiel went to War

    A family mystery is unraveled by a boy and girl visiting their uncle one summer.

    They tell about clever people and stupid people, about good ones and bad ones, about how things and animals got to be how they are. Some stories in this book will make you think. Some will make you laugh. All of them are retold with folk spirit full of generosity and vitality.Africa is many things --Cow-tail switch --Kaddo's wall --Talk --One you don't see coming --Kassa, the strong one --Anansi's fishing expedition --Younde goes to town --Singing tortoise --Time --Messenger to Maftam --Guinea fowl and rabbit get justice --Anansi and Nothing go hunting for wives --How Soko brought debt to Ashanti --Hungry spider and the turtle --Throw mountains --Ansige Karamba, the glutton --Don't shake hands with everybody

    But at the revival meeting, Pete discovers that the Man is actually a savior of souls, and Pete has been waiting all his life to be saved.It's not something Pete's parents can understand. Certainly his best friend, Rufus, an avowed atheist, doesn't understand. But Pete knows he can't imagine life without the Man. So when the Man invites Pete to join him on his mission, how can Pete say no -- even if it means leaving behind everything he's ever loved?

    Nothing suits her better than sailing and helping her father with the farm. But when her dreaded sisters-in-law suggest that Thankful get some proper schooling on the mainland, the wind is knocked from her sails.Thankful finds the uncharted waters of school difficult to navigate: there's a rocky reception from her rich roommate, Selina; the breezy behavior of the charming Robert; and stormy Mr. Fletcher, the handsome Latin teacher whose caustic tongue masks a tender heart. And while Thankful works hard to make the best of her new life, Bright Island continues to flash in her thoughts, like the sparkle of the sun on the water.Mabel Robinson's delightful coming-of-age story won a Newbery Honor in 1938 and garnered extraordinary praise from critics and readers alike. The New York Times raved, "One would be hard put to it to find a better contemporary novel than this," and now this evocative tale can be welcomed by a new generation of readers.

    You would be too if your family consisted of: Sister Figg Newton (Tap Dancer, Baton Twirler, and also your mother); Truman, the human pretzel (your uncle); Aunt Gracie Jo, the dog catcher, and her son, Fido the Second. To name a few. The only person Mona really gets along with is Uncle Florence, the book dealer. And he keeps hinting that he may have to leave Mona soon to go to Figg family heaven, a place referred to as "Capri." But where is Capri, and why do all the Figgs go there? To find her uncle, Mona knows she must find out.

    A Newbery honor Book.

    "Now we shall go a-Viking," Harald Redbeard announced, and so it was that Jan and Brus, Harald's twin sons, found themselves on the dragon-prowed Raven of the Wind, its striped sails set for England. But storms, ancient enemies of the sea-faring Norsemen, swooped down, and in their wake left disaster. Their mother's ship was lost and the Raven was wrecked on the Isle of Skye, stronghold of the giant Scot, Began Mor. Then Jan and Brus met Gavin, the Black Fox of Lorne, and began the long journey that was to take them across half the wild land of Scotland, in search of their mother and their father's murderer. The story is like a panorama of 10th century Scotland. Loyal clansmen at war with marauding Picts and invading Englishmen; staunch crofters and kindly shepherds; arrogant, powerful lairds - and among them the young Norsemen, practicing the clever deception that saved their lives. For no one in this strange land knew that there were two boys, identical in appearance, and by the time the secret was revealed, it had served its purpose, and the long quest was ended.

    She worries about whether her family understands her, whether her friends like her, and whether she'll get her first kiss before she turns sixteen. And she worries about whether she can handle having a real boyfriend if he does come along.But it takes a dying old man -- her grandfather -- who has never been easy for anyone to handle, to show Rachel she has very special abilities. With love and compassion, she reaches the heart of an old tyrant who has always been unreachable. And in so doing, she comes to a better understanding of her family, her friends, and herself.

    There's just not enough not enough money, not enough food, not enough fish for her daddy to sell at the market. Hard times have come to the forest, but Calpurnia wants to turn them back into soft times. With her little dog Buggy Horse and a tip from old Mother Albirtha, the wisest person in the forest, Calpurnia finds a secret river and uses the pink paper roses from her hair to catch enough beautiful catfish to feed the whole swamp land with some left over for Daddy to sell. When she tries to find the river again the next day, Mother Albirtha tells her, sometimes a thing happens once, and does not ever happen anymore. You caught catfish when catfish were needed; you will not find the river again. This story by the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Yearling and literary icon Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is about living in a time of want, yet it is overflowing with riches&, stunning language, mystical happenings, wondrous, wondrous artwork. Beautiful in all ways that a book can be beautiful, this unforgettable picture book is a classic in the making.

    Keep your face to the sunset . . . and one day you'll ride the greatest wheel in all the world." When Aunt Honora reads this fortune in his tea leaves, Conn Kilroy knows he is destined for greater things than his small Irish village can offer. A letter from his uncle Michael in America offering Conn a partnership in his New York contracting company sets Conn on his western adventure. Just a few short months later Conn's Uncle Patrick lures him even farther west to Chicago, where they join the hardworking crew building what some called Ferris's Folly—the first Ferris wheel—then the largest wheel in the world and the showpiece of Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

    Almost nowhere in fiction is there a stranger, dearer, or funnier family -- and the life that the members of The Animal Family live together, there in the wilderness beside the sea, is as extraordinary and as enchanting as the family itself.

    Without ever leaving the world of a Cheyenne tribe in the 1830s, she creates a youthful protagonist many readers will recognize in themselves. Young Elk is expected to be a warrior, but killing even an enemy sickens him. He would rather catch and tame the mustangs that run in herds. Sandoz makes it clear that his determination to be a horsecatcher will require a moral and physical courage equal to that of any warrior. And if he must earn the right to live as he wishes, he must also draw closer to family and community.

    "What a way to spend a summer," Johnny thought disgustedy. That was before he discovered a pistol hidden in a loaf of bread ... and got on the trail of a fugitive Nazi spy and a stolen fortune!