The nights are dark, the days a stumbling venture from one horror to the next. In one place, William Hill stands in the center of a town where the scattered remains of the dead lie next to the road like litter tossed from passing cars, where the search for the living fails to turn up even one soul. Infected by a parasite destined to steal his mind, hunted by the Chosen, and dogged by a beautiful woman who claims to be an elf, he sometimes wonders if life can get any stranger. Then Daniel offers a glimpse of the coming world, a place where cavorting beasts feast upon the dead, where dragons haunt nearby forests, where the hordes crawl from the ground by the millions and sweep across the earth. The elf says she needs his blood to repair the rift between worlds, to finally put an end to the madness. He doesn't mind donating a little to the cause, but the more he hears, the more he doubts her intentions and the more the ceremony sounds like a full-scale sacrifice. In the end, William discovers that he can count on nothing, not even his sanity.

    

    He makes friends with the ticket seller there, and before long is allowed to roam wherever he wants. Then Eddie nearly dies in a pothole and discovers not only the truth, but life where nobody thought it could be.

    A group of brave young cats sets off in search of a better home… but the dangers of their new world threaten to divide them. They must find a new way to live side by side—or risk tearing one another apart.

    Aegolius Academy. Once there, he must use his wits and bravery to escape his captors. Soren and his new band of orphans fight their way through many dangers, hoping to find refuge with a group of brave owls thought only to be a legend-the Guardians of Ga'Hoole! And so begins a magical journey in this stunning collection of the first three books from the bestselling Guardians of Ga'Hoole series. Together with the Guardians, the band will face a threat more terrible than any the Great Tree has ever encountered before. Soren must seek out the truth about his lost family, and with his friends behind him, become the stuff of legends.

    Now his four most popular stories--Half Magic, Knight's Castle, Magic by the Lake, and The Time Garden--are available in one handsome package. Perfect for gift-giving or for introducing eager new readers to a whole world of wit and magic, these four books should brighten every child's library!

    

    How did he allow the other person to die? How did he help the other person to hang himself to death? He was terribly upset about this. The moment his eyes saw a rope in any form he used to remember everything.........

    . . different from other kids' parents. As Amy explains it, when she was a girl she got to 48 inches tall and then stopped growing right there. It's the perfect height, in Sydney's opinion: big enough to reach the ice cream at the supermarket, but small enough to be special. Anyway, Sydney's big sister Jade is always there to help out with the stuff on the highest shelves. And though Sydney's dad died when she was only five, she's never felt alone or that there isn't enough love to go around. But when they are forced to move to another neighborhood, things get more difficult for their little family. Sydney and Jade have to get used to different routines, make a whole new set of friends, and deal with the bullies at their new school.And then there's the whole business of growing up. But Sydney doesn't want to grow up--not if it means getting taller than her mom.

    It follows the coming-of-age of two children, Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, as they wander through a series of parallel universes against a backdrop of epic events. The three novels have won various awards, most notably The Amber Spyglass, the 2002 Whitbread Book of the Year prize, while the trilogy as a whole took third place in the BBC's Big Read poll in 2003. The story involves fantasy elements such as witches and armoured polar bears, and alludes to a broad range of ideas from fields such as physics, philosophy, theology and spirituality. The trilogy functions in part as a retelling and inversion of John Milton's epic, Paradise Lost; with Pullman commending humanity for what Milton saw as its most tragic failing. The series has drawn criticism from some religious individuals and groups due to its alleged negative portrayal of organized religion. Pullman's publishers have primarily marketed the series to young adults, but Pullman also intended to speak to adults.

    In the heart of the Deepwoods, Rook encounters a mysterious character - the last sky pirate . . . Vox High in the crumbling Palace of Statues, little more than a prisoner of the all-powerful Guardians of the Night, Vox Verlix plots and schemes . . . Rook Barkwater finds himself embroiled in Vox's scheming.He must stop him or the Edgeworld could fall into total chaos . . . Freeglader Undertown is destroyed! Gnokgoblins, waifs and cloddertrogs huddle by the ruins, preparing for a mass exodus to the Free Glades. Rook Barkwater knows the journey will be full of peril. Dangers are everywhere, and in the Goblin Nations, the tribes are massing for war. Can Rook and his friends preserve freedom in the Edgeworld?

    "I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I'll be on my way. Speaking of way, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract."A tesseract (in case the reader doesn't know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L'Engle's unusual book.

    The four children, their mother, and their two cats are transformed into mermaids! Well... the cats are turned into mercats. Join their adventure as they encounter sharks, octopuses and even sea dragons as they journey to Mermaid Kingdom. Best-selling author, Celesta Thiessen, wrote this book with her daughters, Keziah and Priscilla Thiessen. Keziah, who is thirteen, enjoys writing stories, sketching and dragons. Priscilla, who is seven, loves playing with cats, daydreaming and drawing inventions. Celesta, Keziah and Priscilla all love adventures!

    The source of their power has been hidden around the world in the form of 39 Clues. But the Cahills have shadow enemies, the Vespers, and they’re closer than the Cahills know. Will the power of the 39 Clues be used for good…or for the darkest evil?Seven stories reveal their never-before-told secrets of the Cahill family. Follow the Cahills from the chilling attack that caused Grace Cahill to launch an all-out hunt for the 39 Clues, to the rise of Vesper One and the first step in his terrifying plan for world domination. The Cahills are counting on you to keep their secrets. Remember: Trust no one.

    Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: The Death Gate Cycle, Into the Labyrinth, the Hand of Chaos, Dragon Wing, Serpent Mage, the Seventh Gate, Fire Sea, Elven Star. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: The Death Gate Cycle is a seven-part series of fantasy novels written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The main conflict is between two powerful races, the Sartan and the Patryns, which branched off from humans following a nuclear holocaust. Centuries prior to the events of the series, the Sartan attempted to end the conflict by sundering the earth into four elemental realms, and imprisoning the Patryn in a fifth prison world, the Labyrinth. The Sartan took up stewardship of the elemental realms, but soon mysteriously lost contact with each other and disappeared. Centuries later, a Patryn known as Xar escaped the Labyrinth, and started returning to the Labyrinth to rescue others. He learned how to access the other worlds and dreamed of freeing all his people from the Labyrinth and conquering the other worlds. The books follow the fiercely independent Haplo, a Patryn agent sent to scout the elemental worlds and throw them into chaos in preparation for his Lord's conquest of them. Weis and Hickman created five distinct fantasy worlds during the course of the series, along with developing the cultures of five major races, their unique Patryn and Sartan, and the common fantasy races of dwarves, elves, and humans. "Margaret and I have always tried to take fantasy literature in new directions. Krynn is a world wholly distinct from Earth, unlike Tolkien's Middle-earth. Time travel itself was a science-fiction notion we applied to fantasy. We have even written fantasies taking place in the far future (The Death Gate Cycle) " Tracy Hickman, The Annotated Dragonlan...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=121546