Growing Up A Werewolf

At thirteen, Jonah wished he was like all the other kids, worrying about pimples or spilt milk on his shirt during lunch. But he had a much worse problem . . . God, I hate this, he would mumble to himself, looking up at the ceiling. I know this is just whining, but come on, why me? What is the purpose of me being this? If there were more like me, I could understand, but just me? Why, God, why does it have to hurt so much? Why every time? Maybe just once, just once, God, maybe I could black out or something, please? I could understand if something good came out of this, but come on. This just bites. And then, he did the one thing he dreaded more than anything else in his lifehe became a monster, a werewolf . . .

From Pulitzer Prize winner Brent Staples, an evocative memoir that poses universal questions: Where does the family end and the self begin? What do we owe our families, and what do we owe our dreams for ourselves? What part of the past is a gift and what part a shackle? For Brent Staples there is the added dimension of race: moving from a black world into one largely defined by whites. The oldest song among nine children, Brent grew up in a small industrial town near Philadelphia. First a scholarship to a local college and then one for graduate study at the University of Chicago pulled him out of the close family circle. While he was away, the industries that supported the town failed, and drug dealing rushed in to fill the economic void. News of arrests and premature deaths among Brent's childhood friends underscored the precariousness of his perch in a world of mostly white achievers. A younger brother became a cocaine dealer and was murdered by one of his "clients." His death propelled Brent into a reconsideration of his childhood and coming-of-age that offers vivid portraits of family and place, of values that supported and pressures that tore apart, of the appeal and pain of entering a predominantly white world, and of the strengths and vulnerabilities of the black world he grew away from.

At thirteen, Jonah wished he was like all the other kids, worrying about pimples or spilt milk on his shirt during lunch. But he had a much worse problem . . . "God, I hate this," he would mumble to himself, looking up at the ceiling. "I know this is just whining, but come on, why me? What is the purpose of me being this? If there were more like me, I could understand, but just me? Why, God, why does it have to hurt so much? Why every time? Maybe just once, just once, God, maybe I could black out or something, please? I could understand if something good came out of this, but come on. This just bites." And then, he did the one thing he dreaded more than anything else in his life—he became a monster, a werewolf . . .

When you look at a wolf pup, do you see a future deer hunter or singer? If not, you should. The baby animals in this book share about their dreams for adulthood!

An old family recipe could save a 13-year-old wereduck and her family from danger in this action-packed, paranormal fantasy sequel. Kate is an odd duck—literally. When the full moon arrives, the rest of her family turns into wolves, but she is a happy wereduck. Relatively happy, that is. Her family has been uprooted from the wilds of New Brunswick to a placid farming community in Ontario, thanks to a fellow werewolf, Marcus, selling them out to sleazy tabloid journalist Dirk Bragg. When Kate discovers her great-great-grandmother’s recipe “A Cure for Werewolf,” she can’t help but wonder, is it really possible? Could she one day resist the call of the moon? Could she be free from the constant threat of exposure? When Marcus’s abandoned werewolf son, John, books a desperate train journey back to New Brunswick at the full moon, the ancient recipe and its arcane ingredients are put to the test. Will Dirk Bragg finally corner Kate and John in their wereforms and expose them to the world, or will the “Cure for Werewolf” keep them safe? A rare sequel that is as full of action and revelations as its predecessor, A Cure for Wereduck is imaginative, exciting, and peppered with delightful humor. “As silly and fun as it is believable: you’ll be checking your friends for feathers at every full moon. . . . With cliffhanging scenes in all the right places, I cannot wait for book three!” —Meghan Marentette, author of The Stowaways “[A] fast-paced fun read . . . Mixes a generous portion of action and adventure with plenty of humor.” —Riel Nason, author of The Town That Drowned

Cassie Fields has more than a few reservations when her parents decide to move the family from their remote forest home to a small city four hours away. Would she fit in? Would she make new friends? Most importantly, would anyone find out that she and her family are werewolves? Her fears are allayed when she meets a friendly group of students at her new school, but that doesn't last long. She soon realizes something much more sinister is happening in Crescentville. Someone-or something-is abducting supernatural beings and turning them into soulless monstrosities, and panic among her people is spreading like the plague. Fearing for her family's safety, Cassie must rally her new friends to fight back against the evil that threatens them before they all become soldiers in a grotesque and senseless war....

In springtime, baby wolves are born in the parents' wolf den. They are born totally deaf and blind. Readers will follow these playful pups from birth to when young wolves can hunt with the rest of the pack. Packed with incredible photographs and fascinating facts, this book is guaranteed to provide a howling good time while teaching life science concepts. A Words to Know section in the front of the book introduces readers to unfamiliar vocabulary before they encounter it in the narrative.

As a child in 1930s Germany, Wolf Dettbarn was playful and curious, plopping old ladies hats into a bathtub to see if they would float and watching tadpoles hatch on the banks of the Werra River. At odds with his military family, Wolf dreamed of becoming a doctor, but the rising power of the Nazi Party changed the course of his adolescent life. At thirteen he was sent to the Adolf Hitler Schule in Bavaria and at seventeen he was conscripted into active duty, and all the while he struggled to hide his dislike for the school and the military, and his growing disillusion with the Nazi regime. When the war finally ended, Wolf set aside his military past and worked to rebuild his life and realize his childhood dreams. Wolf, a natural storyteller, describes his transition from schoolboy to soldier to doctor with unaffected candor and insight, painting a picture of the fear, propaganda, and silence that surrounded him as Germany fell to pieces. Wolfs reflection on his young adulthood is a story of devastation and resilience, proof that humanity can grow in the worst of conditions.