Strays

Rodney, abandoned by his mother at his weird uncle Ray's, encounters a demon named Birthless and must figure out his uncle's secret while preserving himself, his newfound friends, and a sleepy Alabama town from destruction. Strays is an unusual YA adventure story that's part C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters and part Tom Sawyer. The focus of the book isn't on simple lessons, but is instead the story of a lonely boy realizing that there is more to the heavens than stars, more to books than facts, and more to his Uncle Ray than tie-dye shirts and honeybees.

For fans of A Street Cat Named Bob and Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, “this lovely, luminous story will warm your heart and make you laugh and want to share your life with a rescue cat” (Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats). Alcoholic and depressed, Michael King lives on the streets of Portland, Oregon, and sleeps in a UPS loading bay. One raining night, he stumbles upon a hurt, starving, scruffy cat cowering beneath a café table and takes her in. He names her Tabor, nurses her back to health, and she becomes something of a celebrity in Southeast Portland. When winter comes, they travel from Oregon to the beaches of California to the high plains of Montana, surviving blizzards, bears, angry steers, and rainstorms. Along the way, people are drawn to the spirited, beautiful cat and are moved to help Michael, who cuts a striking figure with Tabor riding high on his backpack or walking on a leash. Tabor comforts Michael when he’s down, giving him someone to love and care for, and inspiring him to get sober and to come to terms with his past family traumas and grief over the death of his life partner. As they make their way along the West Coast, the pair become inseparable, healing the scars of each other’s troubled pasts. When Michael takes Tabor to a veterinarian in Montana, he discovers that Tabor has an identification chip and an owner in Portland who has never given up hope of finding his beloved cat. Michael is faced with the difficult choice of keeping Tabor or returning her to her rightful owner—and, once again, facing the streets alone.

After Quentin’s bike breaks down in a strange town, he and his friend become surrounded by feral cats.

When fourteen-year-old Quentin's bike breaks down in the strange town of Ravens Pass, he and his friend Reese find themselves surrounded by feral cats--is this an attack or something else?

The Land of the Strays, sequel to The Land of the Pines, is a new instant classic about the battle for self-worth and the difference between wants and needs. There is no guarantee that life will be better on the other side. Even still, we all face moments that force us to choose whether to stay where we are or take a massive leap of faith. These moments move quickly yet feel eternal, and they forever change the course of our lives. Just ask Grey the Kitten. Grey didn’t know when she leapt through the gate to leave Black Mountain Farm that she’d meet a Labrador who could hear the inner thoughts of other animals. Grey had no idea that she’d bear witness to a kidnapping or that her newfound friends would test her loyalty on the Trinity Trails. She had no clue that she was jumping into an epic battle that would alter the future of everyone around her. Grey didn’t leave her beloved farm and friends behind for any of these reasons. She left because it was her destiny. Now Grey must decide whose side she’s really on: the leashes or the strays. The leashes live at the Argos, a high-rise building named after the dog of an ancient warrior. From a poncho-clad Poodle to a rhinestone-born Bengal, the leashes seem to have everything they could ever want. But at the Argos, nothing is what it seems. In stark contrast, the strays belong to a different class: the “Stray Club.” The first rule among the leashes is that you don’t talk to or about the Stray Club. Grey’s never been good at following the rules. The Land of the Strays inspires audiences of all ages to see beyond stereotypes, engage with empathy, and connect as a united front. This fantasy tale addresses complex topics including mind chatter and false narrative to combat social media pressures and remind readers that the battle for self-worth is universal, fought by all, and rooted in the power of words. The Land of the Strays is dedicated to the US military and frontline responders, honoring the men, women and animals who serve our country every day. A portion of sales from the Loodor Tales Series, featuring The Land of the Pines and The Land of the Strays, benefits Operation Kindness, celebrating 45 years of saving homeless pets.

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE For readers of Atonement, a hauntingly powerful story about the fierce friendship between three sisters and their friend as they grow up on the outskirts of their parents' wild and bohemian artistic lives. On her first day at a new school, Lily befriends Eva and her sisters Beatrice and Heloise, daughters of the infamous avant-garde painter Evan Trentham. An only child from an unremarkable, working-class family, Lily has never experienced a household like the Trenthams'--a community of like-minded artists Evan and his wife have created, all living and working together to escape the stifling conservatism of 1930's Australia. And Lily has never met anyone like Eva, whose unabashed confidence and worldly knowledge immediately draw her in. Infatuated by the creative chaos of the Trenthams and the artists who orbit them, Lily aches to fully belong in their world, craving something beyond her own ordinary life. She becomes a fixture in their home, where she and Eva spend their days lounging in the garden, filching cigarettes and wine, and skirting the fringes of the adults' glamorous lives, who create scandalous art during the day and host lavish, debauched parties by night. But as seductive as the artists' utopian vision appears, behind it lies both darkness and dysfunction. And the further the girls are pulled in, the greater the consequences become. With elegance and vibrancy, THE STRAYS evokes the intense bonds of girlhood friendships, the volatile undercurrents of a damaged family, and the yearning felt by an outsider looking in. PRAISE FOR THE STRAYS "Disturbing and magical....with a grace and eloquence." - NPR Books "Full of lush, mesmerizing detail and keen insight into the easy intimacy between young girls which disappears with adulthood." - The New Yorker "THE STRAYS is a knowing novel, and beautifully done." - Meg Wolitzer, New York Times bestselling author of The Interestings

Celebrated folklorist and author Jim Hoy has spent most of his life living in the heart of the famed Flint Hills of Kansas and documenting and celebrating his fellow Kansans and plains folk. Like rounding up stray cattle in a rolling pasture, Hoy has gathered over a hundred stray stories, tales without a single theme or unified narrative, and corraled them up here for the very first time. Branding these stories in sections like Cattle Towns, Outlaws, and Cowboy Music, Hoy’s vignettes teach, excite, charm, and instill a deep pride in anyone fortunate enough to have lived on the Great Plains. In Gathering Strays, Hoy gives us a collection of stories about Kansas, the Great Plains, and Western life that reflect his life-long love of the land, experience, and history of the region. Hoy introduces us to folks like Elmer McCurdy, a failed train robber whose arsenic-embalmed body went on tour and made money for the undertaker, and Ame Cole, who scolded Russian Grand Duke Alexis on his table manners. Writing as an easygoing storyteller, Hoy covers familiar areas like rodeos and cattle drives, takes us from Dodge City to Beer City and everywhere in between, explains why Kansas has the best state song in the nation, and expands our picture of cowboys with stories of Australian drovers, Black cowboys, and Mexican vaqueros. Throughout, his easy-to-read yet authoritative style describes the people, places, and events that make the region so distinctive and celebrated. Gathering Strays will be hailed by anyone interested in the heroes and villains, towns and ranges, and myths and legends of the West.

Could life as a foster kid lead to unexpected benefits? A teenager’s link to animals gives way to human connection in a smart, incisive new novel. (Age 14 and up) Sixteen-year-old Ted O’Connor’s parents just died in a fiery car crash, and now he’s stuck with a set of semi-psycho foster parents, two foster brothers -- Astin, the cocky gearhead, and C.W., the sometimes gangsta -- and an inner-city high school full of delinquents. He’s having pretty much the worst year of his miserable life. Or so he thinks. Is it possible that becoming an orphan is not the worst thing that could have happened to him? Drawing on his trademark wit and sharp insight, master novelist Ron Koertge takes the lead with this smart, surprising story about a boy learning to run with a new pack.