Tales Of Sand And Stars

In this haunted desert, nothing holds more magic than words. As the storyteller for her adoptive kingdom, seventeen-year-old Nima weaves tales for their entertainment while yearning to learn the truth of her past. When the king from a nearby city demands that Nima be brought to him, she has no choice but to go with his warriors. But as Nima grows closer to one of the king’s sons, danger from palace secrets and memory-stealing spirits threaten her at every turn. She must use her stories to discover—and create—the truths of her past and the shared history of the kingdoms in order to preserve her freedom, save her people from the windhaunts, and reunite the land. Tales of Sand and Stars is a luminous, lyrical fantasy full of the beauties and dangers of the desert and the creatures that roam the dunes. Get your copy today and be transported into this breathtaking, unforgettable world. additional keywords: high fantasy, young adult fantasy, storytelling, desert, dunes, scorpions, wind, wolves, sledding, sand, romance, legends, myths, alternative world fantasy, off-world fantasy, magic, epic fantasy

The groundbreaking 3-time Eisner Award-winning graphic novel, now available digitally for the first time! Join us as we explore this missing piece of Jim Henson's career in a celebration of his creative process, gorgeously brought to life by acclaimed illustrator Ramon K. Perez (Wolverine and the X-Men, Spider Man: Year One). Discovered in the Archives of The Jim Henson Company, Tale of Sand is an original graphic novel adaptation of an unproduced, feature-length screenplay written by Jim Henson and his frequent writing partner, Jerry Juhl. Tale of Sand follows scruffy everyman, Mac, who wakes up in an unfamiliar town, and is chased across the desert of the American Southwest by all manners of man and beast of unimaginable proportions. Produced with the complete blessing of Henson co-CEO Lisa Henson, Tale of Sand was hailed as a groundbreaking achievement upon release, winning the Eisner Awards for Best Graphic Album, Best Penciller/Inker, and Best Production Design, as well as winning the Harvey Awards for Best Graphic Novel and Best Artist.

The story of a truly galactic civilization with over 6,000 inhabited worlds.

Let me tell you, dear ones, a tale of sand and stars. The Kingdom of Sand found Nima wandering in the desert as a young girl. Now seventeen, Nima is the storyteller for her adoptive kingdom, weaving tales for their entertainment while yearning to learn the truth of her past. When the king from the nearby Kingdom of Stars demands that Nima be brought to him, she has no choice but to go with the warriors. The palace is dark and stifling, and the king's rule is tyrannous. Nima immediately begins plotting her escape, even though it means traveling back through a desert full of windhaunts--memory-stealing spirits that roam the dunes. As Nima grows closer to one of the king's sons, though, danger from the windhaunts and palace secrets threaten her at every turn. She must use her stories to discover--and create--the truths of her past and the shared history of the kingdoms in order to preserve her freedom, save her people from the windhaunts, and reunite the Kingdoms of Sand and Stars. Tales of Sand and Stars is a luminous, lyrical fantasy full of the beauties and dangers of the desert and the creatures that roam the dunes. Get your copy today and be transported into this breathtaking, unforgettable world.

A finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award The gripping story of the most important overlooked commodity in the world--sand--and the crucial role it plays in our lives. After water and air, sand is the natural resource that we consume more than any other--even more than oil. Every concrete building and paved road on Earth, every computer screen and silicon chip, is made from sand. From Egypt's pyramids to the Hubble telescope, from the world's tallest skyscraper to the sidewalk below it, from Chartres' stained-glass windows to your iPhone, sand shelters us, empowers us, engages us, and inspires us. It's the ingredient that makes possible our cities, our science, our lives--and our future. And, incredibly, we're running out of it. The World in a Grain is the compelling true story of the hugely important and diminishing natural resource that grows more essential every day, and of the people who mine it, sell it, build with it--and sometimes, even kill for it. It's also a provocative examination of the serious human and environmental costs incurred by our dependence on sand, which has received little public attention. Not all sand is created equal: Some of the easiest sand to get to is the least useful. Award-winning journalist Vince Beiser delves deep into this world, taking readers on a journey across the globe, from the United States to remote corners of India, China, and Dubai to explain why sand is so crucial to modern life. Along the way, readers encounter world-changing innovators, island-building entrepreneurs, desert fighters, and murderous sand pirates. The result is an entertaining and eye-opening work, one that is both unexpected and involving, rippling with fascinating detail and filled with surprising characters.

A diary and the remains of three people are found on the Japanese island of Hatoma in 1958. In 2011, a university student decides to investigate the diary's story and learn the fates of its four subjects, including sixteen-year-old Hiromi, the American soldier and Japanese soldier both under her care--and both deserters from the conflict of World War II.

C-3PO, R2-D2 and BB-8 are on a special mission to the desert planet of Tatooine for the Resistance, but between befriending banthas and cheering on pod races, BB-8 and R2-D2 are having a hard time focusing. What's a droid to do but have some fun in the sun? It's a good thing everyone's favorite protocol droid is on hand to keep the mission on track. But one thing is for certain, C-3PO does not like sand!

This powerful and lyrical debut novel is to Syria what The Kite Runner was to Afghanistan; the story of two girls living eight hundred years apart—a modern-day Syrian refugee seeking safety and an adventurous mapmaker’s apprentice—“perfectly aligns with the cultural moment” (The Providence Journal) and “shows how interconnected two supposedly opposing worlds can be” (The New York Times Book Review). This “beguiling” (Seattle Times) and stunning novel begins in the summer of 2011. Nour has just lost her father to cancer, and her mother moves Nour and her sisters from New York City back to Syria to be closer to their family. In order to keep her father’s spirit alive as she adjusts to her new home, Nour tells herself their favorite story—the tale of Rawiya, a twelfth-century girl who disguised herself as a boy in order to apprentice herself to a famous mapmaker. But the Syria Nour’s parents knew is changing, and it isn’t long before the war reaches their quiet Homs neighborhood. When a shell destroys Nour’s house and almost takes her life, she and her family are forced to choose: stay and risk more violence or flee across seven countries of the Middle East and North Africa in search of safety—along the very route Rawiya and her mapmaker took eight hundred years before in their quest to chart the world. As Nour’s family decides to take the risk, their journey becomes more and more dangerous, until they face a choice that could mean the family will be separated forever. Following alternating timelines and a pair of unforgettable heroines coming of age in perilous times, The Map of Salt and Stars is the “magical and heart-wrenching” (Christian Science Monitor) story of one girl telling herself the legend of another and learning that, if you listen to your own voice, some things can never be lost.