The Midnight Brigade

Harkening to classics such as Roald Dahl's The BFG, this heartwarming story highlights the power of friendship and the importance of finding your voice. Carl Chesterfield wishes he could speak up—whether that means being honest with his father about the family's new (and failing) food truck, reaching out to a potential friend, or alerting others to the fact that monsters might be secretly overrunning his hometown of Pittsburgh. There's plenty to fret over. And plenty to question. When a flyer about a mysterious monster-seeking group called the Midnight Brigade catches his eye, Carl sees an opportunity to find answers. Little does he know, his curiosity will lead him to find an incredible discovery under one of his city's magnificent bridges and to be bolder than he ever imagined. Chock-full of humor and heart, this is the quirky tale of three unexpected friends and the crankiest troll with a heart of gold.

Harkening to classics such as Roald Dahl's The BFG, this heartwarming story highlights the power of friendship and the importance of finding your voice. Carl Chesterfield wishes he could speak up—whether that means being honest with his father about the family's new (and failing) food truck, reaching out to a potential friend, or alerting others to the fact that monsters might be secretly overrunning his hometown of Pittsburgh. There's plenty to fret over. And plenty to question. When a flyer about a mysterious monster-seeking group called the Midnight Brigade catches his eye, Carl sees an opportunity to find answers. Little does he know, his curiosity will lead him to find an incredible discovery under one of his city's magnificent bridges and to be bolder than he ever imagined. Chock-full of humor and heart, this is the quirky tale of three unexpected friends and the crankiest troll with a heart of gold.

When a vital member of the British millennials' mission goes missing after an intense firefight with Nazi-supported vampire hunters, Mors, the mission's powerful leader, vows to discover the truth behind his disappearance. The perilous search takes Mors from Berlin to his own ancient stomping grounds--Rome. Mors was once one of the Roman Republic's greatest generals--until his rebirth as a vampire under unprecedented circumstances--and when he sees Italy under Fascism, he forms a new mission: to return the country to a true republic, and perhaps guide its people into the light himself. But it will take collaboration with human partisans to achieve his new dream, a dangerous alliance that most vampires would never attempt, made even more unstable by his growing love for the partisans' beautiful and brave organizer, Giulia. As the Allies prepare to invade Italy, and hunters and Nazi-collaborators start to encircle him, Mors's quest for vengeance, intense passion, and hunger for power force him to confront the demons of both his past and present. A very different war is about to begin. .

“This is the secret book at the heart of American letters. Holt is one of the finest American writers alive.”—Junot Díaz In the Valley of the Kings marks the extraordinary debut of Terrence Holt, who fifteen years ago abandoned a promising writing career to practice medicine. Moved by his patients’ valor in the face of death, seeking to comprehend the mysteries revealed at their bedside, Holt has taken up fiction again. He emerges now with this astonishing collection of one novella and seven short stories that explore the farthest reaches of the imagination in a style that recalls the nineteenth-century American masters. Holt leaps across genres and millennia, from small-town America to deep space, daring his readers to journey with him into realms as mysterious as they are unforgettable. The opening story, “‘? ????s,” is a chilling account of the last days of the human race, as the hospitalization of a little girl in a New England town heralds a terrifying plague, transmitted not by a microbe but by a single word. The final story, “Apocalypse,” returns to small-town New England and another vision of the end, in an intimate account of how a couple struggles to live and love under the shadow of the Earth’s approaching doom. In between, these stories range from outer space, where—in “Charybdis”—an astronaut alone on a doomed NASA mission comes to terms with his fate, to the Egyptian desert of the title novella, where an archaeologist seeks a fabulous tomb that holds the secret of immortality. Painting with lurid colors and finely crafted prose, Holt offers his readers haunting visions of the reefs and abysses of the human imagination. In the Valley of the Kings redefines the art of the story, throwing aside the rules in search of the enduring truths that ultimately make stories worth reading.

Master storyteller Sonya Hartnett crafts a magical and moving fable about war and redemption . . . and what it means to be free. When the Germans attack their Romany encampment during World War II, Andrej and his younger brother, Tomas, flee through a ravaged countryside under cover of darkness, guarding a secret bundle. Their journey leads to a bombed-out town, where the boys discover a hidden wonder: a zoo filled with creatures in need of hope. Like Andrej and Tomas, the animals--wolf and eagle, monkey and bear, lioness and seal, kangaroo and llama-- have stories to share and a mission to reclaim their lives.

Treasury of verse by the great Victorian poet includes the famous long narrative poem, Enoch Arden, plus "The Lady of Shalott," "The Charge of the Light Brigade," "Break, break, break," "Flower in the crannied Wall" and more. Also included are excerpts from three longer works: The Princess, "Maud" and "The Brook."

The new animal-fantasy/adventure series for fans of Warriors, Spirit Animals, and Redwall! Kit may have saved the Wild Ones from the Flealess, but he and his neighbors are not out of danger yet. Coyote has taken charge of the Thunder River Rompers, a notorious gang of nearsighted otters, and he has his sights set on Ankle Snap Alley. When, on the eve of the First Frost, Coyote and his henchmen steal all of the seeds and nuts that the Alley's residents have stored up for winter, Kit knows that he can't sit by and do nothing. As he tries to fulfill his school assignments and win himself a coveted invitation into the Moonlight Brigade, Kit knows he must outsmart the Coyote so that his fellow Wild Ones can survive the winter. With so much depending on him, it's time for Kit to pull off his greatest trick yet and save the community he now calls home. Howl to snap! Praise for The Wild Ones: “Raccoon hero Kit and his ragtag community of creatures will sneak their way into your imagination and steal your heart. They may pick your pocket, too, but they’ll take you on an adventure you won’t soon forget. This is a fantasy that kids will adore (and quick-of-paw parents will steal). A wild ride from a wildly imaginative author.”--Katherine Applegate, Newbery Medal-winning author of The One and Only Ivan and the bestselling Animorphs series "Bold deeds, betrayals, and buffoonery kick off this series with gusto."--Kirkus Reviews "The sharp, lively descriptions ('like dynamite in a silk purse') shine while the exhilarating finale illustrates that home is wherever your 'howl to snap' friends live."--Publishers Weekly "Readers will root for Kit as he tangles with scoundrels, liars, and even a hungry crocodile....A promising new series for fans of animal adventure."--School Library Journal

At once sobering and inspiring, here is the true tale of a World War I cavalry soldier and his heroic horse, Midnight. Guy Haydon raised and trained Midnight from the time she was a foal. The two had such a strong bond that when World War I broke out, Lieutenant Haydon slipped away from the frontlines of Gallipoli on an Egypt-bound ship to reunite with his horse. There, in the city of Beersheba, on October 31, 1917, two regiments of the Australian Light Horse Brigade took part in one of the last great cavalry charges in history. Among the first to leap the enemy trenches was Lieutenant Guy Haydon, riding Midnight—who succumbed to a bullet that might have otherwise killed her rider. In a new story from an award-winning duo, luminous illustrations and lyrical narration bring a sad moment in history to life.