The Night Child

Nora Brown teaches high school English and lives a quiet life in Seattle with her husband and six-year-old daughter. But one November day, moments after dismissing her class, a girl’s face appears above the students’ desks—“a wild numinous face with startling blue eyes, a face floating on top of shapeless drapes of purples and blues where arms and legs should have been. Terror rushes through Nora’s body—the kind of raw terror you feel when there’s no way out, when every cell in your body, your entire body, is on fire—when you think you might die.” Twenty-four hours later, while on Thanksgiving vacation, the face appears again. Shaken and unsteady, Nora meets with neurologists and eventually, a psychiatrist. As the story progresses, a terrible secret is discovered—a secret that pushes Nora toward an even deeper psychological breakdown. This breathtaking debut novel examines the impact of traumatic childhood experiences and the fragile line between past and present. Exquisitely nuanced and profoundly intimate, The Night Child is a story of resilience, hope, and the capacity of the mind, body, and spirit to save itself despite all odds.

That’s a dead vampire, I thought. My boss dragged me out of bed at two in the morning to see a dead vampire? I might be an Occult Special Investigator for Vancouver’s Mystical Crime Lab, but a dead vampire is routine, and no reason to disturb a person’s sleep! Then I took a closer look at the body… Tess Corday soon realizes that there is not going to be anything ordinary about this case. Not the lab results on the cause of death. Not Mia Polanski, the teenage girl living at the address found in the vamp’s pocket, who may well be in thrall to a demon. And certainly not Lucian Agrado, the necromancer who is liaison to the vampire community. Agrado is supposed to be part of the solution, but Tess suspects he might be part of the problem. Under pressure from her boss, Tess is trying to go by the book on this one. But when Mia reaches out to her, she risks her career to help the girl. And finds herself in the middle of a paranormal conspiracy that will change her life forever. Or possibly end it…

After thirteen-year-old Agnes Fisher faints at school, her teacher, the young and still idealistic Amy Slade, is shocked to discover in the girl’s desk two stereoscopic photographs. One is of a dead baby in its cradle, and on the back Agnes has scrawled a terrible message. Worse, the other photograph is of Agnes in a pose captioned “What Mr. Newly Wed Really Wants.” When Agnes doesn’t show up at school the next day, her teacher takes the two photographs to the police. Murdoch, furious at the sexual exploitation of such a young girl, resolves to find the photographer – and to put him behind bars. Night’s Child is the fifth novel in Maureen Jennings’s highly praised historical mystery series. Three of Jennings’s novels have been made into TV movies under the title Murder 19C: The Murdoch Mysteries. Bravo/CHUM is currently developing a series based on the character of Detective William Murdoch for broadcast in 2007.

The story of Helen Keller is well-known throughout the world, but few people know of Laura Bridgman. Also blind and deaf, she was the first to break the pattern of early nineteenth-century tradition, learning to read the alphabet and leading the way for others to be freed of their handicaps.

Offers advice to parents on how to promote good sleeping habits in children and solve the sleeping problems from infancy to five years old

Night is coming and small things without words are going to sleep . . . sleepy bunnies, sleepy birds, and sleepy children, too, are getting under their covers. "Jean Charlot's illustrations are first-rate." —NYT. Barbara Bader called this 1943 book, now restored to its original size and format, "the first of the true bedtime books." 1944 Caldecott Honor Book

American anti-hero Oliver Stone joins the literary canon with this bold tale of an alienated youth who takes to the road on an odyssey to hell.

A short and sweet story to put your little ones to sleep with. Enjoy getting cozy with your children and let them know how much they mean to you through these words. A perfect way to end the day!