In a world where supernatural and mythical beings coexist with humans, a 244-year-old banshee named Siobhan goes to Paris with three of her best friends to spend the week for a vacation. Eventually, after an attack on the Eiffel Tower, the four friends bond together on a journey to Jordan to bring down a powerful paramilitary organization led by the ghoul king known as Azraghul.

Ancient places such as castles are filled with histories, sometimes bloody and gruesome, but always fascinating. And the 11 dark places explored in this title are sure to chill young readers’ imaginations. For example, at Chillingham Castle in England, they’ll meet John Sage, who tortured up to 50 prisoners a week. He had a tilted floor in his torture chamber, so the victims’ blood could easily drain away. John boiled some prisoners in pots and locked others away in cages with starving rats. This nonfiction narrative of evil deeds and unfortunate incidents in ancient structures, all of which are said to be haunted, will engage even the most reluctant readers. Creepy Castles is part of Bearport’s Scary Places series.

In this funny and tender memoir, John Freely reflects on a remarkable life. Splitting his early childhood between the U.S. and Ireland inspired in Freely a lifelong desire to see the world and its inhabitants. At age six he settled in Brooklyn, where he spent a sometimes tumultuous boyhood amidst a large extended family: moving from house to house, the family’s belongings packed in an uncle’s hearse. Growing up poor, in his teens, Freely took whatever jobs he could when times got tough, always shaking off his losses and moving on, hungry for new experiences and adventures. He joined the U.S. Navy at seventeen to “see the world” and did just that. As a member of an elite commando unit, he was sent to one of the most remote places in Asia where he served alongside Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese forces during the last weeks of World War II. A vivid recollection on a world that now exists only in memory, The House of Memory is a lasting tribute to a life well lived, and to all of the immigrant families who have struggled, endured, and enriched our country.

During the 1790s, with Ireland in political crisis, Maria Edgeworth made a surprisingly rebellious choice: in Castle Rackrent, her first novel, she adopted an Irish Catholic voice to narrate the decline of a family from her own Anglo-Irish class. Castle Rackrent's narrator, Thady Quirk, gives us four generations of Rackrent heirs - Sir Patrick, the dissipated spendthrift; Sir Murtagh, the litigating fiend; Sir Kit, the brutal husband and gambling absentee; and Sir Condy, the lovable and improvident dupe of Thady's own son, Jason. With this satire on Anglo-Irish landlords Edgeworth pioneered the regional novel and inspired Sir Walter Scott's Waverly (1814). She also changed the focus of conflict in Ireland from religion to class and boldly predicted the rise of the Irish Catholic Bourgeoisie. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.