A follow up to Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror, this is another creepy middle grade story collection with a chilling frame. This time, the stories are all tales of the sea: pirates and plagues and storms a plenty...

In 1996 over 16 million people visited Tokyo Disneyland, making it the most popular of the many theme parks in Japan. Since it opened in 1983, Tokyo Disneyland has been analyzed mainly as an example of the globalization of the American leisure industry and its organizational culture, particularly the "company manual." By looking at how Tokyo Disneyland is experienced by employees, management, and visitors, Aviad Raz shows that it is much more an example of successful importation, adaptation, and domestication and that it has succeeded precisely because it has become Japanese even while marketing itself as foreign. Rather than being an agent of Americanization, Tokyo Disneyland is a simulated "America" showcased by and for the Japanese. It is an "America" with a Japanese meaning.

Dudley Pope meticulously researches the story of the bloodiest mutiny in the history of the Royal Navy - the butchering of the officers aboard His Majesty's Frigate HERMIONE 32 guns, in the West Indies in 1797. The captain of the frigate, Hugh Pigot, was a brutal and sadistic commander who flogged his men mercilessly and drove them beyond the limits of endurance. However, nothing could excuse the slaughter of guilty and innocent officers alike as the mutineers went wild and committed crimes beyond anything Pigot could have dreamt up. Not content with that, they then took the ship into an enemy port and gave her up to the Spanish who, unaware of the true facts for some time, nevertheless greeted them with the contempt they deserved. The Spanish took the ship into their service but due to an amazing episode of red tape and internal wrangling, never actually got the frigate to sea. Meanwhile the Royal Navy relentlessly hunted down the mutineers over the next ten years and of the 33 either caught or who gave themselves up, 24 were either hanged and hung in chains upon gibbets, or transported for life. A number managed to escape justice. The author describes these events which end with the daring re-capture of the HERMIONE under the guns of Spanish forts, with Captain Edward Hamilton leading 100 English sailors in six open boats in one of the most brilliant cutting-out expeditions in naval history.

For Greek myth fans, those who can’t get enough of the D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, and readers who have aged out of Rick Riordan, this classroom staple and mythology classic is perfect for learning about the ancient myths! As the gods and goddesses of Olympus scheme, the ancient world is thrown into turmoil when Helen, the most beautiful woman in all of Greece, is stolen away by her Trojan love. Inflamed by jealousy, the Greek king seeks lethal vengeance and sends his black war ships to descend on the city of Troy. In the siege that follows, history’s greatest heroes, from Ajax to Achilles to Odysseus, are forged in combat, and the brutal costs of passion, pride, and revenge must be paid. In the end, the whims of the gods, the cunning of the warriors, and a great wooden horse will decide who emerges victorious. Homer's epic poem, The Iliad, is one of the greatest adventure stories of all time and Rosemary Sutcliff's retelling of the classic saga embodies all of the astonishing drama, romance, and intrigue of ancient Greece. Don’t miss The Wanderings of Odysseus, the companion to Black Ships Before Troy, and follow Odysseus on his adventure home. This book has been selected as a Common Core State Standards Text Exemplar (Grades 6-8, Stories) in Appendix B.

"Haunting and bittersweet, lush and vivid, this extraordinary story has lived with me since I first read it." -- Naomi Novik, author of His Majesty's Dragon The world is ending. One by one the mighty cities are falling, to earthquakes, to flood, to raiders on both land and sea. In a time of war and doubt, Gull is an oracle. Daughter of a slave taken from fallen Troy, chosen at the age of seven to be the voice of the Lady of the Dead, it is her destiny to counsel kings. When nine black ships appear, captained by an exiled Trojan prince, Gull must decide between the life she has been destined for and the most perilous adventure -- to join the remnant of her mother's people in their desperate flight. From the doomed bastions of the City of Pirates to the temples of Byblos, from the intrigues of the Egyptian court to the haunted caves beneath Mount Vesuvius, only Gull can guide Prince Aeneas on his quest, and only she can dare the gates of the Underworld itself to lead him to his destiny. In the last shadowed days of the Age of Bronze, one woman dreams of the world beginning anew. This is her story.

Gifted with the magical ability to navigate Crosspointe's deadly seas, Thorn is banned from sailing when the Pilots' Guild betrays him and is forced to served on a cursed vessel where he must battle against a mad captain, a mutinous crew, and a saboteur in order to stay alive. Original.

In 1925, the Honourable Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher, her husband, Alec Fletcher (a Scotland Yard Detective) and their new twin infant children inherit and move to a new, larger house on the outskirts of London proper, in a stage of slight disrepair (thanks to an aged, now deceased, uncle). Set in a small circle of houses and a communal garden, it seems a near idyllic setting. That is until a dead body turns up half-hidden under the bushes of the communal garden, rumors of bootleggers, American gangsters, and an international liquor smuggling operation via black ships turn everything upside down. And it's up to Daisy - well, Alec with some help from Daisy - to find out who the dead man is, why he was murdered and who did him in!

Is modern man threatening to destroy his world? First published in 1962, this book, which analyzes the origins, history, and manifestations of the destructive impulse that exists in human beings, has relevance and interest for all of us. The author sees this impulse as primarily one of self-destruction deflected outward, and her brilliant exploration of its multiple effects takes her and the reader into regions of complex fascination. In ranging the fields of art, science, and morality for evidence to support her contentions, Miss Brophy not only reveals herself as a writer of immense cultivation and power, but also as a provocative thinker. Her basic conclusion—that the philosopher, the teacher, the psychologist, and the artist, among others, in order to be productive or even operative, must acknowledge and allow for the instinctual sources of behavior, which Freud so daringly illuminated and documented—is expressed in lively, passionate prose. This is a highly controversial book that will undoubtedly rouse storms of argument, for the issues, like the outcome, are of the deepest concern to us all. Miss Brophy’s opponents, if they are to make themselves heard, must at least match her in intellectual caliber and cultural equipment.