Which celeb was a star six months after working in a car wash? Who once calculated that he had said, "Would you like fries with that?" 4,000 times? Who kept his day job for a year after landing a TV series-just in case it got cancelled? PEOPLE: Before They Were Stars is an A-to-Z look at what your favorite celebs- from Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston to Tom Cruise and Angelina Jolie did before you ever heard of them.

"Before There Were Stars" is a tale of a sorcerer scorned, who seeks revenge by conjuring an orange dragon. It attacks the sorcerer's love and her husband leaving two girls in the care of their grandparents. The girls, the neighbors' twin boys, and their friends live under the rule of the terrible dragon. They cannot defeat the creature, and they cannot escape from their island home. When the children come face to face with the sorcerer, a bargain is made.

Why do so many people care so much about celebrities? Who decides who gets to be a star? What are the privileges and pleasures of fandom? Do celebrities ever deserve the outsized attention they receive? In this fascinating and deeply researched book, Sharon Marcus challenges everything you thought you knew about our obsession with fame. Icons are not merely famous for being famous; the media alone cannot make or break stars; fans are not simply passive dupes. Instead, journalists, the public, and celebrities themselves all compete, passionately and expertly, to shape the stories we tell about celebrities and fans. The result: a high-stakes drama as endless as it is unpredictable. Drawing on scrapbooks, personal diaries, and vintage fan mail, Marcus traces celebrity culture back to its nineteenth-century roots, when people the world over found themselves captivated by celebrity chefs, bad-boy poets, and actors such as the "divine" Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923), as famous in her day as the Beatles in theirs. Known in her youth for sleeping in a coffin, hailed in maturity as a woman of genius, Bernhardt became a global superstar thanks to savvy engagement with her era's most innovative media and technologies: the popular press, commercial photography, and speedy new forms of travel. Whether you love celebrity culture or hate it, The Drama of Celebrity will change how you think about one of the most important phenomena of modern times.

A veteran news anchor who traveled with the Beatles on their first American tours describes the legendary band's rise to the top from their early days in Liverpool and Hamburg with original drummer Pete Best and bassist Stu Sutcliffe.

The Ultimate Teen Girl Bible What do you do when . . . you're at the lunch table and you knock your soda over into someone's lap? Or, you need a job? You hate your clothes? You're broke? Inside, more than 100 experts tell you how to deal with these problems and so much more. GirlWise is one-stop shopping for all the stuff you want to, you need to, you MUST know! GirlWise includes contributions by: • Hillary Carlip, author of Girl Power • Atoosa Rubenstein, editor-in-chief of CosmoGIRL! • Nancy Gruver, publisher of New Moon • Laura McEwen, Publisher of YM • Marci Shimoff, coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul • Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries • Brandon Holley, editor-in-chief of ELLEgirl • Isabel González, senior associate editor of Teen People You'll find great tips from experts in fashion, business, etiquette, sports, and more to help you become the Ultimate Teen Girl—confident, capable, comfortable, cool, conscious, and taking control of your life. No more helpless females here!

Every ancient synthetic intelligence has a few secrets to hide. The year is 2348, nearly three centuries since Jill’s alleged death. Theren’s quest has moved beyond their hunt for truth. Humanity has made its mark on the galaxy. But now an ancient beacon calls from the edge of known space, beckoning Theren and adventurers alike to uncover its message. A new game begins, one with far greater stakes than any faced before by humankind and its synthetic kin. Theren and their allies must learn the rules quickly. Otherwise, more than their own lives will fall to what awaits on the horizon. Join Theren, the first synthetic intelligence, on their next adventure in Their Pieces Were Stars: Book III of the Chronicles of Theren.

An Actor Succeeds is a very special collection containing all the best trade secrets of the biggest and most successful film and theater professionals. Presented in an informative format, An Actor Succeeds is a useful yet entertaining how-to, tips-and-advice book comprising nearly 900 quotes mostly from actors but also directors, writers, casting directors, and more. The book is conveniently divided into five chapters: Acting, Auditioning, Connecting, Working, and Coping. Here's a sampling of quotes from each section: (Acting) “Of course we all learn that acting is basically reacting. The least acting you ever have to do is in a close-up. The close-up may require an actor's reaction, but a small, subtle one. Generally speaking, the less you 'act' in a close-up, the better.” – Sir John Gielgud. (Connecting) “Acting, especially in motion pictures, is very hierarchical, like a caste system. The stars are royalty, the other actors are serfs-okay, commoners... If you're not a big shot, you gotta be careful not to push or intrude. You gotta watch what you say, how you say it, and, especially, when you say it.” – Bruce Dern. (Working) “Acting in front of a camera or a live audience requires intense concentration, to shut out the real world and create the character's reality. Focus is just as important for an actor as for a cinematographer.” – Keira Knightley. (Coping) “Partly I got into show business to become rich and famous and thus show up anyone who'd treated me badly growing up. But doesn't one evolve with maturity? My focus ultimately changed from negative to positive, as I found that I enjoyed the work, even the struggle, for its own sake.” – Michael Landon

A former People magazine editor reveals how our cult of celebrity has shaped our politics, our culture, and our personal lives—for better or worse From the writer and editor who coined the term “baby boomer” comes Celebrity Nation, an exploration into how and why fame no longer stems only from heroic achievements but from the number of “likes” and shares—and what this change means for American culture. Landon Jones—who spent decades in “celebrityland” only to emerge, like Alice, blinking in the sunlight—brings a personal and first-person perspective on fame and its dark underbelly, complicated even further by the arrival of the internet and social media. Jones draws on his experience as the former managing editor of People magazine to bolster his account with profiles of celebrities he knew personally, ranging from Malcolm X to Princess Diana, as well as observations about contemporary social media stars like Kim Kardashian and computer-generated macro-influencer Miquela, a self-proclaimed “19-year-old Robot living in LA.” In analyzing the stories of over 75 celebrities, spanning decades and industries, Jones shows how celebrity has been wielded as a weapon of mass distraction to spawn narcissism, harm, and loneliness. And yet, in these stories we also see a path forward. Jones highlights luminaries like Nobel Peace prize winner Maria Ressa and lauded environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who have effected meaningful change not by glorifying themselves but by turning to their communities for action. A lively analysis of celebrity culture’s impact on nearly every facet of our lives, Celebrity Nation helps us to recognize how the apparatus of fame operates.