Five months after her sister Gloria disappeared, Kitty Seevers receives a lock of Gloria's hair in the mail. No return address. Just a cryptic message that brings Kitty to the Bamboo Lounge and into the twisted realm of ventriloquist Ronny McBane and his dummy, Piggy. Kitty descends into a haunted place where reality is frayed, where the puppetmaster and puppet seem to have reversed roles—a nightmare place where a dummy moves and speaks when his master is nowhere near him. Kitty suspects not only is there something wrong with McBane and his dummy, but a greater evil is at work as those named by the dummy are dying horrible deaths. And now she has been named by the same soul-eater that destroyed her sister.

The debut book of Jeremy Tankard's high-flying Bird series! Bird wakes up feeling grumpy. Too grumpy to eat or play -- too grumpy even to fly. "Looks like I'm walking today," says Bird. He walks past Sheep, who offers to keep him company. He walks past Rabbit, who also could use a walk. Raccoon, Beaver, and Fox join in, too. Before he knows it, a little exercise and companionship help Bird shake his bad mood. Praised by the Wall Street Journal as "comic perfection," this winsome, refreshingly original picture book is sure to help kids (and grown-ups) giggle away their grumpies, too! Bird's impeckably crafted, hilarious melodramas continue in the Grumpy Bird board book, Boo Hoo Bird, Hungry Bird, and coming in 2018, Sleepy Bird.

Sixth-grader Tommy and his friends describe their interactions with a paper finger puppet of Yoda, worn by their weird classmate Dwight, as they try to figure out whether or not the puppet can really predict the future. Includes instructions for making Origami Yoda.

This anthology of essays, a companion to Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects, Volume I, aims to explore the many types of relationships that exist between puppets, broadly speaking, and the immaterial world. The allure of the puppet goes beyond its material presence as, historically and throughout the globe, many uses of puppets and related objects have expressed and capitalized on their posited connections to other realms or ability to serve as vessels or conduits for immaterial presence. The flip side of the puppet’s troubling uncanniness is precisely the possibilities it represents for connecting to discarnate realities. Where do we see such connections in contemporary artistic work in various mediums? How do puppets open avenues for discussion in a world that seems to be increasingly polarized around religious values? How do we describe, analyze, and theorize the present moment? What new questions do puppets address for our times, and how does the puppet’s continued entanglement with these concerns trouble or comfort us? The essays in this book, from scholars and practitioners, provide a range of useful models and critical vocabularies for addressing this aspect of puppet performance, further expanding the growing understanding and appreciation of puppetry generally. This book, along with its companion volume, offers, for the first time, robust coverage of this subject from a diversity of voices, examples, and perspectives.

From ghost story master Mary Downing Hahn, an assortment of eerie short stories to thrill and chill young readers.

HE ACCIDENTALLY ACQUIRED A MAGICAL SYSTEM,AND HE SOON ACHIEVED TO THE PEAK. Because of his extremely low talent, Zhao Xin was bullied from an early age. On this day, he was beaten by others and fainted. After waking up, he found that he had accidentally bound the asura martial system. With this system, the progress of his martial art practice had become fast. With this system, Zhao Xin's talent and his body as well as his martial arts are the strongest in the world. Since then, those who have bullied him obediently become his admirers. While powerful brings glory to people, it often leads to more dangers. Facing those who are jealous of him and want to defeat him, what would he do to solve them? ☆About the Author☆ Shen Jie Lai De Qie Zi, an online novelist, and his novel Asura Martial System has won many readers' love for its ups and downs storyline and distinctive character.

When Flynn was sixteen, he was a new kid in a new school. At first, he was ignored. Then he was bullied, tormented, and beaten. Chad Reese offered him a way out. He introduced him to Toddy and Bones. They made Flynn's enemies their own. Before long, he was the most popular kid at school. But there was a price. When he wouldn't pay it, they took something he loved. Now, thirty years later, Flynn is rich and successful. Everything he touches seems to turn into gold. Until he comes back home to discover that the payment for living the good life has been long overdue.

FOLLOWING A MAJOR PANDEMIC, THE COUNTRY IS IN RUINS. WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER IS A HELLZONE KNOWN AS THE DEADLANDS. Here, bioengineered Corpse Worms rain from the blood-streaked sky, reanimating the dead. And here, atomic weapons have created legions of mutants, primeval monsters, and wild chaotic weather patterns. Enter: John Slaughter. Hardcore outlaw biker. Blood member of the Devil's Disciples. A very wanted man. Captured by the army, the feds want him to lead a gang of his old bikers across the Mississippi and into the nuclear wastes of the Deadlands. His objective: Snatch a high-level biologist who is being held at an old NORAD fortress by a paramilitary terrorist group. It will mean a raid into territory swarming with the living dead, mutations, and sects of psychotic survivalists... not to mention the Cannibal Corpse motorcycle club, blood enemies of the Devil’s Disciples. His incentive: his brother is being held at a federal prison back east on charges of sedition. If Slaughter does not bring back the biologist, his brother will be executed. The drawback: An ancient, diabolic evil has claimed the Deadlands and is in league with Cannibal Corpse. And unless Slaughter can stop it, it will pick its teeth with the last bones of the human race.

The Long Black Coffin is a '67 GTO. A street-eater and a life-taker. Like an open grave, it's hungry for death. Vic Tamberlyn committed suicide in it. His son Kurt asphyxiated in it. Maybe there's no connection, but Kurt's best friend, Johnny Breede, doesn't believe it. He begins seeing dark connections, convinced that beneath the skin of the Coffin there beats a black, terrible heart. But it's even worse than he can imagine. For the Long Black Coffin has a history. And that history will lead Johnny into a web of murder, insanity, and sexual perversion. He'll learn gruesome family secrets that connect a decade-old series of child abductions to a primordial evil that lives on in the car in the form of a sadistic teenage girl. A girl whose mother was human, but whose father was anything but.

It comes out of the night. It kills with animal stealth and viciousness, but with an almost human capacity for cruelty and sadism. And this time, it has left a witness. Jim Duchane watched it kill his two best friends. Now tormented by their deaths and skeptical of his own memories of that awful night, he is approached by two fringe monster hunters who are desperate to track the beast. With his help, they will hunt down a monster of Native American folklore whose very existence belies a terrible biological reality. And it may be the worse mistake Jim has ever made.