The world is becoming very strange for thirteen-year-old Cara who discovers that some wonderful creatures don't only exist in dreams.

Untamable. Damaged. Angry. Once full of promise and life, now lost in the shadows of resentment and detachment, this is Dream of Night's story—and it is also Shiloh’s. One is a thoroughbred racehorse, the other an eleven-year-old foster child. Starved to the bone, Dream of Night is still a very powerful animal, kicking, bucking, screaming to show his strength. Shiloh has been starved in other ways—starved of affection, starved of stability and she lashes out too…with sarcasm. This injured and abused racehorse has a lot in common with punky Shiloh and by chance they both find themselves under the care of Jessalyn DiLima—a last stop for each before the state takes more drastic measures—sending the girl to a “residential facility” and the horse to a vet...for euthanizing. Jess is giving them a second chance, a last chance—but she fosters animals and children like this for a reason—she’s a little broken, too. And she knows what it’s like to have lost nearly everything she loves. As the horse warms up to the girl and the girl lets her guard down for the horse, the three of them become an unlikely family. They recognize their similarities in order to heal their pasts, but not before one last tragedy threatens to take it all away.

From Homer and Shakespeare to Toni Morrison and Jonathan Safran Foer, major works of literature have a great deal to teach us about two of life’s most significant stages—growing up and growing old. Distinguised scholar Arnold Weinstein’s provocative and engaging new book, Morning, Noon, and Night, explores classic writing’s insights into coming-of-age and surrendering to time, and considers the impact of these revelations upon our lives. With wisdom, humor, and moving personal observations, Weinstein leads us to look deep inside ourselves and these great books, to see how we can use art as both mirror and guide. He offers incisive readings of seminal novels about childhood—Huck Finn’s empathy for the runaway slave Jim illuminates a child’s moral education; Catherine and Heathcliff’s struggle with obsessive passion in Wuthering Heights is hauntingly familiar to many young lovers; Dickens’s Pip, in Great Expectations, must grapple with a world that wishes him harm; and in Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical Persepolis, little Marjane faces a different kind of struggle—growing into adolescence as her country moves through the pain of the Iranian Revolution. In turn, great writers also ponder the lessons learned in life’s twilight years: both King Lear and Willy Loman suffer as their patriarchal authority collapses and death creeps up; Brecht’s Mother Courage displays the inspiring indomitability of an aging woman who has “borne every possible blow. . . but is still standing, still moving.” And older love can sometimes be funny (Rip Van Winkle conveniently sleeps right through his marriage) and sometimes tragic (as J. M. Coetzee’s David Lurie learns the hard way, in Disgrace). Tapping into the hearts and minds of memorable characters, from Sophocles’ Oedipus to Artie in Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Morning, Noon, and Night makes an eloquent and powerful case for the role of great literature as a knowing window into our lives and times. Its intelligence, passion, and genuine appreciation for the written word remind us just how crucial books are to the business of being human.

Cara's mother has disappeared. Her father isn't talking about it. Her big brother Max is hiding behind his iPod, and her genius little brother Jackson is busy studying the creatures he collects from the beach. But when a watery specter begins to haunt the family's Cape Cod home, Cara and her brothers realize that their scientist mother may not be who they thought she was—and that the world has much stranger, much older inhabitants than they had imagined. With help from Cara's best friend Hayley, the three embark on a quest that will lead them from the Cape's hidden, ancient places to a shipwreck at the bottom of the sea. They're soon on the front lines of an ancient battle between good and evil, with the terrifying "pouring man" close on their heels. Packed with memorable characters and thrilling imagery, Lydia Millet weaves a page-turning adventure even as she brings the seaside world of Cape Cod to magical life. The first in a series of books about the Sykes children, The Fires Beneath the Sea is a rip-cracking middle-grade novel that will make perfect beach reading—for readers of any age! Lydia Millet is the author of six previous novels, including My Happy Life, which won the 2003 PEN-USA Award for Fiction, and Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, which was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Her short story collection Love in Infant Monkeys was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist.

A sweet and sparkly board book that bring the wonder of Christmas to little hands

The Polar Express meets The Night at the Museum in this fantastical picture-book adventure about the magic of books and libraries, perfect for book lovers of all ages! After a young boy goes to sleep upset that he's getting a book for his birthday, he's visited in the night by Patience and Fortitude, the two stone lions who guard the New York Public Library. Soon, he's magically whisked away from his cozy home in the Bronx, and the two mighty lions show him the wonder of the library. There, the inquisitive Latino boy discovers the power of books and their role not only in his own life, but also in the lives of the people he loves. Raul Colon's gorgeous, rich art creates an immersive world in this book about books, which is sure to capture the imaginations of kids and adults and inspire them to grab their library cards and dive into the worlds of stories.

Set in the ‘90s, this lyrical autobiographical novel follows the relationship that develops between a recent college grad and a young widow during their nightly swims in Lake Michigan “[A] mosaic of uncanny photographs and rediscovered diaries, fresh correspondence between ex-lovers, meditations on childhood and parenthood, an amphibious dance between the past and the present”—Karen Russell “Swimming at night, to compare its slipperiness to that of a dream would be to ignore the work of staying afloat, the mesmerism brought on by the rhythm, the repetition of the strokes.” Beneath the surface of Lake Michigan there are vast systems: crosscutting currents, sudden drop-offs, depths of absolute darkness, shipwrecked bodies, hidden places. Peter Rock’s stunning autobiographical novel begins in the ’90s on the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin. The narrator, a recent college graduate, and a young widow, Mrs. Abel, swim together at night, making their way across miles of open water, navigating the currents and swells and carried by the rise and fall of the lake. The nature of these night swims, and of his relationship to Mrs. Abel, becomes increasingly mysterious to the narrator as the summer passes, until the night that Mrs. Abel disappears. Twenty years later, the narrator—now married with two daughters—tries to understand those months, his forgotten obsessions and dreams. Digging into old notebooks and letters, as well as clippings he’s preserved on the “psychic photography” of Ted Serios and scribbled quotations from Rilke and Chekhov, the narrator rebuilds a world he’s lost. He also looks for clues to the fate of Mrs. Abel, and begins once again to swim distances in dark water.

Good Night Books explores storybooks, picture books, pop-up books, animal books, science books, school books, fairy tales, libraries, bookstores, book mobiles, big books, small books, hard- and soft-covered books, and more. This educational and enriching board book delves into the fascinating world of books, detailing everything from learning institutions to every type of book imaginable. Read on! This book is part of the bestselling Good Night Our World series, which includes hundreds of titles exploring iconic locations and exciting themes.

If you asked me if or why I wanted to write a poetry book a year ago, I would have replied, Which book? Now that I wrote it, this is a very easy question to answer. First, I need to say that I started writing poetry about two years ago because I enjoyed the flow of words moving through my consciousness, yet I had little intention of writing a book. In fact, I wrote as I was getting my inspiration from taking long walks in the middle of nature. As I kept writing, I started realizing that I needed to have many messages out, but the most important one was about that which we call love. It is such an overwhelmingly defined word that my humble attempt at describing it became a series of desires just to depict what I was feeling at that moment. It is really that simple and complex at the same time. Second, I began feeling that if I dont write ever so often, my entire being is being deprived of this wonderful life force. So I kept writing away but not in an organized manner. I just wrote about whatever images I was being graced with. Third, I started realizing how the various poems fit together only recently, which is how the idea of publishing this book slowly developed. I decided to self-publish for reasons of timelinessI needed to present this offering before the year 2000 was over so that the new millennium will start out fresh. It felt like the right thing to do. I grouped the chapters based on how I felt we, the old souls of this earth and universe, need to connect with our own essence, within space and time dimensions, and with our soul mates. Light and love are quintessential concepts, yet they are just as real as our physical forms. I feel we all blend together spiritually in the end, so whats the point of separations? Of course, this is a personal viewpoint, perhaps shared by many others like me in their own unique ways. Whether love was in the beginning of our creation, whether it wraps around our daily existence, whether it blesses us with its healing power, what really matters is that we feel it at various points in our lives with a fluctuating degree of intensity. Imagine if we could enhance these feelings, recreating our core passionately! The best of all worlds is enjoying every moment of our lives, no matter how our emotions fill it. If we embrace this way of approaching life, maybe then we can all feel closer to our origin, to our energy, to divine power, to creativity, and to guidance. And love will belong to all of us, will flow through and transcend us in whatever form we choose to interpret it. We all need it, we all search for it, we all give it away, and we are all made to exchange it. So why not start this very second? Thats why I wrote this book!

A world of puppy adventure from the author of the Magic Kitten series, which has sold over a million copies! On holiday with her mum and dad in Spain, Della is feeling lonely and bored - her cousin Chloe couldn't make it at the very last moment and even the swimming pool where Della is staying is smelly and full of gunk. It doesn't look like a very fun holiday until tiny and fluffy yorkshire terrier puppy, Storm, magically arrives. Suddenly everything looks a little brighter!