Heinrich and Anna Marie Oster are invited by the Czar to move to Russia. Their excitement runs high when a son of their family is selected to serve in the Czar's elite body guard, the Imperial Hussars, and life is good. Life next to the Royals is full of thrills and color, but before long the corruption and greed in high places are exposed, and soon bitter persecution of the family makes their days difficult. Their children flee to America and accept the government's offer of free homestead acres on the great prairies of the heartland. The free land, however, extracts a heavy price. As they wrestle their sod house out of the stubborn buffalo grasses, they discover that their new "palace on the prairies" is only three miles from the Native sons of the warriors who scalped George Armstrong Custer. It leaves their days uneasy, their nights uncertain. At every turn, Nature confronts them with immense battles, from killing blizzards and sweeping fires, to plagues of grasshoppers. From years of deathdealing drought where nothing grows but tumbleweeds and biting flies, to international conflicts that drastically change their lives. Through it all they come together in faith and turn their little spot of earth into the breadbasket of the world.

A recently orphaned girl moves to the Texas panhandle and struggles to forge new friendships in a town of football glory in this unforgettable novel of surprising plot twists and unexpected beginnings. Recently orphaned, eleven-year-old Cathy Benson feels she has been dropped into a cultural and intellectual wasteland when she is forced to move from her academically privileged life in California to the small town of Kersey in the Texas Panhandle where the sport of football reigns supreme. She is quickly taken under the unlikely wings of up-and-coming gridiron stars and classmates John Caldwell and Trey Don Hall, orphans like herself, with whom she forms a friendship and eventual love triangle that will determine the course of the rest of their lives. Taking the three friends through their growing up years until their high school graduations when several tragic events uproot and break them apart, the novel expands to follow their careers and futures until they reunite in Kersey at forty years of age. Told with all of Meacham's signature drama, unforgettable characters, and plot twists, readers will be turning the pages, desperate to learn how it all plays out.

"This hard-hitting story lights up the world of animal rescue with engaging characters and their pets, bringing hope out of personal tragedies. Danny Sandoval, a character from Prairie Dog Blues, joins up with his friends to take on Norma Jean Lawson and her Safe Sanctuary No-Kill Rescue Center in Albuquerque. Danny accuses Safe Sanctuary of negligent animal care, claiming they do more harm than good. Norma Jean puts up a fierce fight through her attorney Ray, and sues Danny for libel and slander, seeking $500,000 in damages. Danny's friends all rise to his defense: a veterinarian friend, Virgil Hummel, his AA friends Mark and Dave, and his lover Ida. In the midst of the legal battle, Danny and Norma Jean also struggle with internal demons as they attempt to rescue dogs and cats, innocent creatures that sometimes bring a mysterious transforming power to broken lives. As Danny recovers from burns from a fire, he faces his childhood grief and begins to heal in the warmth of people who care. Norma Jean endures psychological abuse, and then rises up to face the evil of her lover William Redfield, finding that bad motives often end in darkness, and that animals and a clean heart can reveal pathways to God's healing. Dog Shelter Blues takes these beaten, everyday people on a breathtaking journey that ends with an astonishing triumph of good over evil."--

The cowboy is the American knight, so it would follow that tales of knighthood can provide the inspiration for stories about cowboys and the basis for this grand and dazzlingly innovative epic of the old American West by the celebrated author and screenwriter of Urban Cowboy. Inspired by Sir Percival's great quest for the Holy Grail, Aaron Latham has crafted a classic adventure story set among the tumbleweeds of the American West at the twilight of the nineteenth century. It is first and foremost the coming-of-age story of an innocent -- a fledgling cowboy, that singularly American update on the archetypal knight of old. Featuring characters from Latham's acclaimed Code of the West, The Cowboy with the Tiffany Gun is his most exhilarating performance yet. Our young hero is Percy -- but he prefers his nickname, Pyg, short for Percy York Goodnight. When he learns that the man called Loving has been shot and is near death, Percy and his mother, Revelie, rush away to be by Loving's side in Texas. Long ago, Revelie shared with Loving a bond of great passion. Mother and son arrive to find Loving gravely ill -- and to discover that an heirloom ax has disappeared from the ranch. According to Western lore, this was the very ax that Jimmy Goodnight, Percy's presumed father, once pulled out of an anvil. The ax was stolen from the cemetery, where it had been imbedded in Goodnight's tombstone. The stone is gone, too. Latham's historically authentic narrative takes off on a rousing gallop here as Pyg vows to find the ax and must face trials and calamities of a Biblical scale -- flood, fire, gunfights, and the devastating pestilence that changed the course of frontier history. Of Code of the West, James M. McPherson wrote that "Latham has pulled off the seemingly impossible." With The Cowboy with the Tiffany Gun, he has done it again.

How far would you go for love? When 24-year-old Nicole Hewett’s beloved childhood friend, Honey, returns to their small northern town after an unexplained six-year absence, Nicole realizes how her life had stalled without her. But the prodigal returns with troubling secrets, and before long Nicole is drawn into a high-stakes game. Honey is a thrilling, sensuous modern noir novel with a classic refrain: nothing is more dangerous than love.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A "fresh, genre-bending thriller” (Los Angeles Times) set in the near future when water is scarce and a spy, a hardened journalist and a young Texas migrant find themselves pawns in a corrupt game. "Think Chinatown meets Mad Max." NPR, All Things Considered In the near future, the Colorado River has dwindled to a trickle. Detective, assassin, and spy, Angel Velasquez “cuts” water for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, ensuring that its lush arcology developments can bloom in Las Vegas. When rumors of a game-changing water source surface in Phoenix, Angel is sent south, hunting for answers that seem to evaporate as the heat index soars and the landscape becomes more and more oppressive. There, he encounters Lucy Monroe, a hardened journalist with her own agenda, and Maria Villarosa, a young Texas migrant, who dreams of escaping north. As bodies begin to pile up, the three find themselves pawns in a game far bigger and more corrupt than they could have imagined, and when water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like sand, and the only truth in the desert is that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink.

Reading with Laura Ingalls Wilder is a series of five exciting and interesting titles that provide a framework for this new approach to reading. Comprehension is the main focus, with multiple choice and questions designed to ensure students understand why they are reading. Titles include: Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, On the Banks of Plum Creek, By the Shores of Silver Lake, and The Long Winter. The high interest — low vocabulary format of these novels is perfect for reluctant readers and is sure to keep students motivated to read. For the teacher, flexibility is key, with students being assigned novels to read individually, in small groups or as a class. This Author Study provides a teacher and student section with a variety of activities, chapter questions, story summaries, and answer key to create a well-rounded lesson plan.

Heart of Fire is an inspiring memoir that shows us that struggles and challenges will come, but to not waste the pain they bring. Cartelli's entertaining adventures encourage us to look for the blessings and gifts in all things good or bad.

How vividly Steven Schwartz describes his characters and how cunningly he wields the knife edge of suspense. I loved entering each of the worlds he creates - a grandfather fighting for his grandchildren, a man misled by a hippie couple, a woman who falls asleep at the airport, a teacher who holds his class hostage. - cover page.

Acclaimed author Karen Hesse's Newbery Medal-winning novel-in-verse explores the life of fourteen-year-old Billie Jo growing up in the dust bowls of Oklahoma. Out of the Dust joins the Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels. Includes exclusive bonus content!"Dust piles up like snow across the prairie. . . ."A terrible accident has transformed Billie Jo's life, scarring her inside and out. Her mother is gone. Her father can't talk about it. And the one thing that might make her feel better -- playing the piano -- is impossible with her wounded hands.To make matters worse, dust storms are devastating the family farm and all the farms nearby. While others flee from the dust bowl, Billie Jo is left to find peace in the bleak landscape of Oklahoma -- and in the surprising landscape of her own heart.