Time to correct the theory that Vlad Temps was Bram Stokers model for Dracula. Stokers vampire count was not even from Earth. Black Sorcerers like him visit us through the Middlegrounds Gateways, portals that transport them throughout humankinds history. Some Midlanders come to Earth for sanctuary. Edoviov Alucard left the Middleground because Black Sorcerers would not tolerate vampires, even from a High family. When Sorcerys Grand Wizard banished them, Edoviov took his sister Catherine and fled to Earth. He turned their High Sorcerer Name backward to become Stokers fiction, setting himself up as Lord of Vampires. For Catherine, he had other plans. With two outlaw White Sorcerers, they entered into a pact to produce a Sorcerer strong enough (and Powerful enough) to take the Dark Throne. Since one of those Whites was the Middlegrounds only Time Wizard, it was now on their side. With Draculas gypsies and his damned magician, they made Catherine bare living children by the gifted outlaws. In the distant past, Dracula stashed Catherines family in a small barony. They tried to prepare them, casting strange and hideous protections. But the best laid plans Other Sorcerers have an eye on that Dark Throne. Their plan requires they rip off the children. Can the boys escape the destinies that others have planned for them? Follow across time and space to America where they battle to live free and escape the minions of the Blacks. While Rip collects a vicious black stallion and pearl-handled 44s, Andrs chief assets remain his quick wit and his hidden curse. Catherines boys cut a path through the Old South to Texas in the 1880s, hoping to elude pursuit while they try to discover their abilities and stay alive long enough to learn what they are and where they belong.

A Newbery Honor Book * Booklist Editors’ Choice * BookPage Best Books * Chicago Public Library Best Fiction * Horn Book Fanfare * Kirkus Reviews Best Books * Publishers Weekly Best Books * Wall Street Journal Best of the Year * An ALA Notable Book A young outcast is swept up into a thrilling and perilous medieval treasure hunt in this award-winning literary page-turner by acclaimed bestselling author Catherine Gilbert Murdock. The Book of Boy was awarded a Newbery Honor. “A treat from start to finish.”—Wall Street Journal Boy has always been relegated to the outskirts of his small village. With a hump on his back, a mysterious past, and a tendency to talk to animals, he is often mocked by others in his town—until the arrival of a shadowy pilgrim named Secondus. Impressed with Boy’s climbing and jumping abilities, Secondus engages Boy as his servant, pulling him into an action-packed and suspenseful expedition across Europe to gather seven precious relics of Saint Peter. Boy quickly realizes this journey is not an innocent one. They are stealing the relics and accumulating dangerous enemies in the process. But Boy is determined to see this pilgrimage through until the end—for what if St. Peter has the power to make him the same as the other boys? This epic and engrossing quest story by Newbery Honor author Catherine Gilbert Murdock is for fans of Adam Gidwitz’s The Inquisitor’s Tale and Grace Lin’s Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, and for readers of all ages. Features a map and black-and-white art by Ian Schoenherr throughout.

Find out what happens when you fall for your best friend's worst enemy in this hilarious tale of a forbidden first love and forever friendship. The author of Maine Squeeze and Love and Other Things I'm Bad At, Catherine Clark, has once again crafted a romantic coming-of-age story that will stay with you long after you turn the last page. Lucy can't wait to spend the summer at the lake with her best friend, Mikayla. But when Jackson, the boy she's been avoiding ever since he rejected her, reappears in her life, Lucy wonders if this summer to remember is one she'd rather forget. Mikayla's never had much luck talking to boys, but when she (literally) runs into the cutest guy she's ever seen, and sparks fly, she thinks things might be looking up . . . until she realizes the adorable stranger is the same boy who broke her best friend's heart. As things begin to heat up between Mikayla and the one guy she should avoid, will Lucy be able to keep her cool or will the girls' perfect summer turn into one hot mess?

'Catherine Bailey has the great gift of bringing to life personal histories . . . Wonderfully paced and wholly satisfying' Kate Atkinson ___________________________________________________________ Berlin, September 1944. Ulrich von Hassell, former ambassador to Italy and a key member of the German Resistance, is executed for his part in an assassination plot against Hitler. In response to the attack, Himmler, leader of the SS, orders the arrest of all the families of the plotters. In a remote castle in Italy, von Hassell's beloved daughter, Fey, is discovered just when she thought she had escaped the Nazi net. She is arrested and her two sons, aged three and two are seized by the SS. Fey has no idea of her children's fate as she is dragged away on a terrifying journey to the darkest corners of a Europe savaged by war. Moving from a palazzo in the heart of the Italian countryside to the horrors of Buchenwald, Catherine Bailey tells an extraordinary story of resistance at the heart of the Second World War. The Lost Boys is an illuminating and devastating account of great personal sacrifice, of loss and, above all, of defiance.

City of Toronto Book Award finalist Scarborough is a low-income, culturally diverse neighborhood east of Toronto, the fourth largest city in North America; like many inner city communities, it suffers under the weight of poverty, drugs, crime, and urban blight. Scarborough the novel employs a multitude of voices to tell the story of a tight-knit neighborhood under fire: among them, Victor, a black artist harassed by the police; Winsum, a West Indian restaurant owner struggling to keep it together; and Hina, a Muslim school worker who witnesses first-hand the impact of poverty on education. And then there are the three kids who work to rise above a system that consistently fails them: Bing, a gay Filipino boy who lives under the shadow of his father's mental illness; Sylvie, Bing's best friend, a Native girl whose family struggles to find a permanent home to live in; and Laura, whose history of neglect by her mother is destined to repeat itself with her father. Scarborough offers a raw yet empathetic glimpse into a troubled community that locates its dignity in unexpected places: a neighborhood that refuses to be undone. Catherine Hernandez is a queer theatre practitioner and writer who has lived in Scarborough off and on for most of her life. Her plays Singkil and Kilt Pins were published by Playwrights Canada Press, and her children's book M is for Mustache: A Pride ABC Book was published by Flamingo Rampant. She is the Artistic Director of Sulong Theatre for women of color.

A severely burned teenager. A guitar. Punk rock. The chords of a rock 'n' roll road trip in a coming-of-age novel that is a must-read story about finding your place in the world . . . even if you carry scars inside and out. In attempting to describe himself in his college application essay—to "help us to become acquainted with you beyond your courses, grades, and test scores"—Harbinger (Harry) Jones goes way beyond the 250-word limit and gives a full account of his life. The first defining moment: the day the neighborhood goons tied him to a tree during a lightning storm when he was 8 years old, and the tree was struck and caught fire. Harry was badly burned and has had to live with the physical and emotional scars, reactions from strangers, bullying, and loneliness that instantly became his everyday reality. The second defining moment: the day in eighth grade when the handsome, charismatic Johnny rescued him from the bullies and then made the startling suggestion that they start a band together. Harry discovered that playing music transported him out of his nightmare of a world, and he finally had something that compelled people to look beyond his physical appearance. Harry's description of his life in his essay is both humorous and heart-wrenching. He had a steeper road to climb than the average kid, but he ends up learning something about personal power, friendship, first love, and how to fit in the world. While he's looking back at the moments that have shaped his life, most of this story takes place while Harry is in high school and the summer after he graduates.

Describes how fourteen-year-old Thomas Zachary helped a group of escaped Union prisoners elude the Confederate soldiers in the mountains of North Carolina and make it to freedom.

Provides pictures and brief facts about a variety of different kinds of dinosaurs.

Romantic, chaotic and terrifying, Catherine Parr's life unfolds like a romance novel. Married at seventeen to the grandson of a confirmed lunatic and widowed at twenty, Catherine chose a Yorkshire lord twice her age as her second husband. Caught up in the turbulent terrors of the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, she was captured by northern rebels, held hostage and suffered violence at their hands. Fleeing to the south shortly afterward, Catherine took refuge in the household of Princess Mary and in the arms of the king's brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Seymour. Her employment in Mary's household brought her to the attention of Mary's father, the unpredictable, often-wed Henry VIII. Desperately in love with Seymour, Catherine was forced into marriage with a king whose passion for her could not be hidden and who was determined to make her his queen.