Includes the stories “The Body” and “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”—set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine A “hypnotic” (The New York Times Book Review) collection of four novellas—including the inspirations behind the films Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption—from Stephen King, bound together by the changing of seasons, each taking on the theme of a journey with strikingly different tones and characters. This gripping collection begins with “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,” in which an unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge—the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award-nominee The Shawshank Redemption. Next is “Apt Pupil,” the inspiration for the film of the same name about top high school student Todd Bowden and his obsession with the dark and deadly past of an older man in town. In “The Body,” four rambunctious young boys plunge through the façade of a small town and come face-to-face with life, death, and intimations of their own mortality. This novella became the movie Stand By Me. Finally, a disgraced woman is determined to triumph over death in “The Breathing Method.” “The wondrous readability of his work, as well as the instant sense of communication with his characters, are what make Stephen King the consummate storyteller that he is,” hailed the Houston Chronicle about Different Seasons.

Contents: Hope springs eternal : Rita Hayworth and Shawshank redemption -- Summer of corruption : Apt pupil -- Fall from innocence : The body -- A winter's tale : The breathing method.

For use in schools and libraries only. A collection of four tales of outlandish, commonplace and surprising terror.

Recinos discovered a love for poetry living on the streets after being abandoned by immigrant Latino parents. At age sixteen, a White Presbyterian minister made him part of his family and guided him back to school. Recinos finished high school, attended undergraduate school in Ohio and later graduate school in New York, where he befriended the Nuyorican poet, the late Miguel Pinero, who encouraged him to write and read poetry at the Nuyorican poets' cafe. Other Seasons is a collection that aims to communicate something of what is felt by people who live in the overlooked contexts of marginality. His poems are like graffiti on public culture that memorialize and raise to the level of consciousness the beauty and obstinate spirit of workers, mothers, grandmothers, brothers, sisters, revolutionaries, undocumented immigrants, and those considered, even in religious gatherings, unworthy of love. Recinos' poetry celebrates and chastises the inner workings of the American Dream and moves readers to develop a compassionate awareness for the hopes, struggles, and suffering of others. His poetry not only expresses outrage and despair in the face of unjust suffering in the world, but he invites readers to see the beauty of people at the edges of society who are too often invisible.

Illustrations and rhymes celebrate what makes each season special, from baby chicks in the spring through a snowman in the winter.

Verses describe how a mother cat's love for her kitten will last through the seasons of a lifetime.

One girl must compete to become the next empress while keeping her monstrous identity a secret in this Ancient Japan-inspired standalone fantasy.

Robbie the Raccoon and his friends love Father Oak and worry that he is sick when his leaves begin to turn color and fall off, but Robbie's mother explains what the change means and helps him plant some acorns as a sign of hope for spring.

Something about Big Bend National Park draws visitors again and again. Maybe it's the spare beauty of the mountains and desert, the dawn chorus of birds, or the vivid stars in the velvet night. All of these things have made it Roland Wauer's favorite place. In this book, he shares his love of the Big Bend through journal entries that chronicle a year in the life of the park. Wauer worked as Chief Park Naturalist from 1966 to 1972 and has visited the park frequently ever since. His journal entries span these thirty years, providing not only a composite portrait of a typical year but also a clear sense of how the park's natural history has changed over three decades. He spices his account with anecdotes, often humorous, ranging from stumbling across a herd of javelinas to being trailed by a mountain lion in the dark to discovering new species of plants and animals. Few authors know the Big Bend as Roland Wauer does or have written about it in a more engaging way. This beautifully illustrated book is the perfect companion for a visit to the park, whether in person or by armchair.