On the windswept plains of northwestern China, Mongol bandits swoop down upon an American missionary couple and steal their small child. The Reverend sets out in search of the boy and becomes lost in the rugged, corrupt countryside populated by opium dens, sly nomadic warlords and traveling circuses. This upright Midwestern minister develops a following among the Chinese peasants and is christened Ghost Man for what they perceive are his otherworldly powers. Grace, his young ingénue wife, pregnant with their second child, takes to her sick bed in the mission compound, where visions of her stolen child and lost husband begin to beckon to her from across the plains. The foreign couple’s savvy and dedicated Chinese servants, Ahcho and Mai Lin, accompany and eventually lead them through dangerous territory to find one another again. With their Christian beliefs sorely tested, their concept of fate expanded, and their physical health rapidly deteriorating, the Reverend and Grace may finally discover an understanding between them that is greater than the vast distance they have come.

All Freya can remember is her sister, the basement, and the Man Upstairs. She has no memory of the world outside or of being warm or of not feeling hungry. And now her sister is gone. An unlikely ally shows her how to break out of the basement, but on the frozen banks of the Mississippi, Freya quickly discovers things worse than the Man Upstairs. Freya is lucky to find Finn. He has a canoe, some supplies, and a vague idea about a place down south called Norlins. If they can dodge the slavers and avoid starving to death, the two of them might just have a shot at survival.

Mark Twain's boyhood home of Hannibal, Missouri, often brings to mind romanticized images of Twain's fictional characters Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer exploring caves and fishing from the banks of the Mississippi River. In City of Dust, Gregg Andrews tells another story of the Hannibal area, the very real story of the exploitation and eventual destruction of Ilasco, Missouri, an industrial town created to serve the purposes of the Atlas Portland Cement Company. In this new edition, Andrews provides an introduction detailing the impact of this book since its initial publication in 1996. He writes of a new twist in the Ilasco saga, one that concerns the Continental Cement Company’s attempt, not unlike Atlas’s one hundred years earlier, to manipulate the sale of a piece of land near its plant in the town. He explores the uneasy relationship between preservationists and the plant’s CEO and officials in St. Louis; the growing movement to preserve Ilasco’s heritage, including the building of a monument to commemorate the early residents of the town; and the grassroots petition drive and letter-writing campaign that stopped the Continental Cement Company’s machinations.

A vivid, searching journey into California's capture of water and soil—the epic story of a people's defiance of nature and the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion. No other chronicler of the West has so deeply delved into the empires of agriculture that drink so much of the water. The nation's biggest farmers—the nut king, grape king and citrus queen—tell their story here for the first time. Arax, the native son, is persistent and tough as he treks from desert to delta, mountain to valley. What he finds is hard earned, awe-inspiring, tragic and revelatory. In the end, his compassion for the land becomes an elegy to the dream that created California and now threatens to undo it.

For fans of Shark Lady and from the New York Times bestselling illustrator of Dr. Fauci comes the incredible true story of a girl who discovered dinosaur bones in her own backyard and, after years of persistence, helped uncover one of the most exciting paleontological discoveries of our time. There’s an extraordinary secret hidden just beneath Ruth Mason’s feet. The year is 1905, and Ruth is a prairie girl living in South Dakota. She has no way of knowing that millions of years ago, her family farm was once home to scores of dinosaurs. Until one day, when Ruth starts finding clues to the past: strange rocks and rubble scattered all across her land. They’re dinosaur fossils—but she doesn’t know that yet, either. It will take many years of collecting these clues, and many, many questions, but Ruth’s curiosity will one day help uncover thousands of fossils all across her land. New York Times bestselling illustrator Alexandra Bye’s vibrant illustrations bring to life this inspiring and exciting debut picture book from award-winning journalist Julia Lyon.

The children were disappearing. And the worst thing about it? No one noticed A rainmaker brings rain to a drought-stricken town. The stranger amazes the townspeople with magic mirrors and bewitches the children with his beautiful butterfly. First, one child vanishes. Then another. And another. Only one young man sees through the lies and decides to act. You'll love this dark, mysterious young adult novel. Winner of the Governor General's Award. Get it now.

"I don't realize I'm crying until he glances at me. For a moment, I see the look of anguish in his eyes, then he blinks it away and slips off into the water. I immediately think of the gator. It's still down there somewhere. . . ." A science-class field trip to the Everglades is supposed to be fun, but Sarah's new at Glades Academy, and her fellow freshmen aren’t exactly making her feel welcome. When an opportunity for an unauthorized side trip on an air boat presents itself, it seems like a perfect escape—an afternoon without feeling like a sore thumb. But one simple oversight turns a joyride into a race for survival across the river of grass. Sarah will have to count on her instincts—and a guy she barely knows—if they have any hope of making it back alive.

Season of Flowers and Dust explores through poetry a seasonal cycle of fall, winter, and spring in the Pacific Northwest. The close observations found here in fall and spring poems and winter sonnets offer readers a strong engagement with the natural world.¿A tango of heart-stringsthrows an awning of notesbetween them and the night.Matt imagines he should go to river¿s edge,and dance, and watch.¿ ¿from ¿Descent Into Light¿¿Not since the writings of Robert Hass and Barbara Hurd has there been a poet who so tributes the natural world in poetry. Gregg Mosson follows the strange stars of our seasons with the attention of a birdwatcher and passion of a lover. His human responses create a brilliant tapestry of snow, sky, and leaf, detailed like an article of faith. Reverence to nature is as ancient as time, but what remains is the poet who touches this territory the way the wind sings our language.¿¿Grace CavalieriPoet and producer of ¿The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress¿ "Gregg Mosson¿s Season of Flowers and Dust carries me into a universal season, one with subtle sensuality and the veiled love and violence which life holds. These poems have just the right blend of spirit, light, darkness, and as Marianne Moore would say, `Real toads in imaginary gardens.¿ ¿¿Carol FranksPortland State University

D. Saddlesoap and the other characters from Dust River Gulch are featured in six bold tales in this sequel to Tales from Dust River Gulch.