Julie's grandmother deflates many of her husband's tall tales about their journey from Russia to America and their life on Hester Street.

Two women. A history of witchcraft. And a deep-rooted female power that sings across the centuries. Once there was a young woman from a well-to-do New England family who never quite fit with the drawing rooms and parlors of her kin. Called instead to the tangled woods and wild cliffs surrounding her family’s estate, Margaret Harlowe grew both stranger and more beautiful as she cultivated her uncanny power. Soon, whispers of “witch” dogged her footsteps, and Margaret’s power began to wind itself with the tendrils of something darker. One hundred and fifty years later, Augusta Podos takes a dream job at Harlowe House, the historic home of a wealthy New England family that has been turned into a small museum in Tynemouth, Massachusetts. When Augusta stumbles across an oblique reference to a daughter of the Harlowes who has nearly been expunged from the historical record, the mystery is too intriguing to ignore. But as she digs deeper, something sinister unfurls from its sleep, a dark power that binds one woman to the other across lines of blood and time. If Augusta can’t resist its allure, everything she knows and loves—including her very life—could be lost forever. Don't miss Hester Fox's next novel, THE BOOK OF THORNS, where two sisters who never knew the other existed meet on opposite sides during the Napoleonic Wars and must use the magic of flowers to solve the mystery of their mother’s death—while surviving the war raging around them... Look for these other gothic mysteries from Hester Fox: The Last Heir to Blackwood Library The Witch of Willow Hall The Widow of Pale Harbor The Orphan of Cemetery Hill

In the spirit of Where the Wild Things Are, readers will journey with Angus and understand that whether you are grumpy, angry, or mad, there is no place better than home with your loved ones. Angus woke up mad and knew today was not his day. His dachshund, Clive, walked too slowly. His canary, Pennycake, was too loud. And to top it off, his breakfast pancakes were way too skinny.Angus was in a bad mood, and he decided to run away. He walked two blocks, three blocks, five blocks, then suddenly everything seemed scary and dark. When his mother found Angus, he realized he was better off with her and at home. The touching story by Patrick Downes and the bold illustrations by Boris Kulikov will comfort young children. It will show them that even when they are angry or frustrated or dealing with other emotions, everything is going to be all right.

Eleven-year-old Isabel is a “plain old” girl living in Provincetown, Massachusetts, who believes that she is destined to accomplish something special. When her fifth-grade class goes on a whale-watch field trip, something amazing happens: Dozens of different species of whales surround the boat, bumping the deck and sending Isabel flying into the ocean. Isabel is shocked to hear the whales speaking to her—she is a mermaid, they tell her, a “Chosen One” who has the ability to turn from a human into a whale and back again. She is destined to live among the whales long enough to learn their ways, and teach them about the human world. Living among her pod is fun, at first, but Isabel has an important mission. She will change the whales’ future forever, and learn a lot about herself in the process.

From the Bronx to the Battery and beyond, New York is a wonderful town--and one that was centuries in the making. With the Statue of Liberty raising her torch high, it became the shining symbol of a promised land for immigrants throughout the world. Follow the city’s growth, and look at her buildings old and new, from Trinity Church to today’s glass and steel skyscrapers. The trip passes through Ellis Island, first stop for many new Americans; Battery Park City, where Castle Clinton still stands; Hester Street, once filled with peddlers selling their wares; the original and new Penn Stations and Madison Square Gardens; and more. Sidebars look in depth at such New York attractions as the subway.

Now an old man, John is haunted by memories of enlisting to fight in World War II, a decision which forced him to face the horrors of war and changed his life forever.

Struggling to support her family in mid-19th-century New York, writer Frances Osgood makes an unexpected connection with literary master Edgar Allan Poe and finds her survival complicated by her intense attraction to the writer and the scheming manipulations of his wife.

Is Dalia’s little blue box magic—or is the real magic the generosity that helps her fill it? When Dalia learns about tzedakah, the Jewish tradition of charity and caring, she creates a tzedakah box where she can keep the money she’s saved to help those in need. Her little brother Yossi is curious about the Hebrew letters painted on the box. "Are those letters magic?" he asks. They must be because Dalia tells him she's putting a big yellow comforter, a butterfly bush, and a banana cream pie inside of it! How ever will she do it? Though there may be joy in receiving, Dalia’s story serves as a powerful reminder that the greatest joy of all comes from giving generously to others.

Landon Starker is an anger-imbued, foul-mouthed delinquent teenager with a horrific home life and an angry father who would challenge anyones existence. He hates school, skips classes liberally, and fears his fathers reaction to all of it. Then one day, it all changes, but why? In the same vein as Catcher in the Ryes Holden Caulfield, Landon arrives at his existence through a tragedy, wherein his psyche becomes fractured. For emotional success, Landon must work to recognize how his mind has engaged in self-preservation: a combination of repressing memories and re-defining reality so it doesnt hurt when lifes recordings invade the mind. Landon starts to confront these repressed memories and warped views of his past when hes forcefully removed from his abusive home in Leigh, Nebraska, and placed in a counseling center. He attempts a re-entry into an old family he thought had abandoned him. And while this therapeutic process seems to soothe his trauma, another revelation demands that Landon search his repressed memories for the details of a serious crime he has no recollection of. The "truths" flood in, leaving the reader with a profound sense of how trauma robs the self of mind and spirit.

Two identical toys become mixed-up when taken to school.