Olivia Black's latest work is destined to become a new children's classic. Along the lines of Harry Potter and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the first book in this series follows three very special children as they each learn to face their demons as they fight the battle of their lives to preserve good, despite a powerful and growing force of evil. An important foundation is formed as the transition of power from the old guard to the new is established. Join Jack, Chance, and Ashley in their adventures with Grandpa Hugo, Uncle Nicholas, Mr. Hecht, and the Cinnamon Men as they battle the evil soldiers of Krampus in this fun and memorable holiday story.

Autobiography -- World War II Why did the German people tolerate the Nazi madness? Maria Ritter's life is haunted by the ever-painful, never-answerable German Question. Who knew? What was known? Confronting the profound silence in which most postwar Germans buried pain and shame, she attempts in this memoir to give an answer for herself and for her generation. Sixty years after the defeat of Nazi Germany, she reflects on the nation's oppressive burden and the persecution of the contemporary consciousness. 'We received what we deserved, ' my grandfather said after the war, and I believed him. His stare out the window spoke of bitterness and solemn resignation in the face of God's punishment and pity for us all. In probing the dark shadows of wartime, she reconstructs the voice of her childhood. With a determined search for remnants of her past during a visit to her homeland, Ritter retrieves memories and emotions from places, personal stories, and letters. As she interweaves them with events in her family's struggle to survive the war and its aftermath, she creates a tragic tapestry. She recalls the weary odyssey from Poland to Leipzig with refugees in 1943 and remembers being sheltered there beside her grandfather. She returns to Dresden to rekindle memories of the firebombing in 1945. She revisits the remote Saxony countryside where she and her mother crossed the border from East to West Germany in flight from the Communists in 1949. She relives the pain of learning that her father will never return from the war. On a Memorial Day many years later, Ritter's longstanding, unresolved grief overflows as she writes a posthumous letter to him. She suffers in the heartbreaking memory of her valiant mother, who overcame loss and grief along the road to freedom and a new home. Ritter's memoir sweeps through German history of the 1930s and '40s as she meditates on how she and her people figure in the tragic story of defeat and debacle. In her recollections, in listening to the voices of her kin, and in speaking out about the past, she finds the humane way to healing and reconciliation. Maria Ritter is a clinical psychologist in San Diego, California.

In 1933 Germany became a dictatorship under the Great War veteran Adolf Hitler. He pulled the country out of depression and set it to work, reducing unemployment by undertaking extensive public works and building the first autoroutes in the world. He then resumed conscription and rearmament. All opposition had been eliminated and all power centred in that one man, whose boasted promise was a German Empire that would last 'a Thousand Years'. The author was born in 1935. Ten years later millions had died, much of the continent lay in ruins, his country was shamed and the 'thousand years' came to a fiery end. Others experienced worse, but for a ten-year-old with explosions all about him and with the world seeming to be burning the war made a vivid impression. His Westphalian village consisted largely of traditional farms and homesteads built of wattle and daub--often still shared by livestock. Most of the male population had been called up to fight Hitler's wars and foreigners made up much of the workforce. General Patton's Third Army lit up the village with phosphor grenades from several mountains away. The world seemed to be coming to an end.

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen…but do you recall the most petrifying Christmas figures of all? Not all children fear just a lump of coal in their stockings. Discover the terrifying Yuletide fables that have horrified kids for generations. He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness’ sake. This lighthearted song is a bit more ominous in the context of other Christmas traditions. From beasts that threaten to cook children into stew to sinister crones who snatch little ones from their beds, you won’t find any dancing sugar plums here. Outside of the heartwarming Christmas tales we all know and love, there are an abundance of frightening stories to chill all who hear them to the bone. Discover folklore from all corners of the world, including: Krampus (Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and northern Italy), a demonic half-goat monster who drags chains and whips bad children with birch sticks, or stuffs them in his sack to take away The Kallikantzari (Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Turkey), goblins who come out during Advent to cause mischief Père Fouettard (France, Belgium, Switzerland), Saint Nicholas’ eternal cannibal manservant who deals with naughty children Hans Trapp (Alsace-Lorraine, France), who roams the countryside disguised as a scarecrow and goes door to door on Christmas looking for children to feast upon Gryla (Iceland), the giant ogre who emerges from her cave on Christmas to hunt children and cook them into stew Mari Lwyd (Wales), a creature with a horse’s skull and a long cloak that is followed by a group of chanting people Frau Perchta (Austria and Bavaria), who slits the bellies of bad children and stuffs them with straw These tales are sure to leave you wishing for the Grinch. Whether you are a fan of history and folklore, you love learning about different cultures, or you just want to give a holiday gift that will bring the joy of Christmas to that lucky someone (just kidding), The Scary Book of Christmas Lore is for you. ’Tis the season! Is it beginning look a lot like Christmas, yet?

EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK:ODDS AGAINST ME By MINA SCHELLER-WILDFEUER PART 1: TRANQUILITY CHILDHOOD Bruckenthal evokes my fondest memories. With nostalgia I recall walks through immense wheat fields – a huge yellow ocean with slight ripples of waves gently swaying in the summer breeze, a glorious intense orgy of colorful wildflowers interspersed throughout it: the vivid blues of cornflowers, brilliant reds of poppies, immaculate whites of daisies. I was surrounded by nature’s best. The sweet fragrance, the breathtaking beauty of it filled me with overwhelming joy. Carried upon the currant of happiness I dang out loud. On lazy summer days, when the atmosphere became heavy with the heat, I lay down on the cool, dark, rich earth, looking up into the translucent blue sky through hot simmering air. Made drowsy by the monotonous buzz of bees, I let myself overflow with a child’s dream. It was the loveliest corner in the world. PART 2: WAR REFUGEES Hour after hour, I, a twelve year old, shuffled behind the wagon, battling harsh howling winds, gust of snow and sleep. Sometimes when slowing down, I could feel the steamy warm breath and hear the occasional snorting of following horses near my ears. What if I should fall down? Would I be trampled to death, rolled over by the churning wheels? The trek came to a hold. I was fatigued beyond endurance, almost hallucinating. An overturned wagon on the side of the road, the casualty of mortar fire, beckoned me. Next to its dead horse, still in harness, was leaning against an embankment with its head grotesquely twisted and its legs stiffly sticking upward. Large lumps, faintly bearing human shape, were half buried in a snow tomb. I climbed onto the deserted wagon and curled up between baggage. It snowed heavier. Big beautiful snowflakes floated silently down. Soon, everything would be covered softly, just one white, serene wonderland. I would be asleep, finally blissfully asleep, maybe forever. My eyes closed. I felt myself drifting off peacefully. PART 3: POSTWAR BAD OLDESLOE, GERMANY Hunger was our steady companion. The prayerful sentence “Give us this day our daily bread”, so carelessly uttered by many took on an urgent meaning. To subsidize the meager rations, being near the starvation point, Mother and I went foraging for food. Droves of hungry people from the big City Hamburg, joined us in that venture. They came by trains that were filled beyond capacity. Humans were hanging on the outside like overripe grapes. The trains hardly came to a stop, when everyone jumped down and descended on the already harvested fields, in hope of finding leftovers. We all walked and picked through the scratchy stubble of reaped wheat fields. It was a painful experience. Legs and hands were cut and bleeding. The reward came when found grains were carefully separated from salvaged husks, and Father pounded the kernels into coarse flour. The bread Mother made from it was delicious but hardly enough for five. Putting it into a locked box, she doled it out a few slices at a time. PART 4: AMERICA! AMERICA! THE “GENERAL LANGFITT” I sank down in wet planks in a vacant corner, licking the salty air. Some of my fellow travelers, reeking if garlic, were strolling on deck. Garlic was supposed to be a remedy not only against vampires but also for seasickness. Others, their faces showing greenish hues, joined me. We didn’t exchange pleasantries, simply nodded sympathetically whenever one of us left to lean over the railing. I couldn’t bring myself to return to the mess hall. The thought of food repulsed me. Nevertheless, I was hungry. One night, unable to sleep, listening to the snoring around me, the growling stomach and the constant rattle of the nearby engine, I spotted a couple of oranges alongside the bunk. Impossible! My eyes must have deceived me. But no, soon more followed – big juicy oranges. Neither did I care

German POWs held in England during WWI record their experience in this volume of detailed accounts, diary entries, drawings, and more. In Munich in 1920, just after the end of the First World War, German prisoners of war in England published a book they had written and smuggled back home. Through vivid text and illustrations, they describe their experience of life in a camp at Skipton in Yorkshire. Their work, now translated into English for the first time, gives us a unique insight into their feelings about the war, their captors, and their longing to go home. In their own words they record prison camp conditions, daily routines, their relationship with the prison authorities, their activities and entertainment, and their thoughts of their homeland. The challenges and privations they faced are part of their story, as is the community they created within the confines of the camp. The whole gamut of their existence is portrayed here, in particular through their drawings and cartoons which are reproduced alongside the translation. German Prisoners of the Great War offers an inside view of a hitherto neglected aspect of the wartime experience.