Intertwining stories of an embittered man, a loyal hound, an abandoned cat and a vengeful lamia (a mythical, snakelike creature) tell a tale of love, loss, loneliness and hope make for a dark, yet beautiful novel that quite literally, sings. A cat, about to have kittens, becomes the unlikely friend of an abused bloodhound named Ranger. After the kittens are born and then lose their mother, Ranger has no choice but to become a surrogate father as the brave kitten Puck insists on keeping their makeshift family together. Woven into the story is a Caddo myth about a shape-shifting snake, trapped in a jar for a thousand years. Learning how these two narratives go together is the pleasure of this remarkable novel.
Kathi Appelt is the award-winning author of many children's books, including Bat Jamboree, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, and Incredible Me!, illustrated by G. Brian Karas. Ms. Appelt teaches creative writing to both children and adults and lives in College Station, Texas. She believes that the best authors write about the people and places they see everyday in their own lives and encourages aspiring writers to use their everyday experiences in their work.
A frightening and murderous man named Jack enters a sleeping house where only an 18-month-old baby escapes his knife. The baby crawls to a nearby graveyard where he is taken in by the spirits who reside there and is provided for by a neither fully dead, nor fully alive guardian, Silas. As Bod (short for Nobody Owen) grows up, he learns life's lessons from a variety of cemetery residents who hail from a variety of times, places and experiences. But can a child protected only by the dead survive in the outside world away from the protection of spirits? And can he make his way in a world where his family's murderer still exists? A cunning combination of death, fantasy, comedy and humanity, Gaiman's story is as haunting as it is extraordinary.
Bestselling author Neil Gaiman has long been one of the top writers in modern comics, as well as writing books for readers of all ages. He is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers, and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama. Born and raised in England, Neil Gaiman now lives near Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has somehow reached his forties and still tends to need a haircut
Isabel, a 13-year-old slave, is virtually invisible in her home in revolutionary-era New York. So when she is approached by rebels who want to help her and her five-year-old sister Ruth to freedom, she agrees. As Isabel takes breaks from her painfully mundane domestic duties to listen at doors and eavesdrop on her fiercely loyalist masters -- the not-so-subtly named Locktons -- she learns that an entire country is fighting for independence and is inspired to seek her own. Including an extensive reference section that opens the door to discussions of the time period and what life would have been like for Isabel and Ruth, Halse's exploration of power and freedom in the midst of the struggle of a developing nation is unmissable.
Laurie Halse Anderson was born in Potsdam, a cold place in Northern New York State. Since 1993, Laurie had been researching and constantly rewriting Fever 1793 (originally titled Bitter Drops -- don't ask). She took a break and wrote Speak (pub. 1999), which turned out to be a great idea. Speak won award after award -- it was a National Book Award Finalist, a Printz Honor book, a Booklist "Top10 First Novels of 1999" and many more. When not writing or hanging out with her family, you can find her training for marathons, hiking in the mountains, or trying to coax tomatoes out of the rocky soil in her backyard.
When Katniss' little sister is selected to serve as a gladiator in an annual televised life or death reality show that, in the post-millennial world they live in, is the biggest event of the year, she jumps in to take her place and save her life. As a contestant, she is an underdog who gets a fast makeover and minimal training for the event before being quite literally thrown to the wolves in the first round of the game, where the goal is to not only to survive, but to be the last one alive. In the course of the game, Katniss forms alliances that must be broken and she must strategize to stay alive when others are dying. Soon, she begins to wonder if by keeping her life she has lost her humanity. The first in a series, readers are left with a few unanswered questions, including what it means to be a complicit part of a society caught up in a deadly game that blurs the lines between reality and terror.
Since 1991, Suzanne Collins has been busy writing for children's television. While working on a Kids WB show called Generation O! she met children's author James Proimos, who talked her into giving children's books a try.
At present, Suzanne is hard at work on the third book in her sci-fi series, The Hunger Games. She currently lives in Connecticut with her family and a pair of feral kittens they adopted from their backyard.
This tightly woven novel looks back on two years in a New York City neighborhood, where life changes for two 11-year-olds when a new girl joins their game of Double Dutch. Bonded by Tupac's music, the three girls explore the lure of freedom and build a friendship that redefines their own identities.As the narrator explains, "...time kept on creeping." "Then Tupac went and died and it got me thinking about D. About the short time she was with us and about how you could know somebody real good but not know them at the same time. And it made me want to remember."
Jacqueline Woodson was born to Jack and Mary Ann Woodson on February 12, 1964. Although she was born in Columbus, Ohio she grew up moving back and forth between South Carolina and Brooklyn, New York, where she currently lives. She has written over 20 books and won two Newberry honors, a Coretta Scott King award and is a two time finalist for the National Book Award.
In addition to writing, she enjoys reading new authors and sewing.
Perhaps it was the Lake Champlain monster that started it all. Born in the state of New York, Ingrid Law's first home was a stone's throw from the waters of Lake Champlain and its legendary prehistoric sea monster. From the very start, life was steeped in the lure of the fantastic, of tall tales and big ideas.
When she turned six, her family moved to Boulder, Colorado. Ms. Law still lives in Colorado, close to family, friends and the mountains.
Escape is Alex's only option. But it's not just about saving his own skin. The more he discovers, the more he understands that he is going to have to do whatever it takes to expose this nightmare hidden from the eyes of the world.
Alexander Gordon Smith, 30, lives in Norwich, England. He is the co-owner of Fear Driven Films, a production company that is shooting its first feature film this year, and founder of Egg Box Publishing, an independent press that promotes new writers and poets. Gordon is the author of many magazine articles as well as two books in the Inventors series, co-written with his kid brother Jamie Webb. Lockdown: Escape from Furnace is his first book to be published in the United States.