At her death, an elderly Plains Indian woman experiences the afterlife believed by her people, while the surviving family members prepare her body according to their custom
For too long, the details of this tragedy have been shrouded in a fog of secrecy. Beyond Tranquillon Ridge is a story that recounts the firefighting efforts during a frenzied 24- hour period known as the "Honda Canyon Fire." It is a history of the strategies and tactics used and it includes many first-hand accounts of the conditions that firefighters and the military faced on the front lines-including the tragic deaths of their comrades. Joseph Valencia offers a brilliant look back; re-creating the sights and sounds of actual firefighting; descriptive overviews of the landscape of South Vandenberg, with rich profiles and command level decisions of the brave men who fought it. In the end, this one day in 1977 stands out as the pivotal time when wind and fire combined into a firestorm and where past compromises affected an outcome.
Discover a brilliant thriller set in a remote big-cat sanctuary: "one of the scariest and most touching horror tales in years" (James Patterson). In an isolated stretch of eastern Kentucky, on a hilltop known as Blade Ridge, stands a lighthouse that illuminates nothing but the surrounding woods. For years the lighthouse has been considered no more than an eccentric local landmark -- until its builder is found dead at the top of the light, and his belongings reveal a troubling local history. For deputy sheriff Kevin Kimble, the lighthouse-keeper's death is disturbing and personal. Years ago, Kimble was shot while on duty. Somehow the death suggests a connection between the lighthouse and the most terrifying moment of his life. Audrey Clark is in the midst of moving her large-cat sanctuary onto land adjacent to the lighthouse. Sixty-seven tigers, lions, leopards, and one legendary black panther are about to have a new home there. Her husband, the sanctuary's founder, died scouting the new property, and Audrey is determined to see his vision through. As strange occurrences multiply at the Ridge, the animals grow ever more restless, and Kimble and Audrey try to understand what evil forces are moving through this ancient landscape, just past the divide between dark and light. The Ridge is a brilliant thriller from international bestseller Michael Koryta, further evidence of why Dean Koontz has said "Michael Koryta's work resonates into deeper strata than does most of what I read" and why Michael Connelly has named him "one of the best of the best." "The Ridge is a classic ghost story, penned by a master. I couldn't put it down, even though I almost screamed when the wind blew a branch against the tree outside my study. Yes, it's that scary." --Stephen King
Straggletail is the lowest-ranking female hyena in the Eastern Plain Clan, the punching bag. Glossycoat is the clan's princess, destined to follow in her mother's footsteps and become the matriarch. When the two hyenas form an unexpected alliance, they set off on a perilous journey in search of the place where the sun goes at night. They meet strange creatures, brave the forces of nature, and grapple with their own worst fears. Will they find the sun, or will they find something more?
Before he wrote the bestselling 100 Cupboards trilogy and Ashtown Burials series, N. D. Wilson delighted readers with his first unforgettable action-adventure story of survival. . . . Thomas Hammond has always lived next to Leepike Ridge, but he never imagined he might end up lost beneath it! The night Tom’s schoolteacher comes to dinner and asks Tom’s mother to marry him, Tom slips out of the house and escapes down a nearby stream on a floating slab of packing foam. The night and stars lull Tom to sleep, and when he wakes, he has ridden his foam raft all the way to the ridge, where the stream dives underground. Flung over rapids and tossed through chasms, Tom finally hits shore, sore but alive. What Tom finds under Leepike Ridge—a dog, a flashlight, a castaway, a tomb, and buried treasure—will answer questions he hadn’t known to ask, and change his life forever. Now, if only he can find his way home again. . . . In the grand tradition of Robinson Crusoe, Hatchet, and Tom Sawyer, N. D. Wilson’s first book for young readers is a remarkable adventure, a journey through the dark and back into the light. A New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing “This is a ripping good adventure yarn. . . . Here’s the perfect remedy for any summer that’s been disappointingly short on thrills.”—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, Starred “Wilson’s debut is a literate, sometimes humorous page-turner in the classic tradition. Well-read adventure lovers are in for a treat looking for echoes of The Odyssey and Tom Sawyer.”—Kirkus Reviews “Tom’s adventures have several literary ancestors, including Tom and Huck in the cave, and the inventive Swiss Family Robinson, but this is solidly set in the present, standing on its own with well-crafted suspense and fascinating survival detail. . . . [M]iddle-grade readers will also relish the physicality of the journey: underwater swims, tight passages, and rock climbing. . . . [An] appealing and easy-to-booktalk package.”—Booklist “Wilson sets the scene vividly, from Tom’s home to the labyrinth of tunnels and caverns under the mountain, and the central characters’ emotional lives develop both naturally and affectingly. [Readers] will appreciate both the fast-paced adventure and Tom’s determination to make the impossible journey back home.”—The Horn Book Magazine “Wilson’s rich imagination and his quirky characters are a true delight.”—School Library Journal
Coal Davis is a horse rancher who has been raised in a family where money and power have ruled her life, and not in a good way. She has returned home after her grandparents' death to accept a new family role that she does not want. Unfortunately, that role requires her to have to deal with her father or risk the loss of a program that sick children depend upon. Jay DiAngelo is the contractor hired to work on the home Coal Davis has inherited. With her dark hair and honey eyes, being a contractor isn't her only skill. She lives from paycheck to paycheck trying to pay off a debt that could cost her a home that is very special to her. Working in the town of Woodside is a risk, since a relative has tarnished her family name. But pride is everything to Jay, and since she'd never ask for a handout, she'd rather take the risk and chancegoing hungry than beg for help. Both have a lot to lose. A relationship would be risky, but if they can overcome the obstacles keeping them apart, they could build something priceless.
A wide-ranging, multidisciplinary look at Native American literature through non-narrative texts like lists, albums, recipes, and scrapbooks Kelly Wisecup offers a sweeping account of early Native American literatures by examining Indigenous compilations: intentionally assembled texts that Native people made by juxtaposing and recontextualizing textual excerpts into new relations and meanings. Experiments in reading and recirculation, Indigenous compilations include Mohegan minister Samson Occom's medicinal recipes, the Ojibwe woman Charlotte Johnston's poetry scrapbooks, and Abenaki leader Joseph Laurent's vocabulary lists. Indigenous compilations proliferated in a period of colonial archive making, and Native writers used compilations to remake the very forms that defined their bodies, belongings, and words as ethnographic evidence. This study enables new understandings of canonical Native writers like William Apess, prominent settler collectors like Thomas Jefferson and Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, and Native people who contributed to compilations but remain absent from literary histories. Long before current conversations about decolonizing archives and museums, Native writers made and circulated compilations to critique colonial archives and foster relations within Indigenous communities.