Aliera Carstairs just doesn't fit in. She's always front and center at the fencing studio, but at school she's invisible. And she's fine with that . . . until Avery Castle walks into her first period biology class.
Robert Gilbrinkle is blind in one eye, which makes dodging punches in his Anti-Hero Maneuvers class especially difficult, but his lack of depth perception is the least of his troubles. Nox Academy¿s senior project deadline is fast approaching, he's failing three classes, and, naturally, his evil twin Rupert keeps trying to kill him every chance he gets. But the real trouble begins when Robert¿s pathetic superpower--a very unwicked superwink that fixes anything broken--starts to evolve. The kids at Nox used to laugh and call him "Rob Repairman" but nobody is laughing now. His wink threatens anyone who threatens him. Robert's newfound respect in the villain community can't last. He feels like a fraud. When a series of heroic acts gets him expelled, he crashes into the hero town across the forest. The suspicion of the townsfolk and his own need to belong make him question his place between good and evil. With the end of the semester looming, time is running out to choose sides. What haunts him the most is the revelation that maybe he and Rupert aren't as different as he thought. Battling a common enemy brings them closer than either twin can handle, but the lives of their friends are at stake and the thirst for revenge is strong. Maybe even stronger than their disdain for each other.With the playful cartoonish style and broad crossover appeal of Disney¿s SKY HIGH, and the coming of age heroic drama of Matthew Cody¿s POWERLESS, Robert¿s story will resonate with kids from 8 to 14 who love to escape to that comic book world of good vs. evil and often wonder where in the midst of that universe they fit in.
It's a robot invasion! Today, Chirp and his friends Squawk and Tweet are playing at being secret agents on a top-secret mission -- they must shut down an evil robot factory! Unfortunately for secret agents Chirp, Squawk, and Tweet, the factory is filled with dangerous traps! Somehow they must find the control room and stop the evil robots once and for all. With some fancy robot dance moves and the pushing of many buttons, will the three friends manage to save the day? The Chirp books invite readers into a world of imagination where Chirp, Squawk, and Tweet work together to solve problems, using everyday objects and their limitless imaginations. Inspired by Chirp Magazine, the Chirp books are designed to encourage learning through imaginative play and will open up the world to preschoolers, one awesome adventure at a time. LEVELING Grade Range: Pre-K-3 Fountas & Pinnell: J Reading Recovery: 17 Lexile: 690L COMMON CORE RF.1.1,1a,3,3f,3g,4,4a W.1.1,2,3,5,7,8 SL.1.1,1b,1c,2,3,4,5,6 RL.1.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9 L.1.5b,5c,5d,6 L.1.1,1b,1d,2,2a,2b,4,4a,4c,5
The seventh winner of the annual New Criterion Poetry Prize is J. Allyn Rosser's Foiled Again. Ms. Rosser's third poetry collection contains poems of startling range and depth, with formal poems-traditional, hybrid, and nonce-and just as many shaped by the loopy trajectory of their associative momentum. At the heart of Rosser's work is a kind of crazed optimism-a quixotic, wryly cheerful pilgrimage through the maze of bafflement, loneliness, and love that constitutes our experience.
After a series of apparent pranks that leave a faculty member badly injured and a student dead, Bowmouth College English professor Sarah Deane uncovers a tangled web of academic politics, extracurricular activities gone awry, and murder.
Heroes, villains, derring do and music abound in this suite of two delightful new musical versions of our most popular one act melodramas: Curse You, Jack Dalton! and He Ain't Done Right by Nell.
Felix is a vampire--a fierce creature of the night who strikes terror into the hearts of everyone unlucky enough to become his prey. Or at least, that's what he thought was true, until he met John. John is completely unimpressed with Felix, much to his dismay. Felix becomes fixated on proving his ferocity to John--and when that doesn't work, he strives to make any impression on him at all. John is a witch, and as all witches know, vampires are notoriously stupid creatures who only have the power to hurt those who fear them. Besides, he's under a curse much more frightening than any vampire. Felix's desperate attempts to impress him annoy John at first, but gradually, they become sort of endearing. Because of his curse, John has pushed everyone in his life away. But Felix can't be hurt, so there's no harm in letting him hang around. Felix is technically dead. John has nothing left to live for. But together, they might have a shot at life. This dark and witty vampire romance for adults is complete at 100,000 words, with no cliffhanger. Despite some dark twists and turns, it ends with a solid HEA.
A tiny American town's plans for radical self-government overlooked one hairy detail: no one told the bears. Once upon a time, a group of libertarians got together and hatched the Free Town Project, a plan to take over an American town and completely eliminate its government. In 2004, they set their sights on Grafton, NH, a barely populated settlement with one paved road. When they descended on Grafton, public funding for pretty much everything shrank: the fire department, the library, the schoolhouse. State and federal laws became meek suggestions, scarcely heard in the town's thick wilderness. The anything-goes atmosphere soon caught the attention of Grafton's neighbors: the bears. Freedom-loving citizens ignored hunting laws and regulations on food disposal. They built a tent city in an effort to get off the grid. The bears smelled food and opportunity. A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear is the sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying tale of what happens when a government disappears into the woods. Complete with gunplay, adventure, and backstabbing politicians, this is the ultimate story of a quintessential American experiment -- to live free or die, perhaps from a bear.