A debut novel that's as sharp as a knife's point. Plain Kate lives in a world of superstitions and curses, where a song can heal a wound and a shadow can work deep magic. As the wood-carver's daughter, Kate held a carving knife before a spoon, and her wooden charms are so fine that some even call her "witch-blade" -- a dangerous nickname in a town where witches are hunted and burned in the square.
Erin Bow's acclaimed, award-winning fantasy novel reissued in paperback! Plain Kate lives in a world of superstitions and curses, where a song can heal a wound and a shadow can work deep magic. When Kate's village falls on hard times -- crops fail, and even Kate's father falls victim to a deadly fever -- the townspeople look for someone to blame, and their eyes fall on Kate. Enter Linay, a stranger with a proposition: In exchange for her shadow, he'll give Kate the means to escape the town that seems set to burn her, and what's more, he'll grant her heart's wish. It's a chance for her to start over, to find a home, a family, a place to belong. But Kate soon realizes that she can't live shadowless forever -- and that Linay's designs are darker than she ever dreamed.
I was not always a white girl. I used to be just Charlotte. A person named Charlotte Halsey. But when I met Milo, when I fell in love with him, I became White, like a lit light bulb is white. In the mirror there is my skin the color of sand, hair the color of butter, eyes blue as seawater. Just so bleachy white I am practically clear. Milo is black, what they call “Black,” only not to me. To me he has mostly been just Milo. They say lovers can find each other just by using the sense of smell; that we are all really animals in that way, no different from dogs or deer. I know it’s true. I could find Milo blind in a room of men, the smell of him like pine trees in a snowy wind. I could pick him out just by the slow rising of his breath while he slept. So no, until this happened, up to the time of the assault, he was not black, not to me. He was Milo. He was my husband. – from Whitegirl As Kate Manning’s riveting debut novel begins, a thirty-five-year-old white woman lies secluded in her home overlooking the Pacific, unable to speak, recovering from a violent assault that has nearly taken her life. Her husband, a famous black actor, is in jail for the crime. Is he guilty? She’s not sure. She remembers nothing of the assault. Longing for answers, she sifts through the history of their life together, trying to determine how two people once so in love might find themselves so ruined. Charlotte Halsey and Milo Robicheaux met briefly in college in the 1970s, where she was a beautiful, troubled girl hungry for freedom, and he was the star athlete with Olympic dreams. Years later, when she is a successful model and he a famous sports hero turned actor, their paths cross again in New York City and they fall in love. But their marriage is soon fraught with tension. As Milo’s celebrity skyrockets, motherhood ends Charlotte’s career, leaving her increasingly alienated from the man she believed she knew so well. Jealousy and mistrust grow between them even as they strive to build a life together against increasing odds. A poignant anatomy of a marriage undone by the pressure of fame and the struggle for identity, Whitegirl is the arresting debut of a significant new voice in contemporary fiction.
From Linda Castillo, the New York Times bestselling author of A Gathering of Secrets, comes a new Kate Burkholder short mystery, In Plain Sight: a story of star-crossed love and murder in Amish country. Seventeen year old Amish boy, Noah Kline, is struck by a car as he walks alongside a dark country road late one night in Painters Mill. Seriously injured, he lapses into a coma. Initially, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder believes it’s a straightforward hit and run, a driver that panicked and fled. But evidence soon emerges that the incident wasn’t accidental at all--and Kate uncovers a story of teenage passion and jealousy that may have led to attempted murder.
Orphaned Kate lives in a time afraid of magic, her only friend a talking cat. She has a gift for carving wooden-charms, but her unusual gift attracts dangerous attention in a place where witches are burned. When her village falls on bad times, suspicion falls on Kate. A blend of Russian folklore and fantasy. Suggested level: secondary.
Phoebe Hall’s Manhattan life is unexpectedly derailed off the fast track when her long-term boyfriend leaves her just as she is accused of plagiarizing her latest bestselling celebrity biography. Looking for a quiet place to pick up the pieces, Phoebe jumps at the offer to teach at a small private college run by her former boarding school roommate and close friend Glenda in a sleepy Pennsylvania town. But behind the campus’s quiet cafés and looming maple trees lies something darker. The body of a junior co-ed washes up from the nearby river, and soon rumors begin to swirl of of past crimes and abuses wrought by a disturbing secret society known as The Sixes. Determined to find answers and help Glenda, Phoebe secretly embarks on a search for clues—a quest that soon raises dark memories of her own boarding school days. Plunging deeper into danger with every step, Phoebe knows she’s close to unmasking a killer. But with truth comes a deeply terrifying revelation: the past can’t be outrun . . . and starting over can be a crime punishable by death.
When a mommy green turtle lays one hundred eggs on the beach, she gives each of the eggs a special name that imparts a character trait and points to their destiny. Her youngest egg, she lovingly and wisely names just Kate. When the eggs hatch, each turtle is aware of their special gift. Kaikoa is a sea warrior, Yuka is a bright star., and Fernando is an adventurer. But Kate is left wondering why her name is so plain and her destiny so undefined. As Kate and her turtle siblings have an adventurous night, bravely facing their world for the first time and overcoming challenges, the baby turtle eventually discovers that her mother has given her the best gift of all—the opportunity to create her own destiny. In this poignant story for children, a brave newborn turtle seemingly without a special name or destiny guides her brothers and sisters safely to the sea and learns the meaning of being just Kate.
An exquisitely written, uplifting middle grade debut by acclaimed author, Erin Bow, about a young girl who defies her family's expectations in order to save her brother and become an eagle hunter, perfect for fans of PAX. It goes against all tradition for Aisulu to train an eagle, for among the Kazakh nomads, only men can fly them. But everything changes when Aisulu discovers that her brother, Serik, has been concealing a bad limp that risks not just his future as the family's leader, but his life too. When her parents leave to seek a cure for Serik in a distant hospital, Aisulu finds herself living with her intimidating uncle and strange auntie--and secretly caring for an orphaned baby eagle. To save her brother and keep her family from having to leave their nomadic life behind forever, Aisulu must earn her eagle's trust and fight for her right to soar. Along the way, she discovers that family are people who choose each other, home is a place you build, and hope is a thing with feathers. Erin Bow's lyrical middle grade debut is perfect for fans of original animal-friendship stories like Pax and Because of Winn Dixie.
Winner of the 2014 Monica Hughes Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy, from the author of Plain Kate. At the very edge of the world live the Shadowed People. And with them live the dead.There, in the village of Westmost, Otter is born to power. She is the proud daughter of Willow, the greatest binder of the dead in generations. It will be Otter's job someday to tie the knots of the ward, the only thing that keeps the living safe.Kestrel is training to be a ranger, one of the brave women who venture into the forest to gather whatever the Shadowed People can't live without and to fight off whatever dark threat might slip through the ward's defenses.And Cricket wants to be a storyteller -- already he shows the knack, the ear -- and already he knows dangerous secrets. But something is very wrong at the edge of the world. Willow's power seems to be turning inside out. The ward is in danger of falling. And lurking in the shadows, hungry, is a White Hand, the most dangerous of the dead, whose very touch means madness, and worse.Suspenseful, eerie, and beautifully imagined.
Some girls have all the luck. So far, Carrie Fitzgerald's sixteen years have been pretty sweet. Straight A's, an adorable boyfriend, a starting position on the varsity basketball team... But Carrie's luck is about to, well, change. Suddenly, her boyfriend dumps her (to "hang out with his friends"!), she and her best friend have a massive blowout, and she gets a D on a biology test. Carrie knows what's wrong -- her mom accidentally donated her lucky T-shirt to Help India. That one adorable, perfect T-shirt was the source of all her good fortune. So Carrie does what any girl would do: She's going to India. Cross your fingers and hope that Carries finds adventure, love, and maybe just a little good luck along the way....
