Defend the portals. Defend the universe. Sent back to Earth, Christy bides her time plotting to go back to the Empty World. She has the means; she just needs to round up as many friends as she can and convince them to go with her. All is not right in the Empty World, and Doug and Mike may not be able to defend the pyramid by themselves. When the Ancients manage to steal the crystal protecting the massive power source contained inside the pyramid, it’s a race against time. Christy and her friends must track down and restore the crystal, or the released black hole won't just destroy the Empty World...the whole universe is in danger! Portals in Peril is the fifth and final book in the Empty World Saga, a science fiction adventure series for kids aged 8-12. If your kids have blown through the Land of Stories, devoured the Keeper of the Lost Cities, or can't wait for the next Wings of Fire, make the complete Empty World Saga their next read. Grab Portals in Peril and help save the Empty World now!
A Peculiar Peril is a head-spinning epic about three friends on a quest to protect the world from a threat as unknowable as it is terrifying, from the Nebula Award–winning and New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer. Jonathan Lambshead stands to inherit his deceased grandfather’s overstuffed mansion—a veritable cabinet of curiosities—once he and two schoolmates catalog its contents. But the three soon discover that the house is filled with far more than just oddities: It holds clues linking to an alt-Earth called Aurora, where the notorious English occultist Aleister Crowley has stormed back to life on a magic-fueled rampage across a surreal, through-the-looking-glass version of Europe replete with talking animals (and vegetables). Swept into encounters with allies more unpredictable than enemies, Jonathan pieces together his destiny as a member of a secret society devoted to keeping our world separate from Aurora. But as the ground shifts and allegiances change with every step, he and his friends sink ever deeper into a deadly pursuit of the profound evil that is also chasing after them.
Lost technology might let him walk again, but he'll need lost friends to help him get home. Cory delves into the Empty World all on his own with just a computer generated guardian for an ally. He knows that if he's ever going to walk again, he needs to unlock the forgotten secrets of medical technology advanced enough to heal him. Meanwhile, the search party looking for Cory has troubles of its own. Lost in an underground city, Christy and the others have to keep one step ahead of the Ancients who are hunting them as they try to track down Cory. But is the guardian who controls those Ancients the same one helping Cory? The Lost Portal is the fourth book of the Empty World Saga, a science fiction adventure series for kids aged 8-12. If your kids have blown through the Land of Stories, devoured the Keeper of the Lost Cities, or can't wait for the next Wings of Fire, make the complete Empty World Saga their next read. Grab The Lost Portal and rediscover wondrous alien technology!
They said her grandfather was dead. They said her grandmother was crazy. Christy knows they're wrong. When her grandmother dies, 13-year-old Christy inherits an old family secret: the pond behind her house is in fact a portal to another world. What’s more, she learns that her grandfather went through the portal when he mysteriously “disappeared” nine years ago. Christy tries to respect her grandmother’s final wishes and not go exploring, but when a classmate named Rob falls into the pond, she has to act. Since no one would believe her if she told them the truth about the pond, Christy arranges her own rescue party. In order to rescue Rob, she’ll have to brave a bizarre alien landscape, evade hostile creatures, and protect Danny, the boy from next door who followed her through the portal. Meanwhile on Earth, the grown-ups launch a frantic search, and they’re willing to drain the pond to find out what happened. Will Christy be able to find her grandfather, rescue Rob, and return safely to Earth before she becomes a permanent resident of the Empty World? Portal Through the Pond is the first book of the Empty World Saga, a science fiction adventure series for kids aged 8-12. If your kids have blown through the Land of Stories, devoured the Keeper of the Lost Cities, or can't wait for the next Wings of Fire, make the complete Empty World Saga their next read. Pick up your copy of Portal Through the Pond, and land in an alien world!
Prince Lucas and Clara have to save their dragon friend, Ruskin, from a dangerous spell in this sixteenth fantastical adventure of The Kingdom of Wrenly series. There is only one place throughout the entire Kingdom of Wrenly that no one dares explore: the Dream Portal. Hidden beyond the swamps of Bogburb, this strange and ancient circle of stones was built by wizards before time began. Stories of great danger surround the mysterious monument. But when their dragon friend, Ruskin, falls under the Dream Portal’s spell, Lucas and Clara will risk the legendary peril to save their dragon friend. With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, The Kingdom of Wrenly chapter books are perfect for beginning readers.
Moral Ground brings together the testimony of over eighty visionaries—theologians and religious leaders, scientists, elected officials, business leaders, naturalists, activists, and writers—to present a diverse and compelling call to honor our individual and collective moral responsibility to our planet. In the face of environmental degradation and global climate change, scientific knowledge alone does not tell us what we ought to do. The missing premise of the argument and much-needed center piece in the debate to date has been the need for ethical values, moral guidance, and principled reasons for doing the right thing for our planet, its animals, its plants, and its people. Contributors from throughout the world (including North America, Africa, Australia, Asia, and Europe) bring forth a rich variety of heritages and perspectives. Their contributions take many forms, illustrating the rich variety of ways we express our moral beliefs in letters, poems, economic analyses, proclamations, essays, and stories. In the end, their voices affirm why we must move beyond a scientific study and response to embrace an ongoing model of repair and sustainability. These writings demonstrate that scientific analysis and moral conviction can work successfully side-by-side. This is a book that can speak to anyone, regardless of his or her worldview, and that also includes a section devoted to “what next” thinking that helps the reader put the words and ideas into action in their personal lives. Thanks to generous support from numerous landmark organizations, such as the Kendeda Fund and Germeshausen Foundation, the book is just the starting point for a national, and international, discussion that will be carried out in a variety of ways, from online debate to “town hall” meetings, from essay competitions for youth to sermons from pulpits in all denominations. The “Moral Ground movement” will result in a newly discovered, or rediscovered, commitment on a personal and community level to consensus about our ethical obligation to the future. Contributors include: Fred W. Allendorf, Bartholomew I, Mary Catherine Bateson, Thomas Berry, Wendell Berry, Marcus J. Borg, J. Baird Callicott, Courtney S. Campbell, F. Stuart Chapin III, Robin Morris Collin, Michael M. Crow, Dalai Lama, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Brian Doyle, David James Duncan, Massoumeh Ebtekar, Jesse M. Fink, Dave Foreman, Thomas L. Friedman, James Garvey, Thich Nhat Hanh, Paul Hawken, Bernd Heinrich, Linda Hogan, bell hooks, Dale Jamieson, Derrick Jensen, John Paul II, Martin S. Kaplan, Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley, Stephen R. Kellert, Robin W. Kimmerer, Barbara Kingsolver, Shepard Krech III, Ursula K. Le Guin, Hank Lentfer, Carly Lettero, Oren Lyons, Wangari Maathai, Sallie McFague, Bill McKibben, Katie McShane, Curt Meine, Ming Xu, N. Scott Momaday, Kathleen Dean Moore, Hylton Murray-Philipson, Gary Paul Nabhan, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Michael P. Nelson, Barack Obama, Ernest Partridge, John Perry, Edwin P. Pister, Carl Pope, Robert Michael Pyle, David Quammen, Daniel Quinn, Kate Rawles, Tri Robinson, Libby Roderick, Holmes Rolston III, Deborah Bird Rose, Jonathan F. P. Rose, Carl Safina, Scott Russell Sanders, Lauret Savoy, Nirmal Selvamony, Ismail Serageldin, Peter Singer, Sulak Sivaraksa, Gary Snyder, James Gustave Speth, Brian Swimme, Bron Taylor, Paul B. Thompson, George Tinker, Joerg Chet Tremmel, Quincy Troupe, Mary Evelyn Tucker, José Galizia Tundisi, Brian Turner, Desmond Tutu, Steve Vanderheiden, John A. Vucetich, Kimberly A. Wade-Benzoni, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Alan Weisman, Terry Tempest Williams, E. O. Wilson, and Xin Wei.
The true-life memoir Patrice Chaplin began in City of Secrets continues here in the story of her spiritual initiation into the Kabbalistic tradition preserved since the Middle Ages by a secret society in the pre-Roman city of Girona, Spain. Salvador Dalí was a member of that society, as was the renowned author Umberto Eco, the filmmaker Jean Cocteau, and Jancint Verdeguer, one of the most celebrated Catalan poets. Importantly, so was the mysterious Berenger Sauniere, the priest who in the late 1800s built Rennes-le-Château in southern France, with the Tour Magdala, a tower that is twin to the neo-gothic tower in Girona. In this gripping story that reads like the adventures of a female Castenada, Chaplin is led through a series of initiatory stages which correspond to the magical square of Venus, containing the constellation of the Great Bear.
