Young Rupert, with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and experience, has been raised in complete isolation from the world by his enigmatic grandparents. His life takes an extraordinary turn when a violent storm uncovers a long-concealed treasure. In the aftermath of the storm, his grandparents vanish. Completely alone, the bewildered boy seizes upon the opportunity to leave his forest home at last. Out in the wider world, Rupert encounters new friends and learns that the kingdom's beloved royal family has been slain by brutal usurpers, who now rule the land with cunning and cruelty. But astonishing revelations convince Rupert that he has a pivotal role in restoring justice to the land. As Rupert and his comrades face imprisonment, bloody skirmishes, desperate conditions, and alluring yet sinister encounters, the darkest moments may reveal astonishing wonders. Unfolding events take on a deeper meaning as Rupert's mysterious gifts guide him toward shattering revelations and truths about his identity and his destiny.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Gardener, Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes is the utterly beguiling tale of a ten-year-old blind orphan who has been schooled in a life of thievery. One fateful afternoon, he steals a box from a mysterious traveling haberdasher—a box that contains three pairs of magical eyes. When he tries the first pair, he is instantly transported to a hidden island where he is presented with a special quest: to travel to the dangerous Vanished Kingdom and rescue a people in need. Along with his loyal sidekick—a knight who has been turned into an unfortunate combination of horse and cat—and the magic eyes, he embarks on an unforgettable, swashbuckling adventure to discover his true destiny. Be sure to read the companion book, Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard. Praise for Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes “Auxier has a juggler’s dexterity with prose that makes this fantastical tale quicken the senses.” –Kirkus Reviews
Sargrenti is the name by which Major General Sir Garnet Wolseley, KCMG (1833 – 1913) is still known in the West African state of Ghana. Kofi Gyan, the 15-year old boy who spits in Sargrenti’s eye, is the nephew of the chief of Elmina, a town on the Atlantic coast of Ghana. On Christmas Day, 1871, Kofi’s godfather gives him a diary as a Christmas present and charges him with the task of keeping a personal record of the momentous events through which they are living. This novel is a transcription of Kofi’s diary. Elmina town has a long-standing relationship with the Castelo de São Jorge da Mina, known today as Elmina Castle, built by the Portuguese in 1482 and captured from them by the Dutch in 1637. In April, 1872, the Dutch hand over the unprofitable castle to the British. The people of Elmina have not been consulted and resist the change. On June 13, 1873 British forces punish them by bombarding the town and destroying it. (It has never been rebuilt. The flat open ground where it once stood serves as a constant reminder of the savage power of Imperial Britain.) After the destruction of Elmina, Kofi moves to his mother’s family home in nearby Cape Coast, seat of the British colonial government, where Sargrenti is preparing to march inland and attack the independent Asante state. There, Melton Prior, war artist of the London weekly news magazine, The Illustrated London News, offers Kofi a job as his assistant. This gives the lad an opportunity to observe at close quarters not only Prior but also the other war correspondents, Henry Morton Stanley and G. A. Henty. Kofi witnesses and experiences the trauma of a brutal war, a run-up to the formal colonialism which would be realized ten years later at the 1885 Berlin conference, where European powers drew lines on the map of Africa, dividing the territory up amongst themselves. On February 6, 1874, Sargrenti’s troops loot the palace of the Asante king, Kofi Karikari, and then blow up the stone building and set the city of Kumase on fire, razing it to the ground. Kofi’s story culminates in his angry response to the British auction of their loot in Cape Coast Castle. The loot includes the solid gold mask shown on the front cover of the novel. That mask continues to reside in the Wallace Collection in London. The invasion of Asante met with the enthusiastic approval of the British public, which elevated Wolseley to the status of a national hero. All the war correspondents and several military officers hastened to cash in on public sentiment by publishing books telling the story of their victory. In all of these, without exception, the coastal Fante feature as feckless and cowardly and the Asante as ruthless savages. The Boy who Spat in Sargrenti’s Eye tells the story of these momentous events for the first time from an African point of view. It is told with irony and with occasional flashes of humor. The novel is illustrated with scans of seventy engravings first published in The Illustrated London News. This book won a Burt Award for African Literature which included the donation by the Ghana Book Trust of 3000 copies to school libraries in Ghana. In 2016, at the annual conference of the African Literature Association held in Atlanta, GA, it received the ALA’s Creative Book of the Year Award. Manu Herbstein has done what the best cultural historians of Africa should do: that is, read between the lines of the colonial archives to imagine what it was like to be an African alive at that time, witnessing and interpreting events. Prof. Stephanie Newell, Yale University Manu Herbstein’s The Boy who Spat in Sargrenti’s Eye is a masterwork of historical fiction. Trevor R. Getz, Ph.D. San Francisco State University
Developed from her tremendously popular blog, this book offers the inspiring and beautifully illustrated account of the author's experiences raising an orphaned coyote as a beloved pet. Full-color photographs throughout.
Presenting themselves to the world as an effortlessly excellent family, successful criminal lawyer Karen, her Parliament candidate husband, and her intelligent athlete son, Max, find their world crumbling in the wake of a friend's betrayal and the secretabout Max's intersexual identity.
“If you like your YA thrillers smart, suspenseful, and full of complex characters, then you’ll love All Eyes on Us.” —Karen M. McManus, New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying and Two Can Keep a Secret Pretty Little Liars meets People Like Us in this “page-ripping psychological thriller” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) about two teens who find their lives intertwined when an anonymous texter threatens to spill their secrets and uproot their lives. PRIVATE NUMBER: Wouldn’t you look better without a cheater on your arm? AMANDA: Who is this? The daughter of small-town social climbers, Amanda Kelly is deeply invested in her boyfriend, real estate heir Carter Shaw. He’s kind, ambitious, the town golden boy—but he’s far from perfect. Because behind Amanda’s back, Carter is also dating Rosalie. PRIVATE NUMBER: I’m watching you, Sweetheart. ROSALIE: Who IS this? Rosalie Bell is fighting to remain true to herself and her girlfriend—while concealing her identity from her Christian fundamentalist parents. After years spent in and out of conversion “therapy,” her own safety is her top priority. But maintaining a fake, straight relationship is killing her from the inside. When an anonymous texter ropes Amanda and Rosalie into a bid to take Carter down, the girls become collateral damage—and unlikely allies in a fight to unmask their stalker before Private uproots their lives. PRIVATE NUMBER: You shouldn’t have ignored me. Now look what you made me do…
ALICE FEENEYS NEW YORK TIMES AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER “Boldly plotted, tightly knotted—a provocative true-or-false thriller that deepens and darkens to its ink-black finale. Marvelous.” —AJ Finn, author of The Woman in the Window My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: 1. I’m in a coma. 2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore. 3. Sometimes I lie. Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it's the truth?
When Duncan finds an injured cheetah, questions about how she wound up in his mountains--and going after the poachers pursuing her--can wait. First he brings her home. Then he checks in on his patient, and finds not a cat, but a gorgeous, very "naked" woman. Warning: explicit sex.
