“A haunting first novel that takes a horrifying family calamity and turns it into a form of magic.”—The New York Times On a sunny spring morning, sixteen-year-old Ethan Shumway walks down his gravel driveway, turns the bend, and vanishes without a trace. As police search for clues, Ethan's devastated family and friends—from his parents and four siblings to the older woman who was more than a teacher to Ethan—grapple for answers in the teenager's enigmatic life. As this elusive mystery slowly weaves its way into the fabric of the family, Ethan's younger brother, Philip, becomes the last, most stubborn searcher of all: a boy caught between the power and fragility of youth, between the bonds and fissures of family, searching for understanding in the unbearable presence of loss. Praise for The Odd Sea “A powerful debut novel.”—People “[An] extraordinarily good first novel . . . The story has a dark, dreamlike quality, and author Reiken tells it with no melodrama nor any word out of place.”—Time “A luminous parable about growing up, about the necessity of dealing with inevitable loss and questions that cannot be answered . . . Reiken is a smoothly seductive storyteller. He has talent for telling but not telling, for revealing only enough information to whet our appetite.”—Newsday
Just because you’re chosen, doesn’t mean you want to be. Thanks to the dubious gratitude of a Deity, Nicolas Percival Carnegie is now stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean. But before despair can take hold – for his companions at least – rescue appears in the form of the enigmatic Captain Roberto Ramirez. Longing to simply go home and forget about notions like adventuring, Nicolas finds his salvation bittersweet; a princess has been kidnapped and war looms on the horizon. It isn't his country, or his princess, yet his dreams of a quick homecoming have to be put on hold when the seas could run red with blood any day now. Nicolas may find his sea legs just in time for them to quake in fear as he learns exactly how dangerous the ocean can be. And soon enough, being stranded on an island may not seem that bad after all.
Harboring a dream to sail across the world's widest ocean, a seasick unicorn gathers his friends and casts off to sea to vomit rainbows and battle self-doubt in a quest to reach the sandy shoreline of beach bonfires and success.
National Bestseller "The Seas took me back to how I felt as a kid, when you’re newly falling in love with literature, newly shocked by its capacity to cast a spell..." ?Maggie Nelson (from the Introduction) A Most Anticipated Book of Summer at BuzzFeed, NYLON, and more. Moored in a coastal fishing town so far north that the highways only run south, the unnamed narrator of The Seas is a misfit. She’s often the subject of cruel local gossip. Her father, a sailor, walked into the ocean eleven years earlier and never returned, leaving his wife and daughter to keep a forlorn vigil. Surrounded by water and beckoned by the sea, she clings to what her father once told her: that she is a mermaid. True to myth, she finds herself in hard love with a land-bound man, an Iraq War veteran thirteen years her senior.The mesmerizing, fevered coming-of-age tale that follows will land her in jail. Her otherworldly escape will become the stuff of legend. With the inventive brilliance and psychological insight that have earned her international acclaim, Samantha Hunt pulls readers into an undertow of impossible love and intoxication, blurring the lines between reality and fairy tale, hope and delusion, sanity and madness.
A boy awakens to find that everything around him is odd, from three sleeves on his shirt and five legs on his dog to clocks and calendars with only odd numbers. Includes a three-page "For Creative Minds" section with odd fun facts and number games.
A modern day pirate is recruited to help a terrorist retrieve a stolen weapon of mass destruction. Both men are headed toward a confrontation that will take them far from their homes and on to the streets of New York City. Trying to piece together all the clues is a small group of sailors and airmen who always seem one step behind. Losing this fight will mean millions of casualties. But how do you fight an enemy you cannot find?
SEA StoryAn adventure story about Tom,a Deal boatman.Based on the real working lives of the Deal Boatman: follow Tom through part of his life,as he grows up working from Deal Beach;join him in some daring rescues,aiding ships in distress around the notorious Goodwin Sands which lie off the SE coast of Kent, England. Go fishing with him in bad weather for herring and mackerel, launching a boat from an open shingle beach,the hazards and rewards; then join him as he sets his course North to Lowestoft,see what happens in his few short years in this hectic fishing port.then eventually returning to Deal for a short period,before he up and leaves for another adventure.set in the 1890's to 1910 during the time of sail and oar,with the first engines just being used in the open boats on Deal beach.
All six books in 'Jack's Strange Tales', a series by Jack Strange, now in one volume! Strange Tales of Scotland: Strange Tales of Scotland all deal with a particular aspect of Scottish mysteries. You'll learn of the ghost that appeared at the wedding of King Alexander II, of monsters such as the Shellycoat and Water-horse that were thought to inhabit Scotland’s lochs. Another part deals exclusively with Loch Ness, and the strange happenings at that mysterious body of water. Later, we have a look at the mysterious deaths at the Flannan Islands Lighthouse, and at the strange creatures that were once believed to infest the hills and glens of Scotland, including the terrifying brollachan and the slaugh. It's A Strange Place, England: This small book looks at some of the strange things that make England unique, starting with the English language itself and looking at concepts such as sports, ghosts and the English love for eccentricity - like the sportsman who rode his horse naked. There is also the impressively masculine Cerne Abbas Giant, to which women once flocked when they wished to become pregnant. The mysterious Stonehenge also deserves its part in this book. From Robin Hood to highwaymen and smugglers, English folk tales take some very ruthless people and turn them into heroes that they most certainly were not. Finally, there's a cheerful chapter that looks at pubs, which figure prominently in many English tales and are a part of modern culture all over the world today. The Strangeness That Is Wales: This book looks at the strange legends, tales and ghosts of Wales. Although the stories are intended to entertain as much as educate, the historical facts are accurate. Included are stories on ghosts - both real and fake - and the legend of King Arthur. Welsh animal lore, customs, monsters and music are also examined. One of the strangest villages in the world gets a chapter to itself, as do witches, miners and druids. The book is written in a personal, light-hearted style, with geographical references to help identify the places. Hopefully, you will come away with a different view on Wales - and a smile on your face. Strange Tales of the Sea: What lurks beneath the waves, and onboard the most mysterious of ships? Get ready to experience the lore and lure of the sea with these myths, legends and true stories. Centuries-old folklore and tales of haunted vessels. Sea monsters and ghosts. Cannibalism at sea, and mysterious disappearances. Included are also tales of sailors ashore, and the prostitutes and crimps that preyed on them. Find out what happened to stowaways, how they were treated, and about the myth that women were not welcome on ships. Strange Ireland: In Ireland, truth, folklore, mythology, and legend are indistinguishably interwoven into a Celtic knot of strangeness. From fact to fiction and the peculiar to the bizarre, unravel some of Ireland’s most curious lore: the Blarney Stone kissing ceremony, the giant behind the Giant’s Causeway, the escapades of Saint Patrick, and the myths of the 1690 battle of the River Boyne among many others. Among the twenty-six chapters each detailing a unique Irish oddity, discover the history of Emerald Isle in a new light. More Strange Scotland: More Strange Scotland is a collection of anecdotes, facts, folklore and legends about the strangeness of that little nation on the western fringe of Europe. From fairies to witches and the frightening water horses, Scotland has a host of legends. Add haunted castles, strange pub names and devilish people to the mix, sprinkle with Aberlour spirits and the mists of Skye and then open the book. If ghostly bagpipers and unseen river monsters don’t scare you off, then you may revel in the stories from this most strange of all countries.
