After the time of the legends, the tale of the Guardians returns to the present in which Soren, the hero of Books 1-6, must train a new king. Old friends, new adventures!Coryn, Soren, and the Band preside over a new Golden Age of the Great Tree under the subtle influence of the Ember. All seems well, but beneath the prosperity of peace Coryn is tortured by the suspicion that his evil mother, Nyra, is a hagsfiend and that his own blood carries the haggish taint. He wanders afar searching for the truth from hagsfiends themselves - putting the Great Tree in danger. Soren & the Band follow their new king to strange parts to guard him from the consequences of his obsession.
In the eighteenth century, Jack is forced to join the Royal Navy to fight in the war against France. A chain of unforeseen events lead, eventually, to the discovery of a magical tree. The Golden Tree transports the children to a time far away from their own, and the adventure begins.
Fern Michaels, #1 New York Times bestselling author, joins two of her best-loved series—the Sisterhood and the Godmothers—in a holiday adventure to remember! At Christmas time, the grand hall of the Grove Place Inn in Asheville, North Carolina is the most beautiful sight that manager Holly Simmons can imagine, filled with an assortment of firs and pines twinkling with thousands of tiny lights. This year, the inn’s guest list includes bona fide royalty—Countess de Silva of the legendary Vigilantes, who has invited along some very special friends . . . The seasonal rush leaves Holly no choice to but to hire a new assistant, but does her top candidate, handsome Gannon Montgomery, belong in the ‘naughty’ or ‘nice’ category? While Holly uncovers the surprising truth about her new hire, the Sisterhood and Godmothers are undertaking their first joint mission. And when these forces unite, the result can only be a warm and wonderful holiday—with a special touch of magic . . . Previously published in Wishes for Christmas
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD FOR NON-FICTION • WINNER OF THE WRITERS’ TRUST NON-FICTION PRIZE “Absolutely spellbinding.” —The New York Times The environmental true-crime story of a glorious natural wonder, the man who destroyed it, and the fascinating, troubling context in which this act took place. FEATURING A NEW AFTERWORD BY THE AUTHOR On a winter night in 1997, a British Columbia timber scout named Grant Hadwin committed an act of shocking violence in the mythic Queen Charlotte Islands. His victim was legendary: a unique 300-year-old Sitka spruce tree, fifty metres tall and covered with luminous golden needles. In a bizarre environmental protest, Hadwin attacked the tree with a chainsaw. Two days later, it fell, horrifying an entire community. Not only was the golden spruce a scientific marvel and a tourist attraction, it was sacred to the Haida people and beloved by local loggers. Shortly after confessing to the crime, Hadwin disappeared under suspicious circumstances and is missing to this day. As John Vaillant deftly braids together the strands of this thrilling mystery, he brings to life the ancient beauty of the coastal wilderness, the historical collision of Europeans and the Haida, and the harrowing world of logging—the most dangerous land-based job in North America.
The latest soaring installment of Kathryn Lasky's NYT bestselling Ga'Hoole seriesGrank raises the hatchling deep in a forest far from owls that would kill the royal chick named Hoole to end the kingly line. His mother comes to visit, in disguise, and departs again. Not even the chick must know his mother's identity. It would give him away as Hrath's heir. Sent by an evil warlord, a hagsfiend attempts to lure young Hoole away when he first learns to fly. Grank realizes that the same evil forces that killed Hrath are after Hoole, and know where he is. To keep him safe, Grank brings him to Beyond the Beyond, a strange land of fiery volcanoes in a barren, icy landscape.(more)
"The name Sonagachi evokes a variety of reactions in a variety of people – distaste, contempt, curiosity, lust, greed…and so on. But how many spare a thought to the real lives of the very real women who have made Asia's largest red-light area so famously infamous? What tragedies and compulsions, and sheer helplessness drive them into this detestable trade? Would any woman choose such a life if she had a choice of another of security, safety and dignity? Even while mired in the slush of their own condemned lives, how do these women gather the strength to keep another from being doomed to it? A baby girl brings joy and meaning to the life of a lonely old man… A street-smart oldman who has been quite successful in acquiring money, proves to be defenceless against the wiles of a scheming young woman… Written with a deep understanding of the workings of the human mind, with charity and compassion, and spiced with adventure, thrill, humour, and satire, this collection of stories is a celebration of women in their many avatars – cherished daughter, impressionable young girl, loving mother, scheming wife, reluctant beggar, and what not…"
This book explores the policy objectives underlying the gift of this Order, to sixty men, on January 1 1403. Drawing primarily on Philip's household accounts, it undertakes complementary iconographical and prosopographical analyses (of the Order insignia's form, materials, design and motto; and of distinguishing common features among its recipients), refined by reference to his policy concerns around the occasion of its bestowal, to test seven hypotheses. The evidence from the analyses enables six of these (that it was purely decorative; a courtly conceit; crusade-related; a military chivalric order; a livery badge; or a military alliance) progressively to be discarded, pointing strongly to the seventh, that the Order was a specific policy alliance, designed in fashionable form, to obscure its politically sensitive purpose. The nature of that purpose then permits a revision of Philip's role in history, particularly in relation to the creation of an independent Burgundian state, and the use of a co-ordinated propaganda campaign of slogan, badge, and supporting literature, to legitimise and popularise his plans. The analytical approach also offers insights into the significance of decorative, material gift-giving; the identification of networks; Christine de Pisan's earlier political writings, and the origins of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Carol Chattaway is Honorary Research Assistant at the Royal College of Art and University College, London University. She researches on the political significance of material objects at the Burgundian Court, in the later middle ages.
Coming to Nickelodeon for the 2016 holidays, Albert is the hilarious and exciting story of a tiny Douglas Fir tree who dreams of being THE big Christmas tree in Empire City. Boys and girls ages 3 to 7 will love this beautifully illustrated book based on the television movie. This Nickelodeon read-along contains audio narration.
The eleventh title in this best-selling series brings Hoole to kingship and the legends to fulfilment signaling a return to the adventures of Coryn, Soren and the Band.In this final book of the Legends trilogy Hoole reclaims the thrown of his father and goes on to wage a war against the forces of chaos, greed and oppression led by the powerful warlord-tyrants. Grank, the first collier, uses his skills with fire and metals to forge weapons for battle. With great trepidation Hoole uses the power of the Ember in the final, decisive battle and wins. At the dawn of a new ear of peace, Hoole searches for the ideal place to establish not a kingdom but an order of free owls and finds the Great Tree. (continued)
At the end of a boring summer in her un-magical hometown, Holly O'Flanigan is eager to return to the parallel world of Magora. Holly's nosy neighbor, Ms. Hubbleworth, has been missing for a year, and Holly and her friends, Brian, Rufus, and Amanda, know where she is. A year ago, they left the real world together and entered Magora via a painting Holly's late grandfather created. When Holly and her friends head back to Magora to enroll for their second year at Cliffony Academy of the Arts, Holly finds out that her friend Ileana is severely ill. She suffers from a disease that dissolves her blood and turns her back into what she was before-a so-called Unfinished, an incomplete, painted creature that drains the blood of others to become whole. Holly tries to find a cure, but in vain-Ileana's illness is progressing. While Holly continues to donate blood to keep Ileana stable and the new school year starts, she meets Ms. Hubbleworth again. Surprisingly, her nosy neighbor has no knowledge of her old life back in the real world and seems fully immersed in her position as a teacher at the art academy. When Holly learns that the leaves of a mysterious Golden Maple Tree could cure Ileana's illness, she begins her search for the tree and discovers an ancient monastery where the dangerous blood-sucking Unfinished live. But Holly's best friend Rufus is kidnapped and taken to the monastery. With her other friends in tow, Holly enters into a fierce battle against the Unfinished to free Rufus and collect the leaves of the Golden Maple Tree to cure Ileana. In the process, Holly learns the truth behind Ms. Hubbleworth's memory loss-changing everything Holly thought she knew about Magora.
