When Grace is called to work in the Big House from the slave cabins, her family warns her to keep her eyes down and watch her mouth, or there could be disastrous consequences. But she makes a grave mistake, and she and her family must flee deep into the dangerous woods, braving slave patrollers, deadly wild animals, and the uncertainty that they will ever be free.
This is a book of ideas. A slight character story overlaid on a world of big ideas. Amusingly sad; sadly amusing. Consider, for instance, its beginning:
Sexual Responsibility is boring.
It isn't Ms. Brody's fault. She's a good teacher. She switches channels at appropriate moments, tases students who need tasing--zizzz-ZAAPPP!--and she only once got stuck in the garbage can beside her teaching station. She was a teeny bit weepy that day, but no drunker than normal . . .
Fifteen year old Aya has learned to hide from the men who hunt females, then auction off their breeding rights to the highest bidder. She has avoided capture and lived freely with a rag tag group of women in the mountains. But when she is caught by businessmen on a hunting trip, she must learn to fight to survive in a whole new way.
Michael O'Shaunessey, like all his other classmates, is part of the Hitler Youth. He participates in their book burnings and horrific games, but he secretly despises everything the Nazis stand stand for. He has a dangerous secret that he must protect at all costs, he and his parents are spies. He is just playing the part so he can get insider information. Soon he hears about Projekt 1065, a secret Nazi war mission that he has to stop. But to do that he must prove his loyalty to the Third Reich no matter the cost...
Petra’s father has been summoned to Prague by the prince to build the world’s finest astronomical clock. But when he returns home blind with the prince having stolen his eyes, she knows she must steal them back. Along the way, she discovers hidden talents and finds that many people in the castle are not what they seem.
In Ponyboy’s world, there are only 2 kinds of people: greasers and socs. A soc has money, power, and privilege, and can get away with practically anything. But a greaser always lives on the outside, and needs to watch his back if he doesn’t want to get beat up by a group of socs. Ponyboy is a greaser, and has always been proud of it, and fights against gangs of socs to help his fellow greasers.
Abigail Rook has just arrived in New Fiddleham in 1892 and she needs a job. She soon meets R.F. Jackaby, an investigator of the unexplained. She has a gift for noticing important details which makes her perfect for the position as his assistant. They quickly find themselves in the midst of a thrilling new case, a serial killer is on the loose. The police are sure it is an ordinary villain, but Jackaby is convinced it is a nonhuman creature that the police deny even exists.
Sherlock Holmes is known for his keen intellect and astute powers of observation -- in this YA spinoff, Andrew Lane explores the adventures of Sherlock's youth and how he came to be the detective we all know and love.
When Jacob’s grandfather is brutally killed, it sends him to a remote island in Wales to cope with his loss and learn about his grandfather’s childhood there. He soon finds the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s home for peculiar children. He discovers while exploring the ancient hallways and rooms, that these children might have been dangerous and quarantined in the middle of nowhere for a reason. He also finds that even though they all died when a bomb hit the home during the war, they could impossibly be still alive.
Claire Goldsmith just wants a break. She has gone through struggle after struggle after struggle. So when her dad "falls over sideways" during a stroke, Claire just about loses it. Out of nowhere she is pushed down a road filled with tears, flying spaghetti and snappy brothers. Not to mention bullies and scary teachers at school. As Claire maneuvers her way down this twisted road she learns more about herself than thought possible.
