Sixteen-year-old Ivy is pregnant and alone. Cast out by her family, she runs away and finds safety in the arms of Joel Davis. He offers a simpler life than the one she had in Boston, a quiet, rural life of rules, peace and community. Little does she realise, Joel is the charismatic leader of a cult known as the Community, and all is not quite as it seems. Daughter Mia has only known the claustrophobic life of the Community. While out serving the Community...

As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart. At the center of These Precious Days is the title essay, a surprising and moving meditation on an unexpected friendship that explores "what it means to be seen, to find someone with whom you can be your best and...

Thirteen-year-old Anna, an orphan, lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople in a house of women who make their living embroidering the robes of priests. Restless, insatiably curious, Anna learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds a book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. This she reads to her ailing sister as the walls of the only...

When Brystal Evergreen stumbles across a secret section of the library, she discovers a book that introduces her to a world beyond her imagination and learns the impossible: She is a fairy capable of magic! But in the oppressive Southern Kingdom, women are forbidden from reading and magic is outlawed, so Brystal is swiftly convicted of her crimes and sent to the miserable Bootstrap Correctional Facility. But with the help of the mysterious Madame...

Far away from his magical library, everyone's favorite game maker, Luigi Lemoncello, is building something new. Something SECRET. And he's about to let the world see it. He'll reveal that hidden deep within the Lemoncello-tastic new building is a single ticket. A titanium ticket. Four lucky boys and girls are about to win the chance to go inside the building on a spectacular scavenger hunt that will take them through bigger-than-life live-action games--towering,...

Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words, in turn,find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief. Each one is drawn into...

Widowed teacher Nell Stillman raises her son in the small town of Harvester, Minnesota, finding solace and escape in books.

"A.J. and his friends have the chance to win a trip to Dizzyland--if they can finish 5,000 books first. Dr. Carbles, the evil president of the Board of Education, doesn't think they can do it. But the Ella Mentry School kids are nothing if not determined! Will they achieve their theme park dreams? Or does Dr. Carbles have other plans for the school?"--

Join Pete the cat as he visits a library for the first time, gets a library card, takes a fun tour, and reads some cool stories that take him on a few groovy adventures.

"They were cowriting literary darlings until they hit a plot hole that turned their lives upside down. Three years ago, Katrina Freeling and Nathan Van Huysen were the brightest literary stars on the horizon, their cowritten books topping bestseller lists. But on the heels of their greatest success, they ended their partnership on bad terms, for reasons neither would divulge to the public. They haven't spoken since, and never planned to, except they...