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› Find signed collectible books: '10 Things To Do Before You're 16'
Beth and Anna are in despair. They'd planned to spend their fifteenth year revolutionising themselves into 'total babes'. But their sixteenth birthdays are fast approaching and it'll soon be too late to take action...It's time to work through their list of '10 things to do before you're 16!' This is a funny and appealing tale about a pair of friends who learn that being cool isn't all it's cracked up to be... [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Amelia Writes Again'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Amelia's Notebook'
When Amelia's mom givs her a journal for her ninth birthday, Amelia has a place to share her truest feelings at last!
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Angela And the Princess'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Ask Me No Questions'
Nadira and her family are illegal aliens, fleeing to the Canadian border -- running from the country they thought was their home. For years since emigrating from Bangladesh, they have lived on expired visas in New York City, hoping they could someday realize their dream of becoming legal citizens of the United States. But after 9/11, everything changes. Suddenly, being Muslim means being dangerous, a suspected terrorist. And when Nadira's father is arrested and detained at the border, Nadira and her older sister, Aisha, are sent back to Queens and told to carry on, as if everything is the same.
But of course nothing is the same. Nadira and Aisha live in fear they'll have to return to a Bangladesh they hardly know. Aisha, always the responsible one, falls apart. It's up to Nadira to find a way to bring her family back together again.
Critically acclaimed author Marina Budhos has given us a searing portrait of contemporary America in the days of terrorism, orange alerts, and the Patriot Act, and a moving and important story about something most people take for granted -- citizenship and acceptance in their country. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Aunt Jane's Nieces'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Azumanga Daioh 3'
The girls enter their senior year and Miss Yukari speaks ill of Tomo in the third volume of Azumanga Daioh! This volume marks the return of the sports meet, where Sakaki, Osaka, Kagura and the others compete in categories like the three-legged race and beanbag tossing, while Chiyo-chan races to find an idiot for the scavenger hunt... The manga also includes a "First Dream of the New Year" special, where Sakaki meets Chiyo-chan's tomato-hating "father" and his penguin housekeeper... Will Osaka succeed in her resolution to "get faster"? Will Kaorin ever let go of Sakaki? Find out in Azumanga Daioh volume 3! [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast'
This much-loved retelling of the classic French tale Beauty and the Beast elicits the familiar magical charm, but is more believable and complex than the traditional story. In this version, Beauty is not as beautiful as her older sisters, who are both lovely and kind. Here, in fact, Beauty has no confidence in her appearance but takes pride in her own intelligence, her love of learning and books, and her talent in riding. She is the most competent of the three sisters, which proves essential when they are forced to retire to the country because of their father's financial ruin.
The plot follows that of the renowned legend: Beauty selflessly agrees to inhabit the Beast's castle to spare her father's life. Beauty's gradual acceptance of the Beast and the couple's deepening trust and affection are amplified in novel form. Robin McKinley's writing has the flavor of another century, and Beauty heightens the authenticity as a reliable and competent narrator.
This was McKinley's first book, written almost 20 years ago. Since that time she has been awarded the Newbery Medal for The Hero and the Crown and has delighted her fans with another retelling of the Beauty and the Beast fable, Rose Daughter. Still, McKinley's first novel has a special place in the hearts of her devoted readers, many of whom attest to relishing Beauty time and again. (Ages 11 to Adult) [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Blue Bloods'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Broken Flower'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Camp Fire Girls in the Maine Woods, or the Winnebagos Go Camping'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Carrie'
Why read Carrie? Stephen King himself has said that he finds his early work "raw," and Brian De Palma's movie was so successful that we feel as if we have read the novel even if we never have. The simple answer is that this is a very scary story, one that works as well, if not better, on the page as it does on the screen. Carrie White, bullied by cruel teenagers at school and her religious nut of a mother at home, gradually discovers that she has telekinetic powers, powers that will eventually be turned on her tormentors. King has a way of getting under the skin of his readers by creating an utterly believable world that throbs with menace before finally exploding. He builds the tension in this early work by piecing together extracts from newspaper reports, journals, and scientific papers, as well as more traditional first- and third-person narrative in order to reveal what lurks beneath the surface of Chamberlain, Maine.
News item from the Westover (ME) weekly Enterprise, August 19, 1966: "Rain of Stones Reported: It was reliably reported by several persons that a rain of stones fell from a clear blue sky on Carlin Street in the town of Chamberlain on August 17th."Although the supernatural pyrotechnics are handled with King's customary aplomb, it is the carefully drawn portrait of the little horrors of small towns, high schools, and adolescent sexuality that give this novel its power and assures its place in the King canon. --Simon Leake [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Coldest Winter Ever'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Crush'
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Dark Is Rising'
"When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back,With these mysterious words, Will Stanton discovers on his 11th birthday that he is no mere boy. He is the Sign-Seeker, last of the immortal Old Ones, destined to battle the powers of evil that trouble the land. His task is monumental: he must find and guard the six great Signs of the Light, which, when joined, will create a force strong enough to match and perhaps overcome that of the Dark. Embarking on this endeavor is dangerous as well as deeply rewarding; Will must work within a continuum of time and space much broader than he ever imagined.
Three from the circle, three from the track;
Wood, bronze, iron; water, fire, stone;
Five will return, and one go alone."
Susan Cooper, in her five-title Dark Is Rising sequence, creates a world where the conflict between good and evil reaches epic proportions. She ranks with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien in her ability to deliver a moral vision in the context of breathtaking adventure. No one can stop at just one of her thrilling fantasy novels. Among many other prestigious awards, The Dark Is Rising is a Newbery Honor Book and a Carnegie Medal Honor Book. (Ages 8 and older) --Emilie Coulter [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Dragonsong'
Anne McCaffrey's best-selling Harper Hall Trilogy is a wonder-filled classic of the imagination. Dragonsong, the first volume in the series, is the enchanting tale of how Menolly of Half Circle Hold became Pern's first female Harper, and rediscovered the legendary fire lizards who helped to save her world. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Eight Cousins'
Rose sat all alone in the big best parlor, with her little handkerchief laid ready to catch the first tear, for she was thinking of her troubles, and a shower was expected. She had retired to this room as a good place in which to be miserable; for it was dark and still, full of ancient furniture, sombre curtains, and hung all around with portraits of solemn old gentlemen in wigs, severe-nosed ladies in top-heavy caps, and staring children in little bob-tailed coats or short-waisted frocks. It was an excellent place for woe; and the fitful spring rain that pattered on the window-pane seemed to sob, "Cry away: I'm with you." Rose really did have some cause to be sad; for she had no mother, and had lately lost her father also, which left her no home but this with her great-aunts. She had been with them only a week, and, though the dear old ladies had tried their best to make her happy, they had not succeeded very well, for she was unlike any child they had ever seen, and they felt very much as if they had the care of a low-spirited butterfly. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Eight Cousins or the Aunt Hill'
1874. Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, is universally recognized as the greatest and most popular story teller for children in her generation. She has known the way to the hearts of young people, not only in her own class, or even country, but in every condition of life, and in many foreign lands. Left an orphan after her father's death, Rose Campbell is sent to live at Aunt Hill with her six aunts and seven boy cousins. For someone who was used to a girl's boarding school, it all seems pretty overwhelming. Six aunts fussing and fretting over her are bad enough, but what is a quiet 13-year-old girl to do with seven boisterous boy cousins? A delightful and wholesome read for young girls. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Elsie's Children'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Elsie's Girlhood'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Elsie's Kith and Kin'
This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Elsie's Motherhood'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Elsie's Womanhood: A Sequel to Elsie's Girlhood'
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Fallen'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Further Chronicles of Avonlea'
Further Chronicles of Avonlea. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Girl Wonder'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Go Ask Alice'
The torture and hell of adolescence has rarely been captured as clearly as it is in this classic diary by an anonymous, addicted teen. Lonely, awkward, and under extreme pressure from her "perfect" parents, "Anonymous" swings madly between optimism and despair. When one of her new friends spikes her drink with LSD, this diarist begins a frightening journey into darkness. The drugs take the edge off her loneliness and self-hate, but they also turn her life into a nightmare of exalting highs and excruciating lows. Although there is still some question as to whether this diary is real or fictional, there is no question that it has made a profound impact on millions of readers during the more than 25 years it has been in print. Despite a few dated references to hippies and some expired slang, Go Ask Alice still offers a jolting chronicle of a teenager's life spinning out of control. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Good Wives'
Amy looked relieved, but naughty Jo took her at her word, for during the first call she sat with every limb gracefully composed, every fold correctly draped, calm as a summer sea, cool as a snowbank, and as silent as the sphinx. In vain Mrs. Chester alluded to her `charming novel', and the Misses Chester introduced parties, picnics, the opera, and the fashions. Each and all were answered by a smile, a bow, and a demure "Yes" or "No" with the chill on. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders on the G'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Great Expectations'
Originally published in serial form from December 1860 to August 1861, Great Expectations is the autobiography of Pip, as he transformed from apprentice village blacksmith to a London gentleman. Unlike many of Dickenss earlier works, the novel is not so much a protest against social evils as a sustained mediation upon the process of social reform in Victorian England. It is this which gives such importance to the books handling of the theme of the gentleman, a theme central both to Dickenss society and to his own life story. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Have Space Suit, Will Travel: Library Edition'
A classic novel from the mind of the storyteller who captures the imagination of readers from around the world, and across two generations
First prize in the Skyway Soap slogan contest was an all-expenses-paid trip to the Moon. The consolation prize was an authentic space suit, and when scientifically minded high school senior Kip Russell won it, he knew for certain he would use it one day to make a sojourn of his own to the stars. But "one day" comes sooner than he thinks when he tries on the suit in his backyard -- and finds himself worlds away, a prisoner aboard a space pirate's ship, and heading straight for what could be his final destination.... [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'He's Just Not That into You: Your Daily Wake-up Call'
For ages women have come together over coffee, cocktails, or late-night phone chats to analyze the puzzling behavior of men.
He's afraid to get hurt again.
Maybe he doesn't want to ruin the friendship.
Maybe he's intimidated by me.
He just got out of a relationship.
Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo are here to say that -- despite good intentions -- you're wasting your time. Men are not complicated, although they'd like you to think they are. And there are no mixed messages.
The truth may be He's just not that into you.
Unfortunately, guys are too terrified to ever directly tell a woman "You're not the one." But their actions absolutely show how they feel.
HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU -- based on a popular episode of Sex and the City -- educates otherwise smart women on how to tell when a guy just doesn't like them enough, so they can stop wasting time making excuses for a dead-end relationship.
Reexamining familiar scenarios and classic mind-sets that keep us in unsatisfying relationships, Behrendt and Tuccillo's wise and wry understanding of the sexes spares women hours of waiting by the phone, obsessing over the details with sympathetic girlfriends, and hoping his mixed messages really mean "I'm in love with you and want to be with you."
HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU is provocative, hilarious, and, above all, intoxicatingly liberating. It deserves a place on every woman's night table. It knows you're a beautiful, smart, funny woman who deserves better. The next time you feel the need to start "figuring him out," consider the glorious thought that maybe He's just not that into you. And then set yourself loose to go find the one who is. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'He's Just Not That into You: Your Daily Wake-up Call'
Now in bite-size mantras, the abridged empathetic wit and wisdom of the number one New York Times bestseller He's Just Not That Into You will recharge and inspire your dating outlook one wake-up call at a time.
For ages women have come together over coffee, cocktails, or late-night phone chats to analyze the puzzling behavior of men. Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo are here to say that -- despite good intentions -- you're wasting your time. Men are not complicated, although they'd like you to think they are. And there are no mixed messages.
The truth may be, He's just not that into you.
He's Just Not That Into You -- based on a popular episode of Sex and the City -- educates otherwise smart women on how to tell when a guy just doesn't like them enough, so they can stop wasting time making excuses for a dead-end relationship. This book knows you're a beautiful, smart, funny woman who deserves better [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Heaven Shop'
For Binti's father, who runs Heaven Shop Coffins in the small African country of Malawi, business is booming. It is not until his death, however, that the 13-year-old girl comes face to face with the horror of the AIDS pandemic. In this touching young-adult novel about one of sub-Saharan Africa's 13 million AIDS orphans, Deborah Ellis once again deftly explores a serious world issue through the eyes of a child. Binti, like Parvana in The Breadwinner and its sequel Parvana's Journey, comes from a relatively wealthy and liberal-minded family, making her a character with whom young Western readers can easily identify. When her grandmother publicly reveals that both her parents died of AIDS, though, Binti's comfortable world quickly collapses. She and her 16-year-old sister, Junie, and 14-year-old brother, Kwasi, are taken out of their private schools and shunted off to unfeeling relatives who refuse to touch or eat with them. Worst of all, Binti has to give up her starring role on a popular radio show--the one thing that made her feel special.
In straightforward and unadorned but deeply moving prose, Ellis describes the hardships and ignominies that Binti and other African orphans experience under the taint of AIDS, including physical neglect, imprisonment, and even rape. Ignorance and prejudice are revealed to be just as venomous as the HIV virus itself. As Binti's grandmother remarks, AIDS is "a lion in our village" and yet "We do not want to say what it is. We think that if we don't say it, it will go away, but it won't go away." Some of Ellis's characters can sound a bit like safe-sex pamphlets and her break-neck pacing results in occasionally skeletal plot development. But this is an important book--one that packs an emotional wallop at the same time as it introduces teens to one of the great injustices of our times. --Lisa Alward [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Higher Power of Lucky'
Lucky, age ten, can't wait another day. The meanness gland in her heart and the crevices full of questions in her brain make running away from Hard Pan, California (population 43), the rock-bottom only choice she has.
It's all Brigitte's fault -- for wanting to go back to France. Guardians are supposed to stay put and look after girls in their care! Instead Lucky is sure that she'll be abandoned to some orphanage in Los Angeles where her beloved dog, HMS Beagle, won't be allowed. She'll have to lose her friends Miles, who lives on cookies, and Lincoln, future U.S. president (maybe) and member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers. Just as bad, she'll have to give up eavesdropping on twelve-step anonymous programs where the interesting talk is all about Higher Powers. Lucky needs her own -- and quick.
But she hadn't planned on a dust storm.
Or needing to lug the world's heaviest survival-kit backpack into the desert. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Hitty Her First Hundred Years'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Hold Up Your Heads Girls!'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Homecoming'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You'
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Jane Eyre'
"Jane Eyre" is the story of its title character, a poor orphaned girl who comes to live with her aunt where she endures poor treatment from her aunt and cousins. Jane subsequently ships off to Lowood, a Christian boarding school where she endures more horrible conditions. After some time, life becomes more bearable at Lowood for Jane and she eventually finishes her coursework and spends a period of time as a teacher at the school. After leaving Lowood she comes into the employment of Mr. Rochester as a governess at Thornfield Hall. "Jane Eyre" is the story of one woman's struggle to overcome adversity and a classic love story. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William Mckinley, and me, Elizabeth'
Elizabeth is an only child, new in town, and the shortest kid in her class. She's also pretty lonely, until she meets Jennifer. Jennifer is...well, different. She's read Macbeth. She never wears jeans or shorts. She never says "please" or "thank you." And she says she is a witch.
It's not always easy being friends with a witch, but it's never boring. At first an apprentice and then a journeyman witch, Elizabeth learns to eat raw ends and how to cast small spells. And she and Jennifer collaborate on cooking up an ointment that will enable them to fly. That's when a marvelous toad, Hilary Ezra, enters their lives. And that's when trouble starts to brew.
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Jo's Boys'
All nice and warm for a July day, but received with delight nevertheless. Ted and Josie immediately 'dressed up', learned the war-whoop, and proceeded to astonish their friends by a series of skirmishes about the house and grounds, with tomahawks and bows and arrows, till weariness produced a lull. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Kilmeny of the Orchard'
Kilmeny of the Orchard is a novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery. It is the story of a young man named Eric Marshall who goes to teach a school on Prince Edward Island and meets a mute girl that has perfect hearing named Kilmeny. He sees her when he is walking in the woods and hears her playing the violin. He visits her for a long time until he falls in love with her. When he proposes she rejects him, even though she loves him in return, believing that her disability will only hinder his life if they were married, despite his protests that it wouldn't matter at all. Meanwhile, Eric's good friend David who is a renowned throat doctor, comes to the island and visits Eric. He examines Kilmeny, and says that nothing will cure her but an extreme psychological need to speak. This need comes soon when Neil Gordon, who is in love with Kilmeny and madly jealous of Eric, comes behind Eric with an axe, meaning to kill him. Kilmeny is nearby, and without thinking, she yells to Eric to look behind him: she can now speak. Neil runs away on a ship, and Kilmeny and Eric get married. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Little Men'
Please, sir, is this Plumfield? asked a ragged boy of the man who opened the great gate at which the omnibus left him. "Yes. Who sent you?" "Mr. Laurence. I have got a letter for the lady." "All right; go up to the house, and give it to her; she'll see to you, little chap." The man spoke pleasantly, and the boy went on, feeling much cheered by the words. Through the soft spring rain that fell on sprouting grass and budding trees, Nat saw large square house before him a hospitable-looking house, with an old-fashioned porch, wide steps, and lights shining in many win-dows. Neither curtains nor shutters hid the cheerful glimmer; and, pausing a moment before he rang, Nat saw many little shadows dancing on the walls, heard the pleasant hum of young voices, and felt that it was hardly possible that the light and warmth and comfort within could be for a homeless "little chap" like him. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Looking for Alaska'
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Luckiest Girl in the School'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Massive'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Megan Meade's Guide to the Mcgowan Boys'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Northanger Abbey'
Though Northanger Abbey is one of Jane Austen's earliest novels, it was not published until after her death--well after she'd established her reputation with works such as Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility. Of all her novels, this one is the most explicitly literary in that it is primarily concerned with books and with readers. In it, Austen skewers the novelistic excesses of her day made popular in such 18th-century Gothic potboilers as Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho. Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers all figure into Northanger Abbey, but with a decidedly satirical twist. Consider Austen's introduction of her heroine: we are told on the very first page that "no one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine." The author goes on to explain that Miss Morland's father is a clergyman with "a considerable independence, besides two good livings--and he was not in the least addicted to locking up his daughters." Furthermore, her mother does not die giving birth to her, and Catherine herself, far from engaging in "the more heroic enjoyments of infancy, nursing a dormouse, feeding a canary-bird, or watering a rose-bush" vastly prefers playing cricket with her brothers to any girlish pastimes.
Catherine grows up to be a passably pretty girl and is invited to spend a few weeks in Bath with a family friend. While there she meets Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor, who invite her to visit their family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Austen amuses herself and us as Catherine, a great reader of Gothic romances, allows her imagination to run wild, finding dreadful portents in the most wonderfully prosaic events. But Austen is after something more than mere parody; she uses her rapier wit to mock not only the essential silliness of "horrid" novels, but to expose the even more horrid workings of polite society, for nothing Catherine imagines could possibly rival the hypocrisy she experiences at the hands of her supposed friends. In many respects Northanger Abbey is the most lighthearted of Jane Austen's novels, yet at its core is a serious, unsentimental commentary on love and marriage, 19th-century British style. --Alix Wilber [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Northanger Abbey'
Though Northanger Abbey is one of Jane Austen's earliest novels, it was not published until after her death--well after she'd established her reputation with works such as Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility. Of all her novels, this one is the most explicitly literary in that it is primarily concerned with books and with readers. In it, Austen skewers the novelistic excesses of her day made popular in such 18th-century Gothic potboilers as Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho. Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers all figure into Northanger Abbey, but with a decidedly satirical twist. Consider Austen's introduction of her heroine: we are told on the very first page that "no one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine." The author goes on to explain that Miss Morland's father is a clergyman with "a considerable independence, besides two good livings--and he was not in the least addicted to locking up his daughters." Furthermore, her mother does not die giving birth to her, and Catherine herself, far from engaging in "the more heroic enjoyments of infancy, nursing a dormouse, feeding a canary-bird, or watering a rose-bush" vastly prefers playing cricket with her brothers to any girlish pastimes.
Catherine grows up to be a passably pretty girl and is invited to spend a few weeks in Bath with a family friend. While there she meets Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor, who invite her to visit their family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Austen amuses herself and us as Catherine, a great reader of Gothic romances, allows her imagination to run wild, finding dreadful portents in the most wonderfully prosaic events. But Austen is after something more than mere parody; she uses her rapier wit to mock not only the essential silliness of "horrid" novels, but to expose the even more horrid workings of polite society, for nothing Catherine imagines could possibly rival the hypocrisy she experiences at the hands of her supposed friends. In many respects Northanger Abbey is the most lighthearted of Jane Austen's novels, yet at its core is a serious, unsentimental commentary on love and marriage, 19th-century British style. --Alix Wilber [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Old Wives' Tale'
1908. It is generally conceded by critics, and certainly it is staunchly maintained by hosts of readers, that Arnold Bennett's most notable literary achievement is The Old Wives' Tale. This chronicle of the Five Towns and France during the Siege of Paris is a project of heroic proportions, accomplished with infinite skill, and of a scope that invites comparison with the greatest novels of the Victorian era. It is a tale of ordinary people during extraordinary times, told with an insight encountered only in the works of the masters of fiction. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'An Old-fashioned Girl'
Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - ""IT'S time to go to the station, Tom."" ""Come on, then."" ""Oh, I'm not going; it's too wet. Shouldn't have a crimp left if I went out such a day as this; and I want to look nice when Polly comes."" ""You don't expect me to go and bring home a strange girl alone, do you?"" And Tom looked as much alarmed as if his sister had proposed to him to escort the wild woman of Australia. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Persuasion'
Anne Elliot, heroine of Austen's last novel, did something we can all relate to: Long ago, she let the love of her life get away. In this case, she had allowed herself to be persuaded by a trusted family friend that the young man she loved wasn't an adequate match, social stationwise, and that Anne could do better. The novel opens some seven years after Anne sent her beau packing, and she's still alone. But then the guy she never stopped loving comes back from the sea. As always, Austen's storytelling is so confident, you can't help but allow yourself to be taken on the enjoyable journey. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Pop Princess'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Rainbow Valley'
It was a clear, apple-green evening in May, and Four Winds Harbour was mirroring back the clouds of the golden west between its softly dark shores. The sea moaned eerily on the sand-bar, sorrowful even in spring, but a sly, jovial wind came piping down the red harbour road along which Miss Cornelia's comfortable, matronly figure was making its way towards the village of Glen St. Mary. Miss Cornelia was rightfully Mrs. Marshall Elliott, and had been Mrs. Marshall Elliott for thirteen years, but even yet more people referred to her as Miss Cornelia than as Mrs. Elliott. The old name was dear to her old friends, only one of them contemp-tuously dropped it. Susan Baker, the gray and grim and faithful handmaiden of the Blythe family at Ingleside, never lost an opportunity of calling her "Mrs. Marshall Elliott," with the most killing and pointed emphasis, as if to say "You wanted to be Mrs. and Mrs. you shall be with a vengeance as far as I am concerned." [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Rats Saw God'
In order to pass English class and graduate, 18-year-old Steve York has to write a 100- page essay about his life. What sounds like a run-of-the-mill writing assignment, however, becomes an excuse for Steve to reflect on the last four years (from Texas freshman to California senior), and figure out where it all went wrong. Maybe it was when he discovered that he really couldn't relate to his father, the Famous Astronaut. Or it could be because his "heart had been run through frappé, puree, and liquefy on a love blender" by his ex-girlfriend, Wanda "Dub" Varner. No matter where the finger of blame ends up pointing, it's a wild ride of self-enlightenment as Steve discovers that not all relationships are permanent, and that some--like the one with his dad--can be mended with a little work. With Steve, author Rob Thomas has taken a teenage outsider and given him a funny, intelligent voice: "There are those males who merely fill ear holes with tiny studs hardly big enough to offend a Marine. Not me. Most days I wear big hoops. When I combine the look with a doo rag, I'm a regular pirate." As with his other novels--Doing Time and Slave Day--Thomas proves his thorough grasp of young adult issues and emotions. Teens will appreciate the author's empathy and humor, and teachers and parents will examine his work for clues to the mystery of adolescence. (Ages 13 and older) --Jennifer Hubert [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Red Tent'
The red tent is the place where women gathered during their cycles of birthing, menses, and even illness. Like the conversations and mysteries held within this feminine tent, this sweeping piece of fiction offers an insider's look at the daily life of a biblical sorority of mothers and wives and their one and only daughter, Dinah. Told in the voice of Jacob's daughter Dinah (who only received a glimpse of recognition in the Book of Genesis), we are privy to the fascinating feminine characters who bled within the red tent. In a confiding and poetic voice, Dinah whispers stories of her four mothers, Rachel, Leah, Zilpah, and Bilhah--all wives to Jacob, and each one embodying unique feminine traits. As she reveals these sensual and emotionally charged stories we learn of birthing miracles, slaves, artisans, household gods, and sisterhood secrets. Eventually Dinah delves into her own saga of betrayals, grief, and a call to midwifery.
"Like any sisters who live together and share a husband, my mother and aunties spun a sticky web of loyalties and grudges," Anita Diamant writes in the voice of Dinah. "They traded secrets like bracelets, and these were handed down to me the only surviving girl. They told me things I was too young to hear. They held my face between their hands and made me swear to remember." Remembering women's earthy stories and passionate history is indeed the theme of this magnificent book. In fact, it's been said that The Red Tent is what the Bible might have been had it been written by God's daughters, instead of her sons. --Gail Hudson [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Rose in Bloom'
Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - Three young men stood together on a wharf one bright October day awaiting the arrival of an ocean steamer with an impatience which found a vent in lively skirmishes with a small lad, who pervaded the premises like a will-o'-the-wisp and afforded much amusement to the other groups assembled there. "They are the Campbells, waiting for their cousin, who has been abroad several years with her uncle, the doctor," whispered one lady to another as the handsomest of the young men touched his hat to her as he passed, lugging the boy, whom he had just rescued from a little expedition down among the piles. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Running Out of Time'
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. When a diphtheria epidemic hits her 1840 village, 13-year-old Jessie discovers it is actually a 1995 tourist site under unseen observation by heartless scientists. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Shug'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Skinny-dipping'
Same Hamptons,
all new games
Not-so-poor-anymore Eliza has traded babysitting for velvet-rope-sitting. And Jacqui, in an odd twist, is doing all the babysitting because Mara's up every night doing her best second-rate party girl impression at the hot club where Eliza works. At first it's annoying, but the new au pair, Philippe, is sexy and French -- but off-limits to Jacqui, who claims she's sworn off guys.
Your favorite bikini-clad au pairs are back. But this summer, if it's possible, they will have more fun, more sun, and more romance than they know how to handle.
› Find signed collectible books: 'Sylvester and the Magic Pebble'
Imagine all the happiness and wealth you could achieve if you found a magic pebble that granted your every wish! Sylvester Duncan, an unassuming donkey who collects pebbles "of unusual shape and color," experiences just such a lucky find. But before he can make all his wishes come true, the young donkey unexpectedly encounters a mean-looking lion. Startled, Sylvester wishes he were a rock, but in mineral form he can no longer hold the pebble, and thus cannot wish himself back to his equine trappings. His parents, thinking he has disappeared, are at first frantic, then miserable, and then plunge into donkey ennui. Meanwhile, Sylvester is gravely depressed, but tries to get used to being a rock.
In 1970, William Steig won the Caldecott Medal for Sylvester and the Magic Pebble--the first of his many Newbery and Caldecott honors. In this donkey's tale, Steig imbues his characteristically simple illustrations of animals sporting human garb with evocative, irresistible, and heartbreakingly vivid emotions. The text is straightforward and the dialogue remarkably touching. Children will feel deeply for Sylvester and his parents, all wishing for the impossible--that the family will one day be reunited. Sylvester's sweet story is one that endures, reminding us all that sometimes what we have is all we really need. (Ages 4 to 8) [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Tess Of The D'urbervilles'
Tess first appeared in a serializedand bowdlerizedform in The Graphic in 1891. 'A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented,' as Hardy subtitled the work, represented a direct challenge to conventional notions of sexuality and femininityand, though conventions have radically changed in the past century, the character of Tess has remained a challenging one. In her introduction Maier argues that we should not see Tess merely as a passive victim; she suggests that a combination of sexual vigour and moral rigour makes Tess not just one of the greatest but also one of the strongest women in the canon of English literature. [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Too Close to the Falls'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Tunnel In The Sky'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'What Katy Did'
Despite her best intentions, quick-tempered Katy Carr's efforts to be tidy and good-tempered always seem to land her in trouble. Then, one terrible day, Katy has an accident, but it is still a long, eventful time before she learns to be as loving and as patient as her beautiful invalid cousin Helen. [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'What Katy Did at School'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Wild Magic: Library Edition'
Thirteen-year-old DaIne has always had a knack with animals, but it's not until she's forced to leave home that she realizes it's more than a knack -- it's magic. With this wild magic, not only can Daine speak to animals, but also she can make them obey her. Daine takes a job handling horses for the Queen's Riders, where she meets the master mage Numair and becomes his student.
Under Numair's guidance, Daine explores the scope of her magic. But she begins to sense other beings too: immortals. These bloodthirsty monsters have been imprisoned in the Divine Realms for the past four hundred years, but now someone has broken the barrier. It's up to Daine and her friends to defend their world from an immortal attack. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Wuthering High'
Fifteen-year-old Mia is not exactly thrilled when she gets the news that her parents are shipping her off to boarding school. It's not like she did anything that bad -- all she did was wreck her dad's car and max out her step mum's credit cards. So, off she goes, from Chicago to Bard Academy, an exclusive prep school that treats troubled teenagers with a healthy dose of higher learning and old-fashioned discipline. But all is not what it seems at this educational institute, and Mia and her classmates soon discover that the teachers are actually ghosts, stuck in limbo, some of them famous authors who died before their time, including Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, and Charlotte Bronte. And what's even more disturbing is that not all the ghosts have good intentions. Mia and her friends must stop one evil instructor's plan to bring down the school -- and the entire student body with it.
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Yotsuba 2'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Yotsuba 3'
When Asagi brings her a gift from Okinawa, Yotsuba is determined to return the favor - no matter what! Her search for the perfect present takes her to the park, but what will Asagi think of this hand-picked offering? As night falls and fireworks season kicks in, the sparks will fly (and so will Jumbo)! [via]
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