The Mystery of Choice

Saucy and Bubba: A Hansel and Gretel Tale by Darcy Pattison In this modern-day Hansel and Gretel story, Saucy and Bubba struggle to get along with Krissy, their alcoholic stepmother. One freezing cold night, Krissy locks Saucy out of the house and Saucy must sleep in the barn. In a desperate move, Saucy and Bubba run away to their aunt’s house–except Aunt Vivian isn’t home. Trying to take care of Bubba for several days forces Saucy to take charge of her own life and accept a terrible sacrifice in order to find safety for herself. This is a heartbreakingly simple story that weaves through the tangled threads of a family and builds to an ending full of hope. PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK Sometimes you have to help yourself before you can help someone else, but if you mark your trail, you can always find your way home. That's what the spunky main character of Darcy Pattison's Saucy and Bubba learns in this modern day Hansel and Gretel tale. Saucy is a real character dealing with real stuff—hard stuff that doesn't have easy answers, not in real life and not in fairy tales, either. This is a really compelling and ultimately hopeful story. Highly recommended. -- Debby Dahl Edwardson, National Book Award finalist and author of My Name is Not Easy

A boy unites an immigrant community and rebuilds his family–using a simple sourdough bread recipe. Eliot Winston, a grieving son, must convince his new step-mother – now Griff Winston’s widow – to adopt him. But when she married Griff Winston, Marj hadn’t bargained on being the single mother of a twelve-year-old boy. Alli Flynn, a foster child new to the school, convinces Eliot that he must fight to keep his family intact and the best way to do that is to help Mrs. Winston with the Bread Project, a fund raising project for the school. With his whole future at stake, Eliot tries hard to please Marj; but as the deadlines near for the Bread Project and for Marj to sign his adoption papers, Eliot finds it harder and harder to hang on to hope. In the tradition of Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voigt, this story follows two kids who search for a family and a home. About the Author At family gatherings, Darcy Pattison was known for baking great breads until she discovered she needed a gluten-free diet. Now she only bakes bread in her stories instead. Published in eight languages, her middle grade novels include: Saucy and Bubba: A Hansel and Gretel Tale; The Girl, the Gypsy and the Gargoyle; and Vagabond. Recent nature books for children include: Abayomi, the Brazilian Puma: The True Story of an Orphaned Cub, a 2015 NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book; Wisdom, the Midway Albatross, a Starred Review in Publisher’s Weekly; Desert Baths (Arbordale), a 2013 NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book; and, Prairie Storms (Arbordale). Her series, The ALIEN, INC. CHAPTER BOOK SERIES includes Kell, the Alien; Kell and the Horse Apple Parade; Kell and the Giants; and Kell and the Detectives. For more, see darcypattison.com/about

NO ONE WILL BELIEVE THAT A SMALL GIRL HEARS THINGS NO ONE ELSE CAN, BUT SHE DOESN’T CARE — SHE’S ON A MISSION. A short story from The Hounds of Annwn. A very young Rhian discovers her beast-sense and, with it, the call of a lost hound. It’s not safe in the woods where cries for help can attract unwelcome attention, but two youngsters discover their courage in the teeth of necessity. This short story takes place before the events in To Carry the Horn.

The sun was shining so brightly through the foremost windows of the old schoolhouse in Upper Wood, that the children of the first and second classes appeared as if covered with gold. They looked at one another, all with beaming faces, partly because the sun made them appear so, and partly for joy; for when the sunshine came through the last window, then the moment approached that the closing word would be spoken, and the children could rush out into the evening sunshine. The teacher was still busy with the illuminated heads of the second class, and indeed with some zeal, for several sentences had still to be completed, before the school could be closed. The teacher was standing before a boy who looked well-fed and quite comfortable, and who was looking up into the teacher’s face with eyes as round as two little balls...

Book Bundle for The Hounds of Annwn: Books 1 & 2. ---- NEW JOB, NEW FAMILY, AND IN TWO WEEKS THE END OF A WORLD HE’S JUST DISCOVERED, IF HE CAN’T RISE TO THE CHALLENGE. To Carry the Horn: Book 1 of The Hounds of Annwn. George Talbot Traherne is just doing his job on a fine autumn morning, keeping the hounds together for the huntsman of the Rowanton Hunt in Virginia along the Blue Ridge Mountain. Doesn’t pay to get distracted by a white stag in unfamiliar territory, though. Next thing you know, you might find yourself… somewhere else. The land is the same but not the people. Their huntsman has just been murdered, and George is tapped for the job. It’s an emergency -- the Wild Hunt is only two weeks away, and if it doesn’t happen on schedule, the antlered god Cernunnos will take the realm from its ruler Gwyn ap Nudd and find someone who can mete out justice with the Hounds of Hell in his place. George throws himself into the task, finding strength in the mission and resources he never knew he had. The more he comes to feel at home, settling into his new responsibilities, the more he wants to stay and make a life for himself. He’s finally met someone worth spending his life with, even if she’s just a bit older, a mere fifteen hundred years or so. Can he keep the Wild Hunt on track despite the attempts to thwart it? Will he be accepted by those he wants to defend who view his timely presence and his human blood with suspicion? Above all, what does Cernunnos want of him and how far will he go? Can he survive the attention of a god? Readers who are familiar with the sources of Arthurian literature such as the Mabinogion will recognize many of the characters, flourishing still in the world we cannot quite reach. ---- TRAPPED BEHIND ENEMY LINES, CAN HE FIND THE STRENGTH TO DEFEND ALL THAT HE VALUES MOST, OR EVEN JUST TO SURVIVE? The Ways of Winter: Book 2 of The Hounds of Annwn. It’s the dead of winter and George Talbot Traherne, the new human huntsman for the Wild Hunt, is in trouble. The damage in Gwyn ap Nudd's domain reveals the deadly powers of a dangerous foe who has mastered an unstoppable weapon and threatens the fae dominions in both the new and the old worlds. Secure in his unbreachable stronghold, the enemy holds hostages and has no compunction about using them in deadly experiments with newly discovered way-technology. Only George has a chance to reach him in time to prevent the loss of thousands of lives, even if it costs him everything. Welcome to the portrait of a paladin in-the-making, Can he carry out a rescue without the deaths of all involved? Will his patron, the antlered god Cernunnos, help him, or just write him off as a dead loss? He has a family to protect and a world to save, and little time to do it in.

A priest and the chorus of Thebans arrive at the palace to call upon their King, Oedipus, to aid them with the plague. Oedipus had sent his brother-in-law Creon to ask help of the oracle at Delphi, and he returns at that moment. Creon says the plague is the result of religious pollution, caused because the murderer of their former King, Laius, had never been caught. Oedipus vows to find the murderer and curses him for the plague that he has caused.

A Science Fiction Story Bundle from the collection There's a Sword for That. THE VISITOR Felockati is anchored to his permanent location underwater and misses the days of roaming his ocean world freely. But something new drops out of the sky and widens his horizons -- all the way to the stars. YOUR EVERY WISH Stealing the alien ambassador's dagger is a sure thing for Pete -- just what he needs to pay off his debts. Until he starts talking to it. There has to be a way to get something for himself out of the deal. Has to be.

The Gentleman Who Vanished

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Fillmore the Dragon

The Prairie

The Prophet's Mantle

Big Business

The Friends of A Warrior

A history play by William Shakespeare which follows life of King Henry V of England, focusing on events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War. The early scenes deal with the embarkation of Henry's fleet for France, and include a real-life incident in which the Earl of Cambridge and two others plotted to assassinate Henry at Southampton.

The play is set in a duchy in France, but most of the action takes place in a location called the Forest of Arden. Arden, Warwickshire, near Shakespeare's home town, which was the ancestral origin of his mother's family—who incidentally were called Arden. It follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle's court, accompanied by her cousin Celia to find safety and, eventually, love, in the Forest of Arden. In the forest, they encounter a variety of memorable characters, notably the melancholy traveller Jaques who speaks many of Shakespeare's most famous speeches.

When Dennis has to write a narrative essay, he naturally turns to his dog for something to write about. Recently, Mom asked Dennis to put a leash on Clark Kent so they could take the dog to the veterinarian for shots. Clark gave them all a merry chase! There’s lots of action to love here—and great verbs for Dennis’s narrative essay.?

The play picks up where Henry IV, Part One left off. Its focus is on Prince Hal's journey toward kingship, and his ultimate rejection of Falstaff. However, unlike Part One, Hal's and Falstaff's stories are almost entirely separate, as the two characters meet only twice and very briefly. The tone of much of the play is elegiac, focusing on Falstaff's age and his closeness to death, which parallels that of the increasingly sick king.

AN IMPULSIVE WEDDING — CAN HE BUILD A LIFE AMONG STRANGERS? A short story from The Hounds of Annwn. Angharad hasn’t lived with anyone for hundreds of years, but now she is ready to tie the knot with George Talbot Traherne, the human who has entered the fae otherworld to serve as huntsman for the Wild Hunt. As soon as she can make up her mind, anyway. George has been swept away by his new job and the people he has met, and by none more so than Angharad. But how can she value the short life of a human? And what will happen to her after he’s gone? This short story takes place between the events in To Carry the Horn and The Ways of Winter.

Timon, later a misanthrope, is a wealthy and generous Athenian gentleman. He hosts a large banquet, attended by nearly all the main characters. Timon gives away money wastefully, and everyone wants to please him to get more, except for Apemantus, a churlish philosopher whose cynicism Timon cannot yet appreciate. He accepts art from Poet and Painter, and a jewel from the Jeweller, but by the end of Act 1, he has given that away to another friend.