For years, Emily has been living happily in the underground goblin kingdom. Now she is old enough to marry, but when her childhood friend, Seylin, proposes, she doesn't take him seriously. Devastated, Seylin leaves the kingdom, intent on finding his own people: the elves. Too late, Emily realizes what Seylin means to her and sets out in search of him. But as Emily and Seylin come closer to their goals, they bring two worlds onto a collision course, awakening hatred and prejudices that have slumbered for years.

On a school trip to Salem, Massachusetts, Kristy, Abby, Mallory, Stacey, and Mary Anne find a mystery instead: a famous diamond, the Witch's Eye, is stolen from a local museum. The Baby-sitters set out to investigate, but someone seems determined to stop them. Stacey's room is ransacked. Abby is followed. And then Kristy disappears! Abby's sure the BSC is cursed. And all the Baby-sitters agree: Whether or not the danger is supernatural, it's definitely real. Will they find Kristy, and the thief, before it's too late?

I once heard the bravest officer I ever knew declare that the height of absurdity was for a person to boast that he did not know the meaning of fear. "Such a man is either a fool or the truth is not in him," was the terse expression of the gallant soldier.

                                                                               A CLASH OF AXES, A SLASH OF SWORDSIt was a memorable duel. For hours, King Haldor of Horlingdal and King Ulf of Romsdal battled. But the axe of Haldor the Fierce split Ulf's shield, and slammed into his head, putting him into his bed for a full week. Thus did King Haldor win the contest prize of this Viking contest. Herfrida the Soft Eyed became his bride. Herfrida bore King Haldor a son named Erling. Ulf sired a daughter named Hilda. The Viking kings became friends and their progeny grew. Erling became a handsome young man and Hilda a beautiful young woman. But Erling the Bold's Viking destiny was not peace. For Erling the Bold and Hilda the Sunbeam met a hermit with a strange new faith. His name was Christian. He changed their fate forever.

With warmth and panache, Mary Downing Hahn renders a fictionalized account of her own mother's Baltimore childhood during the years just before World War I. From eight-year-old Anna's troubles with math to her surprise birthday trick to her triumphant ride in an automobile, each vignette in this charming novel is rich with period detail and resonant with the wonders and woes of childhood across the ages.

Dorry is unbearably lonely at her new high school until she meets Angela and her circle of friends. She soon discovers they all belong to a religious group, the Fishers of Men. At first, as Dorry becomes involved with the Fishers, she is eager to fit in and flattered by her new friends' attention. But the Fishers make harsh demands of their members, and Dorry must make greater and greater sacrifices. In demonstrating her devotion, Dorry finds herself compromising her grades, her job, and even her family's love. How much is too much? And where will the cult's demands end?

The New York Times bestselling author of The Indian in the Cupboard returns with a brand new adventure of two remarkable friends brought together through the magic of a bathroom cupboard and a wonderful key. As Omri and his father read together of the terrible historical plight of the Iroquois people, they realize that Little Bear, Omri's Iroquois friend from the past, is in urgent need of help. But how can father and son go back in time? Jessica Charlotte, Omri's ancestor who originated the magic gift, tries to help--but things go so wrong that Omri finds himself lost in an entirely different time and place, while his father has hair-raising adventures of his own. And the greatest challenge is yet to come: little do they understand the terrors that lie in wait--both for their Indian friends and for themselves.

Peter Liebig can't wait for summer. He's tired of classrooms, teachers, and the endless lectures about the horrible Nazis. The war has been over for ten years, and besides, his town of Rolfen, West Germany, has moved on nicely. Despite its bombed-out church, it looks just as calm and pretty as ever. There is money to be made at the beach, and there are whole days to spend with Father at his job. And, of course, there's soccer. Plenty for a thirteen-year-old boy to look forward to. But when Peter stumbles across a letter he was never meant to see, he unravels a troubling secret. Soon he questions everything—the town's peaceful nature, his parents' stories about the war, and his own sense of belonging.

From the author of The Face on the Milk Carton comes a novel about romance and love. Sometimes there is heartbreak, but there can also be happily ever after. Teen girls will follow the complexities of dating, and the difference between falling in love, being in love, and really loving someone, portrayed in this inventive novel. When 16-year-old Kelly Williams’s best friend, Faith, declares that she will stop playing games and find a real romance, Kelly watches from the sidelines and takes note. She sees Faith, as well as other friends, her brother, and even her parents attempt to play the game of love in their own unique ways. Kelly decides to create an actual game—one that captures the way people behave—and in the process it teaches them a thing or two about what can be considered winning when it comes to matters of the heart.

A colony of Canadian and American writers and filmmakers, exiled by McCarthyist witch-hunts at home, find themselves in London, England, where they evolve a society every bit as merciless, destructive, and close-minded as that from which they have fled. The bonds of the group are strained when Norman Price, an academic turned hack writer, befriends an enigmatic German refugee. Ostracized by his colleagues, Norman soon perceives how easily conviction devolves into tyranny. Believing that “all alliances are discredited,” he enters a moral nightmare in which his choice of enemies is no longer clear. With relentless irony and biting accuracy, Mordecai Richler maps out a surreal territory of doubt, describing not only one man’s personal dilemma but the moral condition of modern society. From the Paperback edition.

Margaret W. Eggleston wrote this popular book that continues to be widely read today despite its age.

Camp Venture

HardPress Classic Books SeriesHardPress Classic Books Series

“Yes, she must go to school!” repeated Mr Chester. A plaintive sob greeted his words from the neighbourhood of the sofa. For once in her life Mrs Chester’s kindly, good-tempered face had lost its smiles, and was puckered up into lines of distress. She let one fat, be-ringed hand drop to her side and wander restlessly over the satin skirt in search of a pocket. Presently out came a handkerchief, which was applied to each eye in turn, and came away bedewed with tears.

Boris the Bear-Hunter by Frederick WhishawThe moment at which I propose to introduce my readers to Boris the Bear-Hunter came very near, as it happened, to being the last which my hero was destined to spend upon this earth. Great hunter as Boris was, there is no doubt about it that on this particular occasion he met his match, and came within measurable distance of defeat at the hands—or rather paws—of one of the very creatures whose overthrow was at once his profession and his glory.It happened many a year ago—about two hundred, in fact; and the scene of Boris's adventure was an exceedingly remote one, far away in the north of Europe, close to Archangel.Boris Ivanitch was a peasant whose home was an outlying village near the large town just mentioned. He was a serf, of course, as were all his fellows at that time; but in consequence of his wonderful strength and courage, and of his aptitude for pursuing and killing every kind of wild beast and game, he was exempt, by favour of his lord, both from taxation and from the manual labour which the owner of the soil could have exacted from him. In a word, Boris was employed to keep the country clear, or as clear as possible, of bears and wolves, which, when left to themselves, were at that time the cause of much danger and loss to the inhabitants of that portion of the Russian empire.Boris performed his duties well. There was no man, young or old, for hundreds of miles around who could compare with this young giant in any of those sports or competitions in which the palm went to the strongest. Tall and muscular beyond his years—for he was but nineteen at this time—lithe as a willow, straight as a poplar, Boris excelled in anything which called into play the qualities of activity and strength. Had he lived in our day and attended an English public school, he would undoubtedly have come to the front, whether on the cricket or the football field, on the running path or on the river. But being debarred from the privileges of English schoolboys, Boris was obliged to expend his energies in those exercises which were open to him, and which alone were familiar to the people of his country—snow-shoeing, hunting, swimming, and similar sports natural to the livers of a wild, outdoor life in a scarcely civilized land.