Kate no longer runs in the field with her loyal dog Gyp. Gyp worries for Kate's exhaustion. Gyp sees how the color fades from his beloved master. He knows how Kate sweats through sleepless nights. Gyp suspects a terrible sickness gripping Kate, and he fears the family cat Isis holds a terrible secret from him, one which Gyp is determined to learn no matter if he has to shake that cat apart.Gyp is a champion of a loyal dog. Gyp closely follows each of his master Kate's commands. Together, they are a team, and Gyp loves nothing more than running through the training field and pleasing Kate with his cunning and speed. But when a sickness grips Kate so that they can no longer take the field, Gyp will brave even the family's ancient, temperamental cat Isis to learn what can be done to bring health back to his Kate. Gyp will not flinch before that cat's eyes, and the dog will complete any challenge, or pay any cost, to pull Kate back upon the green fields.

Radio talk-show host Max Jervis plays the part of victim better than anyone, and that talent has made Mr. Jervis a very wealthy man. Mr. Jervis will share in any indignity and imagine any conspiracy that might help grow his broadcast empire. But Mr. Jervis forgets that there is a monster for every victim until a scraping and clawing arrive one night outside his studio door.Mr. Jervis plays the role of victim as fine as any actor. By taking offense at the slightest rebuke and by seeing conspiracies behind every shadow, Max Jervis has built an empire of listeners and sponsors with the countless parts of his victim-hood. Max rages and cries with anyone who hears his voice, and he creates monsters out of the airwaves to grip the passion of any broadcast market. But Max Jervis learns too late that his words summon abomination. The scraping of claws arrives outside his door following a caller's curse, and Max Jervis must face the creature his words have shaped.

Jayce and Beverly detour to visit the memorial commemorating a community’s victory over an alien invasion. Guided by the cemetery’s caretaker, they consider the stories told by the holograms installed within each grave, neither suspecting that following the caretaker too far might reveal a buried truth far unlike the history preached by figures of light.Twenty-five years ago, the aliens arrived in the star-filled sky and attempted to conquer the world. The carnage of that battle poisoned the environment, but it also united humanity in defiance of the extraterrestrial invaders. Guided by the Starwatch, humankind vows to be prepared should the aliens ever return to battle for Earth. Starwatch gives those surviving on a sick world hope to push onward until the world can recover from the poisons the alien menace delivered to the planet.Jayce Gorman and Beverly Wilcox visit the memorial dedicated to the community of New Bethany, which fought off the alien invasion before those attackers could establish a foothold on Earth. There, they listen and watch as holograms of the deceased sparkle in the night air to share their stories of defiance with the living. They are guided by a sad caretaker, who seems powerless to combat the cemetery weeds.But the caretaker knows more than Jayce or Beverly first assume, and he slowly pulls secrets out from his sleeves, until he contradicts the fables told by holograms with a history he witnessed first-hand, so that Jayce and Beverly must decide how deep they dare dig to know the truth of what appeared in the night sky.

Nigel Hightower cannot sleep in a world built upon dreams. The machine has shunned Mr. Hightower, refusing to give him digital manifestations of his dreams. So Mr. Hightower finds solace in crafting replicas of the lost world's wildlife for the children too young for the computer, until a series of updates threatens Mr. Hightower's audience so that none remain to call him “replicant maker.”The world has retreated into the limitless landscapes the computer constructs out of zeros and ones. Every citizen of the machine realizes his or her dreams. Everyone is content. No one lacks for any kind of wealth or pleasure. Everyone except for Nigel Hightower. For the machine has shunned Mr. Hightower by replacing his dream with nightmare. Like a child, Mr. Hightower cannot thrive in the virtual landscape. And so he creates mechanical creatures to stir the imagination of the children, who like himself, find no solace in an electronic world. Now even the children threaten to leave Mr. Hightower as updates tempt their younger minds. Mr. Hightower promises to resist the machine with a final, incredible creation.

The stoning sickness has entered Mark Pence's home, banishing his father into the attic's secluded shadows. Stiffening as his limbs turn heavy and his skin morphs into stone, Mark's father warns not to open their door to the knock of that fool who travels the land promising healing. Only, Mark cannot forget how is father languishes in the attic, and his family's faith has never been so tested.Mark Pence serves as the head of the household after the stoning sickness falls upon his father, who suffers, isolated and hidden, in the family attic while he morphs into stone. With a stiffening tongue, Mark's father warns not to open their door to the fool who walks the land offering healing to anyone meek enough to accept such charity. Mark easily makes the promise, but the keeping of it proves difficult as his family's unity collapses. Mark struggles to respect the home his father built, struggles to find the true value in the homes of neighbors that surround him. Only Mark fears that all his father strove to build will crumble when that fool arrives to knock upon their front door.

The town of Portis doesn't fault Sophie Carter for gunning down Samantha Tosh in the local grocery store. Knowing that a copy of a younger, more beautiful you walked the streets around your home would drive anyone to murder. Nor was Samantha a person. She was only a synthetic, and Franklin Tosh should've known better than to think a clone could substitute for a human wife.Sophie Carter shakes after killing Samantha Tosh in the produce aisle of Diekemper's Grocery and Goods. She bakes cookies for town functions. Everyone in the community loves her like a grandmother. Sophie had never believed murder could germinate inside her. Yet she gunned down Samantha Tosh between the onions and avocados without hesitating. Franklin Tosh should not have ordered a clone made to match the young Sophie Carter he had fallen in love with so many lost years before. Sophie might have broken Franklin's heart so long ago, but she did not deserve to be haunted by that synthetic person whose never-aging beauty reminded Sophie of what she had once been. So Sophie Carter trembles as the world descends upon her small community of Portis, determined to decide if a synthetic's blood should be valued as much as any woman or man's.

Wyatt Holmes, the great human hunter revered by the clones, embarks on his final expedition. Sickness eats his bones and crowds his lungs. Yet Wyatt still marches deep into the new wild. For he alone owns the will to kill what the hungry clone stomachs require, and Wyatt fears what may befall the original world if no other man or woman shoulders the last responsibility reserved for humankind.Wyatt Holmes has claimed nearly every trophy offered by the new world. He has fallen the graceful genolope, conquered the furious razor boar, and bested the terrible splicer-lynx. Yet on a last hunt upon the savanna, Wyatt discovers a new creature introduced to the second creation that is more splendid than any animal the tall grasses ever revealed to him. And Wyatt fears that humanity owns no defense against it.Cayden Holmes joins his father on a thrilling voyage into the new wild. He is determined to show his old man that he too owns the courage required to pull his rifle’s trigger and drop the game encountered in the veld. But Cayden finds that the killing is easier said than done. For every creature centered in his weapon’s scope reminds him of everything the lost world wasted, until shame weighs upon Cayden’s heart so that pulling that trigger feels impossible.Kendra’s face bears the clone’s mark - a pair of blue rings circling the right eye that conveys the secrets of her genetic construction. Her life has never been easy upon the savanna, but it had been consistent before the great hunter Wyatt Holmes brought his son onto the hunt. The dry season ends by delivering cataclysmic change to Kendra’s community, a change that forces Kendra and her kind to rely as never before on the hunters’ courage to pull their weapons’ triggers.For a new hunger has arrived in the second creation, one that threatens to forever upend the natural distinctions between the human and the clone.

A book for people who like TV. Thirteen 'episodes' of political situation comedy, starring Elliot Vance, handsome millennial slacker and great-nephew of the former Secretary of State. Each episode takes 20-30 minutes to read. This one is Episode 1.It’s Scandal meets Seinfeld. A political comedy set in Washington, D.C.It’s a book for people who like TV. A serial novel structured like a television show, with 13 individual episodes that each also contribute to the ongoing story.In 2011, the Obama Administration embarrassed itself by mistaking Colorado for Wyoming on the map of a speaking tour in western states. Voila, the Fifty States Program!--fifty new federal patronage jobs, one for each state, all housed in cubicles at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House.The millennials in these jobs call each other by the name of their states, and none of them are exactly what you’d call on the ball. Wyoming--that’s our man Elliot Vance-- could qualify for the slacker Olympics. He’s the grand-nephew of former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, but prior to being given a States job by his wealthy father he got kicked out of an English lit Ph.D. program for insisting on doing his dissertation on 1950s pulp author F. Bob Goddard. Elliot dates a WASP-American princess who’s pushing for marriage, and his two best friends are Delaware and Nebraska. His nemesis is Tara Travis, the slinky blonde Republican aide to Wyoming congressman Bull Wheeler.In Episode 1 Elliot is blackmailed by Tara into flying to Laramie to do some actual work. It’s the first time he’s ever been to The State of Wyoming.

Bryce Munson resents the dreams of the automata. The robotic writers have monopolized the publishing industry, and their dull paperbacks lull the reading public to sleep while the world falls to ruin. A frustrated Bryce becomes a keeper of the machines, and through the robots he distributes the words he hopes will change the world. He fails to understand how his story might set his city to flame.Bryce Munson lives a miserable life. The generic paperbacks of the automata offer him no pleasure. Unable to find enjoyment in the neat categories of robotic fiction sold in the bookstations, Bryce scribbles his own stories, but there seems to be no one left in his wasting world who is interested in reading words that are not produced by the publishing world's machines.Yet a new hope visits Bryce after his desperate effort to destroy a writing robot with a little gun fails to spark the rebellion he desires. A beautiful and dark woman teaches Bryce how to become a keeper of the automata, and how his life might find the purpose it requires in the intricate work involved in maintaining the writing machines. As a keeper, Bryce finds a fellowship of writers. And in short time, he shares a love with the woman who offered him meaning within a repair shop.Too much of Bryce, however, still worries for the world. Too much of his pride still resents how his words must be subservient to those imagined within artificial intelligences. Thus Bryce forms a plan to finally spark the rebellion he hopes will save his world, and he puts everything on the line to topple the automata.

Naomi guides her spacecraft through the stars in search of the starfly world. Humanity wants revenge for the invasion those aliens launched upon the Earth. It is a daunting quest for Naomi, for there are so many stars to explore. Yet she sacrifices her years and floats through the nothing to chase the tiny hope she might find a way to deliver vengeance to those aliens who sing a song of chimes.Shimmering creatures called the starfly create magnificent relics in honor of their golden spires of crystal. The spires provide that alien race with a common home, a location anchored amid the infinite planes where the starfly can gather to share ideas and love. The starfly fail to notice until it's too late how the pull of those spires tears at their wings, and the time comes when the starfly must throw themselves into the stars in a desperate search for a new world they might call home.Humanity tosses its bravest space captains into the stars to search out the home world of the alien creatures who draped the Earth in a net of crystal and brought the armies of man to their knees. Humanity has no way of knowing what star the starfly planet might orbit. Humanity has no way of knowing if the starfly, in truth, originate from any planet at all. Yet the thirst for revenge is too great, and however small the chances may be of ever taking the war to starfly, humanity tosses itself into the stars.And both races are surprised to discover how dreams bond them together.

The rural community of Owensville has grown old. The glass factory that once gave that town heart has been shuttered for decades. Yet the residents still hope that Mr. Turner will rise from his bed to bring life and industry back to their sleepy streets. Each morning those residents gather at the foot of Mr. Turner's crumbled wall and pray that man's bones provide answers they desperately need.Following the death of her father, Lauren Freeman decides to pay an overdue visit to Owensville, the town of her family’s origins. She travels to the estate of her grandfather, Roscoe Turner, a man who built and managed the great glass factory that long ago provided purpose and means for the families who settled in that rural town. Lauren is shocked to discover that one of the walls to her grandfather’s home has collapsed, and that Grandpa Roscoe’s body sleeps in a bed exposed to wind, sun and rain. Yet cousin Maximillian holds up a hand and tells Lauren that calling for help can no longer do any good, and Lauren must learn what forces Max to keep a family skeleton in the daylight

James returns to Addieville to finish what Mr. Turner started years ago when the old boneshaker burned his books and set half the town aflame. James returns to recover Mr. Turner's runes and so link his bloodline to that of a cursed family whose study of an ancient and lost alphabet doomed them to suffering and pain. But to James, such a curse is a small cost to pay to bury a dead town’s bones.Addieville offers no friendship to James Frost’s family. James’ father refuses to remove that vile book of Mr. Turner’s poetry from the town library, and so the residents of Addieville view the Frosts as a family undeserving of their trust. Mr. Turner doesn’t allow the kindness the Frosts show him go unreturned, and as Addieville begins to torment the Frosts to drive them out of town, that old poet unravels captivating magic to their son James. Mr. Turner and James learn they share much more in common than their ugliness, and the young boy and old man begin a last ritual for Addieville when they burn books upon a great pyre and spread a cleansing blaze through town.

Ben Cane has outlived the world, and so he waits for his ailing grandchild to deliver his execution in the center of that room surrounded by glass walls. Every bone in his body throbs with arthritis. His guts burn after so many rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. And mercy is the last thing Ben desires at the end of the world.Mallory Cane resists the urge to cry as the projectors knit glory all around her. She knows that all of the worlds the vision chamber shows her have long gone extinct. None of the laughing hyenas remain. No more elephants shrill. The eagles no longer soar. Not a single domesticated dog or cat remain to nuzzle with Mallory when her illness brings suffering. She understands that the vision chamber offers only illusion and heartbreak, and yet her father forces her to look upon the color that glowed before the world was wasted. He tells Mallory that she must be made strong, and that she must remember all that has been lost. He tells Mallory that she must prepare herself to punish that generation that did nothing as the world faded to gray.

Memories flood Mr. Voss as the man sits amid the winking lights of his treatment. Mr. Voss’ memories have been lost for years, and disease shrouds his mind with mist. Treatment composed of glimmer promises to restore Mr. Voss’ health, and his wife will give everything to help him return. But the children fear what the light might summon, and they hesitate to pay any of the light's cost.Elaine Voss looks upon her husband and prays that Thomas quickly returns to her. Disease has stolen her husband’s memory, so that Thomas fails to recognize the faces of his family. That disease seems especially cruel to Elaine, for her husband’s shoulders remain wide, his legs strong, and his face little wrinkled. Elaine puts her faith into the lights, and she sacrifices to pay whatever cost the sparkle requires to reunite with the man Elaine always believed Thomas to be.Vicki Voss looks upon her father as the lights dance upon him. She learned to carve her own path while the mist filled Thomas’ mind, and she wonders if a returned father would do her more harm than good. Like her mother, Vicki believes the therapy will heal her father, but she remains unsure if she desires a family reunion. Vicki fears Thomas will mock her aims and force her to remain silent and meek.Logan Voss drives through the night to return to his childhood home. Mother again contacts him with news that his father will soon walk out of the light. Yet Logan remains skeptical. He has often hurried home only to find that disease keeps it grip upon Thomas Voss’ mind. But Logan hurries home now with a different purpose; he is determined to convince his mother and sister to let their father drift forever away, believing a quiet death a better option than the monster Logan fears his family summons.

Anton risks more than his carnival when he makes a place for Bora and his magical creatures. Anton worries that Bora's monster swells too quickly within its cage, and he frets that the monster might soon escape to feed upon the world. But Anton risks that danger because he needs a unicorn's magical horn to heal his girl, and he cannot have one magical creature without the other.Ancient Bora holds his breath and feels the world balance upon his magical creatures. An empathic world would nurture the young unicorn, until that animal realized its glorious potential to wield miracles capable of healing any affliction - like the disease that grips Anton Finnegan’s daughter Marcia and prematurely ages that girl. A dark and resentful world would feed that monster of tendrils and tentacles moaning within the confines of Mr. Finnegan’s house of horrors. Such a monster’s girth would know no bounds, and such a monster’s mass would swell until it choked the land. Bora carried his creatures to the bright lights of the carnival, thinking a carousel’s song would provide a wonderful melody for a young unicorn. Yet Bora still worries that even that nation of wealth and luxury has little to provide to a unicorn.

Harmon’s heart breaks when his dog Tonka turns wild and and buries teeth into his master. The madness overtakes that mighty dog just as Harmon fears the third man drawing close. The third man brings the bullet and the blade. The third man reminds all the old pushers and pimps that the city never forgets. So Harmon hurries to train Tonka’s replacement, and in the end, Harmon succeeds too well.Harmon Fowler fears the past hunts him. Harmon could once count himself as one of the street princes, once as one of the street boss's trusted men, granted the permission to pimp women and peddle dope in the city's underground trade. But then one street boss replaced another, and Harmon was forced to flee the corner he once ruled, stopping only when he found a rural and ruined town in the heartland so forgotten that Harmon believed the village might hide him from the hitmen the new boss would likely one day send on his trail. He transformed himself into a breeder and trainer of fine dogs, and he strove to introduce a new canine line that would cement his fame. Harmon nearly had that goal in hand when the sheriff warned that strangers came to town, strangers who Harmon sensed came from those old street corners he long ago fled.

When a boy tries to save his parents’ marriage, he uncovers a legacy of family secrets in a coming-of-age ghost story by the author of the internationally bestselling phenomenon, The Art of Racing in the Rain. In the summer of 1990, fourteen-year-old Trevor Riddell gets his first glimpse of Riddell House. Built from the spoils of a massive timber fortune, the legendary family mansion is constructed of giant, whole trees, and is set on a huge estate overlooking Puget Sound. Trevor’s bankrupt parents have begun a trial separation, and his father, Jones Riddell, has brought Trevor to Riddell House with a goal: to join forces with his sister, Serena, dispatch Grandpa Samuel—who is flickering in and out of dementia—to a graduated living facility, sell off the house and property for development into “tract housing for millionaires,” divide up the profits, and live happily ever after. But Trevor soon discovers there’s someone else living in Riddell House: a ghost with an agenda of his own. For while the land holds tremendous value, it is also burdened by the final wishes of the family patriarch, Elijah, who mandated it be allowed to return to untamed forestland as a penance for the millions of trees harvested over the decades by the Riddell Timber company. The ghost will not rest until Elijah’s wish is fulfilled, and Trevor’s willingness to face the past holds the key to his family’s future. A Sudden Light is a rich, atmospheric work that is at once a multigenerational family saga, a historical novel, a ghost story, and the story of a contemporary family’s struggle to connect with each other. A tribute to the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, it reflects Garth Stein’s outsized capacity for empathy and keen understanding of human motivation, and his rare ability to see the unseen: the universal threads that connect us all

Fathers never forget seeing their kids for the first time. But Evan is greeting his son, Dean, fourteen years late. The boy had been shuttled secretly to another city, along with his teenaged mother, while still a newborn. Now his mother has passed away, and Evan is it—Dad. An instant single parent. Evan was once lead guitarist for a hot band with a hit single; now 31, he gets by as a guitar instructor to middle-aged guys, and does menial work in a music shop. With Dean in the picture he has to change fast, which means facing up to the past, to his own father, and to the epilepsy that haunts him and threatens his every moment.

Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver. Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through. A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life ... as only a dog could tell it.

In this haunting debut, Garth Stein brilliantly invokes his Native American heritage and its folklore to create an electrifying supernatural thriller. When a grieving mother returns to the remote Alaskan town where her young son drowned, she discovers that the truth about her son's death is shrouded in legend— and buried in a terrifying wrinkle between life and death. When Jenna Rosen abandons her comfortable Seattle life to return to Wrangell, Alaska, it's a wrenching return to her past. Long ago the home of her Native American grandmother, Wrangell is located near the Thunder Bay resort, where Jenna's young son, Bobby, disappeared two years before. His body was never recovered, and Jenna is determined to lay to rest the aching mystery of his death. But the spectacular town provides little comfort beyond the steady and tender affections of Eddie, a local fisherman. And then whispers of ancient legends begin to suggest a frightening new possibility about Bobby's fate. Soon, Jenna must sift through the beliefs of her ancestors, the Tlingit— who still tell of powerful, menacing forces at work in the Alaskan wilderness. There beliefs are shared by Dr. David Livingstone, a practicing shaman who had been hired to "cleanse" Thunder Bay of its restless spirits. The experience almost cost him his life, and he warns Jenna about the danger of disturbing the legendary kushtaka— soul-stealing predators that stalk a netherworld between land and sea, the living and the dead. But Jenna is desperate for answers, and she appeals to both Livingstone and Eddie to help her sort fact from myth, and face the unthinkable possibilities head-on. Armed with nothing but a mother's ferocious protective instincts, Jenna's quest for the truth about her son— and the strength of her beliefs— is about to pull her into a terrifying and life-changing abyss... Coloring powerful legend with universal emotions, Garth Stein masterfully evokes our most primal dreams and fears. Remarkably vivid and relentlessly suspenseful, "Raven Stole the Moon" marks the arrival of a stunningly imaginative new talent.

Thirty-six of the most interesting writers in the Pacific Northwest came together for a week-long marathon of writing live on stage. The result? Hotel Angeline, a truly inventive novel that surprises at every turn of the page.   Something is amiss at the Hotel Angeline, a rickety former mortuary perched atop Capitol Hill in rain-soaked Seattle. Fourteen-year-old Alexis Austin is fixing the plumbing, the tea, and all the problems of the world, it seems, in her landlady mother’s absence. The quirky tenants—a hilarious mix of misfits and rabble-rousers from days gone by—rely on Alexis all the more when they discover a plot to sell the Hotel. Can Alexis save their home? Find her real father? Deal with her surrogate dad’s dicey past? Find true love? Perhaps only their feisty pet crow, Habib, truly knows. Provoking interesting questions about the creative process, this novel is by turns funny, scary, witty, suspenseful, beautiful, thrilling, and unexpected.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER His name is Tom Booker. His voice can calm wild horses, his touch can heal broken spirits. And Annie Graves has traveled across a continent to the Booker ranch in Montana, desperate to heal her injured daughter, the girl’s savage horse, and her own wounded heart. She comes for hope. She comes for her child. And beneath the wide Montana sky, she comes to him for what no one else can give her: a reason to believe.

Helen Ross is a 29-year-old biologist, sent into a hostile place to protect the wolves from those who seek to destroy them. She struggles for survival and for self-esteem, embarking on a love affair with the 18-year-old son of her most powerful opponent, brutal and charismatic rancher, Buck Calder.

The Divide

The motto of the boarding school to which Tommy Bedford is dispatched is 'Fortune Favours the Brave'. It's 1959 and the school bristles with bullies and sadistic staff. Tommy, a quirky loner, obsessed with cowboys and Indians, needs all the bravery he can summon. Salvation comes when his glamorous actress sister is swept off to Hollywood by one of his heroes, TV cowboy Ray Montane. But with the Cold War looming, the sinister side of Tinseltown seeps through and Tommy and Diane soon find themselves in jeopardy. Forty years on, Tommy has to confront his boyhood ghosts when his own son finds himself charged with murder.

In a searing novel of love and loyalty, guilt and honor, the acclaimed author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Horse Whisperer gives his millions of readers another hero… His name is Connor Ford and he falls like an angel of mercy from the sky, braving the flames to save the woman he loves but knows he cannot have. For Julia Bishop is the partner of his best friend and fellow “smoke jumper,” Ed Tully. Julia loves them both–until a fiery tragedy on Montana’s Snake Mountain forces her to choose between them, and burns a brand on all their hearts. In the wake of the fire, Connor embarks on a harrowing journey to the edge of human experience, traveling the world’s worst wars and disasters to take photographs that find him fame but never happiness. Reckless of a life he no longer wants, again and again he dares death to take him, until another fateful day on another continent, he must walk through fire once more…

In this prequel to The Black Stallion, we learn the story of the Black before he was shipwrecked with Alec Ramsay. Born in the mountain stronghold of Sheikh Abu Ishak, the colt shows great promise. During a band of robbers’ attempt to steal him, the colt escapes and learns to survive on his own in the high mountains. Will he ever find his way home? From the Trade Paperback edition.

It's Canada's 150th anniversary and a great time for these 101 stories about everything Canadian. These true personal stories are like love letters to this vast and beautuful country. You'll read about winter snow and summer cottages, hockey and national spirit, wilderness and wildlife, the cultural mosiac, that famous Canadian hospitality, and everything else that makes Canada unique.

With prose that is every bit as raw, intense and bitingly honest as the world it depicts, Barry Hines's A Kestrel for a Knave contains a new afterword by the author in Penguin Modern Classics. Life is tough and cheerless for Billy Casper, a troubled teenager growing up in the small Yorkshire mining town of Barnsley. Treated as a failure at school, and unhappy at home, Billy discovers a new passion in life when he finds Kes, a kestrel hawk. Billy identifies with her silent strength and she inspires in him the trust and love that nothing else can, discovering through her the passion missing from his life. Barry Hines's acclaimed novel continues to reach new generations of teenagers and adults with its powerful story of survival in a tough, joyless world. Ken Loach's renowned film adaptation, Kes, has achieved cult status and in his new afterword Barry Hines discusses his work to adapt the novel into a screenplay, and reappraises the legacy of a book that has become a popular classic. Barry Hines (b. 1939) was born in the mining village of Hoyland Common, near Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Leaving Ecclesfield Grammar School without any qualifications, Hines worked as an apprentice mining surveyor for the National Coal Board before entering Loughborough Training College to study Physical Education. Working as a teacher in Hoyland Common, he wrote novels in the school library after work, later turning to writing full-time. If you enjoyed A Kestrel for a Knave, you might like The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Other Stories by Jack London, published in Penguin Classics.

A moving story of love, grief, and coming to terms with death, this is the story of elderly Sam Peek, who is mourning the death of his beloved wife when a mysterious white dog appears.

When Foster Lanier and Ben Phelps are released from a professional baseball team in 1904, it is the only experience they have in common, until they meet a runaway -- a girl-woman named Lottie Parker -- on the train that takes them from Augusta, Georgia, and away from their dreams of greatness. Foster will marry her and father her son. Ben will escort her home. And Lottie will change the lives of everyone she meets, from the day she runs away until she finally finds the place where she belongs.

First published in 1976, The Year the Lights Came On was Terry Kay's debut novel. Revolving around the electrification of rural northeast Georgia shortly after the end of World War II, the novel has become a classic coming-of-age story. Kay, now an acclaimed writer with an international following, has reread the novel with the eyes of a seasoned storyteller. Cutting here and adding there, Kay has enriched an already highly comical and poignant work. The Year the Lights Came On is ready to find its place in the hearts of a new generation.

Spanning several decades and three continents, Modoc is one of the most amazing true animal stories ever told. Raised together in a small German circus town, a boy and an elephant formed a bond that would last their entire lives, and would be tested time and again; through a near-fatal shipwreck in the Indian Ocean, an apprenticeship with the legendary Mahout elephant trainers in the Indian teak forests, and their eventual rise to circus stardom in 1940s New York City. **Modoc is a captivating true story of loyalty, friendship, and high adventure, to be treasured by animal lovers everywhere.

The 2-million-copy bestselling modern fable from Korea that is winning hearts around the world This is the story of a hen named Sprout. No longer content to lay eggs on command only to have them carted off to the market, she glimpses her future every morning through the barn doors, where the other animals roam free, and comes up with a plan to escape into the wild—and to hatch an egg of her own. An anthem for individuality and motherhood, The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly has captivated millions of readers in Korea, where it is a contemporary classic. Now the novel is making its way around the world, where it has the potential to inspire generations of readers the way Jonathan Livingston Seagull or The Alchemist have. And with Nomoco's evocative illustrations throughout, this first English-language edition beautifully captures the journey of an unforgettable character in world literature.

"Proof that love for another animal can alone make one human and humane: wit and crushing sadness chasing each other all across the page; intelligence and bravery and perfect literary pitch... Damn great."--Melissa Holbrook Pierson, author of Dark Horses and Black Beauties: Animals; Women, a Passion "A bold and sensitive memoir of what it means to open one's heart to love... A magnificent read."--Adele von Rust McCormick, Ph.D and Marlena Deborah McCormick, PhD, authors of Horses and the Mystical Path; Horse Sense and the Human Heart "A triumph for all spirits."--Laura Shaine Cunningham, author of A Place in the Country "Should rank with the great animal stories."--Ann Arensberg, author of Incubus "Two kindred spirits find each other in this beautifully written memoir about the human-animal bond."--Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation When she agrees to take on the care of one of the...

21st-Century Yokel explores the way we can be tied inescapably to landscape, whether we like it or not, often through our family and our past. It's not quite a nature book, not quite a humour book, not quite a family memoir, not quite folklore, not quite social history, not quite a collection of essays, but a bit of all six.It contains owls, badgers, ponies, beavers, otters, bats, bees, scarecrows, dogs, ghosts, Tom's loud and excitable dad and, yes, even a few cats. It's full of Devon's local folklore – the ancient kind, and the everyday kind – and provincial places and small things. But what emerges from this focus on the small are themes that are broader and bigger and more definitive.The book's language is colloquial and easy and its eleven chapters are discursive and wide-ranging, rambling even. The feel of the book has a lot in common with the country walks Tom Cox was on when he composed much of it: it's bewitched by fresh air, intrepid...

A beautiful lost classic of nature writing which sits alongside Tarka the Otter, Watership Down, War Horse and The Story of a Red DeerThis is the story of Wulfgar, the dark-furred fox of Dartmoor, and of his nemesis, Scoble the trapper, in the seasons leading up to the pitiless winter of 1947. As breathtaking in its descriptions of the natural world as it is perceptive its portrayal of damaged humanity, it is both a portrait of place and a gripping story of survival. Uniquely straddling the worlds of animals and men, Brian Carter's A Black Fox Running is a masterpiece: lyrical, unforgiving and unforgettable.

A captivating Cornish saga set at the turn of the century, from the bestselling author of The Boy With No Boots and The Girl by the River Following a terrible storm, seven-year-old Lottie is rescued from a shipwreck by local Cornishman, Arnie Lanroska. Her clothing suggests she comes from a wealthy family, but Lottie's back bears the scars of a severe beating, and how she came to be on a cargo ship in the first place remains a mystery . . . Arnie and his wife already have two young children, Matt and Tom, but are desperate to keep Lottie. They decide to foster her, despite outcries from the local community, and though Matt appears hesitant to get close to Lottie, Tom quickly warms to the new sister in his life. But when tragedy strikes the very heart of the Lanroska family, the repercussions could change the lives of everyone close to them . . .A nostalgic and heart-warming family saga, perfect for fans of Katie Flynn and Margaret Dickinson

The Rev'd Natalie Cross, a high-profile priest at St Paul's Cathedral, is tipped to be one of the first female bishops in the Church of England.She could be happy. But she's not.Natalie's work among the desperately poor is intricately bound up with her wounded past. Her fierce humanity has already got her into trouble as a foreign aid worker among the refugees of Sudan and the Middle East. And when she is drawn into the world of peace-process politics, it seems it's not her faith she needs so much as a brutal self-reliance born of damage done long ago.In a godforsaken world of oppression and terror, where cynical intelligence agencies operate outside the rule of international law, she is forced to respond in kind to those who would so cruelly use and abuse her.The most dangerous people are not always those holding the guns – and Natalie will need to abandon morality and tap into her own dark side to take them on.

Enter a world of dragons and magic unlike any before...answer the dragon's call and behold the realm of Galdrilene... “A ray of light, a stain of shadow, shall endure to breathe life and death into the future” The war between the Guardians and the Shadow Riders ended in total devastation. The final battle killed all the dragons and left nothing but fields of ash. A small clutch of dragon eggs was all that remained to provide hope for the future. Five hundred years later, the ability to use magic is a death sentence and dragons are remembered as a curse. But the unhatched dragons sing for their riders...and soon six lives will be changed forever. The elements of magic are drawn together as the dragons’ call leads them on an epic and dangerous journey of discovery. They soon learn everything they’ve been taught to believe about magic and dragons is wrong. With the last of the dragons and the world at stake, they will risk everything to heed the call. But an evil from the past soon threatens their discovery and newfound joy. Shadow Dragons ride the dawn once more...

Georgia and her Palomino, Lily, have come a long way together but now, in their final adventure together, they face what might just be their biggest challenge yet. Georgia and Lily have been selected for dressage training camp at Rosefolly Equestrian Centre, the best equestrian centre in the country, where they will compete for a place on the British Pony Squad. Georgia can't wait to show off Lily's abilities at Rosefolly, and she's so happy to be training alongside friendly Jodie and her beautiful but skittish pony, Jackson. But it looks like stuck-up Serena wants to make an enemy of both of them. She's desperate to win a place on the squad, and she won't let anyone stand in her way...

A feel-good memoir about a man and his hedgehog Massimo Vacchetta, an Italian veterinarian specializing in large animals, is recently divorced and feeling heartbroken and depressed—until the day that someone brings an orphaned baby hedgehog into his clinic. As the tiny hedgehog cries and whimpers, Massimo immediately understands the extent of the animal's vulnerability and isolation. Recognizing her helplessness and desperation in himself, he connects with her in a way he's never connected with any other animal.In caring for this hedgehog, Massimo uncovers her vibrant personality, and rediscovers his own. Soon, another sick hedgehog lands in his lap. And then another. As people begin to seek him out to heal and care for their injured or orphaned animals, Massimo finally discovers his life's mission. As other sick hedgies are healed and released, Massimo continues to dote on Ninna like a child, constantly fretting about her health and happiness, caring...

SAMMY is a football crazy rescue puppy.MOUSER is a fearless black and white tomcat.Together they make an unlikely pair that won't be parted, not even by the First World War.As the war rages in Europe, Londoners are sending brave animals to help the soldiers - and Mouser and Sammy are soon on their way to the trenches. Boldly criss-crossing no-man's land they make new friends of every nationality - and reunite with old ones. But on the muddy front line, under fire and constantly in danger, will their friendship be enough to save them so they can return home together? 'If you love Michael Morpurgo, you will enjoy this' Express 'A moving tale told with warmth, kindliness and lashings of good sense that lovers of Dick King-Smith will especially appreciate' The Times'Every now and then a writer comes along with a...

In this first book of the Mandy Bell DVM series, Mandy is summoned to a small Midwestern town called Crestview. A colleague and classmate from vet school has passed away and left her veterinary clinic and house to Mandy. While Mandy has always been a traveling vet in her motor home, she finds herself drawn to the Midwestern hospitality that the town shows her and her sidekick Border collie, Lyle. Unfortunately, on one of her farmcalls, she discovers a body that turns out to have been murdered. She is determined to solve the murder to clear the name of the quaint little town. She uses her own intuition and careful questioning of townspeople and clients to piece together the culprit at fault. Lyle is by her side through the whole book, including at the town’s Halloween Hoedown, where she gets into trouble of her own. Read on to experience life as a small town veterinarian with a knack for solving murders.