Bei Liu has chosen to challenge Cao Cao for the role of the most powerful man in China. But on the eve of battle, Bei Liu's ally, Shao Yuan, fails to support him, and Bei Liu must run for his life. This leaves Yu Guan alone to fend for himself against Cao Cao, who is keen to have a man of his courage and honor on his side. Can Cao Cao convince Yu Guan to change allegiance? Can Yu Guan serve two masters? What will happen when a decision is made?

Mrs. Bird thought, as the Christmas music floated in upon her gentle sleep, that she had slipped into heaven with her new baby, and that angels were bidding them welcome. But the tiny bundle by her side stirred a little, though it was scarcely more than the ruffling of a feather; and she awoke, drew the baby closer, and listened to the voices outside brimming with joy:

"Carol, brothers, carol,
Carol joyfully,
Carol the good tidings,
Carol merrily "

"Why, my baby," whispered Mrs. Bird in soft surprise, "I had forgotten what day it was. You are a little Christmas child, and we will name you 'Carol' -- mother's little Christmas Carol "

Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856-1923), author of such works as "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, " "Penelope's English Experiences, " and "A Village Stradivarius," was one of America's most popular writers of books for young people.

The third book in the personal and moving coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the First World War. Winter, 1916. Ellie is determined to leave tiny Endstone village and follow her dream of becoming a nurse. But leaving home and starting work in the city hospital also means leaving behind her first-love and childhood friend, Jack. They promise to make it work, but with Ellie's time swallowed up by the chaos of a wartime hospital, and with the charms of an exciting young foreign soldier to keep her company, do Ellie and Jack stand any chance of staying together as their lives move ever further apart?

This second book in the continuing story of Parthian brother and sister Larius and Kyra takes the reader to a place called Seres. Larius is once again caught up in court intrigue, and Kyra falls in love at last and marries. They are in another culture and must learn another language and ways that are strange and different from their own. Just when they think they are safe, their past comes back to haunt them. Will Larius and Kyra ever find peace? Will they be able to remain happily ever after in Seres? Or will their sanctuary be denied and their hopes and dreams destroyed? Read this captivating story set in first century AD ancient China and follow Larius and Kyra in their quest for sanctuary.

After a few months of being the "new kid" in Cypress City, Texas, Jimmy Stringer thinks he's finally fitting in. Then, his parents start arguing and can't seem to stop. Next thing, his dad, a captain in the Air Force, up and disappears on the night of the Summer Solstice. Rumors abound. Is Captain Stringer AWOL? Did he desert? Jimmy knows better, but he doesn't know where his dad has gone or why he didn't leave a note or some sign, if not for him, at least for his mom. Relying on the help of his two buddies, Lupe and Billy Ray, Jimmy makes it through a tough West Texas summer. Finally, school starts again. Walking home from a high school football game on the Autumnal Equinox, Jimmy sees an unusual shooting star appear to land behind a neighbor's house. The next day, he watches that neighbor's little Chihuahua, Elmer, explode in Mr. Cadwallader's barbershop. Nothing is at it should be, but something tells Jimmy it's all related to his dad disappearing, and, just maybe, he and his friends can put it together and get his dad back.

On one side of the underwater street is the remains of a house . . . It's beautiful here, and eerie, a lost kingdom, a ghost village . . . It's the near-future and Britain is having yet another heatwave. Of course, the government have put in the normal curfews for this kind of weather, and shops are forced to shut again. For Polly, it's the sort of heat that makes her do wild, out-of-character things just to cool down. Like face her fear of deepwater. Essential when she and her brother have been sent to their aunt's eco lake-side house for the summer. But Truthwater Lake is beginning to dry up. As the water level diminishes, a lost village emerges. Swimming over the rooftops at midnight, Polly dives down and is suddenly able to breathe, to hear church bells and bird song . . . Polly has discovered an underwater gateway . . . to the past!

From the author of Nowhere Boy - called “a resistance novel for our times” by The New York Times - comes a brilliant middle-grade survival story that traces a harrowing family secret back to the Holodomor, a terrible famine that devastated Soviet Ukraine in the 1930s.

Thirteen-year-old Matthew is miserable. His journalist dad is stuck overseas indefinitely, and his mom has moved in his one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother to ride out the pandemic, adding to his stress and isolation.

But when Matthew finds a tattered black-and-white photo in his great-grandmother’s belongings, he discovers a clue to a hidden chapter of her past, one that will lead to a life-shattering family secret. Set in alternating timelines that connect the present-day to the 1930s and the US to the USSR, Katherine Marsh’s latest novel sheds fresh light on the Holodomor – the horrific famine that killed millions of Ukrainians, and which the Soviet government covered up for decades.

An incredibly timely, page-turning story of family, survival, and sacrifice, inspired by Marsh’s own family history, The Lost Year is perfect for fans of Ruta Sepetys' Between Shades of Gray and Alan Gratz's Refugee.