Young audience

Characters: 3 male, 3 female

With help from Uncle Pirate and his faithful talking penguin, maybe, just maybe, Wilson can survive the fourth grade. Wilson is just your average kid. Then one day he finds out his uncle is a pirate... like, a REAL pirate! Grab yer eye patches and pirate hats, mateys! The adventure begins now!

"At heart Uncle Pirate proves more of a Boy Scout than a buccaneer, but that won't distress theatergoers under 12, this diverting and often funny musical's ideal audience... Theatergoers at a recent performance particularly enjoyed a classroom duel in which Uncle Pirate bravely wields first a pointer, then a ruler and finally a book. Education, it seems, really is the way to win life's battles." -New York Times.

"There's a talking penguin and plenty of 'arrrs!' for the young'uns, while elementary schoolersand their parents will appreciate the sarcastic dialogue and clever songs...a whimsical adaptation of the eponymous kids book is Jolly Roger fun." -Time Out New York

It's been called the greatest novel ever written. Now, Tolstoy's timeless saga of love and betrayal is transported to an awesomer version of 19th-century Russia. It is a world humming with high-powered groznium engines: where debutantes dance the 3D waltz in midair, mechanical wolves charge into battle alongside brave young soldiers, and robots-miraculous, beloved robots!-are the faithful companions of everyone who's anyone. Restless to forge her own destiny in this fantastic modern life, the bold noblewoman Anna and her enigmatic Android Karenina abandon a loveless marriage to seize passion with the daring, handsome Count Vronsky. But when their scandalous affair gets mixed up with dangerous futuristic villainy, the ensuing chaos threatens to rip apart their lives, their families, and-just maybe-all of planet Earth.

"The Last Policeman" received the 2013 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original--along with plenty of glowing reviews.
Now Detective Hank Palace returns in "Countdown City," the second volume of the "Last Policeman "trilogy. There are just 77 days before a deadly asteroid collides with Earth, and Detective Palace is out of a job. With the Concord police force operating under the auspices of the U.S. Justice Department, Hank's days of solving crimes are over...until a woman from his past begs for help finding her missing husband.
Brett Cavatone disappeared without a trace--an easy feat in a world with no phones, no cars, and no way to tell whether someone's gone "bucket list" or just "gone." With society falling to shambles, Hank pieces together what few clues he can, on a search that leads him from a college-campus-turned-anarchist-encampment to a crumbling coastal landscape where anti-immigrant militia fend off "impact zone" refugees.
"Countdown City" presents another fascinating mystery set on brink of an apocalypse--and once again, Hank Palace confronts questions way beyond "whodunit." "What do we as human beings owe to one another? And what does it mean to be civilized when civilization is collapsing all around you?"

Critically acclaimed author Ben H. Winters delivers this explosive final installment in the Edgar Award winning Last Policeman series. With the doomsday asteroid looming, Detective Hank Palace has found sanctuary in the woods of New England, secure in a well-stocked safe house with other onetime members of the Concord police force. But with time ticking away before the asteroid makes landfall, Hank's safety is only relative, and his only relative--his sister Nico--isn't safe. Soon, it's clear that there's more than one earth-shattering revelation on the horizon, and it's up to Hank to solve the puzzle before time runs out . . . for everyone.

In THE LAST POLICEMAN, Edgar Award winner and New York Times bestselling author Ben H. Winters, offers readers something they've never seen before: A police procedural set on the brink of an apocalypse. What's the point in solving murders when we're going to die soon, anyway? Hank Palace, a homicide detective in Concord, New Hampshire, asks this question every day. Most people have stopped doing whatever it is they did before the asteroid 2011L47J hovered into view. Stopped selling real estate; stopped working at hospitals; stopped slinging hash or driving cabs or trading high-yield securities. A lot of folks spend their days on bended knee, praying to Jesus or Allah or whoever they think might save them. Others have gone the other way, roaming the streets, enjoying what pleasures they can before the grand finale. Government services are beginning to slip into disarray, crops are left to rot. When it first appeared, 2011L47J was just a speck, somewhere beyond Jupiter's orbit. By mid-October it revealed itself to be seven kilometers in diameter, and on a crash course with the Earth. Now it's March, and sometime in September, 2011L47J will slam into our planet and kill half the population immediately, and most of the rest in the miserable decades that follow. All of humanity now, every person in the world - we're like a bunch of little kids, in deep, deep trouble, just waiting till our dad gets home. So what do I do while I wait? I work. Today, Hank Palace is working the case of Peter Zell, an insurance man who has comitted suicide. To his fellow police officers, it's just one more death-by-hanging in a city that sees a dozen of suicides every week. But Palace senses something wrong. There's something odd about the crime scene. Something off. Palace becomes convinced that it's murder. And he's the only one who cares. What's the difference, Palace? We're all gonna die soon, anyway. As Palace digs deeper, we are drawn into his world. We meet his sister Nico and her screwup boyfriend, Derek, who are trying to beam S.O.S messages into outer space; we meet Erik Littlejohn, a spiritual advisor helping his clients through these difficult times. Palace's investigation plays out under the long shadow of 2011L47J, forcing everyone in the book - and those reading it - to confront hard questions way beyond who-dunn-it. What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?

___________________ 'A prescient, devastating commentary on humanity's disintegrating attachment to reality and truth... Winters has written a 1984 for the 21st century. Not just a thrilling book, but an important one' Blake Crouch, author of Dark Matter and TV series Wayward Pines 'A dystopia for our times' Financial Times 'A wry commentary on our current era' Guardian ___________________ Welcome to Golden State, where the worst crime you can commit is to lie. Laz Ratesic is a veteran of the State's special police. Those in power rely on Laz to discover the full and final truth. But when a man falls from a roof in suspicious circumstances, it sets in motion a terrifying series of events which will shatter Laz's world for ever. Because when those in control of the truth decide to twist it, only those with the power to ask questions can fight back. ___________________ Golden State is an ambitious and frighteningly timely novel set in a world where everything is recorded and no one can be trusted. For anyone who loved The Handmaid's Tale, The Power and Station Eleven. 'Pacy and compelling' SFX 'Golden State is fascinating, cutting and ultimately inspiring' SciFiNow

From the publisher of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies "comes a new tale of romance, heartbreak, and tentacled mayhem.
"Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters "expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels? This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen's biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It's survival of the fittest--and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love

It all started with a Special Project: Solve a mystery in your own life.

For seventh grader Bethesda Fielding, one mystery is too tempting to ignore. She's convinced that her mousy Music Fundamentals teacher is hiding a secret life. But no one is prepared for what she discovers. Ms. Finkleman used to be . . . a rock star? Soon the whole school goes rock crazy, and a giant concert is in the works, led by none other than timid Ms. Finkleman

But is the case really closed or could there be even more to the story of Ms. Finkleman? With the help of her rock-obsessed classmate, Tenny Boyer, Bethesda won't stop until she solves this mystery once and for all