Family Affairs

      Jen Calonita
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The filming for sure-to-be-blockbuster movie Pretty Young Assassins has wrapped, and teen movie star Kaitlin Burke returns to life on the set of primetime drama Family Affair. After ten seasons of filming the hit favorite TV show, Kaitlin would have thought that she could see any curveballs coming, but with a plotting new actress on set, all bets are off. The new diva, Alexis, makes even Kaitlin's long-time nemesis Skye seem like a puppy in comparison. Can Kaitlin keep her sane boyfriend, her insane job, and her composure in the face of this new star power?

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    The Bell Family

      Noel Streatfeild
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'Well, little people, what's the news?' Meet the big, happy Bell family who live in the vicarage at St Marks. Father is a reverend, Mother is as kind as kind can be. Then there's all the children - practical Paul, dancing Jane, mischievous Ginnie, and finally the baby of the family, Angus, whose ambition is to own a private zoo (he has already begun with his six boxes of caterpillars). And not forgetting Esau, a sure fire competitor for the most beautiful dog in Britain. Follow their eventful lives from tense auditions to birthday treats; from troubled times to hilarious escapades. Includes exclusive material: In the Backstory you can find out which one of the Bell children you most resemble! Vintage Children's Classics is a twenty-first century classics list aimed at 8-12 year olds and the adults in their lives. Discover timeless favourites from Peter Pan and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to modern classics such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

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    A Little Taste of Poison

      R. J. Anderson
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Twelve-year-old Isaveth tries to take down the man who framed her father for murder in this lively follow-up to A Pocket Full of Murder, which Kirkus Reviews called “thoroughly entertaining.” The city of Tarreton is powered by magic, from simple tablets that light lamps to advanced Sagery that can murder a man from afar. Isaveth has a talent for spell-making, but as a girl from a poor neighborhood she never dreamed she could study at the most exclusive magical school in the city. So when she’s offered a chance to attend, she eagerly accepts. The school is wonderful, but old and new enemies confront Isaveth at every turn, and she begins to suspect her scholarship might be more a trap than a gift. Even her secret meetings with Esmond, her best friend and partner in crime-solving, prove risky—especially once he hatches a plan to sneak her into the biggest society event of the season. It’s their last chance to catch the corrupt politician who once framed her father for murder. How can Isaveth refuse?

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    Kingdoms of the Wall

      Robert Silverberg
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It is a tremendous presence towering over the world—Kosa Saag, the Wall—a monstrous assemblage of cliffs, ravines, and mountains. At its Summit, on the highest peak of all, far above the clouds, live the gods themselves. Each year, from the village of Jespodar at the foot of the imposing Wall, twenty men and twenty women, selected and trained at arduous length, set forth on a Pilgrimage. Against overwhelming odds they will attempt to scale the Summit, meet with the gods, and gain new knowledge. A few Pilgrims will return as madmen. Most will never be seen again. For Poilar Crookleg, the Pilgrimage has been a lifelong dream. Years ago he and his childhood friend Traiben vowed that they would one day make the Pilgrimage together, converse with the gods, and return not as madmen but as teachers of wisdom. Now it is their year of selection, and the two young men set forth among the chosen forty, determined to succeed where so many before them have failed. Along the way, they must brave ghosts and ravenous Wall-hawks, traverse terrifying Kingdoms and blasted landscapes of heat and ice, and then face the greatest challenge of all…the temptation of eternal life in a paradise of pleasure. At the end, for the few who endure, lies the Summit itself, and with it the secret of the gods—a secret so strange and unsettling that it will shatter centuries of belief and change the world forever. In Kingdoms of the Wall, Robert Silverberg has crafted a masterpiece of the first order, an adventure filled with awesome mystery and disturbing revelation, a voyage to the heart of creation itself as the inhabitants of an alien world strive to learn the truth about themselves and their gods, a truth as harsh and unforgiving as the forbidding heights of Kosa Saag.

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    Assassination Vacation

      Sarah Vowell
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Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other -- a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage. From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue -- it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and -- the author's favorite -- historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult.

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    Sword of Darkness

      Kinley MacGregor
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The new king of Camelot wears no shining armor: Arthur and his knights have fallen and a new king rules. In the darkest forest... A scared, forsaken youth has become the most powerful –– and feared –– man in the world. Ruthless and unrestrained, Kerrigan has long ceased to be human. In the heart of London... A spirited peasant mired in drudgery, Seren dreams of becoming her own woman, but never expects that by fleeing her fate, she will meet her destiny. Their worlds are forever changed... Kerrigan's goal is simple: barter or kill Seren to claim Arthur's Round Table. Yet she is the one person who holds no fear of him. More than that, her nobility sparks something foreign inside him. In his nether realm, kindness is weakness and a king who harbors any sort of compassion loses his throne. For countless centuries, Kerrigan has lived alone in the shadows. Now Seren's courage has forced him into the light that will bring either salvation to both of them...or death.

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