Introduction: The Birthday Ball by Lois Lowry , Jules Feiffer (Illustrator) Princess Patricia Priscilla is bored with her royal life and the excitement surrounding her sixteenth birthday ball. Doomed to endure courtship by three grotesquely unappealing noblemen, she escapes her fate—for a week. Disguised as a peasant, she attends the village school as the smart new girl, “Pat,” and attracts friends and the attention of the handsome schoolmaster. Disgusting suitors, lovable peasants, and the clueless kinView Details>

Introduction: Stay Keeper's Story by Lois Lowry , True Kelley (Illustrator) This is the story of a dog who tells his own tale. As a pup he is separated from his mother and siblings. This unusual dog learns about living on the dangerous streets and even makes up poetry. He finds human friends, has the chance to win fame and fortune, and is given the name Keeper. Through it all Keeper can't forget his long lost little sister. If only they could be together again, life would be perfect. But an old enView Details>

Introduction: The Enchanter Heir (The Heir Chronicles #4) They called it the Thorn Hill Massacre—the brutal attack on a once-thriving Weir community. Though Jonah Kinlock lived through it, he did not emerge unscathed: like the other survivors, Jonah possesses unique magical gifts that set him apart from members of the mainline guilds. At seventeen, Jonah has become the deadliest assassin in Nightshade, a global network that hunts the undead. He is being groomed to succeed Gabriel Mandrake, the sorcerer,View Details>

Introduction: The Dragon Heir (The Heir Chronicles #3) The covenant that was meant to keep the wizard wars at bay has been stolen, and the sanctuary of Trinity must prepare for attack. Seph monitors the Weirwalls, while Jack and Ellen train their army of ghosts to face an onslaught of wizards. Even Anaweir Will and Fitch are setting traps around the town's perimeter. To Jason Haley, it feels as though everyone but him has a role to play. Then he finds a powerful talisman - a huge opal called the DragView Details>

Introduction: The Wizard Heir (The Heir Chronicles #2) Sixteen-year-old Seph McCauley has spent the past three years getting kicked out of one exclusive private school after another. And it's not his attitude that's the problem: it's the trail of magical accidents - lately, disasters - that follow in his wake. Seph is a wizard, orphaned and untrained, and his powers are escalating out of control. After causing a tragic fire at an after-hours party, Seph is sent to the Havens, a secluded boysView Details>

Introduction: The Warrior Heir (The Heir Chronicles #1) An epic battle between good and evil... Before he knew about the Roses, 16-year-old Jack lived an unremarkable life in the small Ohio town of Trinity. Only the medicine he has to take daily and the thick scar above his heart set him apart from the other high schoolers. Then one day Jack skips his medicine. Suddenly, he is stronger, fiercer, and more confident than ever before. And it feels great - until he loses control of his own strength and nearView Details>

Introduction: Pick your poison: Vampires, devils, werewolves, faeries, or . . . ? Find them all here in Holly Black&rsquos amazing first collection. In her debut collection, New York Times best-selling author Holly Black returns to the world of Tithe in two darkly exquisite new tales. Then Black takes readers on a tour of a faerie market and introduces a girl poisonous to the touch and another who challenges the devil to a competitive eating match. Some of these stories have been published in anthologies suchView Details>

Introduction: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown (The Coldest Girl in Coldtown) Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave. One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on View Details>

Introduction: Blood War (Blood Destiny #8) "Tsk, tsk," Erland muttered, shaking his head in mock sympathy. "Perhaps Lissa should raise the topic of Diplomatic Immunity at the Conclave." "That, my friend, would be inadvisable. She is new and many will be waiting, as vultures do when an ox is dying." "I know. At times, I feel the need to cover myself in oil, just to slip through the tripe and garbage of Wylend's court. Lissa will have to contend with five hundred times that View Details>

Introduction: Target (Legend of the Ir'Indicti #3) "It's our God given right to bear arms and hunt any animal." Congressman Jack Howard looked quite distinguished—from the threads of gray at the temples of his carefully cut hair to the designer jeans, cowboy shirt and snakeskin boots he wore. He smiled and blew smoke from the expensive Cuban cigar Obediah Tanner offered. He and Tanner stood inside Tanner's trophy room, which was elaborately decorated with various stuffed heads. In some View Details>