The Shadow Cadets of Pennyroyal Academy
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Just last year Evie learned that she was not actually a dragon, but in fact a Princess. She found herself a Princess Cadet at the prestigious and powerful Pennyroyal Academy where the first order of business --- apart from starting to wear clothes --- was being given a name. But soon enough Evie accommodated to life outside her dragon family’s cave; she made friends and began learning all about the role of Princesses to protect the world against witches. Of course her first year at the Academy ended in a huge battle, the revelation of many secrets and even a bit of romance. Read More
Teaser
While it’s good to be returning to the Academy as a second-class Cadet, things are not as they should be. Evie witnesses the vicious attack of an innocent woman --- by a trio of princesses. Pennyroyal’s Headmistress General, Princess Beatrice, is dubious about what Evie saw --- princesses are enforcers of truth and justice, not thugs. But Evie isn’t so sure. Then, amidst piles of fan mail, she finds a letter with an ominous threat.
Promo
While it’s good to be returning to the Academy as a second-class Cadet, things are not as they should be. Evie witnesses the vicious attack of an innocent woman --- by a trio of princesses. Pennyroyal’s Headmistress General, Princess Beatrice, is dubious about what Evie saw --- princesses are enforcers of truth and justice, not thugs. But Evie isn’t so sure. Then, amidst piles of fan mail, she finds a letter with an ominous threat.
About the Book
Perfect for fans of The School for Good and Evil comes the eagerly anticipated follow-up to M. A. Larson's PENNYROYAL ACADEMY, hailed by the New York Times as a "breathtakingly exciting novel" with a heroine who "deserves a special place in a new pantheon of capable, feisty and, yes, admirable literary princesses."
A triumphant victory over the witches has proven that Princess Cadet Evie really does belong at Pennyroyal Academy. News of her heroism has traveled far and wide --- inspiring a kingdom of grateful citizens and, when the new term starts, a wave of fresh Academy recruits.
While it’s good to be returning to the Academy as a second-class Cadet, things are not as they should be. Evie witnesses the vicious attack of an innocent woman --- by a trio of princesses. Pennyroyal’s Headmistress General, Princess Beatrice, is dubious about what Evie saw --- princesses are enforcers of truth and justice, not thugs. But Evie isn’t so sure. Then, amidst piles of fan mail, she finds a letter with an ominous threat. A secret society has come out of the shadows with a wicked plan, putting the Academy in peril. It’s up to Evie and her friends to unravel the devious plot and save Pennyroyal Academy.
This sequel to the beloved, critically acclaimed Pennyroyal Academy promises middle-grade readers a tale full of adventure and suspense.
Editorial Content for Misunderstood
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
MISUNDERSTOOD is Rachel Toor’s extensive tribute to the domesticated rat (Rattus norvegicus), which is arguably the most underrated companion pet of all time.
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Teaser
As much a moving memoir as it is an amusing pet manual, MISUNDERSTOOD is a unique nonfiction book for teens and tweens about domesticated rats in general and a wonderful rat named Iris in particular. Rachel Toor's text blends history and science with profiles of interesting people and autobiographical anecdotes as it joyfully sets the record straight about why this reviled creature is actually a most amazing species.
Promo
As much a moving memoir as it is an amusing pet manual, MISUNDERSTOOD is a unique nonfiction book for teens and tweens about domesticated rats in general and a wonderful rat named Iris in particular. Rachel Toor's text blends history and science with profiles of interesting people and autobiographical anecdotes as it joyfully sets the record straight about why this reviled creature is actually a most amazing species.
About the Book
As much a moving memoir as it is an amusing pet manual, MISUNDERSTOOD is a unique nonfiction book for teens and tweens about domesticated rats in general and a wonderful rat named Iris in particular. Brimming with smarts and energy just like its furry subjects, Rachel Toor's text blends history and science with profiles of interesting people and autobiographical anecdotes as it joyfully sets the record straight about why this reviled creature is actually a most amazing species. Readers will come away with a deeper understanding and appreciation of domestic rats --- and may be convinced to adopt one themselves.
Editorial Content for Life Before
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
LIFE BEFORE is the debut novel of Michele Bacon. Michele is the writer of contemporary fiction for adults and young adults.
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Teaser
Seventeen years is a long time to keep secrets, and Xander Fife has gotten very good at it. Everyone believes he has a normal life and a normal family. If he can just get through this summer, he'll start his real life in college with a clean slate --- no risk, no drama, no fear. Even better, his plans for summer are awesome: soccer, friends and an epic road trip. Xander is banking on some long nights with his girlfriend, Gretchen. Instead, however, graduation day brings terror. His family's secrets are thrust out into the open, and Xander must confront his greatest fear. Armed with a fake ID, cash, and a knife, Xander skips town and assumes a new identity. Hundreds of miles from home and in danger, one thing is clear: Xander's real life is already in progress and just getting through it isn't enough.
Promo
Seventeen years is a long time to keep secrets, and Xander Fife has gotten very good at it. Everyone believes he has a normal life and a normal family. If he can just get through this summer, he'll start his real life in college with a clean slate --- no risk, no drama, no fear. Even better, his plans for summer are awesome: soccer, friends and an epic road trip. Xander is banking on some long nights with his girlfriend, Gretchen. Instead, however, graduation day brings terror. His family's secrets are thrust out into the open, and Xander must confront his greatest fear. Armed with a fake ID, cash, and a knife, Xander skips town and assumes a new identity. Hundreds of miles from home and in danger, one thing is clear: Xander's real life is already in progress and just getting through it isn't enough.
About the Book
Seventeen years is a long time to keep secrets, and Xander Fife has gotten very good at it. Everyone believes he has a normal life and a normal family. If he can just get through this summer, he'll start his real life in college with a clean slate --- no risk, no drama, no fear.
Even better, his plans for summer are awesome: lots of pick-up soccer, relaxing afternoons with friends and an epic road trip. Xander is banking on some long overdue nights with his ideal girlfriend, the amazing Gretchen Taylor.
Instead of kicking off what had promised to be an amazing summer, however, graduation day brings terror. His family's secrets are thrust out into the open, and Xander must confront his greatest fear. And survive doing so.
Armed with a fake ID, cash, and a knife, Xander skips town and assumes a new identity. Hundreds of miles from home and in danger, one thing is clear: Xander's real life is already in progress and just getting through it isn't enough.
Fans of Ellen Hopkins's BURNED and SMOKED, as well as Matt de la Pena's WE WERE HERE will be drawn to Michele Bacon's debut.
Editorial Content for Under the Harrow
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
As she often does, Nora arrives on the train from London in the little country town where her sister Rachel lives for a common weekend visit. This time, though, nothing is at all common. Read More
Teaser
When Nora takes the train from London to visit her sister in the countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the station, or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel’s familiar house, what she finds is entirely different: Her sister has been the victim of a brutal murder. Stunned and adrift, Nora finds she can’t return to her former life. An unsolved assault in the past has shaken her faith in the police, and she can’t trust them to find her sister’s killer. Haunted by the murder and the secrets that surround it, Nora is under the harrow: distressed and in danger. As Nora’s fear turns to obsession, she becomes as unrecognizable as the sister her investigation uncovers.
Promo
When Nora takes the train from London to visit her sister in the countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the station, or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel’s familiar house, what she finds is entirely different: Her sister has been the victim of a brutal murder. Stunned and adrift, Nora finds she can’t return to her former life. An unsolved assault in the past has shaken her faith in the police, and she can’t trust them to find her sister’s killer. Haunted by the murder and the secrets that surround it, Nora is under the harrow: distressed and in danger. As Nora’s fear turns to obsession, she becomes as unrecognizable as the sister her investigation uncovers.
About the Book
When Nora takes the train from London to visit her sister in the countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the station, or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel’s familiar house, what she finds is entirely different: her sister has been the victim of a brutal murder.
Stunned and adrift, Nora finds she can’t return to her former life. An unsolved assault in the past has shaken her faith in the police, and she can’t trust them to find her sister’s killer. Haunted by the murder and the secrets that surround it, Nora is under the harrow: distressed and in danger. As Nora’s fear turns to obsession, she becomes as unrecognizable as the sister her investigation uncovers.
A riveting psychological thriller and a haunting exploration of the fierce love between two sisters, the distortions of grief, and the terrifying power of the past, UNDER THE HARROW marks the debut of an extraordinary new writer.
Audiobook available, read by Fiona Hardingham
Editorial Content for They May Not Mean To, But They Do
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Old age is not pretty in America. In many other countries, societies value the wizened elders of the community and take care of them. In the US, it’s every old folk for himself or herself. Read More
Teaser
Joy Bergman is not slipping into old age with the quiet grace that her children, Molly and Daniel, would prefer. Her marriage to their father, Aaron, has lasted through health and dementia, as well as some phenomenally lousy business decisions. The Bergman clan has always stuck together, growing as it incorporated in-laws, ex-in-laws and same-sex spouses. But families don't just grow, they grow old. Cathleen Schine's novel is an intergenerational story about searching for where you belong as your family changes with age.
Promo
Joy Bergman is not slipping into old age with the quiet grace that her children, Molly and Daniel, would prefer. Her marriage to their father, Aaron, has lasted through health and dementia, as well as some phenomenally lousy business decisions. The Bergman clan has always stuck together, growing as it incorporated in-laws, ex-in-laws and same-sex spouses. But families don't just grow, they grow old. Cathleen Schine's novel is an intergenerational story about searching for where you belong as your family changes with age.
About the Book
From one of America’s greatest comic novelists, a hilarious new novel about aging, family, loneliness and love
The Bergman clan has always stuck together, growing as it incorporated in-laws, ex-in-laws, and same-sex spouses. But families don’t just grow, they grow old, and the clan’s matriarch, Joy, is not slipping into old age with the quiet grace her children, Molly and Daniel, would have wished. When Joy’s beloved husband dies, Molly and Daniel have no shortage of solutions for their mother’s loneliness and despair, but there is one challenge they did not count on: the reappearance of an ardent suitor from Joy’s college days. And they didn’t count on Joy herself, a mother suddenly as willful and rebellious as their own kids.
The New York Times bestselling author Cathleen Schine has been called “full of invention, wit, and wisdom that can bear comparison to [ Jane] Austen’s own” (The New York Review of Books), and she is at her best in this intensely human, profound, and honest novel about the intrusion of old age into the relationships of one loving but complicated family. THEY MAY NOT MEAN TO, BUT THEY DO is a radiantly compassionate look at three generations, all coming of age together.
Audiobook available, narrated by Cynthia Darlow
Editorial Content for I'm Thinking of Ending Things
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Give yourself room, time and expectation to read I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS twice. At least. Even after the second time through, you may love or hate this debut novel by Iain Reid, either because you understand what has happened within its pages or you still do not have a clue. Read More
Teaser
Debut novelist Iain Reid explores the depths of the human psyche, questioning consciousness, free will, the value of relationships, fear and the limitations of solitude. Reminiscent of Jose Saramago’s early work, Michel Faber’s cult classic UNDER THE SKIN and Lionel Shriver’s WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS is an edgy, haunting debut. Tense, gripping and atmospheric, it pulls you in from the very first page and never lets you go.
Promo
Debut novelist Iain Reid explores the depths of the human psyche, questioning consciousness, free will, the value of relationships, fear and the limitations of solitude. Reminiscent of Jose Saramago’s early work, Michel Faber’s cult classic UNDER THE SKIN and Lionel Shriver’s WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS is an edgy, haunting debut. Tense, gripping and atmospheric, it pulls you in from the very first page and never lets you go.
About the Book
I’m thinking of ending things. Once this thought arrives, it stays. It sticks. It lingers. It’s always there. Always.
Jake once said, “Sometimes a thought is closer to truth, to reality, than an action. You can say anything, you can do anything, but you can’t fake a thought.”
And here’s what I’m thinking: I don’t want to be here.
In this “dark and compelling…unputdownable” (Booklist, starred review) literary thriller, debut novelist Iain Reid explores the depths of the human psyche, questioning consciousness, free will, the value of relationships, fear, and the limitations of solitude. Reminiscent of Jose Saramago’s early work, Michel Faber’s cult classic UNDER THE SKIN, and Lionel Shriver’s WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS is an edgy, haunting debut. Tense, gripping and atmospheric, this novel “packs a big psychological punch with a twisty story line and an ending that will leave readers breathless” (Library Journal, starred review).
Audiobook available, read by Candace Thaxton
Editorial Content for As Good as Gone
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
AS GOOD AS GONE almost got past me. Not for any particular reason, and certainly not due to lack of effort by its venerable publisher, Algonquin Books, which is seemingly incapable of releasing a bad book. No, it was more an issue of my eyes being bigger than my head: so many books, so little time, and yes, a slow but steady decline in my ability to read as quickly as I used to. I am glad, though, that I pressed myself into service for this novel, and for its stellar author, Larry Watson. Read More
Teaser
It’s 1963, and Calvin Sidey, one of the last of the old cowboys, has long ago left his family to live a life of self-reliance out on the prairie. He’s been a mostly absentee father and grandfather until his estranged son asks him to stay with his grandchildren, Ann and Will, for a week while he and his wife are away. Calvin agrees to return, but trouble soon comes to the door when a boy’s attentions to 17-year-old Ann become increasingly aggressive and a group of reckless kids portend danger for 11-year-old Will. Calvin knows only one way to solve problems: the Old West way, in which scores are settled and ultimatums are issued, and your gun is always loaded.
Promo
It’s 1963, and Calvin Sidey, one of the last of the old cowboys, has long ago left his family to live a life of self-reliance out on the prairie. He’s been a mostly absentee father and grandfather until his estranged son asks him to stay with his grandchildren, Ann and Will, for a week while he and his wife are away. Calvin agrees to return, but trouble soon comes to the door when a boy’s attentions to 17-year-old Ann become increasingly aggressive and a group of reckless kids portend danger for 11-year-old Will. Calvin knows only one way to solve problems: the Old West way, in which scores are settled and ultimatums are issued, and your gun is always loaded.
About the Book
Calvin Sidey is always ready to run, and it doesn’t take much to set him in motion. As a young man, he ran from this block, from Gladstone, from Montana, from this country. From his family and the family business. He ran from sadness, and he ran from responsibility. If the gossip was true, he ran from the law.
It’s 1963, and Calvin Sidey, one of the last of the old cowboys, has long ago left his family to live a life of self-reliance out on the prairie. He’s been a mostly absentee father and grandfather until his estranged son asks him to stay with his grandchildren, Ann and Will, for a week while he and his wife are away. So Calvin agrees to return to the small town where he once was a mythic figure, to the very home he once abandoned.
But trouble soon comes to the door when a boy’s attentions to 17-year-old Ann become increasingly aggressive and a group of reckless kids portend danger for 11-year-old Will. Calvin knows only one way to solve problems: the Old West way, in which scores are settled and ultimatums are issued and your gun is always loaded. And though he has a powerful effect on those around him --- from the widowed neighbor who has fallen under his spell to Ann and Will, who see him as the man who brings a sudden and violent order to their lives --- in the changing culture of the 1960s, Calvin isn’t just a relic; he’s a wild card, a danger to himself and those who love him.
In AS GOOD AS GONE, Larry Watson captures our longing for the Old West and its heroes, and he challenges our understanding of loyalty and justice. Both tough and tender, it is a stunning achievement.
Audiobook available, narrated by Richard Poe
Editorial Content for Goodnight, Beautiful Women
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Anna Noyes' GOODNIGHT, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN is an exemplary debut. Hers are the short stories you use to teach the craft, to exemplify how language can function at its best, its sparsest and sharpest. Shifting through 11 pieces, the collection cuts and vibrates, dark and melodic: a discovery, a reckoning. Read More
Teaser
Moving along the Maine Coast and beyond, the interconnected stories in GOODNIGHT, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN bring us into the sultry, mysterious inner lives of New England women and girls as they navigate the dangers and struggles of their outer worlds. Debut novelist Anna Noyes explores the ruptures and vicissitudes of growing up and growing old, and shines a light on our most uncomfortable impulses while charting the depths of our murky desires.
Promo
Moving along the Maine Coast and beyond, the interconnected stories in GOODNIGHT, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN bring us into the sultry, mysterious inner lives of New England women and girls as they navigate the dangers and struggles of their outer worlds. Debut novelist Anna Noyes explores the ruptures and vicissitudes of growing up and growing old, and shines a light on our most uncomfortable impulses while charting the depths of our murky desires.
About the Book
An electrifying debut by sensational new literary talent, Anna Noyes, GOODNIGHT, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN observes the residents of small New England coastal towns in tales that probe boundaries of familial intimacy, coming-of-age sexuality, desirous girlhood and lost love. With novelistic breadth and a quicksilver emotional intelligence, Noyes explores the ruptures and vicissitudes of growing up and growing old, and shines a light on our most uncomfortable impulses while masterfully charting the depths of our murky desires. Dark and brilliant, rhythmic and lucid, GOODNIGHT, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN marks the arrival of a fearless and unique new young voice in American fiction.
Audiobook available, narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan and Eva Kaminski





