Child Friendship

Dead if he loses - damned if he wins. The time has finally come for Darren to face his arch enemy, Steve Leopard, and fight for control of the night. One of them will die. The other will become the Lord of the Shadows …and destroy the world.

For years, the Empress of Namorn has pressed her young cousin, Lady Sandrilene fa Toren, to visit her vast lands within the Empire's borders. Sandry has avoided the invitation for as long as it was possible. Now, Sandry has agreed to pay that overdue visit. Sandry's uncle promises guards to accompany her. But they're hardly a group of warriors! They're her old friends from Winding Circle: Daja, Tris, and Briar. Sandry hardly knows them now. They've grown up and grown apart.

Mary Anne has never been a leader of the BSC. So when a fight breaks out among the club's four members, Mary Anne feels a little lost, unable to depend on Kristy, Stacey, or Claudia anymore. Sitting by herself in the cafeteria is bad enough; when Mary Anne has to baby-sit a sick child without any help from the club, she knows someone has to take action. It's time for Mary Anne to step in and save the day!

When Michael is washed up on an island in the Pacific after falling from his parents’ yacht, he struggles to survive on his own. He can’t find food and he can’t find water, and as Michael and his dog curl up to sleep, he knows they cannot last long. But he soon realises there is someone close by, someone who is watching over him and helping him to stay alive.

Ridley Larsen is everything you want in a friend. She's tough as nails, she's fiercely loyal, and she's smart as a whip. But she can be a harsh critic, which has put her position with the Magic Misfits on the rocks, even as the threat of the group's longtime enemy Kalagan looms large. Ever since his recent appearance in Mineral Wells, the kids know that a showdown with the vicious magician is imminent.

When 12-year-old Cooper Vega moves for the third time in five years, he receives a state-of-the-art smartphone to help him stay in touch with old friends. He's had phones before, but this one is buggy and unpredictable. When a boy named Roderick Northrop communicates with him through the phone, Cooper realizes that his phone isn't buggy at all; the thing is haunted!

No fair! Karen is having a bad-luck day. Her favorite jeans are missing. There's no prize in the Crunch-O cereal box. And Boo-Boo the cat runs away from her! Karen tries everything to make her day better. But her bad luck just won't go away. She even gets punished and sent to her room! Poor Karen - will this be her worst day ever?

Claudia has a sad good-bye to make. Her grandmother, Mimi, has just died. Claudia understands that Mimi was sick for a long time, but she's still mad at her grandmother for leaving her. Who will help Claudia with her homework...and share "special tea" with her?

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents Kwame Mbalia's epic fantasy, a middle grade American Gods set in a richly-imagined world populated with African American folk heroes and West African gods. Tristan is dreading the month he's going to spend on his grandparents' farm in Alabama, where he's being sent to heal from a tragedy. But on his first night there, he accidentally ripps open a chasm into the MidPass, a volatile place with a burning sea, haunted bone ships, and iron monsters that are hunting the inhabitants of this world.

At first, Karen and Ricky were enemies. But now they like each other. They are even going to get married. Only now Karen and Ricky are in a big fight! First Karen puts gum in Ricky's desk. Then Ricky calls Karen Four-eyes. Will Karen and Ricky make up . . . or break up?

Stacey is caught in a loyalty tug-of-war between old friends and new.

Alex and his friends from Artimé are stranded on a newly discovered island after barely surviving a storm that destroys their ship. And it turns out they're not alone... Back in Quill, Aaron's power base grows as he aligns himself with an unlikely ally. Together,the two enact a drastic, risky plan to conquer Artimé at last--a plan that could ultimately leave everyone in both Artimé and Quill in far more danger than Aaron realizes.

Mara Dyer believes life can't get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. It can. She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed. There is. She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. She's wrong.

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents the finale of Kwame Mbalia's trilogy, in which Tristan Strong faces off with his archenemy, King Cotton, once and for all.

Theo Stein-Meyer loves being part of the Magic Misfits. Armed with his trusty violin bow, he completes the team with his levitation skills, unflappable calm, and proper manners. But when a girl named Emily begins to spend time with the group, Theo is surprisingly drawn to her. She seems to understand the pull he feels between music and magic, between family and friends. Then a famous ventriloquist arrives in town, and the Misfits are sure he (and his creepy dummy) are up to no good.

Fed up with his family, Ralph decides to hop on his motorcycle and head down the road to Happy Acres Camp. Unfortunately, life at camp is not all peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches! A strict watchdog, a mouse-hungry cat, and a troubled boy named Garf keep Ralph on his toes and away from his precious motorcycle. Perhaps home is not such a bad place to be, if only Ralph can find a way to get there again!

Karen's best friend, Hannie, just got a new kitten. Now all her friends have cats. And Karen has a great idea. She can start a club like her big sister, Kristy. It will be a Kittycat Club! What will the club do? Karen can't babysit like Kristy...but she can cat-sit! Will anyone want Karen as a cat-sitter? They'd better - running a club is hard work!

Mallory Pike has always wanted to be a member of the Baby-Sitters Club - they're so much fun to be around, and she's practically a baby-sitter already. Now the club members have invited Mallory to a meeting. This might be her big chance! But the BSC isn't making it easy - they make Mal feel like a baby on a job, and make her take an impossible written test. Mallory's beginning to think she doesn't want to be a part of the BSC...or maybe she and her new friend Jessi should start a club of their own. It's time to show those baby-sitters what a couple of new girls can do!

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets - and human lives. In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she finds herself struggling to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do. Then she meets alluring, rebellious Marcus Finch - a former Alchemist who escaped against all odds, and is now on the run.

Head mage Alexander Stowe and his friends successfully fended off the latest threat to their magical world of Artimé with the help of a surprise ally. But old enemies have secretly been plotting against them. Now Alex must lead his people in a final epic battle, one they can't hope to win alone. Will Artimé finally know peace, or will all they've fought for be destroyed forever?