Urban For Children

Ray Lilly is living on borrowed time. He's the driver for Annalise Powliss, a high-ranking member of the Twenty Palace Society, a group of sorcerers devoted to hunting down and executing rogue magicians. But because Ray betrayed her once, Annalise is looking for an excuse to kill him - or let someone else do the job. Unfortunately for both of them, Annalise's next mission goes wrong, leaving her critically injured. With the little magic he controls, Ray must complete her assignment alone.

This holiday season, join two of today’s most popular paranormal authors for a special look into their worlds, where creatures are always stirring and no one sleeps through the night. The Bite Before Christmas: Teddy Brunswick knows about the immortals among us. He’s worked with them, called them friend - but he never counted on being snowed in with one over Christmas. Home for the Holidays by Jeaniene Frost: Cat and Bones are looking forward to a normal holiday - at least as “normal” as it gets for the combustible vampire couple....

Some loves are cursed. Others are...dangerous. Especially the love between wannabe rocker and quarter Incubus Wesley "Link" Lincoln and Dark Caster, Siren, and bonafide bad girl Ridley Duchannes.

Ethan Feld is having a terrible summer: His father has moved them to Clam Island, Washington, where Ethan has quickly established himself as the least gifted baseball player the island has ever seen. Ethan's luck begins to change, however, when a mysterious baseball scout named Ringfinger Brown and a 765-year-old werefox enter his life, dragging Ethan into another world called the Summerlands.

This fourth entry and prequel tells the story of Lundy, a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should. When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she's found her paradise. Alas, everything costs at the goblin market, and when her time there is drawing to a close, she makes the kind of bargain that never plays out well.

Harry Potter har fått nog. Sommarlovet hos Dursleys har varit värre än någonsin. Hans bästa vänner verkar inte bry sig om honom, han har inte fått några nyheter från trollkarlsvärlden på hela sommaren och han riskerar dessutom att bli relegerad. När Harry väl återvänder till Hogwarts för sitt femte år är ingenting som det brukar vara, och den stora frågan är: När ska Lord Voldemort slå till igen?

Rock band Wanderlust is about to hit it big, guitarist Dave Kendall is sure of that. They're playing better venues, in front of bigger crowds - and the people showing up at the after parties are increasingly good-looking and cool. Some even radiate power, like "Master" Jeffries, the tall, saturnine man who seems to have some sort of weird control over Dave's fellow bandmates.

For 18-year-old Gemma, life has never been normal. Up until recently, she has been incapable of feeling emotion. And when she's around Alex, the gorgeous new guy at school, she can feel electricity that makes her skin buzz. Not to mention the monsters that haunt her nightmares have crossed over into real life. But with Alex seeming to hate her and secrets popping up everywhere, Gemma's life is turning into a chaotic mess. Things that shouldn't be real suddenly seem to exist.

It's always idyllic in the village until the landlord comes to call. Because the landlord is an Ogre. And Ogres rule the world, with their size and strength and appetites. It's always been that way. It's the natural order of the world. And they only eat people sometimes. But when the headman's son, Torquell, dares lift his hand against the landlord's son, he sets himself on a path to learn the terrible truth about the Ogres, and about the dark sciences that ensured their rule.

Seven-year-old Henry Day is kidnapped and renamed "Aniday" by changelings, ageless beings who inhabit the woods near his home. The changelings also leave behind one of their own, who flawlessly impersonates Henry except for one noteworthy detail: the new Henry is a prodigiously talented pianist.

In a world of fae, vampires and shifters, where magic is real and wishes can be bought and bargained for, Elle is on society's bottommost rung: She's human. To make matters worse, she's also a slave, bound to her stepmother by magic. Her only hope at freedom is to wish for it. But the Godmother rules the illegal wish trade, and the price she demands is steep. Elle has never been desperate enough to summon her. Until now.

The children we meet through the deepening friendships that evolve between Janathan Kozol and their families defy the stereotypes of urban youth too frequently presented on TV and in newspapers. Tender, generous, and often religiously devout, they speak with painful clarity about the poverty and racial isolation that have wounded but not hardened them. "It's not like being in a jail," says 15-year-old Isabel. "It's more like being hidden."

While Sherlock is still officially dead, John and Mary Watson and Nan Killian and Sarah Lyon-White are taking up some of his caseload - and some for Lord Alderscroft, the Wizard of London. Lord Alderscroft asks them to go to Dartmoor to track down a rumor of evil magic brewing there. Not more than four hours later, a poor cottager, also from Dartmoor, arrives seeking their help. His wife, in a fit of rage over the children spilling and spoiling their only food for dinner that night, sent them out on the moors to forage for something to eat. This time they did not come back.

When Jack left Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children she was carrying the body of her deliciously deranged sister - whom she had recently murdered in a fit of righteous justice - back to their home on the Moors. But death in their adopted world isn't always as permanent as it is here, and when Jack is herself carried back into the school, it becomes clear that something has happened to her. Something terrible. Something of which only the maddest of scientists could conceive. Something only her friends are equipped to help her overcome.

Anthony Sinclair, master magician and prophesized Oracle, did everything to protect those he loved. He thought he had planned for every possible outcome for the future...everything except his soul being torn in half after his death.

Before Lily and Amon met, before the cosmos was in chaos and needed three brave brothers to fight off evil, there were four siblings who helped rule the Earth. Each sibling had a special gift. Osiris, the god of agriculture, helped mortals to grow and thrive in their natural environment. Isis, the goddess of creation, fostered health and wellness. Nephthys, the seer, was able to keep the balance between all living beings and the universe. But Seth, the youngest sibling, was left without any special powers.

Everyone is separated, and no one is safe. Raven Danvers didn’t think her life could get any crazier since the night a demon attacked her in an alley and abducted her mom. She was wrong. Because now that same demon has abducted her too. He’s thrown her into a secret bunker with a group of humans who have unique abilities that make them “gifted.” They don’t know what the demons want with them, and the bunker is impossible to escape.

As a wealthy few gather to bid on a predator capable of destroying all life on earth, the sorcerers of the Twenty Palace Society mobilize to stop them. Caught up in the scramble is Ray Lilly, the lowest of the low in the society - an ex-car thief and the expendable assistant of a powerful sorcerer. Ray possesses exactly one spell to his name, along with a strong left hook. But when he arrives in the small town in the North Cascades where the bidding is to take place, the predator has escaped and the society's most powerful enemies are desperate to recapture it.

Budo is lucky as imaginary friends go. He's been alive for more than five years, which is positively ancient in the world of imaginary friends. But Budo feels his age, and thinks constantly of the day when eight-year-old Max Delaney will stop believing in him. When that happens, Budo will disappear. Max is different from other children. Some people say that he has Asperger's Syndrome, but most just say he's "on the spectrum." None of this matters to Budo, who loves Max and is charged with protecting him from the class bully.

Hey, did you hear the one about the man who dropped a lit cigarette into the toilet with some gasoline-soaked rags? Of course you did, it happened to your gym teacher's cousin. Or was it your cousin's gym teacher?