From Kratos's Spartan childhood, to the battles and tragedies that define him, to the war with the gods he currently wages, 'God of War' delivers the backstory fans have been waiting for.

"On a clear December morning in 1937, at the famous gold clock in Grand Central Terminal, Joe Reynolds, a hardworking railroad man from Queens, meets a vibrant young woman who seems mysteriously out of place. Nora Lansing is a Manhattan socialite whose flapper clothing, pearl earrings, and talk of the Roaring Twenties don't seem to match the bleak mood of Depression-era New York. Captivated by Nora from her first electric touch, Joe despairs when he tries to walk her home and she disappears. Finding her again--and again--will become the focus of his love and his life. Nora, an aspiring artist and fiercely independent, is shocked to find she's somehow been trapped, her presence in the terminal governed by rules she cannot fathom. It isn't until she meets Joe that she begins to understand the effect that time is having on her, and the possible connections to the workings of Grand Central and the astrological phenomenon known as Manhattanhenge. As thousands of visitors pass under the famous celestial blue ceiling each day, Joe and Nora create a life unlike any they could have imagined. With infinite love in a finite space, they take full advantage of the "Terminal City" within a city, dining at the Oyster Bar, visiting the Whispering Gallery, and making a home at the Biltmore Hotel. But when the construction of another historic landmark threatens their future, Nora and Joe are forced to test the limits of freedom and love. Delving into Grand Central's rich past, Lisa Grunwald crafts a masterful historical novel about a love affair that defies age, class, place, and even time"--

Meet Oliver, a prince literally taken from the pages of a fairy tale and transported into the real world. Meet Delilah, the girl who wished Oliver into being. It's a miracle that seems perfect at first - but there are complications. To exist in Delilah's world, Oliver must take the place of a regular boy. Enter Edgar, who agrees to play Oliver's role in the pages of Delilah's favourite book. But just when it seems that the plan will work, everything gets turned upside down ... In this multilayered universe, the line between what is on the page and what is possible is blurred, but all must be resolved for the characters to live happily ever after ... Off the Page is a tender and appealing romantic novel filled with humour, adventure and magical relationships.

Han Solo and Chewbacca the Wookiee team-up for an all-new adventure in this thrilling upper middle grade novel. Set between Star Wars: A New Hope and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the story follows everyone's favorite pair of smugglers as they fly the Millennium Falcon on a top-secret mission for the Rebellion. Hidden in the story are also hints and clues about the upcoming film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, making this a must-read for fans old and new!

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Alex Rider series! A teen gang leader taken for a deadly ride by a car with a mind of its own. . . . A boy haunted by a phantom cobra. . . . A reality TV show pitting teens against grown ups, with only one survivor . . . From whose twisted mind can such gruesome stories unfold? Only Anthony Horowitz. From the internationally bestselling author of the Alex Rider missions, this collection of harrowing tales is sure to have you smiling in terrified pleasure. But whatever you do, don't turn out the lights!

A two-fold tale of grief and hope, loss and love, told as only Alice Hoffman can. When her family is lost in a terrible disaster, 15-year-old Green is haunted by loss and the past. Struggling to survive in a place where nothing seems to grow and ashes are everywhere, Green retreats into the ruined realm of her garden. But in destroying her feelings, she also begins to destroy herself. It is only through a series of mysterious encounters that Green relearns the lessons of love and begins to heal as she tells her own story.As she heals, Green lives every day with feelings of loss. Her family is gone, the boy she loves is missing, and the world she once knew has been transformed by tragedy. In order to rediscover the truth about love, hope, and magic, she must venture away from her home, collecting the stories of a group of women who have been branded witches for their mysterious powers. Only through their stories will Green find her own heart's desire.

Those of us who have already discovered Stephen Fry know him as the brilliant British comedian behind TV series such as Jeeves & Wooster and Blackadder, and the author of two enormously funny novels, The Liar and The Hippopotamus. But his new film (in which he plays Oscar Wilde) and his new novel (this one) represent a somewhat alarming departure from his previous work: They're more serious. Though humor is still an essential ingredient of both, Fry's fans are finally getting to witness the emotional depth that this brilliant polymath usually keeps hidden. In Making History, Fry has bitten off a rather meaty chunk by tackling an at first deceptively simple premise: What if Hitler had never been born? An unquestionable improvement, one would reason--and so an earnest history grad student and an aging German physicist idealistically undertake to bring this about by preventing Adolf's conception. And with their success is launched a brave new world that is in some ways better than ours--but in most ways even worse. Fry's experiment in history makes for his most ambitious novel yet, and his most affecting. His first book to be set mostly in America, it is a thriller with a funny streak, a futuristic fantasy based on one of mankind's darkest realities. It is, in every sense, a story of our times. "From the Hardcover edition.

Enjoy a Hanukkah tale full of wonder and miracles from the author of the classic Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins . Before Simon sails to America, he promises his family that he will get a job and send for them. Simon's mother knows he will need a miracle, so she reminds him to celebrate Hanukkah wherever he may be. Little does either of them know that Simon will spend the first night of Hanukkah on an ice floe after his ship sinks. The lone survivor out in the wide ocean, Simon lights the first candle, and it attracts a visitor: a polar bear. Does she eat him? No! She shares his latkes, enjoys his songs, goes fishing for him, and even keeps him warm at night. By the last day of Hanukkah, Simon has nearly given up hope of ever being rescued. But then he recounts all of the miracles that have befallen him so far. Perhaps it is not too much to hope for one more , he thinks, as he lights all of the candles in the menorah. The bright glow signals a passing ship, and Simon makes it to New York after all. This fanciful Hanukkah tale -- like none you've ever read before -- celebrates eight miracles: family, friendship, hope, selflessness, sharing, faith, courage, and love. From the author of the Caldecott Honor-winning classic Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins comes a gorgeously illustrated fantasy Hanukkah tale full of miracles, from sharing latkes with a polar bear to surviving a Titanic-like sinking. The story behind the ancient holiday is included at the end.

Robert Johnson's story presents a fascinating paradox: Why did this genius of the Delta blues excite so little interest when his records were first released in the 1930s? And how did this brilliant but obscure musician come to be hailed long after his death as the most important artist in early blues and a founding father of rock 'n' roll? Elijah Wald provides the first thorough examination of Johnson's work and makes it the centerpiece for a fresh look at the entire history of the blues. He traces the music's rural folk roots but focuses on its evolution as a hot, hip African-American pop style, placing the great blues stars in their proper place as innovative popular artists during one of the most exciting periods in American music. He then goes on to explore how the image of the blues was reshaped by a world of generally white fans, with very different standards and dreams. The result is a view of the blues from the inside, based not only on recordings but also on the recollections of the musicians themselves, the African-American press, and original research. Wald presents previously unpublished studies of what people on Delta plantations were actually listening to during the blues era, showing the larger world in which Johnson's music was conceived. What emerges is a new respect and appreciation for the creators of what many consider to be America's deepest and most influential music.Wald also discusses how later fans formed a new view of the blues as haunting Delta folklore. While trying to separate fantasy from reality, he accepts that neither the simple history nor the romantic legend is the whole story. Each has its own fascinating history, and it is these twin histories that inform this book.

These wickedly authentic introductions to twenty-first-century books preface tomes on teaching English to bacteria, using animated X-rays to create "pornograms," and analyzing computer-generated literature through the science of "bitistics." "Lem, a science fiction Bach, plays in this book a googleplex of variations on his basic themes" (New York Times Book Review). Translated by Marc E. Heine. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Cooper, a nervous newcomer to the town, and his friend Margaret are targeted by two evil dogs who cast a spell to switch bodies with the children as a way of wreaking further havoc.

From the master of spine-tingling horror for young audiences, A Nightmare on Nightmare Street is full of strange sounds, terrifying visions, and things that go bump in the night. Twelve-year-old Joe Ferber, his sister Sadie, and their parents have just moved into a house that has all the hallmarks of a horror movie--tombstones in the basement, a creepy doll laying around, strange noises in the wall, and so on. As Joe tries to fall asleep on the first night, his nightlight begins to flash and change colors, and the creepy doll appears in his bed ... and then twelve-year-old Shawn Hannigan wakes up from a dream. Shawn and his little sister, Addie, are seemingly living in the same house with their mother. But when they arrive at their new school for the first day, the teachers are all wearing animal masks, and the principal's office is pitch black and full of noises. At the end of the day, a stranger claiming to be Shawn's mom picks him up and tells him he doesn't have a sister ... As more and more strange things happen to each of them, Shawn and Joe have to figure out what is real, and what is a nightmare ...

Kate welles doesn't want to be special. She just wants to play the lead in her school's christmas play. Her annoying \"Friend\" courtney is constantly getting in the way of that. Can you even call someone a \"Friend\" if all they do is make fun of you and ruin everything all of the time? But kate has to get along with courtney or else neither of them will be allowed to take part in the 12 screams of christmas. Kate and courtney's teacher decides they need to find a special place to rehearse. A certain house with a special history. The kind of place that kate would normally be pretty frightened to go into. The kind of place that gives new meaning to the term: christmas spirit.

On the planet of Majipoor, Valentine struggles to reclaim his birthright when he realizes that he is the true Coronal, Lord Valentine, who has been drugged, physically altered, and replaced on the throne

"The beloved author of Holes presents his first adult novel, a modern fantasy classic of forbidden love, a crumbling kingdom, and the unexpected magic all around us. Long ago and faraway (and somewhere south of France), lies the kingdom of Esquaveta. There, Princess Tullia is in nearly as much peril as her struggling kingdom. Esquaveta desperately needs to forge an alliance with Oxatania, and to that end, Tullia's father has arranged a marriage between her and the odious Oxatanian Prince. However, one month before the "Wedding of the Century," Tullia falls in love with a lowly apprentice scribe. The king turns to Anatole, his much-maligned magician. Seventeen years earlier, when Anatole first came to the castle, he was regarded as something of a prodigy. But after a long series of failures-the latest being an attempt to transform sand into gold-he has become the object of contempt and ridicule. The only one who still believes in him is the princess. When the king orders Anatole to brew a potion that will ensure Tullia agrees to the wedding, Anatole is faced with an impossible choice. With one chance to save the marriage, the kingdom, and of most importance to him, his reputation, will he betray the princess-or risk ruin?"--

"Do you believe in ghosts? Don't say no until you take a walk down Fear Street. Past the woods -- where no birds sing. Past the lake -- where something lurks beneath the water. Past the cemetery -- where everyone is dying to meet you. Take a peek in Sal's Five and Ten. He sells great stuff. Wes Parker bought a 3-D poster there. He spent hours trying to see the hidden picture. Then he wished he hadn't. Because the thing inside the poster saw Wes too. Now it wants out . . . and it wants Wes"--

Sam begins to wonder if his HorrorLand souvenir is causing the hamsters at his after-school job at a pet store to act like monsters, and finds himself fighting off attacks from the rodents.

Brandon loves to scare other people; his motto is "Make 'em scream." But this Halloween, it's his turn to be scared.