Meet smart, fearless and inspiring women from around the world. 5-Minute Stories for Fearless Girls features women who have pursued their dreams, changed our world, and shown everyone what women can do. From aviation pioneers to leading scientists and gold-medal athletes to princesses, these incredible stories are perfect for bedtimes and on the go!

Whether you're looking for a strong role model, a quick pick-me-up, a jolt of inspiration, or just a giggle, this treasury has all that and more.

5-Minute Basketball Stories is an action-packed collection of twelve tales about today’s superstars, NBA legends, and the best basketball games of all time. From incredible game-winning dunks, to jaw-dropping world records, to edge-of-your-seat comebacks—each story is perfect for reading aloud in five minutes. Ideal for young fans and future stars, 5-Minute Basketball Stories includes: Steph Curry overcoming doubts to score 17 points in five minutes of overtime Kevin Durant setting a Guinness World Record in India along with over 3,000 kids LeBron James clinching the NBA Championship for the Cleveland Cavaliers for the first time ever Steve Nash surprising opponents with his fast “seven seconds or less” playing style that changed basketball James Naismith using two peach baskets and a couple ladders to invent the world’s fastest-growing sport Michael Jordan making his legendary “Last Shot” in a must-win game for the Chicago Bulls Candace Parker picking up basketball at age 13 to become the best WNBA player of all time The US Dream Team of the world’s best basketball players learning from a shocking loss to win Olympic Gold in 1992 Plus Yao Ming, Andrew Wiggins and Shaquille O’Neal and more…

“This guy can write!” —Ray Bradbury Loory's collection of wry and witty, dark and perilous contemporary fables is populated by people-and monsters and trees and jocular octopi-who are united by twin motivations: fear and desire. In his singular universe, televisions talk (and sometimes sing), animals live in small apartments where their nephews visit from the sea, and men and women and boys and girls fall down wells and fly through space and find love on Ferris wheels. In a voice full of fable, myth, and dream, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day draws us into a world of delightfully wicked recognitions, and introduces us to a writer of uncommon talent and imagination. Contains 40 stories, including “The Duck,” “The Man and the Moose,” and “Death and the Fruits of the Tree,” as heard on NPR’s This American Life, “The Book,” as heard on Selected Shorts, and “The TV,” as published in The New Yorker.

An Indie Next Pick! Avie Reveare has the normal life of a privileged teen growing up in L.A., at least as normal as any girl's life is these days. After a synthetic hormone in beef killed fifty million American women ten years ago, only young girls, old women, men, and boys are left to pick up the pieces. The death threat is past, but fathers still fear for their daughters' safety, and the Paternalist Movement, begun to "protect" young women, is taking over the choices they make. Like all her friends, Avie still mourns the loss of her mother, but she's also dreaming about college and love and what she'll make of her life. When her dad "contracts" her to marry a rich, older man to raise money to save his struggling company, her life suddenly narrows to two choices: Be trapped in a marriage with a controlling politician, or run. Her lifelong friend, student revolutionary Yates, urges her to run to freedom across the border to Canada. As their friendship turns to passion, the decision to leave becomes harder and harder. Running away is incredibly dangerous, and it's possible Avie will never see Yates again. But staying could mean death.From Catherine Linka comes this romantic, thought-provoking, and frighteningly real story, A Girl Called Fearless, about fighting for the most important things in life—freedom and love.

A spare, powerful story about taking space to process difficult feelings After something bad happens, a boy feels sad and gray. Mom and Aunt Cheryl try to talk about it, but he feels like running away. So he picks up a shovel and starts digging a tunnel from his room, deep down and into the backyard. Out there, far from the lights of the house, it's dark enough that he could disappear. But the quiet distance also gives him the space he needs to see his family's love and start returning home. As he heads back, the journey upward is different. He notices familiar details and tunes into his senses. The tunnel isn't so scary this time. The boy emerges into his room just as Mom peeks in. When she notices a twig in his hair, he is ready to talk about the tunnel and finds warmth in her gentle acknowledgment: "You came back." Quiet, emotionally resonant text is paired with grayscale drawings accented with red in this thoughtfully layered exploration of coping with tough emotions, and taking time and space to heal.