Every one of us lives in a box. This box determines what we see and what we do not see. It tells us who to love and hate. What to fight for. How to live. Who we are. Our boxes -- the collection of stories we tell about ourselves and the world -- create the human drama. Whether you become a pawn in this drama or take control of your destiny depends on the ability to answer two questions: Why is my box the way it is? How can I transform it? By examining the forces that have shaped your most deeply held beliefs, this book challenges you to think outside the box that society has provided for you ... ... and begin writing your own story.

A box is just a box . . . unless it's not a box. From mountain to rocket ship, a small rabbit shows that a box will go as far as the imagination allows. Inspired by a memory of sitting in a box on her driveway with her sister, Antoinette Portis captures the thrill when pretend feels so real that it actually becomes real—when the imagination takes over and inside a cardboard box, a child is transported to a world where anything is possible.

The eleven stories and one novella of Mother Box, and Other Tales bring together everyday reality and something that is dramatically not in compelling narratives of new possibilities. In language that is both barb and bauble, bitter and unbearably sweet, Sarah Blackman spins the threads of stories where everything is probable and nothing is constant. The stories in Mother Box, and Other Tales occur in an in-between world of outlandish possibility that has become irrefutable reality: a woman gives birth to seven babies and realizes at one of their weddings that they were foxes all along; a girl with irritating social quirks has been raised literally by cardboard boxes; a young woman throws a dinner party only to have her elaborate dessert upstaged by one of the guests who, as it turns out, is the moon. Love between mothers and children is a puzzling thrum that sounds at the very edge of hearing; a muted pulse that, nevertheless, beats and beats and beats. In these tales, the prosaic details of everyday life—a half-eaten sandwich, an unopened pack of letters on a table—take on fevered significance as the characters blunder into revelations that occlude even as they unfold.

DavinaI'd walked into an alley where death awaited me. Terrified under the brittle moon, I'd been left behind as blood swept into the pristine snow. I'd closed my eyes and waited for the afterlife, welcoming it. Death had never come for me, but it ended the life I once knew. Now, I lived in fear, running from a world ruled by vicious men. An organized world where power and violence had no limit. And I was in the middle of it all. It'd led me to him, Ilias. But in this world, my nightmare was etched in the face of every man I stumbled upon. I didn't trust anyone, but my heart trusted him. Even while my mind kept a bullet between us.Ilias I was given an assignment, an order. Failure wasn't an option. Not when it meant her, Davina. But how could I keep her alive? I was no hero. Just a man dressed as one, with a heart as corrupted as the same men I grew up with.

In this delightful sequel to Peeling the Onion, Günter Grass writes in the voices of his eight children as they record memories of their childhoods, of growing up, of their father, who was always at work on a new book, always at the margins of their lives. Memories contradictory, critical, loving, accusatory - they piece together an intimate picture of this most public of men. To say nothing of Marie, Grass's assistant, a family friend of many years, perhaps even a lover, whose snapshots taken with an old-fashioned Agfa box camera provide the author with ideas for his work. But her images offer much more. They reveal a truth beyond the ordinary detail of life, depict the future, tell what might have been, grant the wishes in visual form of those photographed. The children speculate on the nature of this magic: was the enchanted camera a source of inspiration for their father? Did it represent the power of art itself? Was it the eye of God? Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Bullying stinks, but knowing what to do about it can make things better. In Tales from the Bully Box, you will find short stories about kids just like you. They get bullied, and sometimes they even bully. But most of the time, they are bystanders who have to figure out what to do when they witness the bullying all around them. In "Hailey's Shooting Star," one-handed Hailey proves her worth on the basketball court and as a friend. In "The Eyes on the Back of My Head," you'll get to stare straight into Mike Mansky's soul with a pair of super-secret laser eyes. Filled with stories that take readers on a journey from the classroom to summer camp and the basketball court to the mall, Tales from the Bully Box inspires kids to be the best friends they can be.

Boxes for Katje (HC)