In a series of letters to her cousin, twelve-year-old Arie Mae relates her life in a mountain valley of North Carolina in the 1920s.

Can one mistake destroy the chance of a lifetime? A girl discovers there are many ways of being true in this magnificent ode to handwritten letters and the shining power of friendship from the author of Dovey Coe, set in the Appalachian mountains of 1920s North Carolina. One true friend. Someone shining. That’s all twelve-year-old Arie Mae wants. But shining true friends are hard to come by deep in the mountains of western North Carolina, so she sets her sights on a cousin unseen, someone who lives all the way away in the big city of Raleigh, North Carolina. Three unanswered letters later, Arie Mae learns that a group of kids from Baltimore are coming to spend a summer on the mountain. Arie Mae loves her smudge of a town—she knows there’s nothing finer than Pa’s fiddling and Mama’s apple cake, but she also knows Big City folk might feel differently. How else to explain the song catcher ladies who have descended upon the village in search of “traditional tunes” and their intention to help “save” the townspeople? But when the group from Baltimore arrives, it seems there just might be a gem among them, one shining boy who doesn’t seem to notice Arie Mae wears the same dress every day and prefers to go barefoot. So what if he has a bit of a limp and a rumored heart problem—he also is keen about everything Arie Mae is keen about, and has all the makings of a true friend. And so what if the boy’s mother warns him not to exert himself? He and Arie Mae have adventures to go on! In between writing letters to her cousin, Arie Mae leads her one shining friend on ghost hunts and bear chases. But it turns out those warnings were for a reason… “Arie Mae’s openheartedness and yearning for connection make for a deeply poignant story, one with a richly realized setting and cast. As Arie Mae begins to see her life in a new light, Dowell (The Second Life of Abigail Walker) examines the clash between city and country life and what true wealth really means” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Volume contains: 228 NY 606 (People v. Jankowski) 228 NY 601 (People v. Warmick)

While contemporary culture may be fixated on youthful sex appeal, the most complex and interesting characters in dramatic literature have been (and still are) those over 40 years old. Whether it's Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, Gorgeous Teitelbaum in Wendy Wasserstein's Sisters Rosenzweig, or Troy the former big leaguer in August Wilson's Fences, these characters have a texture and a gravitas that can't be found in younger roles. This volume selects from classical sources like Euripides' Medea and Shakespeare's King Lear, as well as contemporary ones like Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage, Christopher Durang's Vonya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, and David Lindsay-Abaire's Good People, to provide a challenging and enriching experience for both the dedicated professional and the inquisitive amateur.

Moving Parts offers actors the best monologues from great plays—pieces by both well-known and up-and-coming playwrights, including many minority artists—that offer a variety of dramatic styles for beginning and experienced actors. Included are more than a hundred monologues from such contemporary voices as Eric Bogosian, Caryl Churchill, Christopher Durang, Maria Irene Fornes, Athol Fugard, Philip Kan Gotanda, Václav Havel, Lanford Wilson, and George C. Wolfe. Designed for easy browsing, the monologues are indexed by gender, age, and subject to help actors locate appropriate material, and each is introduced with a short description of the plot, setting, and character type. These monologues stand on their own as good theater, while they give actors a well-defined character, a story to tell, and a wide range of behavior and feeling to portray.

Sam Graham wants a cell phone to help him with his research, but when his parents say no, he has to come up with another way to keep all the info he needs in his pocket in this hilarious fifth chapter book in the Sam the Man series from Frances O’Roark Dowell. Here are the facts: Sam Graham is an information man. But to get information, you need to do research. You never know when you’ll need an urgent piece of info—like, say, the number for a chicken emergency hotline—so a resource for instant research is a must! This is why Sam needs a cell phone. Unfortunately, Mom and Dad disagree. So, Sam has to come up with a plan. But what is small enough to fit in your pocket and can hold all the information you need? Sam will have to go old-school with his latest plan and use a handy notebook instead. Luckily, retro is in, and à la Nick in Andrew Clements’s Frindle, Sam might just start the latest trend!