Ava (and Piggy) are back with a brand-new adventure! Ava proved she’s a fierce monster slayer after defeating the ferocious basement monsters to save her favorite stuffed animal, Piggy, in Ava the Monster Slayer: A Warrior Who Wears Glass. Now, Ava must gather her courage once again as she gets ready to attend an overnight camp for the first time. She and her cousin, Sophia, are scared of being away from home, but they take comfort in Piggy and Sophia’s Teddy being by their sides. After an evening hike, Ava and Sophia return to their cabin and discover Piggy and Teddy are gone! The girls refuse to leave their beloved stuffed animals outside overnight and quickly devise a rescue mission. Ava knows that they’ll have to be fierce when they face the monsters lurking in the dark woods. The girls don’t have weapons to help them confront the monsters (Ava’s warrior sword is at home!), so they make their own using rubber bands, a hanger, and candy. Not even the growls or the stinky smells of the creatures in the woods are going to stop them in their quest. Ava and Sophia are determined to rescue Piggy and Teddy—no matter what.

// 1st Place Winner of the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards in the Graphic Novel category! \\ // Winner of the 2024 Family Choice Award! \\ // Recipient of the 5-Star Review from Readers' Favorite! \\ Ava, Piggy, and their friends are back for their final adventure! If you know Ava, you know she's a brave warrior who wears glasses—and a good friend. So when Piggy is taken from her at a school-sponsored sleepover, of course she's going to rescue him. Piggy isn't the only best friend who has been taken, though. Ashley and Emma's stuffed animals, Uni and Raffe, have also been hidden by a group of older girls. Having heard that the school's hallways are haunted by the ghosts of teachers and mythical creatures, the courageous trio comes up with a plan to safely sneak to the library, where their stuffies are being held. The dress-up box—and a bit of imagination—provides them with exactly what they need to protect them and defeat any monsters they may encounter on their journey from the gym to the library. But when they get to their destination, they're met with a challenge they weren't expecting. Will they be able to channel their inner super heroes (with their makeshift hammer, claws, and web spray) to face their fears and to rescue Piggy, Raffe, and Uni? As usual, the Maggiore and Felten team have produced a fun, imaginative graphic novel–style picture book that that brings Ava the Monster Slayer's story to life and proves that just because she's small, wears glasses, and sleeps with a stuffed animal doesn't mean she's not brave, smart, kind, and a true warrior. Complete the trilogy with: Ava the Monster Slayer: A Warrior Who Wears Glasses and Ava the Monster Slayer: Cousin Power. This action/adventure story teaches children: Friends can do hard things together Self-esteem and self-confidence Emotional resiliency

An Illinois Reads Pick (K–2) 2017 Don’t underestimate Ava just because she’s “cute” and wears “adorable glasses”—she’s really a fierce monster slayer. And when her beloved Piggy is left in the dryer in the basement, Ava knows she’ll have to face the ferocious monsters lurking in the dark if she wants to rescue her favorite stuffed animal. So she puts on her brother’s superhero cape, grips his sword tight, puts on her pink rain boots and sparkly princess crown, and creeps downstairs. Not even the roar of the greenest and hairiest monster is going to stop this spunky girl. Even though she’s scared and the monsters smell terrible, Ava is determined to rescue Piggy. Ross Felten’s brisk, sketch-like illustrations help bring energy and humor to this story of bravery and loyalty. Young readers will relate to Ava’s mission and delight in her victory over the monsters. Ava the Monster Slayer is sure to appeal to children worried about monsters in their own homes and kids devoted to their own stuffed animals. Sky Pony Press, with our Good Books, Racehorse and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of books for young readers—picture books for small children, chapter books, books for middle grade readers, and novels for young adults. Our list includes bestsellers for children who love to play Minecraft; stories told with LEGO bricks; books that teach lessons about tolerance, patience, and the environment, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A high-stakes hide-and-seek competition turns deadly in this “marvelously creepy thrill ride of a book that keeps twisting until the very end” (Karen M. McManus, author of One of Us Is Lying) “The suspenseful plot combines elements of Thomas Tryon’s classic Harvest Home, Netflix’s Squid Game, and the social commentary of Jordan Peele’s film oeuvre and mixes these with a revelatory pacing reminiscent of Spielberg’s Jaws.”—Booklist The challenge: Spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don’t get caught. The prize: enough money to change everything. Even though everyone is desperate to win—to seize a dream future or escape a haunting past—Mack is sure she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she’s an expert at that. It’s the reason she’s alive and her family isn’t. But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes that this competition is even more sinister than she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive. Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide but nowhere to run. Come out, come out, wherever you are.

Her tears grant wishes. Her next tear will end her life. She didn’t ask to be the Wishtress. Myrthe was born with the ability to turn her tears into wishes. But when a granted wish goes wrong, she is cursed: the next tear she sheds will kill her. She must travel to the Well to break the curse before it can claim her life—and before the king’s militairen find her. To survive the journey, Myrthe must harden her heart to keep herself from crying even a single tear. He can stop time with a snap of his fingers. Bastiaan’s powerful—and rare—Talent came in handy when he kidnapped the old king. Now the new king has a job for him: find the Wishtress and deliver her to the schloss. But Bastiaan needs a wish of his own. He gains Myrthe’s trust by promising to take her to the Well, but once he gets what he needs, he’ll turn her in. As long as his growing feelings for the girl with a stone heart don’t compromise him. Their quest can end only one way: with her death. Everyone seems to need a wish—the king, Myrthe’s cousin, the boy she thinks she loves. And they’re ready to bully, beg, and betray her for it. No one knows that to grant even one wish, Myrthe would pay with her life. And if she tells them about the curse . . . they’ll just kill her anyway. “A beautiful tale about self-worth, second chances, and mysterious enchantment.” —Kathryn Purdie, #1 New York Times bestselling author Exciting and clean YA fantasy Stand-alone novel Book length: approximately 125,000 words Includes discussion questions for book clubs

From the acclaimed Printz Honor winner author Stephanie Hemphill comes this powerful fictionalized account of the Salem witch trials from the point of view of three of the real young women living in Salem in 1692. Ann Putnam Jr. is the queen bee. When her father suggests a spate of illnesses in the village is the result of witchcraft, she puts in motion a chain of events that will change Salem forever. Mercy Lewis is the beautiful servant in Ann's house who inspires adulation in some and envy in others. With her troubled past, she seizes her only chance at safety. Margaret Walcott, Ann's cousin, is desperately in love. She is torn between staying loyal to her friends and pursuing a life with her betrothed. With new accusations mounting against the men and women of the community, the girls will have to decide: Is it too late to tell the truth?

In How to Kill a Dragon Calvert Watkins follows the continuum of poetic formulae in Indo-European languages, from Old Hittite to medieval Irish. He uses the comparative method to reconstruct traditional poetic formulae of considerable complexity that stretch as far back as the original common language. Thus, Watkins reveals the antiquity and tenacity of the Indo-European poetic tradition. Watkins begins this study with an introduction to the field of comparative Indo-European poetics; he explores the Saussurian notions of synchrony and diachrony, and locates the various Indo-European traditions and ideologies of the spoken word. Further, his overview presents case studies on the forms of verbal art, with selected texts drawn from Indic, Iranian, Greek, Latin, Hittite, Armenian, Celtic, and Germanic languages. In the remainder of the book, Watkins examines in detail the structure of the dragon/serpent-slaying myths, which recur in various guises throughout the Indo-European poetic tradition. He finds the "signature" formula for the myth--the divine hero who slays the serpent or overcomes adversaries--occurs in the same linguistic form in a wide range of sources and over millennia, including Old and Middle Iranian holy books, Greek epic, Celtic and Germanic sagas, down to Armenian oral folk epic of the last century. Watkins argues that this formula is the vehicle for the central theme of a proto-text, and a central part of the symbolic culture of speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language: the relation of humans to their universe, the values and expectations of their society. Therefore, he further argues, poetry was a social necessity for Indo- European society, where the poet could confer on patrons what they and their culture valued above all else: "imperishable fame."