A diverse collection of forty-three stories inhabited by eclectic characters waiting to meet you. A stranger enters a saloon in a desolate, baking hot town in the Arizona desert with a cryptic warning. A murder mystery involving Santa Claus. Ghosts with a sense of humor haunting a graveyard on Halloween. Dogs chasing cats, kids playing T-ball, what really happened to Hitler, and aliens from Alpha Centauri that have plans for planet earth. Plus, many more. Sit back in a comfortable chair and enjoy the journey.

What happened on Judgement Day? Do we have Martian ancestors? Will we blow up the world? In this collection of his best SF stories, Edmund Cooper gives his own inimitably entertaining answers to these and other such intriguing questions. From The Death Watch to The Brain Child, Cooper 'considers possible scenarios'. Sometimes he is serious, sometimes satirical. Sometimes he is uncomfortably close to the truth.

The two-time Newbery Honor winner Gary D. Schmidt delivers the shattering story of Joseph, a father at thirteen, who has never seen his daughter, Jupiter. After spending time in a juvenile facility, he's placed with a foster family on a farm in rural Maine. Here Joseph, damaged and withdrawn, meets twelve-year-old Jack, who narrates the account of the troubled, passionate teen who wants to find his baby at any cost. In this riveting novel, two boys discover the true meaning of family and the sacrifices it requires.