you gasp as I roar, my mane exploding, sizzling— lion of the sky! Haiku meet riddles in this wonderful collection from Laura Purdie Salas. The poems celebrate the seasons and describe everything from an earthworm to a baseball to an apple to snow angels, alongside full-color illustrations.

Loosely based on real-life events, this suspenseful story, by a debut novelist, is also funny and touching and will have readers riveted from start to finish. Lucy's mother is the U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia, so Lucy's life must be one big adventure, right? Wrong. Lucy's worrywart mother keeps her locked up inside the ambassador's residence. All Lucy can do is read about the exotic and exciting world that lies beyond the compound walls and imagine what it would be like to be a part of it. That is, until one day Lucy decides she has had enough and she and a friend sneak off for some fun. But to their horror, Lucy gets kidnapped! With only herself to rely upon, Lucy must use her knowledge of African animals, inventiveness, will, and courage to escape, and in the process embarks on an adventure beyond her wildest imagination. Includes bonus material! - Book Club Discussion Guide

A poetry and prose narrative of the life cycle, from thunder storm to ascension.

Tiny's voice screamed over the radio, "Fox-3! Smoke in the air. Tiny's still spiked, breaking left."Tiny fired a retaliatory shot and was turning for all he was worth in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to evade the incoming Chinese missile.Slammer jerked his trigger then pressed the mic switch, "Fox-3!" The AMRAAM left his plane with a surprisingly loud scream. A moment later the sky was latticed with smoke trails as Quick and Lips followed suit. He watched their missiles travel downrange with disbelief. The Rhinos were now too close to merging to take evasive maneuvers. Any turn away at this range would just put the Flankers on their tails.Committed to a head-on pass, he pulled his throttles to idle to reduce the infrared signature from his engines and held his breath, watching for any more missiles coming his way.Five missiles - four American and one Chinese - closed in on their prey with a combined closure rate of Mach 6, or 4,000 knots. Roughly one mile per second.It would be the longest six seconds of Slammer's life.

A stunning, multigenerational story about two teenagers: Victoria, who joins the circus in 1965, and her granddaughter, Callie, who leaves the circus fifty years later. Perfect for fans of This is Us. In 1965 seventeen-year-old Victoria, having just escaped an unstable home, flees to the ultimate place for dreamers and runaways--the circus. Specifically, the VanDrexel Family Circus where, among the lion tamers, roustabouts, and trapeze artists, Victoria hopes to start a better life. Fifty years later, Victoria's sixteen-year-old granddaughter Callie is thriving. A gifted and focused tightrope walker with dreams of being a VanDrexel high wire legend just like her grandmother, Callie can't imagine herself anywhere but the circus. But when Callie's mother accepts her dream job at an animal sanctuary in Florida just months after Victoria's death, Callie is forced to leave her lifelong home behind. Feeling unmoored and out of her element, Callie pores over memorabilia from her family's days on the road, including a box that belonged to Victoria when she was Callie's age. In the box, Callie finds notes that Victoria wrote to herself with tips and tricks for navigating her new world. Inspired by this piece of her grandmother's life, Callie decides to use Victoria's circus prowess to navigate the uncharted waters of public high school. Across generations, Victoria and Callie embrace the challenges of starting over, letting go, and finding new families in unexpected places.

A magical tale of the special bond between father and son recounts how young Joseph, living in the African Savannah, comes to love a lion living nearby and how he learns to both love and trust his father. At night while his village sleeps, young Joseph hears a lion's roar thunderclap across the wide East African Savannah. Joseph's father tells him that it is not the right time to go and meet the lion, but when Joseph sees the lion racing towards him, his great head streaming with gold and his paws as big as drums, a special friendship begins. Every noontime Joseph visits the lion's den. He sleeps beside the lion, meets the lioness, and plays with the young cubs. Then one day, traders come looking for lion cubs and an anxious fear awakens in Joseph: he suspects that his father has betrayed the lions. This beautiful father/son tale explores an unusual friendship and a child's rite of passage. The Time of the Lion creates a metaphor for the magic of childhood, a time when fantasy is reality, and lions are our friends. The beautiful artwork is the perfect compliment to this tale, capturing the power and mystery of the African Savannah.

Poetic and sparse, a bedtime story told by the elements.