For use in schools and libraries only. Marty tries to cope after her father remarries as she documents her life in a diary, which is contrasted by letters written by her stepmother.

“Funny and engaging. Marty Pants is a surefire hit!”—Lincoln Peirce, author of the Big Nate series "Readers will love the riotous hero of this new series."—School Library Journal Move over, Wimpy Kid. Here comes the imaginative, the inquisitive, the unstoppable Marty Pants! Marty Pants is different from your typical middle schooler. He has the soul of an artist, and as an artist, he notices things–except when he doesn’t. When Marty discovers a note suggesting an alien is watching him, this is something he can’t ignore. But no one, not his friends, his family, his arch-enemy, nor the chief of police, can see what he sees. So, it’s up to Marty to save the world—his way! This hilarious new series follows the endearing, frazzled, embarrassed, and ultimately fearless footsteps of literature’s most unlikely hero: Marty Pants.

Fiction. Asian & Asian American Studies. Semi-Finalist, Thurber Prize for American Humor. Marty Wu, compulsive reader of advice manuals, would love to come across as a poised young advertising professional. Instead she trips over her own feet and blurts out inappropriate comments. The bulk of her brain matter, she decides, consists of gerbils "spinning madly in alternating directions." Marty hopes to someday open a boutique costume shop, but it's hard to keep focused on her dream. First comes a spectacular career meltdown that sends her ricocheting between the stress of New York and the warmth of supportive relatives in Taiwan. Then she faces one domestic drama after another, with a formidable mother who's impossible to please, an annoyingly successful and well- adjusted brother, and surprising family secrets that pop up just when she doesn't want to deal with them. Mining the comedic potential of the 1.5-generation American experience, NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK is an insightful and witty portrait of a young woman scrambling to balance familial expectations and her own creative dreams. "A breezy and charming tale ... Anyone who's grown up immersed in a profoundly rich old-world culture and feels its constant pull will commiserate--and be entertained."--Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, author of A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family "Marty is a wonderful character who learns to stand up for herself and discovers what she really wants in life."--Booklist "An expert combination of humor and deep feeling... Digs deep into the particular challenges of defining and asserting an artistic identity in the world."--PANK Magazine "Ceaselessly surprising and entertaining... Lai's debut is an unexpectedly radical book on our deeply complicated relations with parents."--Hyphen Magazine: Asian America Unabridged

Christine Sawyer has been missing for two months. The discovery of her mutilated body will propel Chief of Police Ron Kosciak into a race of life and death with an adversary so evil that even Hannible Lector would tremble in fear. Frustrated by an increasing body count and no clues, Kosciak relies on every investigative procedure he knows, as well as his gut instincts, in an attempt to discover the killers identity. Will he be able to rescue the killers latest adoptee, or will she be added to the list of victims? Who will be safe? Who will die when the pieces to the puzzle begin falling into place?

Includes an excerpt from: Marty McGuire digs worms!

From National Book Award–winning author Martin Marty, the surprising story of a Christian classic born in a Nazi prison cell For fascination, influence, inspiration, and controversy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison is unmatched by any other book of Christian reflection written in the twentieth century. A Lutheran pastor and theologian, Bonhoeffer spent two years in Nazi prisons before being executed at age thirty-nine, just a month before the German surrender, for his role in the plot to kill Hitler. The posthumous Letters and Papers from Prison has had a tremendous impact on both Christian and secular thought since it was first published in 1951, and has helped establish Bonhoeffer's reputation as one of the most important Protestant thinkers of the twentieth century. In this, the first history of the book's remarkable global career, National Book Award-winning author Martin Marty tells how and why Letters and Papers from Prison has been read and used in such dramatically different ways, from the cold war to today. In his late letters, Bonhoeffer raised tantalizing questions about the role of Christianity and the church in an increasingly secular world. Marty tells the story of how, in the 1960s and the following decades, these provocative ideas stirred a wide range of thinkers and activists, including civil rights and antiapartheid campaigners, "death-of-God" theologians, and East German Marxists. In the process of tracing the eventful and contested history of Bonhoeffer's book, Marty provides a compelling new perspective on religious and secular life in the postwar era.

Marty Pants is back! And in an unexpectedly hairy situation, Marty must put his deduction skills to the test as this new mystery might be leading to monstrous consequences. When Marty finds a ripped page from his sister's diary, the most crucial piece—revealing Marty's true identity—is still locked inside his sister’s room. Undaunted, Marty pieces the clues together and comes to the most logical conclusion: he's on a one-way trip to werewolfville! Superhuman speed. Howling. Hairiness. The evidence is mounting against him, and with his werewolf powers growing stronger, Marty is determined to protect his classmates from himself before it's too late—no matter what the cost! The second book in the Marty Pants series from the award-winning cartoonist behind the “Off the Mark” strip, Mark Parisi, is perfect for fans of Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, and laughing a lot.