Strange doings: European jumping horses have died mysteriously. Now prime Spanish mustang stallions are being killed all over the West. A beautiful young television newswoman is chasing the story, and some weirdo is posting obscene clues on the net. John Denson, Annie Dancer, and Willie Sees the Night are retained to find the horse killers. Denson prefers logic, Annie her computer skills, and they share a lively bed. The shaman Willie reaches beyond reason: He again sends Denson flying into mysterious realms to find the truth. Are the animal spirits Denson sees real? Has Willie Sees the Night been fighting the shape-changing Koonran since the beginning of time? Is this the true source of all evil? Or is the monster part of us all, coursing through our blood? Pony Girls is John Denson's wildest adventure.

“A wild, rollicking ride into the heart of horse country—these essays get at what it means to love horses, in all that love's complexity.” —Anton DiSclafani, author of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls A compelling and provocative essay collection that smashes stereotypes and redefines the meaning of the term “horse girl,” broadening it for women of all cultural backgrounds. As a child, horses consumed Halimah Marcus’ imagination. When she wasn’t around horses she was pretending to be one, cantering on two legs, hands poised to hold invisible reins. To her classmates, girls like Halimah were known as “horse girls,” weird and overzealous, absent from the social worlds of their peers. Decades later, when memes about “horse girl energy,” began appearing across social media—Halimah reluctantly recognized herself. The jokes imagine girls as blinkered as carriage ponies, oblivious to the mockery behind their backs. The stereotypical horse girl is also white, thin, rich, and straight, a daughter of privilege. Yet so many riders don’t fit this narrow, damaging ideal, and relate to horses in profound ways that include ambivalence and regret, as well as unbridled passion and devotion. Featuring some of the most striking voices in contemporary literature—including Carmen Maria Machado, Pulitzer-prize winner Jane Smiley, T Kira Madden, Maggie Shipstead, and Courtney Maum—Horse Girls reframes the iconic bond between girls and horses with the complexity and nuance it deserves. And it showcases powerful emerging voices like Braudie Blais-Billie, on the connection between her Seminole and Quebecois heritage; Sarah Enelow-Snyder, on growing up as a Black barrel racer in central Texas; and Nur Nasreen Ibrahim, on the colonialist influence on horse culture in Pakistan. By turns thought-provoking and personal, Horse Girls reclaims its titular stereotype to ask bold questions about autonomy and desire, privilege and ambition, identity and freedom, and the competing forces of domestication and wildness.

Mean Girls meets Black Beauty in Horse Girl by celebrated author Carrie Seim--a funny and tender middle-grade novel about finding your forever herd. "This book is funny and exciting. Beautifully portrays both the pleasures and risks of riding horses and also of being a teen. Very original, and a great pleasure to read."--Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wills is a seventh grader who's head-over-hoof for horses, and beyond excited when she gets the chance to start training at the prestigious Oakwood Riding Academy. But Amara--the Queen of the #HorseGirls--and her posse aren't going to let the certifiably dork-tagious Wills trot her way into their club so easily. Between learning the reins of horse riding, dealing with her Air Force pilot mom being stationed thousands of miles from home, and keeping it together in front of (gasp!) Horse Boys, Wills learns that becoming a part of the #HorseGirl world isn't easy. But with her rescue horse, Clyde, at her side, it sure will be fun. Complete with comedic, original hoof notes to acquaint the less equestrian among us, Horse Girl delivers everything a young readers wants: mean girls, boy problems, and embarrassingly goofy dad jokes. And it does so on the back of a pony.

The astonishing true story of Beverli Rhodes, child victim of a sick, high-profile pedophilia ring and, years later, of the London Tube bombings, who rebuilt her life with the help of one very special animal--the horse. Horses saved Beverli Rhodes's mind, and life. As a child, her world consisted of overlapping layers, in which sexually abusive men and her beautiful savior horses were distinguished only by levels of pain or joy. She survived to make a life for herself--only to suffer a second, devastating blow when she was caught up in the London Underground bombings of July 7, 2005, in which she was seriously injured. As a result of this traumatic experience, her fragile world became overrun with long-buried memories of her childhood, her waking hours haunted by flashbacks to agonizing experiences. Her years of child sex abuse had resulted in significant memory loss. Now vile memories came flooding back as a result of a severe blow to the head in the underground train. When the British healthcare system seemed to fail her, she sought other avenues to cope with severe post-traumatic stress disorder, her recovery directly resulting from contact with horses. Supported by her partner, she is now able to live a peaceful life, and continues to maintain her strong connection with the animals that helped to save her. Moving and at times horrific, The Horse Girl is an extraordinary story of hate redeemed by love, as well as a testament to the triumph of the human spirit over the most terrible adversity.

In 409 BC, the Greek historian Herodotus described an Athenian soldier who had no physical battle injuries but suffered permanent blindness after seeing the death of a fellow soldier. It has been reported down through the ages and given a dozen different names from "combat stress reaction" to "the 1,000-yard stare" to "survivor syndrome." For Sergeant Bryan Hamilton, it would eventually be recognized as "post-traumatic stress disorder" or PTSD. After serving two combat tours in Vietnam, Bryan Hamilton returns to his small hometown in rural central Pennsylvania in search of some sense of normalcy. Although Bryan believes he is the same quiet, clean-cut young man that departed for military service some three years earlier, his family is increasingly convinced the Bryan they once knew may be gone forever. Bryan's only salvation may be Cindi Roget, the pretty young liberal coed he meets at University Park, the main campus of Penn State University. Although the two have absolutely nothing in common, they fall in love and prove once again the old adage that opposites really do attract. About the Author: R.T. Budd served combat tours in Vietnam with the 1st Air Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and the 23rd Infantry Division (Americal). Forty years later he freely admits that "the deepest wounds of war need not be physical." The damage to the psyche may not be visible, but it is just as real as the blood that is spilled. Budd lives with his wife of 38 years near Hershey, Pennsylvania. http: //SBPRA.com/RTBudd

The best libraries in Victorian Britain kept this tome under lock and key, permitting access only to doctors and professors. Scotland Yard had a copy in their reference library, and even Sherlock Holmes may have had recourse to a copy in certain investigations. In private collections across the English speaking world, it was kept on top shelves, or safely stowed in locked cabinets, beyond the reach of minors, domestics and spouses. Any woman who gazed upon its pages was said to have fainted away. The church campaigned to have it banned and the German translation was burned at Nuremberg. Many antiquarian book sellers believe the book to have been a myth, others claimed it changed hands at enormous cost, and some are certain all original copies are now lost. But Curious Pleasures does exist and is back in print - nearly a century since it's last apocryphal edition. This encyclopaedic treasure of adult pleasures, dysfunctions and unacceptable female behaviour has been fully restored with the original illustrations intact. In modern hands, this forbidden work of scholarly madness will prove hilarious.

Children's literature continues to be one of the most rapidly expanding and exciting of interdisciplinary academic studies, of interest to anyone concerned with literature, education, internationalism, childhood or culture in general. This edition has been expanded and includes over 50 new articles. New topics include Postcolonialism, Comparative Studies, Ancient Texts, Contemporary Children's Rhymes and Folklore, Contemporary Comics, War, Horror, Series Fiction, Film, Creative Writing, and 'Crossover' literature. The international section has been expanded to reflect world events.