As Bear watches for the last leaf of autumn to fall, he is joined by other animals who do not know why the leaf is so special to him.

The year is 1935. Bettina, just turned six, is spending her summer vacation with Granny and Dada, her grandmother and grandfather, in Kalenda, a small North Texas town. In addition to her grandparents, the household includes Franky, their cook / housekeeper / laundress, whose husband Professor, principal of the K-12 Negro school, drives Franky to work and spends time at the kitchen table with Dada, discussing world events, and Rufus, the gardener / handyman / chauffeur. Frequent visitors are Nanny, Granny's crippled younger sister, and her husband, Harry, who drive into town from their small farm in an old Pierce Arrow which only Nanny can drive and only in second gear, and Uncle, Granny's younger brother, who lives alone near the railroad tracks with his two hunting dogs. Among the colorful townsfolk are Dolly (wife of Jolly), who has no children but has a wondrous doll collection for all the town's children to enjoy; Scrap, the trash man, who drives a mule-drawn cart to pick up castoffs which he turns into treasures; Miss Annie, the widow of a sea captain, who wears trousers, smokes an occasional cigar,and drives a bright yellow roadster; and Woodrow, confused but harmless, who thinks he is the President of the United States. But through all the delights of a carefree, almost magical summer, is woven the shadow of eight-year-old Billy Jack, the mostly unsupervised son of a mother long gone and a father who works in the oil fields. Billy Jack has told Bettina that Mrs. Crone, a strange neighbor who dresses all in black, is a witch. Bettina is afraid of Mrs. Crone, as well as of the frowning life-size angel with its sword unsheathed, which Mrs. Crone erected at the entrance of Townview Cemetery.

Double Delights #26: SEX, LIES AND RODEO GAMES: Dr. Suzanne Grey needs an ending for her book on male sexual dysfunction. Where else does she go but the rodeo capital of the world, Cody, Wyoming in search of willing research subjects. But a simple untruth told by an eager matchmaker catches Suzanne in a vortex of lies, complicated by the attraction of two handsome cowboys. Matthew McKenna is a rodeo bull fighting clown and proud of it. Bull riding had been his mistress until a spine injury two years prior forced a career change. Although he's dated just about every woman for counties around, none have captured his heart. Still, there's something different about Suzanne Grey-just how different he's about to find out. CODY SHOOTING STAR: Even though sparks fly, it isn't love at first sight when a sassy New York photographer meets a Wyoming native. Tiffany Cooper finds herself trying to handle her recuperating mother's responsibilities, the most difficult one being Cody Shooting Star. Her heart and her life will never be the same.

What is the origin of the word "book"? What is the oldest working library still in existence? What is an "enchiridion"? An "amphigory"? A "duodecimo"? Which two Nobel laureates refused the prize in literature? How many trees must sacrifice their lives to produce a thousand copies of a 96-page volume of verse? These are some of the questions posed (and answered) in this fascinating farrago of literary trivia, a treasure trove of obscure and irresistible facts, definitions, lists, and quotations that touch on every aspect of books, including their authors, publishers, printers, collectors, critics, readers, and enemies. Under headings that explore the entire history of bibliomania from "The Invention of Paper" to "Some Horror Writers' Offcial Websites," the entries in Bibliotopia provide the insatiably curious reader a delightfully desultory literary education, the kind one might pick up at a cocktail party on Parnassus.