A mysterious and bloodthirsty matriarchal force runs the town of Redlands, Florida, and in order to stay on top, sacrifices must be made. Someone is intent on removing these women from the top of the food chain, and he's ready to unleash their darkest secret but has seriously underestimated the lengths the townspeople will go to protect the new order of things. Inspired by the strange complexities of real-world politics and crime, the characters of REDLANDS play victim and villain, attempting to understand themselves and others through murder, magic, and mayhem.

Redlands weaves together an intimate sequence of photographs and a short story by Philip Brookman, set in California, Mexico and New York City during the unsettled decades of the 1960s and 1970s. Brookman uses fiction and images from his own photographic diaries to create a first-person account of Kip, an artist who wanders back and forth between farmworkers and poets--between California and New York--seeking to question the meaning of his mother's death. When Kip learns that he can't trust the eyewitness accounts of his sister, he picks up a camera to find meaning in his own experience. By juxtaposing the oppositional strategies of fiction and documentary practice to find an invented narrative, Redlands questions the veracity of logical observation and embraces the poetry of the real world.

Redlands has long been home to a large Mexican native and immigrant population that was central to both its booming citrus industry and community life. Images of America: Mexican Americans in Redlands is a journey through this vital, vibrant, and often overlooked culture. Follow longtime residents as they tell their personal stories, share rarely seen photographs, and recall life in the self-proclaimed "City of Millionaires." Experience early Redlands through the eyes of Epimenio Guzman, a blacksmith and musician who came from Los Angeles in 1885 to pursue his trade. Imagine arriving in 1913 when a group of 12 families from Northern Mexico chose Redlands to build the first Spanish-language church in the region. Join young Mexican men and women from Redlands who, through times of war and peace, sacrificed deeply, even giving their lives at times, for the right to be both Mexican and American. These and other stories within are based on the Redlands Oral History Project, a collection of conversations with and images of Mexican Americans throughout the East San Bernardino Valley.

Accompanying CD-ROM contains: McGraw-Hill children's literature database; a student study guide; and practical resources.

Cultural traditions coalesce in the city of Redlands like nowhere else in the Inland Empire. The University of Redlands is distinguished by a century of academic leadership to the community, the Fortnightly Club is one of the oldest literary organizations in the United States, and Spinnet plays favorites as one of the oldest musical societies in California. The rich cultural legacy of this sun-drenched San Bernardino County municipality intertwines with its past as a farming, citrus-growing, and health-care community, and lives on in the Redlands Symphony Orchestra, Redlands Art Association, and other regionally recognized organizations. The renowned A. K. Smiley Library remains an enduring tribute to one of the city's pioneering twin brothers (A. H. was the other) who oversaw its formative years.