Jeannie Freeman's disappearance during the Rapid City Middle School's field trip into the neighboring Black Hills of South Dakota was the local tragedy of the decade. Six months later, Detective Dakota 'Dak' Johnson and the girl's mother, Ghini Freeman, unearth a nightmarish Pandora's box infesting the heart of this mystery. Alongside a growing band of survivors, Ghini had hoped to put an end to the swarm of creatures ravaging their small community. But, more children have gone missing, and the culprit right along with them. As the looming winter threatens to envelop the landscape, time is of the essence. The creatures have something planned. Devilish machinations that could skirt the greatest threat to their survival -- frigid temperatures. Could this be the end of Rapid City? Will Ghini and her ragtag family be able to uncover the Vespids' hive in time, or will the Queen's machinations unleash a plague on her home unlike anything she's ever seen? You thought you knew about monsters, but you don't know about the Queen of them all.

Charlotte Innings is already twenty-one and only getting older with each passing winter as an innkeeper’s daughter when the white-haired, diamond-eyed Aria enters her life. A talented mage hunted by the very organization that seeks to protect her, Aria shows Charlotte glimpses into a world filled with magic and godly forces beyond her comprehension. Or is it that simple? Aria grows closer to her with each passing day. With each trial, she seems to be opening up to more and more. Her connection to the goddess Cestra. Her magic. Her bodyguard Caen. When Aria finally unfurls her wings and professes her love to Charlotte, can Charlotte even hope to match her partner’s stride? What can a single farmgirl do against the dangers that surround Aria ... or the demons plaguing her from within?

Read Along or Enhanced eBook: "Trees that once had leaves are bare. They're dressed instead in lacy white. Snow dusts their trunks and coats their limbs with flakes that outline them with light." Join a boy and his dog as they use their senses of sight and touch to identify seven common trees in the snow covered forest. Intricate illustrations and lyrical text make distinguishing different types of trees easy--even in the middle of winter, when only bare branches stand like skeletons against the sky.

A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick 'Ingenious ... touching, surprising and sometimes heartbreaking.' Guardian 'If you're itching to read a new novel by David Mitchell ... try this.' The Times _______________ In Tokyo - one of the world's largest megacities - a stray cat is wending her way through the back alleys. And, with each detour, she brushes up against the seemingly disparate lives of the city-dwellers, connecting them in unexpected ways. But the city is changing. As it does, it pushes her to the margins where she chances upon a series of apparent strangers - from a homeless man squatting in an abandoned hotel, to a shut-in hermit afraid to leave his house, to a convenience store worker searching for love. The cat orbits Tokyo's denizens, drawing them ever closer. 'Masterfully weaves together seemingly disparate threads to conjure up a vivid tapestry of Tokyo; its glory, its shame, its characters, and a calico cat.' David Peace, author of THE TOKYO TRILOGY One of the Independent's best debuts

In a desperate attempt for survival, a peaceful civilization on a faraway planet besieged by a dark lord sends its most precious gift across the cosmos into the lunchbox of Tommy Pepper, sixth grader, of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

After a tremendous blizzard, Ben, Annie, and Jane begin to think that a haunting spirit may have something to do with the sudden change in temperature. Original.