It all begins when Comet walks away from the lighthouse close to his birthplace on Nantucket Island. He visits a garden, a bookstore, a boat, and a party, and at each place he gets into trouble and loses one of his lives. Comet starts to worry. He longs for a home, a place where he’ll be safe. Will he find one before he uses up all nine lives?

Bright, colorful photos support decodable text, guiding beginning readers to identify, recognize, and use the /k/ sound. Featuring high-frequency words, this authentic nonfiction text also gives emerging readers the opportunity to read for information while reinforcing basic phonemic sounds. Readers will enjoy the story of how a very special cat named Comet is rescued from the cold. This nonfiction phonics title is paired with the fiction phonics title Kayla Goes Camping: Practicing the Hard C / K Sound. The instructional guide on the inside front and back covers provides: * Word List with carefully selected grade-appropriate words featuring the /k/ sound found in the text * Teacher Talk that assists instructors in introducing the /k/ sound * Group Activity that guides students to identify the /k/ sound, decode the words that contain it, and use the words * Extended Activity that provides students with additional opportunities to think about, list, and use words containing the /k/ sound * Writing Activity that guides students to write the letters that make the /k/ sound

Riding on Comets is the true story of an only child growing up in a working-class family during the 1950s and '60s. As the family storyteller, Cat Pleska whispers and shouts about her life growing up around savvy, strong women and hard-working, hard-drinking men. Unlike many family stories set within Appalachia, this story provides an uncommon glimpse into this region: not coal, but an aluminum plant; not hollers, but small-town America; not hillbillies, but a hard-working family with traditional values. From the dinner table, to the back porch, to the sprawling countryside, Cat Pleska reveals the sometimes tender, sometimes frightening education of a child who listens at the knees of these giants. She mimics and learns every nuance, every rhythm--how they laugh, smoke, cuss, fight, love, and tell stories--as she unwittingly prepares to carry their tales forward, their words and actions forever etched in her mind. And finally, she discovers a life story of her own.

A wonderful sui generis novel about a visiting cat who brings joy into a couple’s life in Tokyo A bestseller in France and winner of Japan’s Kiyama Shohei Literary Award, The Guest Cat, by the acclaimed poet Takashi Hiraide, is a subtly moving and exceptionally beautiful novel about the transient nature of life and idiosyncratic but deeply felt ways of living. A couple in their thirties live in a small rented cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo; they work at home, freelance copy-editing; they no longer have very much to say to one another. But one day a cat invites itself into their small kitchen. It leaves, but the next day comes again, and then again and again. Soon they are buying treats for the cat and enjoying talks about the animal and all its little ways. Life suddenly seems to have more promise for the husband and wife — the days have more light and color. The novel brims with new small joys and many moments of staggering poetic beauty, but then something happens…. As Kenzaburo Oe has remarked, Takashi Hiraide’s work "really shines." His poetry, which is remarkably cross-hatched with beauty, has been acclaimed here for "its seemingly endless string of shape-shifting objects and experiences,whose splintering effect is enacted via a unique combination of speed and minutiae."

Ebony had never met her parents. It was said her Mother went off to join the stars and her Father's call had been to the sea. Instead, Ebony imagined her own adventures of sailing the sea, battling strange creatures and saving the people of Ia. All alongside her Mother and Father, as the 'Defenders of Ia'. What Ebony did not know was that she would soon have her own tales to tell. One night a Star Bear visited Ebony ...

Willow is shy. VERY shy. Her home is in an abandoned mailbox, and she'd rather stay put. Outside kids scream and soccer balls collide, trees look like monsters, and rain is noisy in a scary kind of way. It's much nicer to stay inside, drawing. But then a young boy drops a letter in Willow's mailbox: it's a note to the moon asking for a special favor. Willow knows that if she doesn't brave the world outside, the letter will never be delivered, and the boy will be heartbroken. Should she try? Can she? Cat Min delivers a breathtakingly illustrated story about shyness, the power of empathy, and what it means to make a friend.

Cult of the Comet takes place in a dark future. It features a fallen astronaut turned gritty private eye and a cult leader on a mission to grab interstellar travel. A Motherland Security police state and evil elders rule most of the world. Mutants control the rest. The race is on as a comet, which is the final visitation of an alien race, heads for perihelion at earth. This is a full length novel with action and twists from beginning to end.