The Amadeuses were always considered somewhat strange. Even before the incident. When six-year-old Beatrice Willoughby vanished at the Amadeuses’ annual All Hallows Eve party, people in the tiny mountain town of Nevermore were quick to whisper: They were always odd. Their house is full of dark magic. And when Mort Amadeus was pegged for the crime, the Amadeuses, once the center of society, retreated. They closed their doors, disappeared from life. People almost forgot. Until thirteen years later, when six envelopes land at the doorstep of six households in town: We cordially invite you to a celebration on the 31st of October this Saturday evening at the Amadeus household. So begins the mystery of who was really responsible for the missing girl thirteen years ago. Was it Duchess von Pelt, whose face no one has ever seen? Mrs. Raven, the keeper of the local inn? Wormwood, the Amadeuses’ mysterious caretaker? Dr. Foozle, the town pharmacist? Count Baines, who seems to know when unlucky things are about to happen? Judge Ophelius, who presided over Beatrice’s case originally? Mr. and Mrs. H, a couple who no one can ever quite remember? Or somehow, might precocious, eleven-year-old Dewey and his storytelling dad, Chaucer, be somehow mixed up in all this? The guests must work together to identify the guilty party among them over the course of the evening—but beware the ticking clock, because at midnight, everything is going to change! Told from different perspectives, this is a sly, darkly funny mystery. Filled with strange characters and set in a mansion deep, deep in the woods. G. Z. Schmidt has crafted an unforgettable puzzle, perfect for reading on a dark autumn night.

The Amadeuses were always considered somewhat strange. Even before the incident. When six-year-old Beatrice Willoughby vanished at the Amadeuses’ annual All Hallows Eve party, people in the tiny mountain town of Nevermore were quick to whisper: They were always odd. Their house is full of dark magic. And when Mort Amadeus was pegged for the crime, the Amadeuses, once the center of society, retreated. They closed their doors, disappeared from life. People almost forgot. Until thirteen years later, when six envelopes land at the doorstep of six households in town: We cordially invite you to a celebration on the 31st of October this Saturday evening at the Amadeus household. So begins the mystery of who was really responsible for the missing girl thirteen years ago. Was it Duchess von Pelt, whose face no one has ever seen? Mrs. Raven, the keeper of the local inn? Wormwood, the Amadeuses’ mysterious caretaker? Dr. Foozle, the town pharmacist? Count Baines, who seems to know when unlucky things are about to happen? Judge Ophelius, who presided over Beatrice’s case originally? Mr. and Mrs. H, a couple who no one can ever quite remember? Or somehow, might precocious, eleven-year-old Dewey and his storytelling dad, Chaucer, be somehow mixed up in all this? The guests must work together to identify the guilty party among them over the course of the evening—but beware the ticking clock, because at midnight, everything is going to change! Told from different perspectives, this is a sly, darkly funny mystery. Filled with strange characters and set in a mansion deep, deep in the woods. G. Z. Schmidt has crafted an unforgettable puzzle, perfect for reading on a dark autumn night.

An imaginative time travel mystery about a boy whose life is upeneded with the arrival of a stranger and a magical promise. Twelve-year-old Adam doesn't mind living at his uncle's bakery, the Biscuit Basket, on the Lower East Side in New York City. The warm, delicious smells of freshly baked breads and chocolate croissants make every day feel cozy, even if Adam doesn't have many friends and he misses his long dead parents very much. When a mysterious but cheerful customer tells Adam that adventures await him, it's too strange to be true. But days later, an unbelievable, incredible thing happens. Adam travels back in time, first to Times Square in 1935, then a candle factory fire in 1967. But how are these moments related? What do they have to do with his parents' death? And why is a tall man with long eyebrows and a thin mustache following Adam's every move? In her debut novel G. Z. Schmidt has crafted a world filled with serendipity, mystery, and adventure for readers of Roald Dahl and Lemony Snicket.

Twin siblings sneak into the emperor’s palace to break a curse in this Chinese folklore-inspired fantasy adventure set in the Ming Dynasty. "[A] magical adventure, which shoots for the moon—and succeeds."—Entertainment Weekly Twins Mei and Yun can’t wait for the Mid-Autumn Harvest Festival, even though strange things keep happening in their village. A gloomy atmosphere has settled over the land and their grandpa’s usually delicious mooncakes instead taste horrible and bitter, insulting the prince who tastes them. Determined to clear grandpa’s name, Mei and Yun journey through the City of Ashes, visit the mysterious Jade Rabbit, and encounter a powerful poet, who makes them a pact: infiltrate the royal palace to expose a past royal injustice, and the poet will remove the curse that has ensnared their grandfather and village. Seamlessly weaving together folklore, palace intrigue, and historical detail, G. Z. Schmidt delivers an unforgettable adventure set in the Ming Dynasty about sibling bonds and the importance of the past. The beautifully illustrated cover by artist Feifei Ruan shows the twins riding a floating cloud, whose softly curved edges shine with printed gloss. Back matter includes further information on Chinese mythology, philosophy, and more. An enchanting experience, The Dreamweavers is perfect for young fantasy readers. A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year A CCBC Choice

"You can't start the New Year without a kiss." When those words lead to a delicious one-night stand, consultant Caroline Taylor's fate is sealed. Because she soon finds out her seducer is Caroselli Chocolate's marketing director—and her new job is to overhaul his division. It leaves a bad taste in her mouth—and what if she's pregnant with Robert Caroselli's baby? If necessary, Rob will do right and make his dreamy corporate nemesis his wife. He might even inherit millions if he produces a male heir. But his marriage plan will never succeed without the secret ingredient—true love.

Ten years gone, Cora Pooler returns, a second time, to the Amish community where she was raised. She continues to be under the ban, shunned for abandoning a child thirty years before. Arriving in Wander Lane, she discovers her sister, Lily, has been buried in unsanctiffed ground; her sister, Violet, has married Cora's former lover, Aaron; and unbeknownst to her Amish family, the abandoned child is living within the Amish community. With Sheriff Parker's help, and though thwarted by the Amish community's reluctance to accept Cora's presence in their fellowship, Cora attempts to discover the reason for Lily's unseemly burial place, and the reason the abandoned baby, her placement whereabouts supposedly unknown, is now an adult woman living in Wander Lane.

Ford Madox Brown's fascinating realist painting Work takes as its heroes a group of labourers laying water pipes in The Mount, Hampstead. They are surrounded by a variety of picturesque characters representing the different classes and occupations of Victorian society, including two intellectuals - Thomas Carlyle and the Rev F. D. Maurice, whose ideas are crucial to the painting's meaning. This fully illustrated book tells the story behind Brown's masterpiece - its sources in popular art, its composition and its 'message', as well as its critical reception at the time and its impact on art in the twentieth century. Walker also examines the history of Hampstead in the 1850s, the wider issues of conflict and ideas in Victorian Britain and the social history of London with its cast of navvies, urchins and street vendors, philosophers, reformers and idlers