Twelve-year-old Zenda of Azureblue, a magical planet, looks forward to her gazing ball ceremony to reveal the unique lessons to guide her through life, but when she breaks her gazing ball, the future seems lost.

On the planet Azureblue on the eve of her thirteenth birthday, Zenda finds the final three musings from her broken gazing ball and is able to attend the harana ceremony that will reveal her personal gifts and guide her life's work.

Having retrieved all the pieces of her gazing ball and learned that she has two powers--kani and aura sight, Zenda goes on a retreat led by her friend Persuaja to learn the value of her talents and the responsibilities that accompany them.

The " Dolly Dialogues " serve much the same purpose that the ballet does in an opera—they are a divertissement pure and simple. The winsome, irresponsible "Dolly" picks her steps amid the conversational pitfalls which the adroit " Mr. Carter" spreads for her, with as much dainty sureness as a premiere danseuse, and we cannot but admire and applaud her grace and vivacity. There is no hidden meaning to the "Dialogues " any more than there is to "Dolly." They but reveal the polished inanity of the modern ball-room, the fashionable frivolity of the five o'clock tea-table, and the harmless flirtations of the lawn-tennis court. As "trifles light as air," Mr. Hope offered them to us; as trifles we accept them, and who but the most nobly serious could refuse to smile over their gracefulness, their immaculate innuendo! As a hand-book on "Polite Conversations; or, The Art of Saying Nothing Gracefully," these " Dolly Dialogues " might almost take rank as a serious classic.

This is a guide to the main developments in the history of British and Irish literature, charting some of the main features of literary language development and highlighting key language topics.

Translated by Audie E. Bock. "A first rate book and a joy to read.... It's doubtful that a complete understanding of the director's artistry can be obtained without reading this book.... Also indispensable for budding directors are the addenda, in which Kurosawa lays out his beliefs on the primacy of a good script, on scriptwriting as an essential tool for directors, on directing actors, on camera placement, and on the value of steeping oneself in literature, from great novels to detective fiction." --Variety "For the lover of Kurosawa's movies...this is nothing short of must reading...a fitting companion piece to his many dynamic and absorbing screen entertainments." --Washington Post Book World