Adventures of 2 Girls traces the journey of two best friends who take a 9-month break from their successful careers to tick a big, fat item off their Bucket Lists: To travel the world and write a book. Ning is an award-winning professional female magician, and Pam an award-winning journalist and radio DJ. At the peak of their careers, they break loose from the safe and familiar, stuff their backpacks with bare essentials, and buy two one-way tickets to Honolulu. From a road trip across the United States, to spending a summer in Paris, studying French and being certified in the art of patisserie at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu, from roughing it out in wild Madagascar (with no electricity, running water or toilets!), to trekking in the Himalayas, Pam and Ning go in search of new experiences and ultimate adventures off the beaten track. If you think this is a guidebook for girls, or an offshoot of Eat, Pray, Love… think again! Adventures of 2 Girls boasts action-packed accounts of sticky situations faced by two city girls in foreign lands, travel tips about budgeting, finances, insurance, PMS survival etc., plus quirky observations, and quiet ruminations on lazy afternoons… complete with private photos from their compact cameras and iPhones, and sketches from their travel journals. It’s a heart-warming, humorous and inspiring story about friendship, chasing dreams, taking risks, and letting go.

What happens when six creative girls accidentally open a Secret Door to a Magical Realm? It doesn't take long for adventure -- and danger -- to find them! Upon arriving in the Realm, eleven-year-old Shaylee and her friends learn they are the long-awaited princesses of the Six Kingdoms, and each girl has a unique magical power tied to her creative talents. But the kingdoms are in ruin thanks to an evil force that has drained nearly all of the power from the Wellspring of Magic. As if that wasn't bad enough, the door between the real world and the Realm is stuck! It can't be opened again -- and the girls can't go home -- until the magic is restored to the Wellspring. Shaylee and her friends must work together using their creative abilities, such as dancing, painting, and beading, to channel powers they never knew they had and fight the dark forces threatening to destroy the Realm. Their adventure will bring them face-to-face with gigantic grizzly bears claiming to be their protectors, green-skinned fairy folks, a scaly river dragon, vampire spiders, and killer plants -- things none of the girls expected to face during their summer break. Can they master their new powers in time to turn back the dark forces that want to trap them in the Realm forever? The Creative Girls Enchanted Adventures series is an irresistible mix of crafts, magic, humor, and adventure that will have girls hooked on reading!

A determined 12-year-old girl bikes across the country in this quirky and charming debut middle grade novel. Introverted Bicycle has lived most of her life at the Mostly Silent Monastery in Washington, D.C. When her guardian, Sister Wanda, announces that Bicycle is going to attend a camp where she will learn to make friends, Bicycle says no way and sets off on her bike for San Francisco to meet her idol, a famous cyclist, certain he will be her first true friend. Who knew that a ghost would haunt her handlebars and that she would have to contend with bike-hating dogs, a bike-loving horse, bike-crushing pigs, and a mysterious lady dressed in black. Over the uphills and downhills of her journey, Bicycle discovers that friends are not such a bad thing to have after all, and that a dozen cookies really can solve most problems.

What if you can leap tall buildings and defeat alien monsters with your bare hands, but you buy your capes at secondhand stores and have a weakness for kittens? Cartoonist Faith Erin Hicks brings charming humor to the trials and tribulations of a young female superhero, battling monsters both supernatural and mundane in an all-too-ordinary world. The expanded edition collects the original Eisner Award-winning comic, two new stories, and new art from creators including Tyler Crook, Ron Chan, Jake Wyatt, Paulina Ganucheau, and more! The first collection won an Eisner Award (Best Publication for Kids) and has gone through 4 printings "This charming modern vision of a Superhero Girl features a young woman living an uncertain life, unsure of the best way to contribute to society. It's superhero as person instead of as corporate symbol or fight machine. We see her struggling with relatable elements of daily life, like keeping her mother informed of how things are going or having to replace her cape after it shrunk in the laundry. One of the best strips has Superhero Girl explaining to a fan how she too can be a superhero without having a horrible tragedy in her past. This strip shines because it's fresh and lighthearted without wallowing in angst. Her arch-nemesis is a normal guy who keeps telling her she's doing it wrong. She struggles to balance her calling with a paying day job but keeps forgetting to take her mask off. Her annoying perfect brother Kevin shows her up, and she struggles with whether to stay hero or take the easier, villainous way to riches. The comic is perfectly suited to Hicks's expressive figures and energetic storytelling. The perfect laugh-filled tonic for heavier angst-filled superhero series." -Publishers Weekly "Have you ever wanted a superhero who lives in your world? If so, you will love Faith Erin Hicks' Eisner-award-winning story of a young woman who happens to be a superhero. " -YALSA The Hub

Jaundice and Kale are back from their adventure on the high seas, and they are settling back into a quiet life in Dullsville, just the way they like it. The tea is tepid, the oatmeal is tasteless, and the socks are ripe for darning . . . until Aunt Shallot shows up and reveals herself to be anything but the dull relation they were expecting. Instead, she tells her nieces she is Magique, Queen of Magic, and she’s on her way to a big show and in need of two willing assistants. As Magique and the Bland sisters board the Uncanny Express, they meet a cast of mystifying characters. And when Magique goes missing, it’s up to Jaundice and Kale to solve the mystery—with the help of famous detective Hugo Fromage. An inventive story in the tradition of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, The Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters: The Uncanny Express has all the whimsy and humor that readers who are looking for an anything-but-bland adventure will love.

Families with boys often find the world reacts to them in mock horror. Even though parents love their sons, privately they admit that boys can be a handful to raise--they are boisterous, competitive, reckless, distractable. The challenge of wills between parent and son starts early, and the quest to civilize young bulls may seem hopeless some days. Yet believers know that God has given them children as a gift of heaven, specially chosen for their particular families and marked as a blessing. If that's so, why does it seem so hard? How can we prepare these boys to serve God when it's all we can do to make it through another day? Isn't there a better way? Raising Real Men: Surviving, Teaching and Appreciating Boys shows the answer is emphatically yes. Written by the parents of six boys, Raising Real Men provides hope and encouragement to families with sons. Starting from the premise that God made boys to become men, Hal and Melanie Young offer Biblical principles and tested, practical ideas for training the manly virtues that can drive parents and teachers up the wall. This is a practical guide to equipping the hearts and minds of boys without breaking or losing your own. "...earthy, realistic, humorous, and scriptural ..." -- Douglas Wilson, author, Future Men "This is just what the doctor ordered for parents who want to raise capable Christian men of character." -- John Rosemond, author, Parenting By The Book

Lizzie and Rosanna are cousins. But when the Civil War breaks out, Lizzie finds herself committed to the cause of the Union, while Rosie is swept up in the passions of the old south. Torn in their alliances, each girl finds herself grappling with the brutality of war, and the elusive promise of love, until the battle at Gettysburg brings them together once agin.