A girl longs to return to the island in China where she was born to look for dragons. One day, her dream comes true when her family returns to celebrate Chinese New Year. The girl helps her grandparents prepare for the holiday. She assists her grandmother in making tangyuan, a tasty desert, and she watches as her grandfather paints a dragon costume. The girl joins in on the big holiday parade, then waits for nightfall when her family's lotus-shaped lanterns can be released into the water. Her grandfather explains how the fish jump over the lanterns to become dragons, and why she is called Little Dragon Girl.

In a modern mega-city built around dragons, one boy gets caught up in the world of underground dragon battles and a high-stakes gang war that could tear his family apart. Once, dragons nearly drove themselves to extinction. But in the city of Drakopolis, humans domesticated them centuries ago. Now dragons haul the city’s cargo, taxi its bustling people between skyscrapers, and advertise its wares in bright, neon displays. Most famously of all, the dragons battle. Different breeds take to the skies in nighttime bouts between the infamous kins—criminal gangs who rule through violence and intimidation. Abel has always loved dragons, but after a disastrous showing in his dragon rider’s exam, he's destined never to fly one himself. All that changes the night his sister appears at his window, entrusting him with a secret...and a stolen dragon. Turns out, his big sister is a dragon thief! Too bad his older brother is a rising star in Drakopolis law enforcement... To protect his friends and his family, Abel must partner with the stolen beast, riding in kin battles and keeping more secrets than a dragon has scales. When everyone wants him fighting on their side, can Abel figure out what’s worth fighting for?

Record numbers of Canadian youths are taking up basketball, but the sport languishes in the shadow of hockey. From the sport's beginning to the era of Steve Nash, this book chronicles basketball's struggle to overcome its history as the poor cousin of Canadian sports.

How would a loli do it? He had tricked her into hugging him on the bed! How could he do that? One flick, two flick, three flop! How does the queen do it? The wax whip and the shackles!

A fantasy world far like any other. A place where loyalty meets authority and power meets demand. Gems of all kinds lay about, but some are more special than others. When characters collide, can they finally use the gems’ powers to bring the Kingdoms back to what they once were? Or is it too late to stop the evil cast in the shadows? Will they figure out how to use the gems? And will the Kingdoms finally unite?

Brown and Holley are interested in place and what makes people who they are. With particular interest in how people take the hand they’ve been dealt—fate, family, circumstance, luck—and craft a life for themselves, the authors celebrate the grit and gumption of these Texas originals. Introducing quirky characters and tenacious spirits, Holley’s stories seek out the personality of the small town while Brown’s photographs capture the essence of a changing landscape. Hometown Texas aims not to be nostalgic or sentimental but rather to show readers an unknown Texas—one that, while not vanishing, is certainly on the wane. Organized into five topographical, geographic, and cultural sections—East, West, North, South, and Central—three dozen stories and more than eighty complementary images work to create a parallel narrative to reveal what Brown has described as the “collective, various, remarkably complex soul that makes Texas unique.” Hometown Texas is an exploration across miles and cultures, of well-traveled roads and forgotten byways, deep into the heart of Texas.

Learn about software testing in a fun way, by reading stories about dragons and knights. The book is a great read for children on their own, with their parents, or as an additional reading in schools. It is also for anyone who wants to know what software testing is, they will enjoy this book tremendously. The book talks about adventures of two children, Laura and Tom, who tumble into dragons annoying villages and castles. They learn about different dragons and how to defeat them with the help of knights. The children grow into exceptional dragon experts. Stories are explained in information technology and software testing terms and concepts, e.g. a dragon represents a software defect, and knights represent testers and developers. Reading parallels is an easy-to-understand way of learning. In this book, Kari Kakkonen combines his passion into fantasy and software testing in a new and fascinating way, creating an enjoyable experience for the readers. The book is suitable for ages of 9-99, although it is written for children. “I love the idea of bringing testing and dragons together. Explaining testing ideas in this way is great for new testers to give them a broad idea of the depth of testing. The stories can sit on their own for children as well, and may encourage them to think about how they could test some of the apps they use.” Janet Gregory, DragonFire Inc, co-author of three books on agile testing.