From the authors behind the critically acclaimed Sam Wu books, a thrilling new fantasy series about friendship, courage, adventure, and dragon magic. When 12-year-old Billy Chan finds out his parents are sending him to a language and culture camp in the middle-of-nowhere China, he can’t imagine anything worse. He’s not expecting to become friends with fellow campers Dylan O’Donnell, Charlotte Bell, and Liu Ling-Fei. And he’s definitely not planning to meet any dragons. But when the four kids accidentally open a crack in an ancient mountain, they become involved in an ages-old struggle of good versus evil. Now it’s up to them to save the Dragon Realm—if they don’t, the world as they know it might disappear forever.

A greedy emperor demands an impossible task from Lao Lao, a peasant woman who makes beautiful shapes from paper. Includes instructions for making traditional Chinese paper-cuts.

On the mountainous border of China and Tibet in 1708, a detective must learn what a killer already knows: that empires rise and fall on the strength of the stories they tell. Li Du was an imperial librarian. Now he is an exile. Arriving in Dayan, the last Chinese town before the Tibetan border, he is surprised to find it teeming with travelers, soldiers, and merchants. All have come for a spectacle unprecedented in this remote province: an eclipse of the sun commanded by the Emperor himself. When a Jesuit astronomer is found murdered in the home of the local magistrate, blame is hastily placed on Tibetan bandits. But Li Du suspects this was no random killing. Everyone has secrets: the ambitious magistrate, the powerful consort, the bitter servant, the irreproachable secretary, the East India Company merchant, the nervous missionary, and the traveling storyteller who can't keep his own story straight. Beyond the sloping roofs and festival banners, Li Du can see the mountain pass that will take him out of China forever. He must choose whether to leave, and embrace his exile, or to stay, and investigate a murder that the town of Dayan seems all too willing to forget.

When destiny calls, heroes take flight! Billy Chan was having the summer most 12-year-olds dream about—bonding with his very own dragon. But Billy’s friend Dylan has been kidnapped by the Dragon of Death, and the only way to save him is to travel through time with his friends and their dragons. Will Billy, Charlotte, Ling-Fei, and the dragons get to Dylan in time? And can they work together to stop the Dragon of Death from destroying the past?

Hiccup and Toothless are going on an epic adventure in this Level 2 Ready-to-Read story based on the DreamWorks movie How to Train Your Dragon 2! How to Train Your Dragon 2 flies into theaters on June 13, 2014! In this Ready-to-Read story, Hiccup and Toothless are flying into new adventures! Hiccup meets a death-defying dragon rider, plus all the dragons she keeps protected in her secret dragon hideaway. Hang on for a wild ride! How To Train Your Dragon 2 © 2014 DreamWorks Animation L.L.C.

This riveting saga spans generations, weaving spirituality, magic, the bonds of love and blood, and high adventure in one sweeping chronicle that will leave readers in breathless anticipation of each new chapter.