Arriving at the Gast House, a Civil War-era bed and breakfast, Justin Collier finds his dreams of rest and relaxation shattered by strange voices, screams and an unspeakable horror in this place that harbors a carnal evil. Original.

Poetry. Old loves--especially music and art--once again kindle a poetry of beguiling eloquence and erudition for Jordan Smith and highlights of this collection include two memorable suites of poems: "Eight Hats," based on paintings by Walter Hatke, and "Sketches for a Novel," drawing on paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland. The pull of the past is strong for Smith and these poems are replete with references to touchstones of other eras--straw boaters, Wobblies, R.D. Laing, old time hymns, Monopoly games...but nostalgia is leavened by a new political urgency, the ecstasies and explicatives of today.

A major work of American literature from a major American writer that powerfully portrays the anguish of being Black in a society that at times seems poised on the brink of total racial war. "Baldwin is one of the few genuinely indispensable American writers." —Saturday Review At the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life and death, Baldwin shows the choices that have made him enviably famous and terrifyingly vulnerable. For between Leo's childhood on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the intoxicating world of the theater lies a wilderness of desire and loss, shame and rage. An adored older brother vanishes into prison. There are love affairs with a white woman and a younger black man, each of whom will make irresistible claims on Leo's loyalty. Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone is overpowering in its vitality and extravagant in the intensity of its feeling.

A true master of disguise, martial artist, and linguist, Agent 87 is the world's greatest spy. With the Second World War coming to its peak, 87 goes undercover to investigate a lethal weapons project in a Japanese-occupied region in China. With the help of a French weapons expert and a greedy mercenary, 87 unravels a plot filled with death and horror, discovering she must stop a deadly train carrying the destruction of mankind as its cargo.

An enthralling account of a young boy’s struggle to help freedom triumph over fear in the 1940s American South. It’s 1947, and twelve-year-old Clyde Thomason is proud to have an older brother who guards the Freedom Train—a train that is traveling to all forty-eight states carrying the country’s most important documents, including the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Clyde hasn’t told his parents he won’t perform the Freedom Pledge because of stage fright, nor has he mentioned his confusing friendship with a boy of color. So when the townspeople threaten William’s family, Clyde has a choice to make: Will he keep quiet, or stand up for real freedom? Ideal for classrooms, Freedom Train contains historical photos of the Freedom Train and its guards, as well as an author’s note that provides additional information about the history of the Freedom Train.

A train gets noisier and more crowded as quacking ducks, dancing acrobats, talking yaks, and packs of elephants board.

In simple, powerful words and vibrant illustrations, Donald Crews evokes the rolling wheels of that childhood favorite: a train. This Caldecott Honor Book features bright colors and bold shapes. Even a child not lucky enough to have counted freight cars will feel he or she has watched a freight train passing after reading Freight Train. Donald Crews used childhood memories of trains seen during his travels to his grandparents' farm in the American South as the inspiration for this timeless favorite. New York magazine's The Strategist chose Freight Train as one of the "Best (Nonobvious) Baby Books to Bring to a Shower." As The Strategist stated: "The Caldecott Honor Book is spare and minimal in both art and text and follows the journey of a freight train and all its cars until it rolls off the page and into the distance. It’s a good way to learn all the different names of train cars, too." Red caboose at the back, orange tank car, green cattle car, purple box car, black tender and a black steam engine . . . freight train.