Folk Myths

Winner of the Newbery Medal, Cynthia Rylant has also received the Caldecott Award and numerous other honors. In The Beautiful Stories of Life, Rylant vividly retells the Greek myths of Pandora, Pygmalion, Narcissus, Perse­phone, Orpheus, and Psyche. Exploring classic themes of love, destruction, vanity, and redemption, these tales will introduce young listeners to the exciting world of Greek mythology.

When Henry H. Neff published the second book of his Tapestry series, Kirkus Reviews proclaimed that “young readers will clamor for more.” With The Fiend and the Forge, Neff unveils his most riveting adventure yet. Astaroth has claimed the Book of Origins, and the world is thick with goblins and trolls.

Leaving no headstone unturned, Sacha Coward will take you on a wild ride through the night from ancient Greece to the main stage of RuPaul's Drag Race, visiting cross-dressing pirates, radical fairies, and the graves of the 'queerly departed' along the way. Queer communities have often sought refuge in the shadows, found kinship in the in-between, and created safe spaces in underworlds; but these forgotten narratives tell stories of remarkable resilience that deserve to be heard.

The merciless Cronus and his Titan buddies are in hot pursuit of Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon, who plan to travel across the treacherous boiling sea in order to save a fellow Olympian. They have a boat, but they also have a problem: Poseidon can't swim and is terrified of the water (well, really of the creatures that lurk in its depths). The group faces danger after danger as they battle singing sirens, a fishy and ferocious Titan named Oceanus, and people-eating monsters sent by Cronus himself.

Coryn and the Band have returned to the Great Ga’HooleTree and restored order. With the ember safely hidden away, the tree shakes off its gaudy golden glow and recovers its natural majesty. Meanwhile, deep in the Palace of Mists, Bess finds an ancient map fragment that reveals that there are not five owl kingdoms - as has been thought since time immemorial - but six. Coryn and the Chaw of Chaws set off to find this unknown land and, in a landscape of perpetual winter, discover a monastery of serene, learned owls, the likes of which no one has ever seen before.

A clever monkey and a cunning crocodile face off in a tale of friendship and betrayal, showing how intelligence can outsmart danger—one of several engaging stories in this book.

Hal and the Herons have done the impossible. This group of outsiders has beaten out the strongest, most skilled young warriors in all of Skandia to win the Brotherband competition. But their celebration comes to an abrupt end when the Skandians' most sacred artifact, the Andomal, is stolen - and the Herons are to blame. To find redemption they must track down the thief, Zavac, and recover the Andomal. But that means traversing stormy seas, surviving a bitter winter, and battling a group of deadly pirates.

Jason Walker has often wished his life could be a bit less predictable--until a routine day at the zoo ends with Jason suddenly transporting from the hippo tank to a place unlike anything he's ever seen. In the past, the people of Lyrian welcomed visitors from the Beyond, but attitudes have changed since the wizard emperor Maldor rose to power. The brave resistors who opposed the emperor have been bought off or broken, leaving a realm where fear and suspicion prevail.

Cole Randolph ventures to a new kingdom as he continues his search for his friends - and pursues his quest to mend what has gone awry with the magic in The Outskirts. Can he overcome the challenges ahead, or will he be stranded forever in a world between reality and imagination?

When twelve-year-old Billy Chan finds out his parents are sending him to a summer camp in middle-of-nowhere China, he doesn't know what to expect. There he meets fellow campers Dylan, Charlotte, and Ling-Fei, and together they stumble upon an age-old secret: there are four powerful warrior dragons hidden deep within the mountain behind the camp! They need the children's help to set them free before evil in the guise of the Dragon of Death is unleashed upon the earth. Billy and his friends must set off on a dangerous adventure that will take them to the heart of the Dragon Realm.

When Horace travels to the exotic land of Nihon-Ja, it isn't long before he finds himself pulled into a battle that is not his - but one he knows in his heart he must wage. A kingdom teeters on the edge of chaos when the Nihon-Ja emperor, a defender of the common man, is forcibly overthrown, and only Horace, Will, and his Araluen companions can restore the emperor to the throne. Victory lies in the hands of an inexperienced group of fighters, and it's anybody's guess who will make the journey home to Araluen.

When the Brotherband crew are caught in a massive storm at sea, they're blown far off course and wash up on the shores of a land so far west that Hal can't recognize it from any of his maps. Eerily, the locals are nowhere in sight, yet the Herons have a creeping feeling they are being watched.

Lester's demigod friends at Camp Jupiter just helped him survive attacks from bloodthirsty ghouls, an evil Roman king and his army of the undead, and the lethal emperors Caligula and Commodus. Now the former god and his demigod master Meg must follow a prophecy uncovered by Ella the harpy. Lester's final challenge will be at the Tower of Nero, back in New York.

With music, sound effects, and all the expertise of the BBC, these traditional nursery rhymes are brought magically to life. Includes "Aladdin", "Puss in Boots", "Cinderella", and "Dick Whittington".

Spanning several centuries of history in the Pacific, The Legends and Myths of Hawaiʻi: Fables and Folk-Lore of a Strange People is a collection of Hawaiian stories that were preserved through the ages by oral tradition and documented for posterity by King David Kalākaua in 1887. This massive tome recalls the tales of chiefs and kings, explorers and pirates, prophets, sorceresses, and renegades. This is the first in a series of 22 parts.

In the third book in Rick Riordan's epic Norse mythology series, Magnus and his friends take a boat trip to the farthest borders of Jotunheim and Niflheim in pursuit of Asgard's greatest threat. Life preservers are mandatory for this wet, wild, and wondrous adventure.

In her debut children's book, Rebecca Solnit reimagines a classic fairy tale with a fresh, feminist Cinderella and new plot twists that will inspire young listeners to change the world. In this modern twist on the classic story, Cinderella, who would rather just be Ella, meets her fairy godmother, goes to a ball, and makes friends with a prince. But that is where the familiar story ends. Instead of waiting to be rescued, Cinderella learns that she can save herself and those around her by being true to herself and standing up for what she believes.

Alan Bennett reads The Owl and the Pussy-Cat and Other Nonsense Rhymes by Edward Lear. The poems and limericks include "The Daddy Long-Legs and the Fly", "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat", "The Duck and the Kangaroo", "The Table and the Chair", "The Broom, the Shovel, the Poker and the Tongs", "Mr and Mrs Discobbolos", "The Nutcrackers and the Sugar Tongs", "The Two Old Bachelors", "The Pobble Who Has No Toes", "The Jumblies", "The Dog with a Luminous Nose", and many more.

The Underworld usually isn't really meant to be a fun place - but tell that to Hades! He loves the dark and the stinky smell of sulfur. However, there is one thing that Hades is not a fan of: dogs. And when Zeus and his fellow Olympians encounter Cerberus - a snarling, three-headed dog - Hades must conquer his fears and tame the hound so everyone can continue into the Underworld and deposit their Titan prisoner, Oceanus, back where he belongs!

Soren and his band are sent to the mysterious Northern Kingdoms to gather allies and learn the art of war in preparation for the coming cataclysmic battle against the sinister Pure Ones. Meanwhile, in the Southern Kingdoms, St. Aggie's has fallen to the Pure Ones, and they are using its resources to plan a final invasion of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree.