Young Survival

Valora Luck has two things: a ticket for the biggest and most luxurious ocean liner in the world, and a dream of leaving England behind and making a life for herself as a circus performer in New York. Much to her surprise though, she's turned away at the gangway; apparently, Chinese aren't allowed into America. But Val has to get on that ship. Her twin brother, Jamie, who has spent two long years at sea, is there, as is an influential circus owner, whom Val hopes to audition for. Thankfully, there's not much a trained acrobat like Val can't overcome when she puts her mind to it.

Danny and his younger sister, Peg, are placed in St. Joseph, Missouri, with kind Alfrid and Olga Swenson. Danny is thrilled to have a "real" father again, but when Olga suddenly dies, he is devastated - until he thinks of an ingenious plan to find Alfrid a new wife.

Nearly a third of Americans under the age of thirty have no religious affiliation, the highest in any recorded generation. In this growing segment of "nones" are many young Atheists who have faced prejudice in their high schools and communities for standing up for their constitutional right of freedom from religion. You'll hear some of their stories in this book, whether they're protesting their school's public prayers at football games and graduations or sitting out the "under God" portion of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Fifteen-year-old Amadou counts the things that matter. For two years what has mattered are the number of cacao pods he and his younger brother, Seydou, can chop down in a day. This number is very important. The higher the number, the safer they are, because the bosses won't beat them. The higher the number, the closer they are to paying off their debt and returning home to Moke and Auntie. Maybe. The problem is, Amadou doesn't know how much he and Seydou owe, and the bosses won't tell him.

Ruby is terrified to cave to her feelings for Sean and risk him crushing her heart. Sean is pumped to spend a week with Ruby in Paris on their senior class trip, and he’ll wait however long until she’s ready to take things further. But when Ruby’s best friend sneaks out the first night to meet a mysterious French boy, Ruby goes after her with two classmates, but caves to another temptation: attending mystery boy’s exclusive party in the Paris catacombs, the intricate web of tunnels beneath the city, home to six million long-dead Parisians. Only they never reach the party.

One minute they're in Poland, subjected to gruesome tests they keep failing. No friends to support them. No family to claim them. No hope of ever living a normal life again. Then suddenly, they're trapped on an abandoned freighter in the middle of the ocean and forced to fight for survival. No food. No drinkable water. No way to get home. And strange memories of another life they don't understand.

This story is composed of two interconnected narratives, with Part 1 describing a tragic family situation that is resolved by the events in Part 2. The families involved are separated in both time and space, but their fates intertwine in this location which has become known by the locals as "the haunted park". Philosophically, the story explores the notion of a ghosts and the afterlife from a several different perspectives. And of course, it is just a satisfying ghost story. The characters in Part 2 are also found in Helena Puumala’s selection of ‘Lake’ stories, entitled Five Holiday ...

NOW: Hannah is brought to Belman Psych, told she is suffering from hallucinations and delusions. Hannah knows the truth: she must return to the past and save her sister. Could Jordan, the abnormal psych student who seems to truly care, be the answer she’s looking for? 1347: Hannah and her village are starving to death in a brutal winter. Hannah seeks out food and salvation in the baron’s castle. If she is caught stealing, she will surely hang. But if she and her friends succeed, she’ll save everyone she holds dear.

Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now the Winterians' only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter's magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since. Orphaned as an infant during Winter's defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians' general, Sir.

Dr. Miles Cole is a professor of Archaeology at a prestigious university, and out of a small pool of archaeologists with expertise in the Caribbean islands. One evening, two guests arrive at his door. His star student, a transfer student finishing her last two semesters at his university, Alexandria Rizzo, and CIA representative Mr. Johnson, to inform Dr. Miles Cole that he’s been selected for work on a top-secret mission. The U.S. government has recently learned that the Cuban Missile Crisis was a cover-up. The Soviets knew they couldn’t get the equipment that they needed into and out ...

Sixteen-year-old Jun dreams of proving his worth as a warrior in the elite Guardian’s Tournament, held every six years to entrust the magical Scroll of Heaven to a new protector. Eager to prove his skills, Jun hopes that a win will restore his father’s pride—righting a horrible mistake that caused their banishment from his home, mother, and twin brother. But Jun’s father strictly forbids him from participating. He believes there is no future in Jun honing his skills as a warrior, especially considering Jun is not breathmarked.

San Francisco, 1906: Fifteen-year-old Mercy Wong is determined to break from the poverty of Chinatown, and an education at St. Clare’s School for Girls is her best hope. Although St. Clare’s is off-limits to all but the wealthiest white girls, Mercy gains admittance through a mix of cunning and a little bribery, only to discover that getting in was the easiest part. Not to be undone by a bunch of spoiled heiresses, Mercy stands strong—until disaster strikes.

Great magicians are masters of illusion. The truly dangerous ones don’t bother with tricks. On Augie Doyle’s seventeenth birthday, a strange carnival rolls into Hollowbrook. It’s all gears and steam, brass and bone—a dazzling steampunk spectacle of rides, wonders, and performers. But beneath the laughter and cotton candy, Augie senses something dark. Something wrong. Then the magician takes the stage. He doesn’t just perform tricks—he defies reality. In his most chilling act, he assembles a man piece by piece, as if stitching together a living puzzle. The crowd cheers. Augie’s...

When 17-year-old Zara escaped her father’s backwoods survivalist compound five years ago, she traded crossbows and skinning hides for electricity and video games...and tried to forget the tragedy that drove her away. Until a malware attack on the United States electrical grids cuts off the entire country’s power.

It's not about the zombies; it's about the survivors. When a meteor obliterates a top-secret government research facility, the world spirals into chaos. The dead walk among the living, and humanity's hope seems lost. Chalice Hart never imagined she'd lead a band of survivors through the apocalypse. Now, she must guide her rag-tag group to safety, navigating a world where every sanctuary is fleeting, and danger lurks around every corner. As they journey through the ruins of civilization, they gather allies and lose friends, each step fraught with peril. Their one beacon of hope is Colton, ...

It’s been over six months since the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Alex and Darla have been staying with Alex’s relatives, trying to cope with the new reality of the primitive world so vividly portrayed in Ashfall, the first book in this trilogy. It’s also been six months of waiting for Alex’s parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they can wait no longer and must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex’s parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois.

Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza - but who knows what they'll find seven months after the invasion? Meanwhile Kady's cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza's ragtag underground resistance.

From the acclaimed author of the Chaos Walking trilogy and A Monster Calls comes one of the most provocative teen novels of our time. A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is this possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? The street seems familiar, but everything is abandoned, overgrown, covered in dust.

When the nuclear bombs start flying a single mother escapes to a Mutual Assistance Group retreat with her two small children. The post-apocalyptic world that soon follows is a dangerous place, and they will have to learn new skills to survive. Her young son especially will need all the help he can get, and he finds an unexpected boost from a cowboy action shooter who planned ahead for the worst.

Syd Chambers grew up on Earth with his human mother and barely remembers his alien father from Denza, who left on a mission when Syd was very young. After leaving Earth, Syd learned the truth of his father’s disappearance on the planet Ashfall—his father had died protecting a devastating secret about the history between humans and Denzans.