The Day I Was Erased

Author: Lisa Thompson
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 1338589571
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Book Description
"Sometimes I think everyone would be better off if I'd never existed in the first place."Nothing's going right for Maxwell Beckett. He's being blamed for his best friend's bloody nose -- it was an accident! -- his parents can't stop shouting at each other, and he just broke his neighbor's bright pink flamingo lawn ornament. So when Maxwell turns off the power in his school during a giant fundraiser, it's the last straw. He's sure that now the whole town hates him.Maxwell is sick and tired of getting things wrong. He wishes he had never been born. And then... his wish comes true.He's been erased.Though Maxwell can walk through the world, nobody recognizes him. Even his own parents don't know him! Every impact he's ever had on his town is gone. But the world might not actually be a better place without Maxwell in it. Can he find a way back in, or is it too late?With echoes of It's a Wonderful Life, this is a humorous and poignant book about the positive impact each of us has on our community and on the people who love us.

The Light Jar

Author: Lisa Thompson
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 1338216325
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 212

Book Description
"Thoughtful and hugely empathetic" (The Guardian).The Light Jar is a compelling mystery that celebrates imagination and the light within. Nate and his mother are running away. Fleeing from a bad situation at home, they hide out in an abandoned cottage in the middle of a forest. Though it's old and run-down, at least it's a place of their own.Then Nate's mother heads off for groceries and doesn't return. Has she run into trouble, or simply abandoned him? He is left alone and afraid, with the dark -- and all his old fears -- closing in on him.But comfort can come from the most unexpected of places: like a strange girl trying to solve the mystery of a treasure hunt, and the reappearance of a friend from his past. Will Nate find the bravery he needs to face down his fears, survive on his own, and ultimately illuminate his future?The Light Jar is a captivating story of fear and hope, loneliness and friendship, and finding the light within, even in the darkest of times.

The Graveyard Riddle: A Goldfish Boy Novel

Author: Lisa Thompson
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 1338679082
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Book Description
Lisa Thompson returns to the world of The Goldfish Boy in her new novel. Melody Bird has discovered an abandoned old building in the corner of the graveyard... Though it's dark and creepy, she can't resist its pull. When she goes to explore, she finds a mysterious boy hiding out there. Hal tells Melody that he's a spy, using the house as a base for his undercover surveillance of a nearby suspected criminal. He's very secretive about the details, but Melody comes to trust him and starts helping him with his mission. Melody is determined to decode the strange riddles Hal finds hidden in the graveyard, but her friends Matthew and Jake question Hal's story. They decide to turn the tables and find out the truth about him, uncovering the biggest mystery of all... This extraordinary novel set in the world of The Goldfish Boy is a page-turning mystery with a sensitive story about friendship and trust at its core.

Erased

Author: Jennifer Rush
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0316251895
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 211

Book Description
They thought they had escaped. They were wrong. After fleeing the Branch with Sam, Cas, and Nick, Anna is learning how to survive in hiding, following Sam's rules: Don't draw attention to yourself. Always carry a weapon. Know your surroundings. Watch your back. When memories from Anna's old life begin to resurface--and a figure from her childhood reappears--Anna's loyalties are tested. Is it a Branch set-up, or could it be the reunion Anna has hoped for? Ultimately, the answers hinge on one question: What was the real reason her memories were erased in the first place? Jennifer Rush delivers a thrilling sequel to Altered in a novel packed with mysteries, lies, and surprises that are sure to keep readers guessing until the last page is turned.

The Boy Who Fooled the World

Author: Lisa Thompson
Publisher: Scholastic UK
ISBN: 0702301167
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 231

Book Description
The brand new, read-in-one-sitting mystery from the bestselling author of THE GOLDFISH BOY. When a little white lie leads to a huge dose of trouble... Cole is the odd one out at school: the other kids have the latest gadgets and trainers while his family struggles to make ends meet. Until the day one of his paintings is talent-spotted and sells for thousands of pounds at a posh London gallery. Suddenly, Cole is the toast of the international art world, the star guest on TV shows, rich beyond his wildest dreams, hailed as a boy genius! Being famous is FANTASTIC... but Cole has a guilty secret that if exposed will bring everything crashing down around him... A story of fame and fortune, making mistakes and learning to be true to yourself.

Boy Erased

Author: Garrard Conley
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698155556
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Book Description
The New York Times bestselling memoir about identity, love and understanding. Now a major motion picture starring Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, and Lucas Hedges, directed by Joel Edgerton. "Every sentence of the story will stir your soul" (O Magazine). The son of a Baptist pastor and deeply embedded in church life in small town Arkansas, as a young man Garrard Conley was terrified and conflicted about his sexuality. When Garrard was a nineteen-year-old college student, he was outed to his parents, and was forced to make a life-changing decision: either agree to attend a church-supported conversion therapy program that promised to “cure” him of homosexuality; or risk losing family, friends, and the God he had prayed to every day of his life. Through an institutionalized Twelve-Step Program heavy on Bible study, he was supposed to emerge heterosexual, ex-gay, cleansed of impure urges and stronger in his faith in God for his brush with sin. Instead, even when faced with a harrowing and brutal journey, Garrard found the strength and understanding to break out in search of his true self and forgiveness. By confronting his buried past and the burden of a life lived in shadow, Garrard traces the complex relationships among family, faith, and community. At times heart-breaking, at times triumphant, this memoir is a testament to love that survives despite all odds.

The Goldfish Boy

Author: Lisa Thompson
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 1338053949
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Book Description
In this riveting debut, a boy struggling with OCD is uniquely qualified to solve a kidnapping. Lisa Thompson's debut novel is a page-turning mystery with an emotionally-driven, complex character study at its core -- like Rear Window meets The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.Matthew Corbin suffers from severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. He hasn't been to school in weeks. His hands are cracked and bleeding from cleaning. He refuses to leave his bedroom. To pass the time, he observes his neighbors from his bedroom window, making mundane notes about their habits as they bustle about the cul-de-sac. When a toddler staying next door goes missing, it becomes apparent that Matthew was the last person to see him alive. Suddenly, Matthew finds himself at the center of a high-stakes mystery, and every one of his neighbors is a suspect. Matthew is the key to figuring out what happened and potentially saving a child's life... but is he able to do so if it means exposing his own secrets, and stepping out from the safety of his home?

Blue Skies

Author: Anne Bustard
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 1534446060
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
For fans of Kate DiCamillo’s Louisiana’s Way Home, this heartwarming novel tells the story of ten-year-old Glory Bea as she prepares for a miracle of her very own—her father’s return home. Glory Bea Bennett knows that miracles happen in Gladiola, Texas, population 3,421. After all, her grandmother—the best matchmaker in the whole county—is responsible for thirty-nine of them. Now, Glory Bea needs a miracle of her own. The war ended three years ago, but Glory Bea’s father never returned home from the front in France. Glory Bea understands what Mama and Grams and Grandpa say—that Daddy died a hero on Omaha Beach—yet deep down in her heart, she believes Daddy is still out there. When the Gladiola Gazette reports that one of the boxcars from the Merci Train (the “thank you” train)—a train filled with gifts of gratitude from the people of France—will be stopping in Gladiola, she just knows daddy will be its surprise cargo. But miracles, like people, are always changing, until at last they find their way home.

Seveneves

Author: Neal Stephenson
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062190415
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 419

Book Description
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon comes an exciting and thought-provoking science fiction epic—a grand story of annihilation and survival spanning five thousand years. What would happen if the world were ending? A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space. But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain . . . Five thousand years later, their progeny—seven distinct races now three billion strong—embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown . . . to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth. A writer of dazzling genius and imaginative vision, Neal Stephenson combines science, philosophy, technology, psychology, and literature in a magnificent work of speculative fiction that offers a portrait of a future that is both extraordinary and eerily recognizable. As he did in Anathem, Cryptonomicon, the Baroque Cycle, and Reamde, Stephenson explores some of our biggest ideas and perplexing challenges in a breathtaking saga that is daring, engrossing, and altogether brilliant.

Erased

Author: Marilee Strong
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470894008
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 362

Book Description
Based on five years of investigative reporting and research into forensic psychology and criminology, Erased presents an original profile of a widespread and previously unrecognized type of murder: not a “hot-blooded,” spur-of-the-moment crime of passion, as domestic homicide is commonly viewed, but a cold-blooded, carefully planned and methodically executed form of “erasure.” These crimes are often committed by men with no criminal record or history of violence whatsoever, men leading functional and often successful lives until the moment they kill the women, and sometimes children, they claimed to love. A surprising number go on to kill a second or even third wife or girlfriend, often in exactly the same way. In more than fifty chilling case studies, Marilee Strong examines the strange and complex psychology that drives these killers—from the murder a century ago that inspired the novel An American Tragedy to Scott Peterson, Mark Hacking, Jeffrey MacDonald, Ira Einhorn, Charles Stuart, Robert Durst, Michael White, Barton Corbin, and many others. Erased also looks at how these men manipulate the legal system and exploit loopholes in missing persons procedures and death investigation, exposing how easy it can be to get away with murder.