It's been another long, hot summer at the Dursleys' for Harry Potter. Having spent most of it in an adolescent "funk" of depression and bitterness over the lack of informative letters from his friends about Voldemort's return, he's suddenly jolted out of his bad mood when two Dementors show up in the town of Little Whinging and attack Harry and his cousin, Dudley. When Harry uses magic to drive them off, however, he quickly receives a succession of owls from the Ministry, requiring him to attend a disciplinary hearing. His heart sinks when he reads that the question of whether to expel him from Hogwarts will be decided at the hearing.
Harry is exonerated at the hearing but when Harry finally manages to make it back to school, he finds things are different than when he left. Hagrid's missing, there are skeletal horses pulling the school carriages that only he can see, and the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is none other than toadlike, repulsive Dolores Umbridge, a Ministry representative whom Harry is all too familiar with.
Even worse is the constant mutterings of the other students. Having spent all summer discrediting both Harry and Dumbledore, the Ministry has succeeded in convincing everyone they're both crazy and that Voldemort's return is nothing but a figment of their imagination.
With only Ron and Hermione standing by his side, Harry is hard-pressed to stay in a good mood and often lashes out at the ones he is closest to. His defiant behavior lands him in detention for weeks at a time with Professor Umbridge, who soon rises to the status of Hogwarts High Inquistor and revels in sacking teachers and keeping the entire school under the control of her stubby, ugly-ringed fingers.
As the school year progresses Harry and Umbridge frequently lock horns, and she retaliates by taking away everything he cares about: Quidditch, letters from Sirius, and visits with Hagrid. So Harry fights back the only way he can, by forming a secret defense group, known as Dumbledore's Army, and teaching his friends how to fight properly.
In spite of the frantic workload in preparing for their OWLs (tests that determine the student's future career choices), the tyranny of Umbridge, and Harry's unbearable crush on Ravenclaw seeker, Cho Chang, Harry keeps having tantalizing dreams of dark corridors and locked doors that are distracting at best. His scar prickles constantly and he soon finds he's turned into a tiny antenna for Voldemort's mood swings, which certainly doesn't help his own temper.
Things take a disastrous turn when Dolores Umbridge finds out about Harry's secret defense group. Harry is filled with guilt when Dumbledore, claims credit for the group in order to protect Harry, and has to flee the school to escape arrest.
This installment ends with an epic battle of good and evil, resulting in a devastating loss to Harry when his godfather Sirius Black is killed, and the full revelation that his destiny lies intertwined with none other than Voldemort himself. In the end, Dumbledore reveals the lost prophecy to Harry: either Harry will kill Lord Voldemort or Voldemort will kill Harry.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts opens to find him more mellow and grown up than ever. The death of Sirius Black has left an indelible mark on him, and he's more determined than ever to put an end to Voldemort and his Death Eaters. He's happy to escape the tyranny of the Dursley's early in the summer when Dumbledore picks him up to attend to a mysterious errand, which ends up in Harry's persuading ex-professor, Horace Slughorn, to come out of retirement to teach at Hogwarts again.
When the day finally arrives, Harry is as usual overjoyed to be back at school. He's been made Quidditch Team Captain. However, Harry and his friends are dismayed to find out that Professor Severus Snape has finally achieved his burning desire to become Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Harry is excited to be taking private lessons with Dumbledore this year, who is showing him all about Voldemort's past. Dumbledore hopes that knowing as much as he can about Voldemort will help Harry in his final battle with the Dark Lord.
A mysterious book previously owned by the Half-Blood Prince comes into Harry's hands early on during his Potions class and changes the course of his school year by giving him a reputation for Potions brilliance that baffles everyone. Harry quickly grows to depend on the information he gets from the Half-Blood Prince's book and uses some of his spells outside of class, much to Hermione's displeasure.
Harry also keeps an increasingly close eye on Draco Malfoy. Convinced that Malfoy has replaced his father as the head of the Death Eaters, Harry believes Malfoy is constructing a dark plot inside the school but can't for the life of him figure out what it is. Between Ron and Hermione's skepticism, and Malfoy's disappearances from the school grounds, Harry has his hands full trying to uncover what Malfoy's up to.
As the year speeds by, Harry and Ron are both amazed at their blossoming love lives. Harry especially falls hard for someone he knows he shouldn't, his best friend Ron's sister, Ginny. His lessons with Dumbledore continue sporadically, and he's excited to hear that he might be able to go with Dumbledore on a dangerous mission to help destroy a horcrux that contains a part of Voldemort's soul.
Things reach a frantic pace when several things happen all at once. Harry and Dumbledore leave on their mission, Malfoy's dark plot finally works and he is able to sneak in Death Eaters to attack the school, and a fierce battle takes place between the students, members of the Order of the Phoenix, and the Death Eaters. Having succeeded in their mission to recover the horcrux, Harry and Dumbledore return only to get trapped on the Astronomy Tower where, to Harry's dismay, Professor Snape kills Dumbledore.
Dumbledore's death is a terrible blow to Harry, but it enables him to see clearly what his true mission is. He resolves that he will not return to Hogwarts, but instead sets off to destroy the remaining fragments of Voldemort's soul. He is bolstered by Ron and Hermione's insistence on going with him, and as soon as Dumbledore's funeral is over, they agree to start their journey together.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Harry has finally come of age, and finally started on his final journey to defeat Voldemort for good. The Dursely’s are forced to go into hiding so that Voldemort’s Death Eaters will not torture them for information, and Harry sets off with Ron and Hermione on a difficult quest to find and destroy the last of Voldemort’s Horcruxes. Only once those have been destroyed, Harry knows, can Voldemort truly be killed.
It’s not easy. Harry is plagued with rumors of Dumbledore’s past, and begins to wonder if the Headmaster he so long revered might have had a much darker past than he ever let on. The three are frequently without food, and with winter coming their journey is no day at the beach. Because of their lack of plan, lack of food, and lack of progress, their spirits are often low, and Ron especially becomes argumentative. One night he and Harry get into an epic fight and Ron leaves to go back home.
Harry and Hermione are devastated that he’d abandoned them. They finally decide to revisit Godric’s Hollow in search of clues, and once again they’re almost caught by Voldemort. Every step they make, it seems, he is there anticipating them. They’ve almost died too many times to count, and their spirits sink even lower when Harry discovers his wand was broken in the battle.
Ron redeems himself a few weeks later by coming back and saving Harry’s life in the nick of time. They manage to destroy another Horcrux with Gryffindor’s sword, and they become excited again as they begin to learn about a mysterious trio of magical objects called the Deathly Hallows. Whomever possesses the three objects will be a master of death, and to Harry, it’s his one chance to beat Voldemort and live to tell the tale.
As his adventures and the danger he’s in increases, Harry begins to truly understand what Dumbledore intended him to do. He realizes, almost at the last minute, that his own life will have to be sacrificed in order for Voldemort to truly be vanquished. Filled with love for his friends, he willingly gives his life so that they may live.
His last act of heroism, however, saves his life. He meets Dumbledore again in death, and Dumbledore answers many of his questions. He is given a choice to stay or to go back, and he chooses to go back and fight.
It’s all over between Harry and Voldemort with just one spell. Harry is left alive, the true master of the Hallows, and Voldemort is killed for good. He now understands more than he ever has about love (which he loves Ginny), and life, and sacrifice, and in spite of the loss of many of his friends during the last battle, is grateful for the second chance he’s been given at life, and love.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Trouble-prone teen Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out school -- but that's the least of his problems. The gods of Mount Olympus and assorted monsters seem to have walked out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology texts and into his life -- and they're not happy. Zeus' lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Now, Percy and his friends must embark on a cross-country adventure to catch the true thief, save Percy's family, and unravel a mystery more powerful than the gods themselves.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters
The Sea of Monsters is the second installment in the series, released on May 3, 2006.
In this book, the shortest novel of the series, Percy's empathy link between Grover and himself kicks in when he has a dream which is the reality of Grover the satyr. Grover has been kidnapped and taken to an island in the Sea of Monsters, known to humans as the Bermuda Triangle, a dangerous sea that is almost impossible to pass through, and getting out alive. Thalia's tree (the source of keeping Camp Half-Blood safe) is poisoned. Percy, Annabeth and his new half-brother Tyson the Cyclops go and try to not only save Grover, but also to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The Fleece is the only thing that can stop Thalia's Tree from dying, which would leave Camp Half-Blood vulnerable to an attack by the Titans and Luke. In the end Thalia's Tree is not the only one healed, Thalia is also brought back to life.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse
The Titan's Curse is the third installment in the series. It was released on April 8, 2007.[2]
Grover the satyr has gone undercover to a school in search for half-bloods, and finds two powerful siblings, Nico and Bianca di Angelo. While on this mission, they are attacked by a manticore, but are saved by the Hunters of Artemis, who arrive just in time to help. Annabeth falls off a cliff in an attempt to kill the manticore, and Percy soon learns that somehow she survived and has been captured by Luke. Bianca joins the Hunters and Nico leaves camp. Soon after arriving at camp, Percy learns that Artemis herself has been captured, too.
Percy, Grover, Thalia, Bianca, and Zoë Nightshade (Artemis' lieutenant) go on a quest to rescue them. They learn that Atlas, a powerful Titan has escaped his torment (holding up the sky) at the Mountain of Despair on California's Mount Tamalpais, and is intent on stopping the heroes from success. They defeat him, but not before losing both Hunters in the quest. At the solstice, Thalia replaces Zoë as Artemis' lieutenant. As soon as they return, Nico is told about Bianca's death. He blames Percy, accusing him of failing to protect her like he had promised. When a few undead skeletons appear, Nico thinks that Percy is now trying to kill him as well. He looks at them and they are banished to the Underworld, and runs away. Percy realizes that Hades is Nico's father. At first Percy, Annabeth and Grover think that this goes against the promise of the Big Three, which is to never have demigod children, but then they realize that the two siblings had been in the Lotus Casino (a casino where time is nonexistent) since before the pact was made.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of Labyrinth
After being attacked by Empousai cheerleaders at his new school, Percy returns to Camp Half-Blood and learns about "The Labyrinth", part of the palace of King Minos in Crete that, according to Greek mythology, was designed by Daedalus. During a game of capture the flag at the camp, Annabeth and Percy find an entrance into the Labyrinth. Percy soon learns that Luke had used the entrance and will try and lead his army through the Labyrinth straight in to the heart of Camp Half-Blood.
Using the Labyrinth, Percy has to try to find Daedalus so Luke cannot get Ariadne's string, thereby foiling Luke's invasion. Ariadne's string is used to navigate the Labyrinth. Following a hint, Percy travels to Mt. St. Helens, causing it to erupt, and wiping his energy out. After being treated for burns by Calypso, Percy gets the help he needs from a mortal girl named Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who proves herself by hitting Kronos in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush. Kronos finds out that Nico di Angelo is a son of Hades and also could be the child of the big prophecy. Luke reaches Daedalus and gets Ariadne's string. Using the magical instrument, he leads his army and attacks camp. Grover comes to the rescue and causes a panic to scare away the enemy. After the battle, Daedalus sacrifices himself to close the labyrinth, which is tied to his life.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian
All year the half-bloods have been preparing for battle against the Titans, knowing the odds of victory are grim. Kronos’s army is stronger than ever, and with every god and half-blood he recruits, the evil Titan’s power only grows.
While the Olympians struggle to contain the rampaging monster Typhon, Kronos begins his advance on New York City, where Mount Olympus stands virtually unguarded. Now it’s up to Percy Jackson and an army of young demigods to stop the Lord of Time. In this momentous final book in the New York Times best-selling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the long-awaited prophecy surrounding Percy’s sixteenth birthday unfolds. And as the battle for Western civilization rages on the streets of Manhattan, Percy faces a terrifying suspicion that he may be fighting against his own fate.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
"Chobsky's "The Perks of being a Wallflower" starts off with Charlie sending a letter to an unknown friend who he continually sends anonymous letters to without a return address. He explains that he found ‘you' to be a good person, who listens, and cares. He feels comfortable writing to this person (the reader) about situations that are going on in his life, insecurities, and things that are important to him. At first his only worries are about starting off high school, his new environment, and making new friends. As he continues writing the letters, he seems to open up more. His writing becomes more intimate as if he were writing in a journal.
He later opens up about issues of death, sexuality, and friendships/family. He first tells about how his friend committed suicide and how it is killing him inside to not know the reasons why. He also speaks about the loss of his aunt and how he felt that she was the only one who truly understood him. He later makes friends with two seniors named Patrick and Sam. He begins to develop feelings for Sam but is turned down by her because of age. Charlie recurrently confides in the reader with family issues and is truly sensitive to everything around him. "
Beastly
Adrian realizes that Linda is the same girl to whom he gave the rose corsage. He fixes up a room for her, leaving roses and books for her to amuse herself with. When she arrives, she at first wants nothing to do with him as she feels he kidnapped her. As time passes, she slowly warms up to him and he finds himself falling in love with her. The two begin to have tutoring sessions together and during winter they go to a lodge. Shortly before the last year is up, Linda wishes to see her father once more. Adrian lets her see him with the magic mirror and she finds that he has become sick through drug use. Adrian quickly lets her go to him and offers for her to return to the apartment in the spring if she desires, this time as a friend and not a prisoner. On the last day of the second year, Adrian looks for Linda in the mirror and sees her being dragged into a building by a man. He rushes to her rescue and is shot in the process. As he lays dying, he asks Linda for a kiss. She kisses him, breaking the spell and turns him back to normal. He explains everything to Linda and the two go back and live in the apartment together. Adrian had also made a deal with Kendra, and because of which, Will regains his sight and Magda is allowed to return to her family. Kendra reveals that she is Magda, punished to remain a servant forever because of her careless spellwork but she can now return home as well.
The Giver
“[The Giver] is set in a future society which is at first presented as a utopian society and gradually appears more and more dystopian; therefore, it could be considered anti-utopian. The novel follows a boy named Jonas through the twelfth year of his life. The society has eliminated pain and strife by converting to "Sameness", a plan which has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives. Jonas is selected to inherit the position of "Receiver of Memory," the person who stores all the memories of the time before Sameness, in case they are ever needed to aid in decisions that others lack the experience to make. As Jonas receives the memories from the previous receiver—the "Giver"—he discovers how shallow his community’s life has become.”
A Wrinkle in Time
Meg Murry's classmates and teachers see her as a bad-tempered adolescent. Her family knows that she is emotionally immature but also see her as capable of great things. The family includes her pretty scientist mother; her mysteriously absent scientist father; her 10-year-old twin brothers, the athletic Sandy and Dennys; and her five year-old brother Charles Wallace Murry, a super-genius.
The book begins with the line "It was a dark and stormy night," an allusion to the opening words in Edward George Bulwer-Lytton's 1830 novel Paul Clifford. During that stormy night the Murrys are visited by an eccentric old woman named Mrs. Whatsit, who has previously made the acquaintance of Charles Wallace. After drying her feet and having a snack with Charles, Meg and their mother, Mrs. Whatsit tells an already perplexed Mrs. Murry that "there is such a thing as a tesseract," which causes her to almost faint. It was a joke that Mr. and Mrs. Murry shared.
The next morning, Meg discovers the term refers to a scientific concept her father was working on before his mysterious disappearance. The following afternoon, Meg and Charles Wallace encounter Meg's schoolmate, Calvin O'Keefe, a high-school junior who, although he is a "big man on campus", considers himself a misfit as well. They go to visit an old haunted house near town which Charles Wallace already knows as the home of Mrs. Whatsit. There they encounter a companion of Mrs. Whatsit, the equally strange Mrs. Who. She promises that she and her friends will help Meg find and rescue her father. Meg tells Calvin a great deal about herself, including the disappearance of her father, and they become close. In the evening, Charles Wallace declares it is time for them to go on their mission to save their father. This is accompanied by the appearance of the third member of the "Mrs. W's", Mrs. Which.
Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which turn out to be angelic beings who transport Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe through the universe by means of tesseract, a fifth-dimensional phenomenon explained as being similar to folding the fabric of space and time. Their first stop is the planet Uriel, a Utopian planet filled with joyous beings who live always in a state of light and love. There the "Mrs. Ws" reveal to the children that the universe is under attack from an evil being who appears as a large dark cloud called The Black Thing. Seeing the Black Thing even from a distance is disturbing to Meg. While working on a secret government project to achieve faster-than-light travel by tesseract, Meg's father was accidentally trapped on Camazotz, an alien planet dominated by the Black Thing. The children are then taken elsewhere to visit a woman who is a kind of medium (the "Happy Medium") with a crystal ball. In it, they see that Earth is partially covered by the darkness, although great religious figures, philosophers, and artists have been fighting against it. Mrs. Whatsit is revealed to be a former star who exploded in an act of self-sacrifice to fight the darkness.
The children travel to Camazotz to rescue Meg's father. They find that all the inhabitants behave in a mechanistic way and seem to be all under the control of a single mind. They look for the central headquarters on the planet (described as CENTRAL Central Intelligence) and they discover a man with red eyes with telepathic abilities who can cast a hypnotic spell over their minds. He claims to know the whereabouts of their father. Charles Wallace looks into his eyes and becomes taken over by the mind controlling the planet. Under its influence, he takes Meg and Calvin to the place where Dr. Murry is being held prisoner because he would not succumb to the group mind. The planet turns out to be controlled by an evil disembodied brain with powerful telepathic abilities, which the inhabitants of Camazotz call "IT". Charles Wallace takes them to the place where IT is held, and in close proximity to IT, all of them are threatened by a possible telepathic takeover of their minds. To escape, Dr. Murry "tessers" Calvin, Meg and himself away from Camazotz, but Charles Wallace is left behind, still under the influence of IT. The experience of tessering through The Black Thing nearly kills Meg, and she is almost completely paralyzed upon their arrival to a dimly lit planet. Calvin and the Murrys are discovered by the planet's inhabitants: large, sightless "beasts" with tentacles and four arms who prove both wise and gentle. Meg's paralysis is cured under the care of one inhabitant, whom Meg nicknames "Aunt Beast", and she is charged with rescuing Charles Wallace by the Mrs. Ws. Mrs. Which tessers Meg to Camazotz and tells her that she possesses something that can defeat IT. Confronting IT, Meg realizes that the evil IT is unable to stand the emotion love, and by focusing all her love at Charles Wallace she is able to free him from IT's control. Mrs. Whatsit tessers the Murrys and Cal back to Earth, where they are reunited with Mrs. Murry and the twins. The three Mrs. Ws appear for a moment to say goodbye to the family, but before they can tell them where they are going they disappear forever.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard
Rowling wrote five stories for the book. One, "The Warlock's Hairy Heart", is not mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows;[19] three others, "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot", "The Fountain of Fair Fortune", and "Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump", receive cursory attention.[2] "The Tale of the Three Brothers" is the only story also included entirely in The Deathly Hallows.
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
Charlie was having a great time with Mr. Wonka, floating around in a glass elevator and all. But grandma Josephine made it clear that she wasn’t because she was thrashing all around calling Wonka crazy. Unfortunately, that distracted Wonka from pushing a button on the elevator which would keep them out of deep space. Good thing the first space hotel (American) happened to be in their path. The space hotel was a perfect spot to stay at in deep space until they could find a way to get down. When the president’s voice came through the speakers on the hotel, what was in his mind was that on board the hotel were aliens. Because of this, he invited them (Wonka and the others) to the White House. What spooked Wonka and the others was nobody else was on board of the hotel when the elevators started coming down to their floor. It turned out to be vermicious Knids, monsters from another planet(the cruelest). Wonka quickly tricked the Knids to entering earth’s atmosphere which would burn all of them up. Then the elevator safely landed back in the factory due to his back-up rockets. Then Wonka was still sickened because he had never seen the old people get out of their bed. He gave them Wonka vite to make them younger, but they were greedy and took too many. It took another couple of different pills to get them back to normal, but still they never got out of bed. But then government officials came to get the people from the elevator to the White House for getting rid of the knids and then they leaped out of bed into the chopper, leaving this book at a cliffhanger for another sequel.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Magician's Nephew
The story begins in London around 1900. Two children, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, meet while playing in the adjacent gardens of a row of terraced houses. They decide to explore an attic connecting the houses, but take the wrong door and surprise Digory's Uncle Andrew in his study. Uncle Andrew, a bumbling yet self-absorbed magician, tricks Polly into touching a yellow magic ring, causing her to vanish. He then blackmails Digory into rescuing Polly by using another yellow ring, while giving him two green rings for their return.
Digory finds himself in a wood among many pools of water, and is reunited with Polly. They realize that the yellow rings transport their wearers to the wood, which serves as an interdimensional junction — much like how the attic in London allows one to enter any of the houses connected to it. Jumping into a pool of water while wearing a green ring takes them to a different universe. Digory convinces Polly to explore other worlds before returning to Earth.
After marking the pool leading back to Earth, they enter a pool and find themselves in a crumbling palace among the ruins of the ancient world of Charn. They find a hall lined with statues of former rulers, progressing from the fair and wise to the proud and cruel. They also find a bell, marked by a sign that dares one to ring the bell while warning against doing so. Digory falls for the taunt and rings the bell against Polly's wishes. Its sound awakens the last of the statues, the evil Queen Jadis.
The Queen describes a final war between herself and her sister. When defeat seemed certain, Jadis spoke the Deplorable Word, destroying all life on Charn and leaving her to become Queen of a dead world. She cast a spell to petrify herself until the bell was rung. Realizing her evil nature, the children flee back through the wood to home, but Jadis follows and is pulled with them to London.
Digory and Polly finally succeed in extracting Jadis from London, but their return to the wood also brings along Uncle Andrew, a cab driver named Frank, and his horse, Strawberry. Digory leads them into the nearest pool, where they find an empty blackness, which Jadis recognizes as a world not yet created. They hear singing, which causes stars to appear and the sun to rise. The singer is Aslan, the great Lion. Aslan breathes life into the world, causing animals and plants to emerge from the earth. Jadis attacks Aslan, but finding the lion invulnerable, she flees. Aslan selects some animals to become talking beasts, giving them authority over the other beasts.
Aslan offers Digory the opportunity to atone for bringing the evil of Jadis into Narnia, and sends him and Polly upon Strawberry, whom he transforms into a talking winged horse, Fledge. They fly to a mountain to retrieve a magic apple from a walled garden. There they find Jadis, who has already eaten one of the apples, thereby gaining eternal youth, as well as gaining the palid white color that will define her in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She tempts Digory to eat an apple or to use it to cure his dying mother. Although sorely tempted, Digory refuses, believing that his mother would not condone theft.
Upon their return, Aslan congratulates Digory and tells him to plant the apple. Aslan then crowns Frank and his wife Helen (whom Aslan has transported from Earth) the first King and Queen of Narnia. The apple grows into a tree, which Aslan explains will protect Narnia from the Witch for a time. He also explains that a stolen apple would have cured his mother, but at a terrible price. Aslan then gives Digory an apple from the tree to save his mother. Upon returning to London Digory cures his mother with the apple and then buries the core in his back yard. He also buries the rings around the apple core to prevent their misuse.
The apple core grows into a tree, and years later the tree is blown down in a storm. Digory has it made into a wardrobe, linking the narrative to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in which Digory is the "old professor" in whose country house Lucy Pevensie finds the wardrobe and the way into Narnia.
Twenties Girl
Lara has always had an overactive imagination. Now she wonders if she is losing her mind. Normal twenty-something girls just don't get visited by ghosts! But inexplicably, the spirit of Lara's great aunt Sadie - in the form of a bold, demanding Charleston-dancing girl - has appeared to make one last request: Lara must track down a missing necklace Sadie simply can't rest without. Lara's got enough problems of her own. Her start-up company is floundering, her best friend and business partner has run off to Goa, and she's just been dumped by the love of her life. But as Lara spends time with Sadie, life becomes more glamorous and their treasure hunt turns into something intriguing and romantic. Could Sadie's ghost be the answer to Lara's problems and can two girls from different times end up learning something special from each other?
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, completed in the winter of 1949[3] and published in 1950, tells the story of four ordinary children: Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie. They discover a wardrobe in Professor Digory Kirke's house that leads to the magical land of Narnia. The Pevensie children help Aslan, a talking lion, save Narnia from the evil White Witch, who has reigned over the kingdom of Narnia for a century of perpetual winter. The children become kings and queens of this new-found land and leave a legacy to be rediscovered in later books.
Doodle Dreams
Jim Henson's Doodle Dreams: Inspiration for Living Life Outside the Lines is a small hardcover book released in 2008 by Meredith Books. The book features text from Jim Lewis and illustrations drawn by Jim Henson, many of which are published for the first time in this book.
The book is a sequel of sorts to It's Not Easy Being Green. In contrast to the previous book's quotes from various sources, Jim Henson's Doodle Dreams exclusively features inspirational quotes by Lewis personally accompanied by color artwork of Jim Henson's.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy
The Horse and His Boy is a novel by C. S. Lewis. It was published in 1954, making it the fifth of seven books published in Lewis' series The Chronicles of Narnia. The books in this series are sometimes ordered chronologically in relation to the events in the books as opposed to the dates of their original publication. In this alternate ordering, The Horse and His Boy is the third book, taking place during the events of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Although it was published after The Silver Chair (due to Lewis not wanting to break up the Caspian triad), it was written before it, so in written order it is fourth. The story is also referred to as a story-within-a-story in the fourth published book, The Silver Chair. The Horse and His Boy is the only Narnia book which does not feature children from our world as the story's main characters, although the adult Queen Lucy, Queen Susan, and King Edmund (all of whom first appear in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) do appear in the book, and the dynamics of the story develop from Susan's interactions. Peter, the High King, does not appear in the book but is mentioned.
The Last Song
The Last Song revolves around seventeen year old Ronnie Miller, who is sent by her mother to spend the summer after graduation with her ten-year-old brother, Jonah, visiting her father, Steve. Steve, a former Juilliard professor, had divorced Ronnie's mother, Kim, three years earlier and left New York City for his childhood home, Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. Ever since, Ronnie has refused to talk to him or to play their shared passion, the piano, and becomes a rebellious clubber. Upon arrival, Jonah immediately bonds with Steve over a stained glass window that Steve has been recreating for the local church after the original burned down in a mysterious arson. Ronnie, however, is hostile. At her request, Steve boards up his beloved piano and instead pursues his search for God's presence. He also begins writing a piano composition using a piano owned by the church, but struggles with its ending.
At the town's annual carnival, Ronnie collides with beach volleyball player Will Blakelee as he dives for a ball. Ronnie storms off and meets gothic Blaze (whose real name is Galadriel), who befriends Ronnie and introduces her to Marcus, Blaze's abusive boyfriend, and his cronies, Lance and Teddy. The three thugs earn money by putting on fire juggling performances for beach crowds. Blaze is crushed when Marcus becomes interested in Ronnie, and retaliates by framingprobation agreement. Marcus offers to make Blaze confess if Ronnie has sex with him, but Ronnie refuses. Ronnie later confronts Blaze, and although Blaze admits she was wrong, she is trapped: she has been kicked out by her mother and is staying with Marcus, who forbids her to confess. Ronnie for shoplifting and violating a
Steve surprises Ronnie by believing her when she tells him she was framed, and she begins to soften towards him. Steve shows Ronnie, a vegetarian and animal lover, a Loggerhead Sea Turtle nest Jonah found near their home. Ronnie vows to protect the endangered creatures, bringing her back in contact with Will, an aquarium volunteer. Marcus still carries on harassing Ronnie and starts creeping her out. Will takes out Ronnie on a "non date" which Ronnie enjoys. However, Ashley (Will`s ex girlfriend) stirs up trouble. A major fight between Will and Ronnie follows. However, they soon sort out their differences, and fall in love.
They spend several blissful months together, though their romance is troubled; Will's mother and his ex-girlfriend attempt to drive them apart, and Scott, Will's best friend and beach volleyball partner, is annoyed that Will is not practicing for their upcoming tournament. Marcus continues antagonizing Ronnie and blackmails Will with his knowledge of the secret that Scott was responsible for the church arson.
Will and Ronnie also worry about the looming end of summer, which brings with it Will's leave for Vanderbilt University and Ronnie's shoplifting trial. Ronnie attends Will's sister's wedding. Ronnie and Will begin to wander away to Will's boat for privacy, but are accosted by Marcus. Marcus goads Will into a fight which wrecks the wedding reception. Worried that the rich and powerful Blakelees will press charges, Marcus decides to raise money to leave town by putting on the most dangerous fire-juggling act the next day, the same day as Will's volleyball tournament. The act begins properly, but Blaze misses a catch and her shirt catches fire. Her screams and the flames attract the attention of the volleyball tournament crowd, including Ronnie and Will. As they drive Blaze to the hospital, Marcus and his crew steal away. Will goes to Bower's Point to seek revenge for Blaze (as he and she were friends in elementary school), and finds Marcus, Teddy, and Lance around a fire drinking beers. He fights with the three of them and right in the middle of beating up Marcus Ronnie stops Will, telling him Marcus isn't worth ruining his life over. Afterward, Scott accuses Will of ruining his life and Will walks out, telling Scott he needs to reveal the truth behind what he has done.
Jonah and Ronnie notice Steve is becoming progressively weaker. They are shocked when he begins to cough up blood the same night the Loggerhead nest hatches. Steve reveals the reason he asked them to visit: he is dying of stomach cancer, with only a few months left to live. Ronnie is further stressed when Will reveals Scott's secret, causing her to furiously break up with Will two days before he leaves for Vanderbilt. However, she reconciles with Blaze; Blaze confesses to framing Ronnie, but is released as an informant when she reveals the church arsonist was Marcus, rather than Scott. Later, a news report of Marcus' arrest comes on as Ronnie is watching the news.
At the end of summer, Kim and Steve insist Jonah returns to school, but Ronnie refuses to leave. Months pass, and Steve's health deteriorates. Ronnie takes Steve to see them install the stained-glass window in the church when construction resumed because the Blakelees decide to anonymously fund the rebuilding of the church. With no word from Will, Ronnie determines their time together is over. Ronnie grows closer to Steve and secretly finishes his composition for him. In Steve's final days, Ronnie breaks down the boarding around Steve's piano, with Blaze's help, and uses it to play the composition. Following Steve's funeral, Ronnie moves back to New York, auditions for Juilliard, and is told her audition was "very promising". Ronnie is amazed to receive a visit from Will in New York, who said on the day of the funeral that Steve needed her more. He reveals he has transferred to Columbia, which, like Juilliard, is in New York.
