Nestled in the Carolina Mountains lies a closeted community where evil masquerades as good.Amberlin Gentry is direct, outspoken, and adventuresome. Traits that Golden Acres of Christ - the radically conservative community in which she lives - would rather suppress. There are rules to follow, and if you step out of line, Reverend Stover or his wife will be sure you suffer the consequences.So Amberlin is careful to keep hidden her other gifts; gifts that enable her to detect t...

A fantasy book with Animals: In plundering the planet’s treasures, men may gather riches, but more profound wealth is lost...Nia Gaines is the newest member of Zak Bate’s Eco-Adventure task force—it’s only, she doesn’t know it yet. When Nia’s parents drag her along on a business trip to China, the source of their affluence soon becomes clear: ivory, prized since ancient times for its beauty and never before so rare. In Beijing’s back-alley curio shops, the prices a...

Amberlin is on the run, but is it away from disaster or towards her destiny?After Amberlin's mother is framed for the murder of Papa Herb, they flee their conservative, Christian community, finding a temporary haven on a friend's homestead where Amberlin discovers a love for folk music. When her mother's freedom is threatened again, Amberlin's old friend, Ben Stover, suddenly appears with a plan to travel from town to town playing gigs to pay their way and stay one step ahead of th...

As a teenage zoo-owner and the head of an eco-team that's been tasked to overcome global warming and protect endangered species, Zak Bates is as busy as ever. Despite much help from a truly stellar multi-species coterie, his life, in a word, is wild, and it seems that things are about to get hairier.When the eco-team receives word from the Council of Animals of the Spiritual Frontier about a curious disturbance amongst New York's animal population, it soon becomes clear that someth...

When the last living magic cat and her flying canine companion shows up on your doorstep with an offer you can’t refuse, it can sure throw a wrench into an otherwise normal teenage life.Despite running his own zoo, Zak Bates considers himself pretty normal for a thirteen-year-old. Visited by Ra-Kit, a scruffy feline with some serious catnip issues, he’s ill-prepared for the life-or-death assignment that follows. With the weight of the world on his shoulders, Zak must represent the ...

Some strangers are out-of-this-world strangeWhen sixteen-year-old Buddy Clemson meets a stranger, he's willing to overlook the young boy's outlandish outfit and his strange habit of talking to himself. Little does Buddy know that he has just met a visitor from the planet Betelle, in training to become a Galactic Ambassador.Glitch and his computerized trainer Qwirk crash land on Earth when their spaceship runs out of fuel - just the first unexpected twist in the jinxed train...

Fantasy series with Animals: Protecting the planet: a thankless job and one that has no breaks!For Zak Bates and his magical friends, the next eco-adventures is usually right around the corner. A fishy reconnaissance mission in the Illinois River leads them to Florida, and it’s there, in the everglades, Ohnmar appears...a very displeased and displaced python. Having been abandoned by his caregiver, who seems to have cared very little, Ohnmar teaches Zak a lesson th...

Taylor Swift, perhaps the most popular musician of all time, joins the ranks of this New York Times bestselling Ordinary People Change the World picture book biography series about heroes, for ages 5 to 9.Her whole life, Taylor Swift has loved to sing and perform, and as she listened to her favorite country musicians as a child, she found her calling: to write and record her own songs. It may have looked like the teenage Taylor was an overnight success, bu...

Taylor Swift, perhaps the most popular musician of all time, joins the ranks of this New York Times bestselling Ordinary People Change the World picture book biography series about heroes, for ages 5 to 9.Her whole life, Taylor Swift has loved to sing and perform, and as she listened to her favorite country musicians as a child, she found her calling: to write and record her own songs. It may have looked like the teenage Taylor was an overnight success, bu...

What hope does an army of children have against the might of the Mamluks?Brother Foulques de Villaret just wants to stay in Acre and perform his sworn duties. Instead, the young Hospitaller Knight of Saint John must undertake a dangerous journey from the Holy Land to a remote village nestled in the Alps, the "Spine of the World". His mission: buy 500 peasant boys and return them to Acre to be trained as Soldiers of Christ.Pursued a...

Gary Bennett, Brad Lees, and Stefan Kaczmarek, the team behind Swift 2 for Absolute Beginners, brings you a hands-on “Swift” introduction to the new tvOS SDK with a collection of app projects to try out.You’ll learn how to create a BookStore app for the TV, including using Stack Views for book details, how to create a photo gallery app, and how to use collection view and split view controllers with a music collection app. Finally, you’ll also learn how to store Apple TV ap...

Stay motivated and overcome obstacles while learning to use Swift Playgrounds to be a great iOS developer. This book is perfect for those with no programming background, those with some programming experience but no object-oriented experience, or those that have a great idea for an app but haven’t programmed since school, and it is now updated for Swift 4.Many people have a difficult time believing they can learn to write iOS apps. Swift 4 for Absolute Beginners will show ...