Follows the journey of the hero up the escalator and learn why straws don't sink in milk cartons; whether the hot air blowers in bathrooms are really more sanitary than towels; the physics of shoelaces; and how the most trivial of objects can lead to the deepest revelations of the human heart.

Raina Telgemeier's #1 New York Times bestselling, Eisner Award-winning companion to Smile! Raina can't wait to be a big sister. But once Amara is born, things aren't quite how she expected them to be. Amara is cute, but she's also a cranky, grouchy baby, and mostly prefers to play by herself. Their relationship doesn't improve much over the years, but when a baby brother enters the picture and later, something doesn't seem right between their parents,...

From sixth grade through tenth, Raina copes with a variety of dental problems that affect her appearance and how she feels about herself.

"Set in early twentieth-century London and inspired by an actual attempt to blow up the Greenwich Observatory, The Secret Agent is a complex exploration of motivation and morality. The title character, Adolf Verloc, is obviously no James Bond. In fact, he and his circle of misfit saboteurs are not spies but terrorists, driven less by political ideals than by their unruly emotions and irrational hatreds. Verloc has settled into an apparent marriage...

A sanitorium in the Swiss Alps reflects the societal ills of pre-twentieth-century Europe, and a young marine engineer rises from his life of anonymity to become a pivotal character in a story about how a human's environment affects self identity. In this dizzyingly rich novel of ideas, Mann uses a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, a community devoted exclusively to sickness, as a microcosm for Europe, which in the years before 1914 was already exhibiting...

A Jesuit priest, unable to find plausible explanations for an eleven-year-old's strange behavior, begins to suspect demonic possession.

Danielle Steel, America's number-one best-selling novelist, has held millions spell-bound with such novels as Family Album, Full Circle, and Changes. But with Secrets she takes her readers beyond the tightly knit world of the family, into the heart of the nation's most glamorous industry: television. Here is the drama behind the creation of Manhattan, a first-of-its-kind prime-time television series produced by Melvin Wechsler. Tempered by tragedy,...

"Ever since her father was lost at sea, Sophia has been moping around Aqualand, a marine theme park. But Sophia's world is turned upside-down when an "aquanaut" breaks into the park's research lab. To her amazement, Sophia discovers that the aquanaut is not what it seems: inside lives a band of goofy sea creatures! And when they all realize that Aqualand is more sinister than advertised, Sophia is determined to help the aquanaut crew free the park's...

"A misfit girl and her brother attend summer camp, where they struggle with primitive plumbing, snobby tentmates, and boys-versus-girls competitions." --

Roland, the last gunslinger, and his band of followers escape one world only to slip into the next where Roland reflects upon past adventures and about his one true love.