Orphans Naomi and Lizzie, living in America, and grown-up sisters Sybil and Nula, from Ireland, learn what life is truly about as they receive help from one another and open up their hearts to love and forgiveness.

After the sudden death of their parents, the three Baudelaire children must depend on each other and their wits when it turns out that the distant relative who is appointed their guardian is determined to use any means necessary to get their fortune.

Lost at sea, the Baudelaire orphans, along with the evil Count Olaf, wash up on the shore of an island populated by an oddly placid group of inhabitants, and they try to decide whether or not they are truly safe.

Sara Crewe, a pupil at Miss Minchin's London School, is left in poverty when her father dies, but is later rescued by a mysterious benefactor.

"Left orphaned and physically flawed in a civilization that shuns and discards the weak, Kira faces a frighteningly uncertain future. Her neighbors are hostile, and no one but a small boy offers to help. When she is summoned to judgment by The Council of Guardians, Kira prepares to fight for her life. But the Council, to her surprise, has plans for her. Blessed with an almost magical talent that keeps her alive, the young girl faces new responsibilities...

"As the three Baudelaire orphans warily approach their new home Prufrock Preparatory School, they can't help but notice the enormous stone arch bearing the school's motto Memento Mori or 'Remember you will die.' This is not a cheerful greeting and certainly marks an inauspicious beginning to a very bleak story."--publisher's website.

The woeful saga of the Baudelaire orphans continues as evil Count Olaf discovers their whereabouts at Esme̹ Squalor's seventy-one bedroom penthouse and concocts a new plan for stealing their family fortune.

On an island where one child is delivered each year while the eldest is taken away, nine children live under the leadership of new elder Jinny, who trains the latest newcomer and wonders what will happen when her own departure occurs.

"Ponyboy can count on his brothers. And on his friends. But no on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids whose idea of a good time is beating up 'greasers' like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect--until the night somone takes things too far." --back cover

The Bean Trees is bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver's first novel, now widely regarded as a modern classic. It is the charming, engrossing tale of rural Kentucky native Taylor Greer, who only wants to get away from her roots and avoid getting pregnant. She succeeds, but inherits a 3-year-old native-American little girl named Turtle along the way, and together, from Oklahoma to Tucson, Arizona, half-Cherokee Taylor and her charge search for a new...