Ever since the Sheriff of Nottingham killed his father, Rook has run wild in Sherwood Forest, dreaming of his day for vengeance. Finally, he has found his chance. Not with the sheriff himself, but with the evil man's son, snared by one of the mantraps his own father planted to catch outlaws such as Rook. Filled with clashes of sword and emotion, this page-turning installment in Nancy Springer's Tales of Rowan Hood series will leave readers eager to return to Sherwood, where outlaws are often innocent, and survival is no game.

We've all heard the fairy tale of the girl who could spin straw into gold, and the creature that would demand her first-born as payment for helping her achieve the horrible tasks put to her by her father.Let's face it, though, The Brothers Grimm couldn't get the facts of a story straight if their lives depended on it, and this classic tale of excess and woe is certainly no different. Here, revealed for the first time, is the absolutely true account of the events surrounding the spoiled little gold-spinner and her entire wretched family and the poor, innocent imp cheated out of what was rightfully his.A hilarious retelling of a classic fairy tale from legendary wordspinner Nancy Springer.

Derek relishes being the bully of his Catholic school, and when Julian arrives with his purple hair, he seems like an easy target. When Julian starts asserting that God might actually be a woman, Derek is immediately enraged and becomes determined to get Julian to recant his thought, no matter the price. It soon becomes apparent that perhaps Julian has some strength Derek isn't quite prepared for, and that the boy with the purple hair knows something more than he's telling. A short story.

Winner of the Joan Fassler Memorial Book Award: The triumphant story of a boy who overcomes his disease with help from horses If Colt Vittorio had a motto, it would be I Don't Want To! Colt has spina bifida—a condition that makes the bones in his legs weak and confines him to a wheelchair. When Colt is introduced to horseback riding in a program for disabled kids, he is beyond nervous. He wants nothing to do with these terrifying animals. After all, there's no chance he'll ever be able to use his legs anyway. What's the point? Once he gets in the saddle astride a horse named Liverwurst, Colt's whole world changes. With the horse's powerful, muscular body beneath him, Colt no longer feels small and limited. After all, if he can control this huge, strong animal, he can do anything. And with Liverwurst's help, Colt's back and legs start getting stronger. But when his doctor warns that horseback riding is too dangerous and the risks are too great, will...

Jessie is tired of dealing with her drunk mother and life in a rough part of town, and when a creepy woman approaches her one morning and advises her to pay attention to Shakespeare's As You Like It in her English class she shrugs off the recommendation. After all, what relevance does Shakespeare have with her life? A chance encounter with an unusual toad, however, is about to completely alter Jessie's perceptions of what matters in the world, and might just provide her with an unexpected happily-ever-after.A short story.

When she unearths the bones of a young child, Beverly Vernon's life is transformed in ways she never expected.Widowed Beverly Vernon, a displaced East Coast children's book illustrator and mother of two childless adult daughters, is finding it difficult to settle in rural Florida. Filling her days by painting the portrait of a longed-for imaginary grandchild, she is struggling to find meaning in her life. But everything changes when she uncovers the bones of a young child in her backyard. A child who evidently died through violent means.Determined to find out who the child was and how and why they died, Beverly notices that the portrait she's working on seems to change of its own accord - and that's not the only unexplained phenomenon taking place within her home. Is she being haunted - or is she going mad?In her efforts to uncover the truth behind the bones, Beverly finds her relationship with her two daughters coming under threat, and her faith and beliefs tested to their very limit.

For picture framer Veronica Phillips, the most dangerous thing that happens to her on a typical day is a sheet of glass breaking or getting cut by an errant wire. When a key comes out of the back of a picture she's redoing, Ronnie soon finds herself mixed up in dark warehouses, dead bodies and harsh scrutiny by the local police for getting mixed up in the crime. Can Ronnie prove her innocence in the murder case, or will she end up being framed? A short story.

Darkness lies closer than you think.... Liana Clymer is running away—from her divorce, from her past, from herself. Leaving behind everything she knows, she finds herself ensconced in a fuchsia-colored cottage in the swampy hinterlands of the Florida panhandle. Far from the grown sons who don't return her calls, her only companion her dog, Liana decides to put her best foot forward and get to know whoever lives in the blue house across the street, the only neighbors within sight of her new home. But minutes after a teenage boy, Justin, answers the door and wins her over with his shy kindness, his face appears on the TV screen and is immediately recognizable as that of the child who was taken from his parents two years ago. Worse, Justin's abductor has no intention of letting Liana go. A powerful will to live—and to save Justin too—seizes hold of Liana. She will fight tooth and nail to survive. But does she have what it takes...

Her father is determined to make her pay. It was just over a year ago that Princess Ettarde-her hand promised in marriage by her father to the power-hungry Lord Basil-escaped to the shroud of Sherwood Forest. There, Ettarde joined up with Rowan Hood's band of misfit teens, an outlaw-in-the-making and a princess no more. But now her father is determined to recapture her. He will do anything, even use his own wife-Ettarde's mother-as bait. In a cage. In the middle of Sherwood Forest. Ettarde will not stand for it, and neither will Rowan Hood.Nancy Springer delivers a stirring battle of wit and courage in this, the third in her Tales of Rowan Hood.

Guy Longhead. Jasper of the Sinister Hand. Hurst Orricson. Holt, also Orricson, brother of Hurst.To anyone else, just four names. But to Rowan Hood, the gentle healer who has waited two long years to put names to the men who murdered her mother, they are fuel to feed her desire for revenge. And so she leaves the rowan grove that had become her home in Sherwood Forest, and along with her friends, sets off to seek these men. Yet she finds that the closer she draws to them, the farther she feels from the healer she has become.

The gruesome murder of a popular high school student turns two small-town neighbors against each other Aaron Gingrich is a well-liked high school senior who always seems to have a smile on his face. He and Jeremy Davis have been inseparable since elementary school. But one day Jeremy senses that something is wrong at Aaron's house—and then Aaron is found brutally murdered. Reeling from the loss of his friend, Jeremy has no one to turn to. His small town is suddenly abuzz with grisly rumors, and Jeremy was the last person to see Aaron alive. Subjected to polygraph tests, ostracized by the whole community, and treated like a criminal, Jeremy knows he needs to go to the police. Meanwhile the killer still walks free—closer than anyone can imagine. And no one but Jeremy suspects the truth.

Swords and sorcery fill this fantasy about an outcast girl who teams up with a prince to break a supernatural curse that could destroy their warring kingdoms In the kingdom of Vashti, a shuntali is an outcast—an unperson. One day, a young warrior gallops into the city astride a magnificent blue stallion. He is Prince Kyrem of Deva, and he has come to Vashti on a mission of peace between the warring kingdoms. En route, he is attacked by brigands only to be rescued by a rag-tag stable boy who seems to have a way with horses. Kyrem names him Seda, unaware that the shuntali is really an orphaned girl who has disguised herself in order to survive. Now Seda, Kyrem—whose people possess mystical powers—and the peace-loving healer and magician King Auron of Vashti must join forces to save their nations from the Nameless One. But deep within a cave atop a steep mountain, the last of a vanished race gathers his demonic forces to unleash his revenge on the...

Iris is an imaginative little girl with the ability to make just about anything seem to come to life when she plays with it. After Iris' death at a young age, her mother feels that there isn't much left to celebrate when it comes to the holiday season. Little does she know that Iris has one last gift to give her mother this year, and it's going to make it one Christmas to truly remember. An uplifting holiday short story.