Disappointed when a gift he wished for all year seems quite puny on Christmas morning, young Roland wishes for bigger and bigger gifts before learning a valuable lesson about being careful what you wish for.

During World War II, a Czechoslovakian Jewish boy is sent to northern Scotland to live in a castle that houses gifted children who are learning to harness their magical powers to support the Allies' cause.

Gabe has looked forward to another six glorious weeks at the Summer Center for Gifted Enrichment, but when a wildfire closes the nearby camp that Zack, Gabe's stepbrother, was supposed to attend, the Nerd Camp faces a "cool-kid invasion" that could mean big trouble.

Relates the surprising gifts bestowed on twelve-year-old Bob Barnhart and his family, who have recently moved to a small Illinois town in 1958, by their larger-than-life neighbor, Mrs. Dowdel.

Meg Murry, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government. Includes "An appreciation" by Anna Quindlen and an interview with the author.

"Two women, one in the present day and one in 1942, each hope for a brighter future. But they'll both have to battle through their darkest days to reach it. Today. With the grand opening of her new gallery and a fairytale wedding months away, Sera James appears to have a charmed life. But in an instant, the prospect of a devastating legal battle surrounding her fiancé threatens to tear her dreams apart. Sera and William rush to marry and are thrust...

"At the turn of the 20th century, minstrel shows transform into vaudeville, which slides into moving pictures. Hunkering together in dark theatres, diverse audiences marvel at flickering images. Redwood, an African American woman, and Aidan, a Seminole Irish man, journey from Georgia to Chicago, from haunted swampland to a "city of the future." They are gifted performers and hoodoo conjurors, struggling to call up the wondrous world they imagine,...

"The saga of the Superior Spider-Man continues as Doc Ock takes Peter Parker's body for a joyride through the Marvel Universe, taking on heavy hitters from both sides of the coin! Russian assassins infiltrate a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier on a contract for the Cameleon's head, but when he escapes custody, Superior Spider-Man fights alongside Nick Fury and his Secret Avengers to put the shady shape-shifter back behind bars. Then, Spider-Man and the Punisher...

"Tove Ditlevsen's autobiographical trilogy about her troubled life in Copenhagen"-- Childhood tells the story of a misfit child's single-minded determination to become a poet. Youth describes her early experiences of sex, work, and independence. Dependency picks up the story as the narrator embarks on the first of her four marriages and goes on to describe her horrible descent into drug addiction, enabled by her sinister, gaslighting doctor-husband....

Milan Kundera's new collection of essays is a passionate defense of art in an era that, he argues, no longer values art or beauty. Art is what we possess in the face of evil and the darker side of human nature. With the same mix of emotion and idea that characterizes his novels, Kundera revisits the artists who remain important to him and whose works help us better understand the world we live in and what it means to be human. An astute reader of...