"All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer's Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery -- magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power. Then an act of sabotage...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A well-told story of love and redemption” (The Washington Post Book World) from the bestselling author of Still Life with Bread Crumbs
 
“A polished gem of a novel . . . lovingly crafted, beautifully written.”—The Miami Herald
 
Late one night, a teenage couple drives up to the big white clapboard house on the Blessing estate...

"The Unwilling is the story of Judah, a foundling born with a special gift and raised inside Highfall castle along with Gavin, the son and heir to Lord Elban's vast empire. Judah and Gavin share an unnatural bond that is both the key to her survival -- and possibly her undoing. As Gavin is groomed for his future role, Judah comes to realize that she has no real position within the kingdom, in fact, no hope at all of ever traveling beyond its castle...

A mysterious crying in the night leads a woman to an abandoned baby. Against objections from her husband, she takes in the baby and every thing she thought she knew about her life is turned upside down.

"When two Depression-era migrant workers, Paul and Vern, find an abandoned baby in the woods, they take it upon themselves to care for the mysterious child. When fifteen-year-old Marigold, reviled by her family after an unwanted pregnancy, loses her baby in the forest, her whole world is painted black. She's still fraught with despair when she discovers what seems to be a miraculous power within her. Coot, a child preacher on the Kansas plains, escapes...

"There are some things you can't leave behind... A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey's younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother...

Left at the Mostly Silent Monastery in Washington, D.C. as a toddler and home-schooled by a retired nun, twelve-year-old Bicycle rides cross-country to meet a famous cyclist who she hopes will be her first friend.

Follows the fortunes of Tom, a foundling brought up by the kindly squire Allworthy. Despite a good and generous heart, Tom's naive inability to resist a pretty face leads to his downfall and he is banished from the Squire's house. But when the girl he really loves, Sophia, runs away to escape from her arranged marriage to his rival, the despicable Blifil, Tom pursues her to London, embarking on a series of riotous and frequently amorous adventures...

As Rosamund starts his life as a lamplighter on the Wormway, he continues his fight against monsters, making friends and enemies along the way, but questions about his origins continue to plague him. Includes glossary.

"It's Christmastime in Caerphilly and Meg Langslow, full of holiday spirit, is helping out with the town's nativity pageant when she finds a surprise in the manger: a live baby. A note says that it's time for her father to take care of her -- and implicates Meg's brother as the father."--Provided by publisher. It's Christmastime in Caerphilly. Meg is directing the town's nativity pageant when she finds a surprise in the manger: a live baby. A note...