Little Red Chicken wants Papa to read her a bedtime story, but interrupts him almost as soon as he begins each tale.

It's after school for the little red chicken, and she has just learned something new: every story has an elephant of surprise. Or is it, as her papa explains, an element of surprise? As they dive into story after story, looking for the part that you go, "Whoa! I didn't know that was going to happen," Papa is sure he can convince Chicken he's right. After all, there are definitely no elephants in The Ugly Duckling, Rapunzel, or The Little Mermaid...Or...

Mina the mouse is very upset when her father brings home a pet "squirrel" that she is certain is a cat.

Moving to a senior citizen trailer park with her father, Hazel, the estranged wife of a corporate CEO who demanded she install a brain chip so that they could be constantly connected, tries to carve out a new life while her ex uses sophisticated technology to stalk her. Hazel has just run out on her marriage to Byron Gogol, CEO and founder of Gogol Industries, a monolithic corporation hell-bent on making its products and technologies indispensable...

Emily has a tendency to live with one foot out the door. For her, the best thing about a family crisis is the excuse to cut and run. When her mother dramatically announces they've found a lump, Emily gladly takes a rain check on life to be by her mother's side, leaving behind her career, her boyfriend, and those pesky, unanswerable questions about who she is and what she's doing with her life. But back in her childhood bedroom, Emily realizes that...

"A little girl convinces her dad to be a tree all day long, no matter what, even in the rain, in this imaginative picture book that encourages playing pretend and pays tribute to parents"--

During the summer before ninth grade, intrepid Gilda Joyce invites herself to the San Francisco mansion of distant cousin Lester Splinter and his thirteen-year-old daughter, where she uses her purported psychic abilities and detective skills to solve the mystery of the mansion's boarded-up tower.

""If I know why they are the way they are, then maybe I can learn why I am the way I am," says Alex Tuchman of her parents. Now that her father is on his deathbed, Alex--a strong-headed lawyer, devoted mother, and loving sister--feels she can finally unearth the secrets of who Victor is and what he did over the course of his life and career. (A power-hungry real estate developer, he is, by all accounts, a bad man.) She travels to New Orleans to be...

"The Marjolein Bastin Classics Series is a chance to rediscover classic literature in collectible, luxuriously illustrated volumes. For the first time ever, the internationally celebrated artwork of Marjolein Bastin graces the pages of the timeless classic, Emma, the story of the well-meaning matchmaker of High bury village. Beyond bringing these stories to life, Bastin's series adds elaborately designed ephemera, such as letters, invitations, and...

My love story all started with a letter. Only it wasn't from the man I'd eventually fall in love with. It was from his daughter. A sweet little girl named Birdie Maxwell who'd written to the magazine that I worked for. You see, once a year my employer fulfilled a few wishes for readers. Only that column didn't start up again for months. So I fulfilled some of her wishes myself. It was harmless, so I thought. Until one day I took things too far.