Every night, Shahrazad begins a story. And every morning, the Sultan lets her live another day -- providing the story is interesting enough to capture his attention. After almost one thousand nights, Shahrazad is running out of tales. And that is how Marjan's story begins....

It falls to Marjan to help Shahrazad find new stories -- ones the Sultan has never heard before. To do that, the girl is forced to undertake a dangerous and forbidden mission: sneak from the harem and travel the city, pulling tales from strangers and bringing them back to Shahrazad. But as she searches the city, a wonderful thing happens. From a quiet spinner of tales, Marjan suddenly becomes the center of a more surprising story than she ever could have imagined....

In an adventure equal to any a storyteller might relate, a crippled serving girl faces the intrigues of the harem, the dangers of the streets, and the anger of the Sultan himself to find the needed ending to an incomplete story....

"A stunning novel...profound, beautiful, and redemptive."—The Guardian Sixteen-year-old Amy lies in a coma. Moira, eleven years older, spends the evenings at her sister's bedside, telling the story her own life—her secrets, her shameful actions, and her link to the accident that has brought Amy to this bed. In her "riveting" (Library Journal) second novel, Susan Fletcher probes the troubled bond between two sisters: how their lives are undone by the tumultuous forces of envy and loneliness and, in the end, how love emerges as the greatest force of all. Reading group guide included. ....

When Kara was a small child, she was brought back to life by a dragon who nursed her to health. Many believe this is how she acquired the ability to call down birds. Hearing of her extraordinary talent, the king thinks she might be able to call down dragons as well. But when Kara finds that the king wants to slay the dragons, she realizes she could never do something so cruel. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults....

A lyrical novel about the bond between two sisters, by the author of Eve Green, recipient of the Whitbread Award.

Sixteen-year-old Amy lies in a coma. Her elder sister, Moira, sits beside her in the evenings and tells this story seeking forgiveness and retribution. She tells of her own life—her secrets, her shameful actions, and her link to the accident that has brought her sister to this bed.

An only child until the age of eleven, Moira perceived the arrival of Amy as a betrayal. Sent away to a boarding school, she became untrusting, inward, lonely. Even after marriage, she continued to doubt herself and that anyone could love her and be faithful. It is only Amy's accident that brings her back to her family, closer to her husband, and closer to understanding the implications of her own dark nature.

Susan Fletcher lyrically probes the pulls of envy, loneliness, and love—craving it, fearing it, and ultimately recognizing it as the greatest force of all....

Fifteen-year-old Kara is summoned by King Orrik, who believes she has the power to call down the dragons that have been plundering his realm, and she is caught up in the fierce rivalry between Orrik and his jealous brother Rog....

Mitra and her little brother, Babak, are beggars in the city of Rhagae, scratching out a living as best as they can with what they can beg for--or steal. But Mitra burns with hope and ambition, for she and Babak are not what they seem. They are of royal blood, but their father's ill-fated plot against the evil tyrant, King Phraates, has resulted in their father's death and their exile. Now disguised as a boy, Mitra has never given up believing they can rejoin what is left of their family and regain their rightful standing in the world.

Then they discover that Babak has a strange gift: If he sleeps with an item belonging to someone, he can know that person's dreams. Mitra believes that they can use this gift to find passage back to the city of Palmyra and their remaining kinsmen. But soon Babak and his abilities come to the attention of a powerful Magus -- one who has read portents in the stars of the coming of a new king and the dawn of a new age. Soon Mitra and Babak find themselves on the road to Bethlehem...

The acclaimed author of Shadow Spinner returns to ancient Persia in this spellbinding saga -- a tale filled with the color of the caravansaries and the heat of the desert, a tale that reimagines the wonder and spirit of a lost age....

Based on stories and newspaper reports from the Civil War and full of lively illustrations, this is a heartwarming tale of one wonderfully persistent cow.

"That dadblamed cow!" She follows her owner into the Union army and then straight onto the train to fight in the war. She gets spooked too easily, she gets stuck in the mud, and she's just plain dangerous in battle. But this peculiar cow also gives the weary soldiers some surprising comforts and ends up a "dadblamed hero."...