Cameron Miller is 14. He has been physically and sexually abused by his father all his life. His ''Pop'', Hank, was a serial killer who preys on young boys, murdering more than 20 over the years. Hank kept newspaper cuttings of each of the boys in a filing cabinet in the cellar where he locked Cameron while he tortured and killed the boys. Cameron studied the cuttings and dreams of being one particular boy whose parents have sailboats on a lake. When ''Pop'' dies in a gunfight with police, Cameron takes on the identity of this boy, Neil Lacey, a victim who was abducted and murdered six years earlier. The Lacey parents accept ''Neil'' into their home with few questions, but he lives in fear that he will make a serious mistake through not knowing Neil''s likes and dislikes and that dental records and suspicious Detective Simmons will expose him. His eight-year-old brother Stevie is put out by his return and his younger sister Diana is convinced he''s not Neil, but much prefers him to her memories of her real brother. Alphin describes the years of sexual and physical abuse that Cameron endured at the hands of his father, but never in graphic detail. Cameron is always expecting punishment from his new ''parents'', yet finds kindness and love instead. When Cougar, "Pop"''s former accomplice newly freed from prison, finds Cameron and threatens him with exposure, Cameron tries to tell his ''father'' the truth. In the novel''s climax, Stevie is kidnapped and Cameron risks everything to save him. During the rescue Cameron''s knowledge of the boat indicates that he really could be Neil, and eventually it is shown that Hank had killed his own son Cameron and Neil took his place as the son.

Counterfeit Son

Fireheart is now ThunderClan''s new deputy, but the previous deputy, Tigerclaw, still haunts Fireheart''s dreams. Fireheart wonders if ThunderClan would be ready if Tigerclaw attacked as many of the cats are still shocked about Tigerclaw''s disloyalty, and many warriors are badly injured. Bluestar also begins to become distrusful of the Clan after Tigerclaw''s betrayal. One day, Bluestar, accompanied by Fireheart, go to speak with StarClan at Mothermouth, a quarry mine. On the way there, a patrol of WindClan warriors, led by Mudclaw, stop them before Bluestar is able to talk with them. The ThunderClan leader later fears that StarClan sent WindClan to stop them from going to Mothermouth and speaking with StarClan, which causes her to slip into further paranoia. In the summer months, Fireheart struggles with his disrespectful nephew and apprentice, Cloudpaw, who goes to a Twoleg (human) for food and is one day abducted by them. Fireheart and Sandstorm rescue Cloudpaw, who is found near the barn where Ravenpaw and Barley live. He is accepted back into the Clan, since Fireheart keeps it a secret that Cloudpaw went to humans for food. Fireheart must also deal with the fact that his best friend, Graystripe, is still in love with the dead RiverClan she-cat Silverstream. Meanwhile, the forest gets hotter and hotter, and a fire sweeps through the forest, destroying ThunderClan''s camp and taking the lives of two elders, Patchpelt and Halftail, as well as Yellowfang, ThunderClan''s medicine cat. At the end of the book, it was revealed at a Gathering that both Nightstar and Cinderfur have died from a sickness, and that Tigerstar is the new leader of ShadowClan.

Rising Storm

Kino lives with his family on a farm on the side of a mountain in Japan while his friend, Jiya, lives in the fishing village below. Though everyone in the area has heard of the Tsunami no one suspects that when the next one comes, it will wipe out Jiya''s entire family and fishing village below the mountain. Jiya soon must leave his family behind in order to keep the fisherman traditions alive. Jiya, now orphaned, struggles to overcome his sadness is adopted into Kino''s family. He and Kino live like brothers and Jiya takes on the life of a farmer. . Even when the wise Old Gentleman offers Jiya a wealthy life at his rich castle, Jiya refuses. Though Jiya is able to find happiness again in his adopted family, particularly with Kino''s younger sister, Setsu, Jiya wishes to live as a fisherman again as he comes of age. When Jiya tells Kino that he wishes to marry Setsu and return to the fishing village, Kino fears that Jiya and Setsu will suffer and it is safer for them to remain on the mountain as a farmer, thinking of the potential consequences should another big wave come. However, Jiya reveals his understanding that it is in the presence of danger that one learns to be brave, and to appreciate how wonderful life can be.

The Big Wave

Goody Goblin, the only nice male goblin, goes to see the Good Magician Humphrey so he can get his question answered. As the Magician charges a year''s service or the equivalent, Goody has to find a good home for a pet peeve. The pet peeve is a very annoying bird who can mimic the voice of the person carrying it. Goody starts out with the bird and Hannah Barbarian, whose service is to accompany the goblin on the quest and protect him. Throughout the journey, we discover that Goody is nice because he had to take reverse wood and disguise himself as a girl to avoid being captured by an invading goblin tribe. He was also married, but his wife is dead because she was fated to die young. On the trip, Goody and Hannah meet various people. They all refuse to adopt the pet peeve, or in the case of Princesses Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm, are not allowed to by their mother. Goody and Hannah travel to Robot World, one of the moons of Princess Ida, and bring back some robots to live in Xanth. Unfortunately, the robots decide to take over Xanth, which means all of Xanth must join together to fight the menace. Goblins, ogres, dragons, and other creatures come to combat the robots, which have been expanding, and the harpies feed the armies with lunch boxes from their lunch box plantation. Eventually the robots are defeated, In the process, Goody finally gets over his late wife''s death and falls in love with Gwenny Goblin, the first female goblin chief. She in turn, falls in love with him, as her time spent with a family of winged centaurs cause her to like only polite goblins. The pet peeve finally gets a home with Grundy Golem, Rapunzel, and their daughter, Surprise Golem.

Pet Peeve

The story starts at Stonehenge, where Lord Ombra was seemingly destroyed in Peter and the Shadow Thieves. Though weakened, he uses his power to possess others to gather himself together so that he can return to Rundoon. Meanwhile, warriors of the Scorpion tribe plan to invade Mollusk Island. Warned by the Lost Boys, Fighting Prawn prepares for war. Eventually, however, he is forced to surrender to the overwhelming force of the invaders and the Mollusks are enslaved. Molly and George travel to Oxford, where they discover some vital information about Peter''s parents which suggests Peter himself is in danger. And indeed Lord Ombra and his fellow shadow creatures have decided that capturing Peter could help their plans. Lord Aster sails to Mollusk Island to warn and protect Peter, unaware that Molly and George have stowed away aboard his ship. Peter, wounded by the Scorpions, is kidnapped by Captain Hook along with the Lost Boys, but soon they are all captured by Lord Ombra and taken to Rundoon. There they are imprisoned in the dungeons of King Zarboff III, a cruel and vain despot in cahoots with the shadow beings. Tinker Bell joins Lord Aster in a rescue mission, but he is captured by Zarboff''s men. Tink returns to the ship to warn Molly and George, but finds them trying to steal a camel and being chased by the owners. She tells Molly to use the starstuff in her locket to make the camel fly, and so they escaped and went on to find Peter, Lord Aster, and Bakari on their flying camel. Zarboff reveals his plan - to shoot rockets into space to make starstuff fall. The first attempt is successful, and he plans another, using the new starstuff to send the rocket even further. He does not know that the shadow beings intend the second rocket to rupture the fabric of the universe and cause it to collapse into nothingness. It falls to Peter to prevent the rocket from reaching its destination. By chance that load of starstuff falls onto a ship stolen by George and the Lost Boys, causing it to float. The flying ship, expertly handled by Captain Hook, takes the whole party back to Mollusk Island, when Shining Pearl, Fighting Prawn''s daughter, has joined forces with the pirates to repel the invaders. The book ends with the Lost Boys deciding to return to London and some new boys, former St. Norbert''s orphans enslaved by Zarboff, taking their place.

Peter and the Secret of Rundoon

Already known as a critic of affirmative action or race-based hiring and promotion, Sowell, himself African-American, analyzes the specific effects of such policies on India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Nigeria, four countries with longer multiethnic histories and then compares them with the recent history of the United States in this regard. He finds that "Such programs have at best a negligible impact on the groups they are intended to assist." A sample of his thinking about the danger of perpetual racial preferences is this passage from p. 7: "People differ - and have for centuries.... Any ''temporary'' policy whose duration is defined by the goal of achieving something that has never been achieved before, anywhere in the world, could more fittingly be characterized as eternal." According to Dutch Martin''s review of this book: :Among the common consequences of preference policies in the five-country sample are: *They encourage non-preferred groups to redesignate themselves as members of preferred groups (1) to take advantage of group preference policies; *They tend to benefit primarily the most fortunate among the preferred group (e.g. Black millionaires), often to the detriment of the least fortunate among the non-preferred groups (e.g., poor Whites); *They reduce the incentives of both the preferred and non-preferred to perform at their best &mdash; the former because doing so is unnecessary and the latter because it can prove futile &mdash; thereby resulting in net losses for society as a whole. Sowell concludes: "Despite sweeping claims made for affirmative action programs, an examination of their actual consequences makes it hard to support those claims, or even to say that these programs have been beneficial on net balance."

Affirmative Action Around the World

The principal protagonist of the novel is Mick Looney, an Irish construction worker from Kilburn, London, who comes to the conclusion that he is the rightful King of Ireland. The first portion of the novel is set in Kilburn as Looney''s fantasy of royal descent takes hold. He purchases a second hand chair to be his royal throne while arranging his return to Ireland. There are a number of subplots featuring various eccentric people he has dealings with, the main one concerning two illegal immigrants from India who become Looney''s tenants. The second, larger, portion of the novel is set in and around the fictional Irish village of Drool, where Looney goes to research his royal claim. While doing this he takes a job as a handyman at the local castle, from which a valuable racehorse is stolen. After a number of subplots concerning the eccentric residents of Drool and its castle, Looney recovers the racehorse and receives a large cash reward, much of which he accidentally burns and the remainder of which he spends in pub buying drinks for the villagers. Having reconnected with his Irish roots, but realising that his quest for wealth and status is futile, he returns to Kilburn and sells his "throne".

The Looney: An Irish Fantasy

It starts with a trip to a local amusement park. David Harwood is hoping a carefree day at Five Mountains will help dispel his wife Jan''s recent depression, black moods that have led to frightening thoughts of suicide. Instead, a day of fun with their four-year-old son Ethan turns into a nightmare. When Jan disappears from the park, David''s worst fears seem to have come true. But when he goes to the police to report her missing, terrified that she''s planning to take her own life, the facts start to indicate something very different. The park''s records show that only two tickets were purchased, David and Ethan''s, and CCTV shows no evidence that Jan ever entered the park at all. Suddenly David''s story starts to look suspicious - suspicious enough for the police to wonder if she''s already dead, murdered by her husband. To prove his innocence and keep his son from being taken away from him, David digs deep into the past and comes face to face with a terrible childhood tragedy. After finding her birth certificate he visits her estranged parents, Horace and Gretchen Richler, who tell David that their daughter Jan was killed as a five year old in a tragic car accident. Jan''s story is slowly revealed as the narratives switch between her and David''s perspective. It is revealed that Jan was the false identity taken by Constance Harwood, who was accidentally responsible for the death of the real Jan. After Jan''s death, she moved away and left her family who blamed her, getting involved in crime with Dwayne Osterhaus. However when Dwayne got a six-year jail sentence she went into hiding to keep away from the many victims and enemies she has gained over the years. Her marriage to David was intended to keep her identity hidden from Oscar Fine, whose hand she cut off in a diamond heist several years earlier. However, Oscar sees her face on the news and tracks down Jan and Dwayne, killing Dwayne. Jan realises that Ethan''s life could be in danger and travels back to Promise Falls, her and David''s hometown. While this is happening, David is shaping up as the lead suspect and is being threatened by Elmost Sebastian, the head of a for-profit prison company who David was determined to defame in the newspaper. When Ethan goes missing, David presumes Sebastian responsible. But Oscar returns to the Harwood household at the same time as Jan and David finally understands the truth behind his wife, realising how little he knew. Jan is shot and David is nearly killed too but in her dying moments Jan kills Oscar. David is called by Gretchen Richler, who explains that after realising Jan was actually Constance, kidnapped Ethan in revenge but realised the error of her ways. David and Ethan are reunited.

Never Look Away

The story opens as fifteen year old Cait recounts events occurring a year before on her small island home, Hale, which is roughly four miles long and two miles across at its greatest extent. She begins her story by explaining when she first met Lucas, a mysterious teenager who has traveled to the island to explore and live for a short time period. On the same day that she first sees Lucas, her brother returns home and she is nearly assaulted by another islander, Jamie Tait. However, Lucas is not accepted into the island community easily, due to the discrimination he receives at the hands of the town folk. He works a few odd jobs, but is the victim of attempted assault, forcing him to defend himself and earn a negative reputation. Primarily this comes from Jamie Tait, a university student and popular islander from a wealthy family. The negative behavior escalates when Lucas rescues a young girl from drowning during a town festival, but is met with accusations of molestation. Lucas is forced into hiding. However, he feels an urge to visit Cait one last time. Unfortunately, Jamie has decided to frame Lucas for the rape, assault and attempted murder of a promiscuous islander named Angel, who had befriended Bill, Cait''s old best friend. The novel climaxes as the islanders attempt to capture Lucas, who is innocent of the crime.

Lucas

The book opens with a scene from Spiegelman''s Rego Park childhood in 1958. He runs to his father after being left behind by his friends, but his father responds in broken English, "Friends? Your friends? If you lock them together in a room with no food for a week, then you could see what it is, friends!" As an adult, Spiegelman visits his father, Vladek, from whom he has become estranged. Vladek has remarried to a woman called Mala since the suicide of Art''s mother, Anja, in 1968. Art wants to get Vladek to recount his Holocaust experience. Vladek tells of his time in Częstochowa, describing how he came to marry into Anja''s wealthy family in 1937 and move to Sosnowiec to become a manufacturer. Vladek begs Art not to include this part of the story in the book and Art reluctantly agrees. Anja suffers a mental breakdown after giving birth to their first son, Richieu, towards the end of the year. The couple go to a sanitarium in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia for her to recover. After they return, political and antisemitic tensions build until Vladek is drafted just in time for the Nazi invasion. Vladek is captured at the front and put to labor as a prisoner of war. After being released, he finds Sosnowiec has been annexed by Germany, and he is released on the other side of the border in the Polish protectorate. He sneaks across the border and is reunited with his family. During one of Art''s visits, he finds that a friend of Mala''s has sent them one of the underground comix magazines he had contributed to. Mala had tries to hide it, but Vladek finds and reads it. The four-page "Prisoner on the Hell Planet", reprinted in full, is a striking visual and thematic contrast with the rest of the book. Art is traumatized by his mother''s suicide three months after he was released from the state mental hospital, and in the end depicts himself behind bars, saying "You murdered me, Mommy, and left me here to take the rap!" In 1943, all Jews were ordered to move from Sosnowiec to Srodula, from where they would be marched to Sosnowiec to work. The family is split up—Richieu is sent to Zawiercie to be with his aunt, where they believed he would be safe. As the round-ups increase, and more Jews are sent from the ghettos to Auschwitz, the aunt poisons herself, her children and Richieu to escape the Gestapo. In Srodula, many Jews, including Vladek, build bunkers to hide from the German roundups. Vladek''s bunker is discovered and he is placed into a "ghetto inside the ghetto", surrounded by barbed wire. Later the remnants of Vladek and Anja''s family are taken away. Srodula is cleared completely of its Jews, except for a group Vladek hides with in another bunker. When the Germans finally depart, the group splits up and leaves the ghetto. In Sosnowiec, Vladek and Anja move from one hiding place to the next, making occasional contact with other Jews in hiding. Vladek hunts for provisions disguised as a Pole. They arrange with smugglers to escape to Hungary, but it is a trick—they are arrested by the Gestapo on the train and are taken to Auschwitz, where they are separated until after the war. Art asks after Anja''s diaries, which Vladek tells him were her later account of her Holocaust experiences. They are the only way to find out what happened to her after she was separated from Vladek at Auschwitz. Vladek tells Art she had said, "I wish my son, when he grows up, he will be interested in this". Vladek comes to admit that he burned them after she killed herself. Art is enraged, and calls Vladek a "murderer". The story jumps to 1986, after the first six chapters of Maus were collected into a single volume. Art is overcome with the unexpected attention the book receives, finding himself "totally blocked". Art talks with his psychiatrist, Paul Pavel, a Czech Holocaust survivor, about the book, who suggests that, as those who perished in the camps can never tell their stories, "maybe it''s better not to have any more stories". Art replies with a quote from Samuel Beckett: "Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness", but then realizes, "on the other hand, he said it". Vladek tells of his hardships in the camps, of starvation and abuse, of avoiding the selektionen and of his resourcefulness. Though it is dangerous, Anja and Vladek occasionally are able to exchange messages. As the war progresses, and the German front is pushed back, the prisoners are marched from Auschwitz, in Poland, to Gross-Rosen within the Reich, and then to Dachau, where the hardships only increase and Vladek catches typhus. The war ends, the camp survivors are freed, and Vladek and Anja are reunited. The book closes with Vladek turning over in his bed and telling Art, "I''m tired from talking, Richieu, and it''s enough stories for now." The final image is of Vladek and Anja''s tombstone—Vladek died in 1982, long before the book was completed.

Maus

Jane Arrowood, an aspiring high school artist, goes swimming at her local beach on June 21st. While in the water, she is attacked by a shark. Injuries due to this attack lead to doctors having to amputate her right arm. When she wakes from her coma, Jane sees her dreams of becoming a professional artist crushed. She spends nearly a month in the hospital, undergoing therapy, where she meets a young boy, Justin, who has had his leg amputated. The two become friends and Justin urges Jane to draw him a picture, though she declines. While she was attacked by the shark, a man took a video of her in the water. This video he then sold to the news, which gained her wide-spread attention. Flowers, cards, and "Pity Bears" arrive every day while she remains in the hospital. Her older brother, Michael, was credited with saving her life. He tied off her arm after he rescued her from the water. Finally, she gets out of the hospital. She returns home, struggling with the fact that she is to never use her right arm again. Jane also loved to cook, something she thinks she no longer can do. She also keeps on trying to draw, but never manages to have her left arm get the circles correct. The story goes on tell of her difficulties about fitting in, but by the end of the book, she accepts who she is. Also, around the end of the book, she finally manages to draw a face that "looks back" at her. These combined allow her to finally overcome her grief.

Shark Girl

The character Marlowe is stranded in Brindisi during political strife in Greece, and he is eventually conveyed to Mavrodaphne by the boatman Christ who serves Rumanades, a highly successful businessman who owns Mavrodaphne. He is a disillusioned schoolteacher akin to Evelyn Waugh''s Decline and Fall. Shortly after arriving on the island, he meets Gordon and Walsh, both characters from Durrell''s Pied Piper of Lovers. In the third chapter, Rumanades'' personal history is narrated, leading up through his display of fireworks on Mavrodaphne. This includes his capitalist successes and his acquisition of his fortune, as well as his failed marriage that his wealth could not control. The fourth and fifth chapters have Marlowe moving into one of Rumanades'' villas on the island and meeting the remaining characters, Francis and Fonvisin. The narrative then turns to Marlowe''s interests in Quietism. The subsequent chapters focus heavily on the individual characters in their own narratives: Walsh, Fonvisin, and Francis. Returning to the present moment on Mavrodaphne, the tenth chapter, "The Music," narrates a gramophone concert leading to an evening spent on a high cliff, with Francis, Marlowe, and Walsh in conversation. Marlowe then begins to write his treatise on Quietism, and Francis is called away from the island back to London, for which she is given a farewell celebration. However, before she can leave, Rumanades dies of a fever brought on by an evening spent in poor weather thinking of his lost wife. One of the priests dies on the same night, and this throws the small community of expatriates into turmoil as they must vacate the island, putting an end to their escape from financial crises, revolution, and the impending World War.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

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Counterfeit Son

No Author Listed

Rising Storm

By Victoria Holmes

The Big Wave

By Pearl S. Buck

Pet Peeve

By Piers Anthony

Peter and the Secret of Rundoon

By Dave Barry

Affirmative Action Around the World

By Thomas Sowell

The Looney: An Irish Fantasy

By Spike Milligan

Never Look Away

No Author Listed

Lucas

No Author Listed

Maus

By Art Spiegelman

Shark Girl

No Author Listed

Panic Spring

By Lawrence Durrell