You find yourself alone in an empty theater. The curtain has fallen, and it's eerily quiet. Suddenly, you hear footsteps. You follow the sound toward the stage. Then, the heavy red curtain swings open. Yet the stage is empty. What unearthly being is performing tonight? Get ready to read four spine-tingling stories about ghostly theaters. This 24-page book features controlled, narrative nonfiction text with age-appropriate vocabulary and simple sentence...

"For centuries, the magnificent Throne of Felipe has stood with two empty spaces beside its famous silver arrow--spaces where the silver castle and lion should have been. And now, with the recent discovery of the silver castle within a secret vault in Seville, Spain, the hunt is on for the third silver icon. With all three pieces in the place, the throne will be enormously valuable--making it a hot item on VILE's radar. Now it's up to Carmen and crew...

"In a country as vast as the United States, place looms large. Steven Moore, a former soldier, writes about place, explicitly rural places, in a way that transcends specificity and speaks to the universal: whether the Midwest, Appalachia, or remote West, what Moore has to say about rural places speaks to anyone who has driven a lonely road at night, with nothing but darkness as a cushion between them and the emptiness that surrounds. Place and how...

Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it's guilt and grief over the murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it's to help care for his sick father. Or so he says. Like the Hitchcock heroine she's named after,...

A mystery writer's daughter sets out to find her missing father and, along the way, begins to understand the loneliness that has gripped them both since her mother abandoned them years before.

"Sylvestri Yarrow is drawn into a squabble between two of the Republic's most powerful families over a patch of space on the frontier. Tangled up in familial politics is the last place Syl wants to be, but the promise of a big payoff is enough to keep her interested ... Meanwhile, Jedi Knight Vernestra Rwoh and her Padawan Imri Cantaros arrive at the capital along with Jedi Master Cohmac Vitus and his Padawan, Reath Silas--and are asked to assist...

"Kyle Chayka is one of our sharpest cultural observers. After spending years covering minimalist trends for leading publications, he now delves beneath this lifestyle's glossy surface, seeking better ways to claim the time and space we crave. He shows that our longing for less goes back further than we realize. His search leads him to the philosophical and spiritual origins of minimalism, and to the stories of artists such as Agnes Martin and Donald...

Baron Valdemar and his people have found a temporary haven, but it cannot hold all of them, or for long. Trouble could follow on their heels at any moment, and there are too many people for Crescent Lake to support. Those who are willing to make a further trek by barge on into the West will follow him into a wilderness depopulated by war and scarred by the terrible magics of a thousand years ago and the Mage Wars. But the wilderness is not as empty...

"The town of Bentley holds two things dear: its football, and its secrets. But when star quarterback Dylan Whitley goes missing, an unremitting fear grips this remote corner of Texas. Joel Whitley was shamed out of conservative Bentley ten years ago, and while he's finally made a life for himself as a gay man in New York, his younger brother's disappearance soon brings him back to a place he thought he'd escaped for good. Meanwhile, Sheriff's Deputy...