A simpified version of the well-known tale in which a husband and wife sacrifice treasured possessions so that they may buy each other Christmas presents.

"Only the most powerful and honorable semidioses get chosen. I'm just a Jade. I'm not a real hero." As each new decade begins, the Sun's power must be replenished so that Sol can keep traveling along the sky and keep the evil Obsidian gods at bay. Ten semidioses between the ages of thirteen and eighteen are selected by Sol himself as the most worthy to compete in The Sunbearer Trials. The winner carries light and life to all the temples of Reino del...

When her world divides, pitting light against dark, Veda must join a dangerous revolution to save her grandfather and fight against injustice...even if it costs her the boy she loves. On the island of Bellona, life is peaceful--as long as the citizens dutifully worship the Sun, which protects them from all harm. Seventeen-year-old Veda knows that keeping the Sun happy will protect her and her grandfather from the Night, the dangerous people who snatch...

The spell of an enchantress opens this classic fairy tale, turning a cruel prince into a hideous beast. Belle, the heroine, is a book-loving young lady trapped by the beast when she comes looking for her father. To break the spell, the beast must win Belle's love before the last petal falls from an enchanted rose.

It is a time of trouble in the Northern Kingdoms because a group of power-hungry polar bears called Roguers has been snatching cubs from their mothers and killing those who resist; but Svenna is not about to relinquish her two cubs to that fate, so she agrees to go with the Roguers and serve Mystress of the Hands if her cubs, who have special powers, are allowed to stay with her cousin--but nobody is truly safe when a way of life is collapsing around...

"Cubs Stellan and Jytte survived their treacherous trek across the Nunquivik, but their quest to rescue their mother has only begun. Svenna is imprisoned at the sinister Ice Clock--the headquarters of the Gran Patek, whose dangerous influence is spreading throughout the bear kingdom. Only one bear has ever stood up to the Grand Patek--Svern, the cubs' father, a famous warrior who's been in exile for years. And so, along with their friend, Third, the...

The dragon Basil leads the ultimate battle to save the land of Avalon, and finally must decide whether to obey his dear friend Merlin's request, even though it means giving up his powers as a warrior.

When Susanne leaves her city home to visit her grandmother, she finds a very special tree of her own in the forest. Each time she returns to the tree, she observes something unique about it--from the sheltering protection of its branches to the scratchy surface of its bark.

A long, long time ago, a baby Spinosaurus was looking for red berries near the ocean. Just when a hungry Tyrannosaurus spots him and decides to pounce, an earthquake hits and the land where they stand cracks and washes away to the middle of the ocean. While they are living together on the tiny island, the Tyrannosaurus learns that the baby Spinosaurus needs the red berries for his sick mother, and it touches his heart. One day another big earthquake...

"One boy's parents travel from far-off lands to improve their son's life. But what happens next is unexpected. What does it mean when your parents are different? With humor and pathos, Sworder reflects on the strange nature of giving and receiving love and celebrates those parents who embrace a hard life for themselves in the hope of a better life for their children"--