Jan and Antonina Zabinski were Polish Christian zookeepers horrified by the Nazi racism, who managed to save over three hundred people. Yet their story has fallen between the seams of history. Drawing on Antonina's diary and other historical sources, best-selling naturalist Diane Ackerman vividly re-creates Antonina's life as "the zookeeper's wife", responsible for her own family, the zoo animals, and their "Guests:--Resistance activists and...

"In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut--young Ender is the Wiggin...

"My whole life I planned on going to pilot school like the rest of my friends--then I got rejected! Along came a little green guy named Yoda who invited me to Jedi Academy. Now I'm at a school with aliens, robots, and lightsaber-wielding bullies who can lift things with their minds! How am I supposed to compete with that? As if starting middle school wasn't hard enough..." The story of Roan Novachez, Jedi Academy student, is told through comics, journal...

All seems well on Pern until a mysterious ailment strikes killing myriads of holders, craftsmen, and dragonriders. Pern is left in mortal danger with no one to rise to char the prarasitic Thread. The dragonriders of Pern are in danger from a mutated strain of influenza.