Akron Public Library

Preparing for a major winter storm, Bramble and Maggie anticipate playing in the deep snow and wind up helping trapped neighbors before sharing an impromptu block party of marshmallows and cocoa. The sky is white, the air is cold, and snowflakes are falling, tickling Bramble's back. By bedtime, Maggie and her family are ready for the storm: they've shopped for supplies, covered Bramble's hay with a tarp, and filled the bathtub with extra water. But...

Pen, Hex, Ash, Ez, and Venice are living on hard work, companionship, and dreams in the pink house by the sea until a foreboding ship arrives and all start having strange visions of destruction and violence then, trance-like, they head for the ship and their new battles, with Pen using Virgil's epic Aeneid as her guide.

Ramón is worried about his first day at a new school, but it helps to remind El Cucuy, the monster who lives in his cactus pot, of how brave and strong they both are.

Thirteen-year-old Trina's family left Bohemia for a Colorado coal town to earn money to buy a farm, but by 1901 she doubts that either hard work or hoping will be enough, even after a strange fish seems to grant her sisters' wishes.

When Caesar is murdered, Fallon and her fellow gladiatrices lose their protector and, realizing that Cleopatra is now in grave danger, travel to Alexandria, Egypt, for her safety and theirs.

Persephone's mom encourages her to "go along to get along" instead of doing what she really wants, and Persephone follows her advice even when it makes her feel like a fake. But when she meets Mount Olympus Academy troublemaker Hades, she finally feels she has found someone she can be herself with. He's the first person who actually listens to her, and she finds herself liking him, despite the fact that the other goddess girls think he's bad news....