Showing results by narrator "Jeff Woodman" in All Categories

The South Orange River (S.O.R.) Middle School is famous for its winning sports teams. That is, until the seventh grade soccer squad comes along. Led by Ed Sitrow, who has never played soccer before, this amazing team of non-jocks sets new lows in team spirit and new highs in scoring - for the other team. When they lose their first game 32-0, they’re ready to call it quits. But the teachers insist that the team keep playing through the entire soccer season.

To solve Rhode Island's budget crisis, the state's colorful governor, Attila the Nun, wants to legalize sports gambling, but her plan has unexpected consequences. Organized crime, professional sports leagues, and others who have a lot to lose - or gain - if gambling is made legal flood the state with money to buy the votes of state legislators.

Bobbie always spends her summers breaking horses and rounding up stray cattle on Grandpa’s ranch. But this year is different. Alex, her cousin from Los Angeles, is visiting. And Bobbie doesn’t want to ruin her summer teaching a “city greenhorn” what to do. While saddling up their horses to search for cattle, the two girls start a vicious feud. But when they run into the horrible Bledsoe boys and a wild bull, they must depend on each other to survive!

Reminiscent of Joan Didion's White Album or Kurt Vonnegut's Palm Sunday, Visions and Revisions is a collage-style portrait of a tumultuous era that puts the listener on the streets of NYC during the early '90s AIDS crisis, also touching on such diverse subjects as the serial murders of gay men, Peck's first loves upon coming out, and the transformation of LGBT people from marginal, idealistic fighters to their present place in a world of widespread, if fraught, mainstream acceptance.

Work is bad enough, but what if things go really wrong? Learn how to sneak out of a meeting, survive a stockroom avalanche, extract a tie caught in the photocopier, and survive a workplace romance. Hands-on, step-by-step instructions guide you through these and other crises that can strike between 9 and 5, or on the swing shift. This is the one desk reference you can't live without.

Darek and his family and friends are returning from their dragonquest with something different: Zantor, a live baby dragon. The villagers are surprised that it is nothing like the fierce creatures the Zorians have grown up believing dragons to be. This exciting sequel to The Dragonling continues the exciting story of Darek and Zantor.

Rick, J.D., and Spud are the Rock Jockeys. They have been practicing their climbing skills for months. Now they’re ready to tackle the sheer mountain face known as Devil’s Wall. Their equipment is in top shape; supplies are packed. With teamwork and perseverance, they hope to reach the top by nightfall. As they climb, the Rock Jockeys recall the rumors about a B-17 bomber that crashed somewhere on the mountain. But as they suddenly stumble upon the empty wreckage, they wonder: What happened to the men inside? What were they willing to do to survive?

Caribbean born novelist Tobias Buckell established himself as a gifted new voice in science fiction with his stunning first novel, Crystal Rain. Now, in his first collection, Buckell demonstrates his strengths in the short form, offering readers a collection of stories that are compelling, smart, wonderfully imagined, and entertaining. Tides from the New Worlds contains 19 stories that range from multicultural science fiction to magical realism, some in print for the first time.

One evening in Washington, DC, several high-ranking members of government disappear in a mass kidnapping. Among the kidnapped is Nick Rendel, a computer software coding expert in charge of drone programming and strategy. He is the victim with the most dangerous knowledge, including confidential passwords and codes that are used to program the drones. If these are revealed, his kidnappers could reprogram the drones to strike targets within the United States.

Darek and his dragon have escaped from Krad, a neighboring kingdom, after being held captive. But on their return home, they find their village under the control of Zarnak, a wicked tyrant. Although Darek was able to free himself, many of his fellow countrymen are still in Krad, held as slaves. Hungry for power, Zarnak forces Darek and his friends to lead him in a war against Krad. Darek wants to rescue his villagers, but he wants to plan a way to do it that will avoid war.

Bill Buford spends a wild night in the park; Jonathan Safran Foer envisions it as a tiny, transplanted piece of a mythical Sixth Borough; and Marie Winn answers definitively Holden Caulfield's question of where the ducks go when the park's ponds freeze over. There are bird sightings and fish sightings; Jackie Kennedy and James Brown sightings; and pieces by Colson Whitehead, Paul Auster, and Francine Prose. This vibrant collection presents Central Park in all its many-faceted glory, a 51-block swath of special magic.

Set on the eve of America's entry into World War Two, award-winning novelist Jay Neugeboren's first new novel in two decades is built around a fascinating historical figure, Dr. Eduard Bloch, an Austrian doctor who had been physician to Adolf Hitler and his family when Hitler was a boy and young man, and who cared for Hitler's mother during her illness and death from breast cancer.

In May of 2004 the dead return to life and begin to hunt the living. Within a few weeks nations have fallen and the few survivors are scattered and desperate. Rise follows a group of survivors on their journey through the apocalyptic Canadian Rockies, the desolate and empty lands of northern British Columbia and Alberta.

In the fall of 2005, after surviving the first year and a half of the end of the world, there is very little left for the remaining people of apocalyptic Canada. Salvage teams gather what supplies remain, survivors are brought in more and more rarely, and a cure is rumoured for the undead plague that has ravaged the world.

A successful journalist, Victoria Griffith, makes her first foray into children's fiction with the story of Alberto Santos-Dumont, the larger-than- life Brazilian who many argue flew before the Wright brothers. It was 1906 in Paris when Alberto, challenged by a fellow inventor, turned his dirigible into a flying machine and cemented his place in the history of flight.

For the last few years, 13-year-old Tag Jones has been running the family bait shop on the sandy Bermuda beach. He has been helping earn money ever since his father died in a scuba diving accident while searching for a legendary Spanish shipwreck. Whenever he has free time, he dives with his best friend in the azure water above the hazardous coral reefs.

Rupert P. Brown’s biggest worry about sixth grade is it might be, well, a little bit dull. After all, how can a fellow be expected to top a fifth grade year in which his best friend was kidnapped, and he found out his best teacher ever was a real, honest-to-goodness witch? But when Rupert types the word "computowitch" in an e-mail message, his screen goes all green, and then his parakeet starts giving him math lessons. He knows it can only mean one thing: Miss Switch is back!

Bartholomew works for legendary showman P.T. Barnum as the world’s thinnest man. After a decade in the circus, Bartholomew feels his enthusiasm waning, until one evening when a mysterious woman arrives on the scene. Tasked with following her for Barnum, Bartholomew soon embarks on a magical journey of discovery.

P.C. and Mackenzie's friend, Tom the janitor, has been accused of murdering the head biologist at New York City's Museum of Natural History. But they know Tom couldnï¿¿ï¿¿ï¿¿t be the real killer, so they begin investigating. Exploring the crime scene and digging deep, they uncover a strange, precious artifact and a huge arachnid at the heart of the mystery.

When the village Elder tries to buy Darek's blue dragon for his daughter, Darek refuses to sell. The angry Elder makes Darek's father hunt down another dragon, but, knowing that dragons are peaceful and love their children, Darek sets off with his best friend, Pola, to stop the hunt. Can Darek find a way to save the baby dragons without putting his father's life in danger?