Showing results by narrator "Laura Knight Keating" in All Categories

No one dares to leave the District - the towering structure of glass and steel that is their protection against the unruly bands of Outsiders that roam Mundreel and the deadly rain that carries the disease that kills all over the age of 19. This skyscraper stands amid the urban devastation, the city rumored to have once been called "Montreal". Esther and her allies have created a haven on the rooftop, a garden that flourishes, and a home for her new baby, hidden from all but the very few who know her secret.

By studying the Weston Farm Circles, her town’s legendary crop circle phenomenon, she’ll not only demonstrate the existence of extraterrestrial life, but also win the McMurray Youth Science Competition—a feat she’s sure will impress her distant NASA scientist father. Dani most certainly does not believe in aliens. How can she, when they go against every scientific principle she’s been taught?

Just eight months ago, 15-year-old Roxanne Stewart was stuck in her tiny, middle-of-nowhere hometown with no prospects of leaving. But after her boyfriend, Joshua Blackbird, posts a performance of an original song on YouTube, he becomes an overnight sensation, catapulting to the dizzying heights of celebrity, and Rox joins him on the whirlwind ride of a massive national tour. But it's not long before the never-blinking eye of fame begins weighing them both down - the constant hunger of managers, diehard fans who call themselves "Birdies", record execs, paparazzi, and even family, all leeching onto Joshua.

Abraham Lincoln faces a dangerous and uncertain future after leaving Springfield, Illinois, for his inauguration in Washington, DC. Luckily for him, detective Kate Warne has his back, even if he didn’t know it yet. Working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, Kate uncovers the rebel plot to kill Abraham Lincoln in Baltimore. Kate warns Lincoln’s staff that this only Southern city on his inaugural train route to Washington, DC is planning a deadly welcome. President-elect Lincoln is urged to change his route. But he refuses to cancel his commitments.

Felicity Becker loves watching an event come together. There’s something magical about crafting an experience people will remember. So when her mom gets engaged, Felicity sees the wedding as the perfect opportunity to show off her skills. After Felicity’s friend Nancy offers up her family’s apple orchard as a venue, wedding planning gets even better. But the more time Felicity and Nancy spend together dress shopping and hunting for mismatched china, the more it starts to seem like there might be something besides friendship between them.

It's the summer of 1976 on Fire Island, where feathered hair and the Bicentennial celebration reign. Jean, a sometimes cruel, often insecure, and always envious rich girl, is accustomed to living in her glamorous older sister's shadow. So when Gil Burke, a handsome newcomer with uncertain ties to one of the most powerful families in the exclusive enclave of Sunken Haven, notices Jean - not her sister - Jean is smitten.

Hattie Tilney isn’t a believer. Yes, she’s a senior at America’s most (allegedly) haunted high school, Northanger Abbey. But ever since her paranormal-loving dad passed away, she’s hung up her Ghostbusters suit, put away the EMF detectors and thermal cameras, and moved on. She has enough to worry about in the land of the living—like taking care of her younger brother, Liam, while their older sister spirals out and their mother, Northanger’s formidable headmistress, buries herself in her work.

Teenage Stella Grey has always felt an intense recurring sense of déjà vu … often plagued by strong dreams that feel more real than her waking moments. One ill-fated morning, her dream from the night before actually comes to life as she awakens and finds her house ransacked and her mother unconscious near their broken-in front door. Her next moments are scary, shocking, and earth-shattering as she is kidnapped and delivered to a Gothic mansion, the Manor de Rêves. Over the next few days, Stella grapples with where she is and why she was taken.

It's always been just Wren and her mother, Hannah. But when Hannah receives a reporting assignment in Greenland for six months, Wren is shipped off to Hardwick Hall: Hannah's alma mater back East, which she's refused to discuss for as long as Wren can remember. Wren tries to befriend her suitemate, Honor, but Honor looks right through her as if she isn't there.

Summer in Ferry, Connecticut, has always meant long, lazy days at the beach and wild nights partying in the abandoned mansions on the edge of town. Until now, that is. Natalie Temple, who’s never been one for beaches or parties in the first place, is reeling from the murder of her favorite teacher, and there’s no way this true-crime-obsessed girl is going to sit back and let the rumor mill churn out lie after lie - even if she has to hide her investigation from her disapproving mom and team up with the new boy in town....

For Annie's tenth birthday, her papa gives her a pad of paper, some colored pencils, and the Klimas family secret. It’s called the nuodeema burna, or eater of sins. Every time Annie does something wrong, she writes it down and sticks the paper in a hidden hole in the floor of their house. But Annie is quick to discover that her inheritance has a dark side.

A little girl and her older friend poetically describe the garden as it changes through the seasons. This quiet, intergenerational story pays homage to experiencing nature as a child and as an adult. The two friends watch the birds, fly a kite, plant flowers and play in the snow. Ms. Zolotow's In My Garden was originally published in 1960.

When twelve-year-old Alice’s dad moves out, leaving her with her troubled mother, Alice does the only thing that feels right: She retreats to her family’s old Renaissance fair tent in the backyard, determined to live there until her dad comes home. In an attempt to keep at least one part of her summer from changing, Alice focuses on her quest to get her name on her swim team’s record board. But summers contain multitudes.

Here, in a luminous poetic narrative, acclaimed author Carole Boston Weatherford tells Marilyn's story in a way that restores her voice to its rightful place: center stage. Revisiting Marilyn's often traumatic early life - foster homes, loneliness, sexual abuse, teen marriage - through a hard-won, meteoric rise to stardom that brought with it exploitation, pill dependency, and depression, the lyrical narrative continues through Marilyn's famous performance at JFKs birthday party, three months before her death.

Johanna has had more than enough trauma in her life. She lost her mom in a car accident, and her father went AWOL when Johanna was just a baby. At 16, life is steady, boring...maybe even stifling, since she's being raised by her grandparents who never talk about their daughter, her mother Mandy. Then he comes back: Robert Newsome, Johanna's father, bringing memories and pictures of Mandy. But that's not all he shares. A tragic car accident didn't kill Mandy - it was Johanna, who at two years old, accidentally shot her own mother with an unsecured gun.

It's week nine of this season of The Catch, and the cast and crew are arriving at their latest exotic location: a remote tree-covered island in the rainy North Pacific. America's most eligible bachelor (*eye-roll*) has whittled down the contestants to the Final Four, but as everyone online knows, he's probably just going to pick Vanessa. So far, so predictable. At the top of Mount Resilience, luxury yurts surround an elegant firepit—all, of course, perfectly staged and lighted. But this week's Elimination Event isn't going to go as planned.

Blue Owens wakes up one day with the strangest feeling that something is very wrong. Everyone’s acting weird, and she’s found a note in her closet telling her to get on the Little Blue Bus at 7:45, which she does, meeting up with the exact person she was supposed to avoid: Adam Mendoza. Even though she has no idea who he is, something about him is so familiar. When the two are discovered by their families, the truth is revealed - Blue has paid to have her memories removed, and Adam is one of those memories.

How badly do you want to be famous? What - or who - would you sacrifice? These are the questions Justine Childs is forced to reckon with as the main suspect in the murder of it-girl Eva-Kate Kelly. Not long ago, Eva-Kate drew Justine into her orbit before meeting her untimely end in a Venice Beach canal. Prosecutors and the public want to know: Did Justine, now a social media darling in her own right, kill her celebrity best friend? Can anyone be trusted to tell the truth? Justine has always wanted people to know her name - but not all notoriety is created equal.

In this memorable story, a ranger comes across a fox caught in a trap. The ranger frees the fox and promises only to tend to its wounds. The fox recovers and remains curiously close to the ranger, and when unexpected twists occur, the fox ends up being the helper. The ranger asks the fox, "Does this make us even?" and almost immediately feels regret - keeping score has no place in friendship. And so the two continue their journey together.

Aaryn, son of Cupid and Psyche, is determined to follow in his father's footsteps. On the night of his first assignment, without first logging in to the high-tech compatibility database, he shoots a ballet prodigy named Karma. Aaryn realizes too late the other arrow in his pack is useless. He can't shoot Danny, Karma's date, which makes the enchantment tragically one-sided. In the year that follows, Karma's destiny is derailed. One pregnancy confirmed. One ballet scholarship lost.