NCW Libraries

Considered one the masterpieces of realist fiction, George Eliot's novel, "Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life," explores a fictional nineteenth-century Midlands town in the midst of modern changes. The proposed Reform Bill promises political change; the building of railroads alters both the physical and cultural landscape; new scientific approaches to medicine incite public division; and scandal lurks behind respectability. The quiet drama of...

Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in the town of Naomi, Florida, and all the good things that happen to her because of her big ugly dog Winn-Dixie.

First published in 1930, "Not Without Laughter" is the debut novel by Langston Hughes and a deeply personal, semi-autobiographical tale of an African-American family in rural Kansas. Langston Hughes, born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, spent much of his youth in Lawrence, Kansas and it is here that he set his first novel. "Not Without Laughter" tells the story of young Sandy Rogers as he grows from a boy to a young man and focuses on his "awakening...

"No one liked CC de Poitiers -- not her family, not her lover, not her neighbors in Three Pines. When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is called to investigate CC's sudden death on the day after Christmas, it seems like an impossible murder. How could she have been lectrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake in the midst of Three Pines annual curling match without anyone seeing a thing? In the beautiful but deadly Quebec winter, Gamache digs for secrets...

"An enchanting and timeless all-American story that follows the inhabitants of a small Midwestern town in their quest to revive its flagging heart"--

"1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Muhammad Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing. When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges--Patch, a local boy, who saves the girl, and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake. Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer....

"When a boy encounters and alligator while hiking in the woods, he immediately jumps back and cries, "AAAlligator!". But he soon realizes the alligator needs his help, so he bravely steps up, even though he is afraid. His good deed done, he heads home, thinking that was the end of that. But later that evening, he hears a rustling outside his window -- the alligator! Waiting ... but not in a hungry way. Over time, the boy and the alligator become friends...

As she walks with her mother to a farmer's market, Penelope hears the melodies of the city from musicians, bicycle bells, and more until one instrument beckons and fills her with magic. Includes author's note about her first encounter with the violin.

"When a pilot suffers a heart attack at 35,000 feet, a commercial airliner filled with passengers crashes into a nuclear power plant in the small town of Waketa, Minnesota, which becomes ground zero for a catastrophic national crisis with global implications. Ordinary people--power plant employees, firefighters, teachers, families, neighbors, and friends--are thrust into an extraordinary situation as they face the ultimate test of their lives. It...

Illustrations and rhyming text follow a young girl and her father as they share a busy day at the park before returning to their fourth-floor apartment.