NCW Libraries

As an Olympic runner, a bombardier in the Army Air Corps, and a prisoner of war, Louis Zamperini was determined to thrive and survive. Never backing down from a challenge, he lived a life of adventure while modeling hope and forgiveness to a generation. A magnet for trouble as a boy, Louie determined to create a new path for himself. Nicknamed the "Torrance Tornado," he set national records and traveled to the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. His...

First published in 1877, Sewell's novel of animal cruelty, told from the point of view of a horse, had an almost immediate impact on improving the treatment of animals in England.

After surviving horrific conditions in the Maze, Thomas is entrapped, along with nineteen other boys, in a scientific experiment designed to observe their responses and gather data believed to be essential for the survival of the human race. The group has two weeks to cross through the Scorch -- the most burned-out section of the world. And the observers will continuously adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.

In a novel set in an indefinite, futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, a father and his young son make their way through the ruins of a devastated American landscape, struggling to survive and preserve the last remnants of their own humanity. Publisher description for "The road"--"A searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece. A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape...

"Tess Dombegh journeys through the kingdom of Goredd in search of the World Serpents and finds herself along the way"--

A collection of poems evoking the world and feelings of childhood, including "The land of Counterpane," "My Shadow," "The Swing," "The Moon," and "Looking Forward."

Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.

Lucy Maud Montgomery has been beloved by generations of readers for her Anne of Green Gables stories. In the celebrated Emily trilogy, (of which Emily of New Moon is the first book) Montgomery draws a more realistic portrait of a young girl's life on Prince Edward Island. The twin threads of bright and dark, love and cruelty, hope and despair intertwine in a pattern as significant as it is enduring. Along with Emily Climbs and Emily's Quest, Emily...

Five friends go to a cabin. Four of them are hiding secrets. Three years of history bind them. Two are doomed from the start. One person wants to end this. No one is safe. For five friends, this was supposed to be one last getaway before going their separate ways -- a chance to say goodbye to each other, and to the game they've been playing for the past three years. But they're all dealing with their own demons, and they're all hiding secrets. Finn...

We have a glut of text and trade books on American history. But what we don't have is a compact, inexpensive, authoritative, and compulsively readable book that will offer to American readers a clear, informative, and inspiring narrative account of their own country. Such an account can shape and deepen their sense of the land they inhabit and, by making them understand that land's roots, and share in its memories, will equip them for the privileges...