Search Worlds Without End

When a rough sailor called Ishmael turns up on a family's doorstep, even loyal dog Zeke knows that the news is ruinous.

Ishmael comes bearing the tragic tale of the Pequod: the whaling ship that fourteen-year-old Josiah's father served on as first mate. Ishmael presents himself as the sole survivor of the deadly journey, fatally lead by the vengeful Captain Ahab and his obsession with the legendary white whale, Moby Dick. But Josiah is not so certain his father's death was that simple. Especially when Ishmael looks so boldly at Josiah's devout Quaker mother.

Josiah is almost of age in Nantucket, and he still cherishes his dream of following in his father's footsteps. He is yet too young to sign on to a ship's crew, but he yearns to be at sea.

Yet adventure has a way of finding a boy and his dog. The true vision of his father's death--as well as the difficult tasks of surviving, growing up, and finding his strength--await Josiah, when he and Zeke discover the secrets of the Pequod at the mysterious Arch of Bone.

The world will end on Thursday, July 27, 2000. At least, that's what Reverend Beelson has told his congregation. Marina's mom believes him. So does Jed's dad. That's why they drag Marina and Jed to join the reverend's flock at a mountain retreat. From the mountaintop they will all watch the Righteous Conflagration that will end this world--and then they will descend and begin the world anew. But this world has only just begun for Jed and Marina, two teenagers with more attitude than faith. Why should the world end now, when they've just fallen in love? Told in alternating chapters from both Jed's and Marina's points of view, this first-ever collaboration between two masters of children's literature is a story about faith and friendship, love and loss... and the things that matter most at the End of the World.

Like all trolls, Gog is magic--he just can't do magic. His friend Pook can do a little magic, but not magic big enough to get tickets for Boots and the Seven Leaguers. The concert is sold out. But with a bit of luck and a magical disguise, the two are able to find work with the band as roadies. Yet no sooner have they begun working when Gog's little brother vanishes. How will the two teen roadies rescue the kid, elude his kidnappers, and get back in time to see Boots perform?

Now that will require some very BIG magic....

Ever since she was a child, Rebecca has been enchanted by her grandmother Gemma's stories about Briar Rose. But a promise Rebecca makes to her dying grandmother will lead her on a remarkable journey to uncover the truth of Gemma's astonishing claim: I am Briar Rose. A journey that will lead her to unspeakable brutality and horror. But also to redemption and hope.

This is the story of the Anthropologists Guild who travel across galaxies in ships and study other planets' peoples.

One night during the Perseid meteor shower, Arianne thinks she sees a shooting star land in the fields surrounding her family's horse farm. About a year later, one of their horses gives birth to a baby centaur. The family has enough attention already as Arianne's six-year-old brother was born with birth defects caused by an experimental drug--the last thing they need is more scrutiny. But their clients soon start growing suspicious. Just how long is it possible to keep a secret? And what will happen if the world finds out?

At a time when so many novels are set in other worlds, Jane Yolen imagines what it would be like if a creature from another world came to ours in this thoughtfully written, imaginative novel, Centaur Rising.

Jane Yolen enchants and enthralls with an exquisite collection of short fiction and poetry brimming with sympathetic monsters, unlikely heroes, and all manner of magical amazements. Exploring the depths of human love, pain, and folly in these unforgettable tales, Yolen gives life to a cast of unforgettable characters: a selfless young woman whose sadness brings forth beautiful gifts, a deluded musician whose song spectacularly fails to soothe a savage beast, and an alien salvage crew mining gems from the mind of a dying poet. Here be dragons, outlaws, kings, mermen, and dream weavers, sprung from the unparalleled imagination of one of the world's foremost fantasists.

Table of Contents:

• The Thirteenth Fey
• The Storyteller
• The Five Points of Roguery
• Dream Weaver
• The Fates
• Salvage
• The Bull and the Crowth
• The River Maid
• Caliban
• The Corridors of the Sea
• The Girl Who Cried Flowers
• Dryad's Lament
• The Inn of the Demon Camel
• The Hundredth Dove
• The Lady and the Merman
• Angelica
• The Wild Child
• Dragonfield

Table of Contents:

• ix - Introduction (Dragons and Dreams) - essay by Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh and Jane Yolen
• 1 - The Box - short story by Bruce Coville
• 12 - The Thing That Goes Burp in the Night - short story by Sharon Webb
• 32 - Baba Yaga and the Sorcerer's Son - short story by Patricia A. McKillip
• 43 - All the Names of Baby Hag - short story by Patricia MacLachlan
• 55 - The Three Men - short story by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
• 70 - Great-Grandfather Dragon's Tale - novelette by Jane Yolen
• 95 - Laughter in the Leaves - [Cerin Songweaver] - short story by Charles de Lint
• 108 - Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream - [Chrestomanci] - novelette by Diana Wynne Jones
• 136 - The Singing Float - short story by Monica Hughes
• 151 - Uptown Local - [Young Wizards] - novelette by Diane Duane

Sisters Serena and Meteora were proud members of the high court of the Fairy Queen-until they were cast out from court, stripped of their powers, and banished to the brutish mortal realm of Earth-where they discover a long-forgotten dark force that threatens both fairy and human worlds.

A young woman discovers the power to speak up and take control of her fate--a theme that has never been more timely than it is now...

You think you know this story.
You do not.

A harsh, controlling father. A quiescent mother. A house that feels like anything but ahome. Natasha gathers the strength to leave, and comes upon a little house in the wood: A house that walks about on chicken feet and is inhabited by a fairy tale witch. In finding Baba Yaga, Natasha finds her voice, her power, herself....

The cathedral's mistrustful gargoyles convince the angels to test Griselle, a gentle lacemaker, by sending her an ugly, mean boy to care for.

Fantasy legend Jane Yolen (The Emerald Circus, The Devil's Arithmetic) delights with these effortlessly wide-ranging transformed fairy tales. Yolen fractures the classics to reveal their crystalline secrets, holding them to the light and presenting them entirely transformed, from a spinner of straw as a money-changer and to the big bad wolf retiring to a nursing home. Rediscover the fables you once knew, rewritten and refined for the world we now live in.

Table of Contents:

Stories

• "Snow in Summer"
• "The Bridge's Complaint"
• "The Moon Ribbon"
• "Godmother Death"
• "Happy Dens or A Day in the Old Wolves' Home"
• "Granny Rumple"
• "One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox, and the Dragon King"
• "Brother Hart"
• "Sun/Flight"
• "Slipping Sideways Through Eternity"
• "The Foxwife"
• "The Faery Flag"
• "One Old Man, with Seals"
• "Sleeping Ugly"
• "The Undine"
• "Great-Grandfather Dragon's Tale"
• "Green Plague"
• "The Unicorn and the Pool"
• "The Golden Balls"
• "Sister Death"
• "Sule Skerry"
• "Once A Good Man"
• "Allerleirauh"
• "The Gwynhfar"
• "Cinder Elephant"
• "Mama Gone"
• "The Woman Who Loved A Bear"
• "Wrestling with Angels"

Poems

• "The Thing About Fairy Tales"
• "Prince Ever After"
• "Troll Maiden on the Bridge"
• "Learning from Those Other Princesses"
• "Stone Hand in Stone Hand: Norvelt Cemetery"
• "Once Upon A Wolf"
• "Spinning Straw"
• "'Story,'" the Old Man Said"
• "Green Children"
• "Icarus Fall"
• "Ovens"
• "Foxwife"
• "Carrying the Flag of Faery"
• "On Meeting A God"
• "Old Woman by the Well"
• "Warning from the Undine"
• "St. George's Sword and Word"
• "To Be Paid"
• "Rhinoceros"
• "Frog Meet Princess"
• "The Keening Woman"
• "When I Was A Selchie"
• "What Do We Need of Heaven"
• "Cinderella in the Ashes"
• "Not That Princess" Cinder Elephant
• "Fat Is Not A Fairy Tale"
• "The Vampire Regrets"
• "Marrying the Bear"
• "Jacob's Regret"

Nebula Award winning novelette. It originally appeared in the collection Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast (1997) and was reprinted in Realms of Fantasy, February 1998. The story can also be found in the anthology Nebula Awards Showcase 2000, edited by Gregory Benford and the collection Sister Emily's Lightship and Other Stories (2000) and The Emerald Circus (2017).

It's 1942 in Poland, and the world is coming to pieces. At least that's how it seems to Chaim and Gittel, twins whose lives feel like a fairy tale torn apart, with evil witches, forbidden forests, and dangerous ovens looming on the horizon. But in all darkness there is light, and the twins find it through Chaim's poetry and the love they have for each other. Like the bright flame of a Yahrzeit candle, his words become a beacon of memory so that the children and grandchildren of survivors will never forget the atrocities that happened during the Holocaust.

Filled with brutality and despair, this is also a story of poetry and strength, in which a brother and sister lose everything but each other. Nearly thirty years after the publication of her award-winning and bestselling The Devil's Arithmetic and Briar Rose, Yolen once again returns to World War II and captivates her readers with the authenticity and power of her words.

Prolific storyteller Yolen brings together ten of her own stories about Merlin, "Archmage" of Camelot. As befits a "shape-shifter," each story presents a different figure of Merlin, none being definitive. Yolen's "revisionist mythology" includes idiosyncratic versions of Merlin's birth and of the episode of the sword in the stone, as well as an original vision of a community of nuns on a fenland island who forge steel blades for Arthur's knights. In "Epitaph," an archaeological team and the Prince of Wales proclaim the finding of Merlin's body to a roomful of skeptical newspersons. Yolen's limpid prose gains an aura of otherness by her skillful use of archaisms. Arthurian and fantasy collections will welcome Merlin's Booke.

Nebula Award winning short story. It originally appeared in the anthology Starlight 1 (1996), edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden. The story can also be found in the anthlogy Nebula Awards 33 (1999), edited by Collie Willis and the collections Sister Emily's Lightship and Other Stories (2000) and The Emerald Circus (2017).

In these twenty-eight magnificent tales, which include two Nebula Award winners, Jane Yolen puts a provocative spin on familiar storybook worlds and beloved fairy tale characters.

One of the most acclaimed and honored authors in science fiction and fantasy, Jane Yolen has been called "the Hans Christian Andersen of America" for her brilliant reimagining of classic fairy tales. In her first collection of short stories written for an adult audience (after Tales of Wonder and Dragonfield), Yolen explores themes of freedom and justice, truth and consequence, and brings new life to our most cherished fables and myths.

Here are storybook realms rendered more contemporary, and cautionary tales made grimmer than Grimm: Snow White is transported to Appalachia to match wits with a snake-handling evil stepmother and Beauty's meeting with the Beast takes a twisty, O. Henry-esque turn; in Yolen's Nebula Award-winning "Lost Girls," a feminist revolt rocks Peter Pan's Neverland and in the collection's glorious title story--also a Nebula winner--the poet Emily Dickinson receives some unexpected and otherworldly inspiration. Sometimes dark, sometimes funny, and always enthralling, Sister Emily's Lightship is proof positive that Yolen is truly a folklorist of our times.

Table of Contents:

• The Traveler and the Tale - (1995) - shortstory
• Snow in Summer - (2000) - shortstory
• Speaking to the Wind - shortstory
• The Thirteenth Fey - (1985) - shortstory
• Granny Rumple - (1994) - shortstory
• Blood Sister - (1994) - novelette
• Journey into the Dark - (1995) - shortstory
• The Sleep of Trees - (1980) - shortstory
• The Uncorking of Uncle Finn - (1986) - shortstory
• Dusty Loves - (1988) - shortstory
• The Gift of the Magicians, with Apologies to You Know Who - (1992) - shortstory
• Sister Death - (1995) - shortstory
• The Singer and the Song - shortfiction
• Salvage - (1984) - shortstory
• Lost Girls - (1997) - novelette
• Belle Bloody Merciless Dame - (1997) - shortstory
• Words of Power - (1987) - shortstory
• Great Gray - (1991) - shortstory
• Under the Hill - shortstory
• Godmother Death - (1997) - shortstory
• Creationism: An Illustrated Lecture in Two Parts - (1990) - shortstory
• Allerleirauh - (1995) - shortstory
• Sun/Flight - (1982) - shortstory
• Dick W. and His Pussy; or, Tess and Her Adequate Dick - (1997) - shortstory
• Become a Warrior - (1998) - shortstory
• Memoirs of a Bottle Djinni - (1988) - shortstory
• A Ghost of an Affair - (2000) - shortstory
• Sister Emily's Lightship - (1996) - shortstory
• Afterword - essay

The newly crowned King Arthur is unsure of himself; worse, the people are unsure of him. Too many people want the throne, and treachery is everywhere. Merlin must do something before the king is betrayed, or murdered, or--worst of all--gets married. So Merlin magically places a sword into a slab of rock, lets it be known that whosoever removes the blade will rule all of England, and invites any man who would dare, to try to pull out the sword.

After a bit of showmanship, Arthur will draw the blade (with a little magical help, of course), and the people will rally around the young king.

Except someone else pulls the sword out first....

Hannah dreads going to her family's Passover Seder--she's tired of hearing her relatives talk about the past. But when she opens the front door to symbolically welcome the prophet Elijah, she's transported to a Polish village in the year 1942. Why is she there, and who is this "Chaya" that everyone seems to think she is? Just as she begins to unravel the mystery, Nazi soldiers come to take everyone in the village away. And only Hannah knows the unspeakable horrors that await. A critically acclaimed novel from multi-award-winning author Jane Yolen.

Before the legendary Arthur became king, he took lessons from a dragon...

Artos is a lonely child, teased or ignored by the other boys in the castle of Sir Ector. One day, he follows Sir Ector's runaway hound into a mysterious, dark cave, where he encounters a dragon who offers him the gift of wisdom.

Both frightened and intrigued, Artos becomes the dragon's student and gains what he's always longed for: the friendship and respect of other boys. Under the guidance of the dragon, Artos's life begins to take shape in a way he could never have imagined. But has Artos really learned everything the dragon has to teach? And what does the dragon mean when he refers to him as "Artos Pendragon," or "Arthur son of dragon"?

This ebook features a personal history by Jane Yolen including rare images from the author's personal collection, as well as a note from the author about the making of the book.

Where is Wendy? Leading a labor strike against the Lost Boys, of course.

A Scottish academic unearths ancient evil in a fishing village. Edgar Allan Poe's young bride is beguiled by a most unusual bird. Dorothy, lifted from Kansas, returns as a gymnastic sophisticate. Emily Dickinson dwells in possibility and sails away in a starship made of light. Alice's wicked nemesis has jaws and claws but really needs a sense of humor.

In Jane Yolen's first full collection in more than ten years discover new and uncollected tales of beloved characters, literary legends, and much more. Enter the Emerald Circus and be astonished by the transformations within.

Table of Contents:

• Andersen's Witch
• Lost Girls (Nebula Award Winner)
• Tough Alice
• Blown Away
• A Knot of Toads
• The Quiet Monk
• The Bird (Original story)
• Belle Bloody Merciless Dame
• Jewel in the Toad Queen's Crown
• A Gift of Magicians
• Rabbit Hole
• Our Lady of the Greenwood
• The Confession of Brother Blaise
• Wonder Land
• Evian Steel
• Sister Emily's Lightship (Nebula Award Winner)

This story first appeared in the anthology Queen Victoria's Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy (2013) edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. It is included in the collection The Emerald Circus (2017).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

It is the waning days of the Russian monarchy. A reckless man rules the land and his dragons rule the sky. Though the Tsar aims his dragons at his enemies - Jews and Bolsheviks - his entire country is catching fire. Conspiracies suffuse the royal court: bureaucrats jostle one another for power, the mad monk Rasputin schemes for the Tsar's ear, and the desperate queen takes drastic measures to protect her family.

Revolution is in the air - and the Red Army is hatching its own weapons.

All magic has consequences

Long ago, the seawitch Dread Mary fell in love with a hard-hearted prince and gave him the Magic Three of Solatia: three silver buttons that could fulfill any wish--but at a price. Centuries later, the buttons belong to Sianna of the Song, a button maker's daughter and heir to all of Dread Mary's magic secrets. But the cruel King Blaggard of Solatia seeks to wed the lovely Sianna and steal her power. Sianna will need her wits, her magic, and the silver buttons to save herself and Solatia from the evil Blaggard... but what will it cost her?

This ebook features a personal history by Jane Yolen including rare images from the author's personal collection, as well as a note from the author about the making of the book.

Welcome to the Midnight Circus – and watch your step. The dark imaginings of fantasy icon Jane Yolen are not for the faint of heart. In these sixteen brilliantly unnerving tales and poems, Central Park becomes a carnival where you can – but probably shouldn't – transform into a wild beast. The Red Sea will be deadly to cross due to a plague of voracious angels. Meanwhile, the South Pole is no place for even a good man, regardless of whether he is living or dead.

Wicked, solemn, and chilling, the circus is ready for your visit – just don't arrive late.

Table of Contents

• Introduction: Welcome to the Midnight Circus - essay by Theodora Goss
• Who Knew I Was a Writer of Dark Stones? - essay
• The White Seal Maid - short fiction
• The Weaver of Tomorrow - short fiction
• The Snatchers - short fiction
• Wilding - short fiction
• Requiem Antarctica (with Robert J. Harris) - short fiction
• Night Wolves - short fiction
• The House of Seven Angels - short fiction
• Great Gray - short fiction
• Little Red (with Adam Stemple) - short fiction
• Winter's King - short fiction
• Inscription - short fiction
• Dog Boy Remembers - short fiction
• The Fisherman's Wife - short fiction
• Become a Warrior - short fiction
• An Infestation of Angels - short fiction
• Names - short fiction
• Story Notes and Poems
• The Weaver of Tomorrow - essay / "The Wheel Spins" - poem
• The White Seal Maid - essay / "Ballad of the White Seal Maid" - poem
• Snatchers - essay / "Lou Leaving Home" - poem
• Wilding - essay / "Deer, Dances" - poem
• Requiem Antarctica - essay / "Vampyr" - poem
• Night Wolves - essay / "Bad Dreams" - poem
• The House of the Seven Angels - essay / "Anticipation" - poem
• Great Gray - essay / "Remembering the Great Gray" - poem
• Little Red - essay / "Red at Eighty-One" - poem
• Winters King - essay / "If Winter" - poem
• Inscription - essay / "Stone Ring" - poem
• Dog Boy Remembers - essay / "The Path" - poem
• The Fisherman's Wife - essay / "Undine" - poem
• Become a Warrior - essay / "The Princess Turns" - poem
• An Infestation of Angels - essay / "Work Days" - poem
• Names - essay / "What the Oven Is Not" - poem
• Afterword: From the Princess to the Queen - essay by Alethea Kontis
• About the Author

A rakish fairy meets the real Juliet behind Shakespeare's famous tragedy. A jewelry artist travels to the past to meet a successful silver-smith. The addled crew of a ship at sea discovers a mysterious merman. More than one ignored princess finds her match in the most unlikely men.

From ecstasy to tragedy, with love blossoming shyly, love at first sight, and even love borne of practical necessity - beloved fantasist Jane Yolen's newest collection celebrates romance in all its glory.

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 1985. The story can also be found in the collections Merlin's Booke (1986) and Here There Be Witches (1995). A chapbook edition appeared in 1991.

A boy and a girl become convinced that the white deer they discover in the woods is a unicorn.

Jerold and Gerund live in the same house--but in parallel times. A talking white cat living in all times brings the two boys to her home to prepare them for The Hunt, a bizarre adventure in which one of them will become prey to a huntman with an evil plan.

Under the fountain in Washington Square Park, there lives an incompetent wizard...

David has just moved to New York City from Connecticut, and he's a bit lonely. He hasn't made any friends yet, and the city is so big. But one Saturday afternoon in Washington Square Park, David and his dog, D. Dog, meet a girl named Leilah. Leilah tells David that there's a wizard in the park--a wizard who lives under the Washington Square fountain. At first, David thinks Leilah is just making things up--until he encounters the real live wizard! Unfortunately, the wizard's spells work at the most inconvenient times, and he accidentally turns David's dog into a marble statue. Before the wizard can change D. Dog back, a sneaky antiques dealer grabs the statue and races uptown to sell it. Can David's new friends help him get D. Dog back?

In these twelve modern myths and tales for the young and the young at heart, Jane Yolen transforms the impossible into the familiar and real. Among the outlandish wonders are an Alice grown tough in Wonderland, a dear--but dead--mother's homecoming, a bridge that longs for a goat-eating troll, and a mutiny among Peter Pan's troops.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Curiouser and Curiouser - (1997) - essay
• Tough Alice - (1997) - shortstory
• Mama Gone - (1991) - shortstory
• Harlyn's Fairy - (1993) - shortstory
• Phoenix Farm - (1996) - shortstory
• Sea Dragon of Fife - (1996) - shortstory
• Wilding - (1995) - shortstory
• The Baby-Sitter - (1989) - shortstory
• Bolundeers - (1996) - shortstory
• The Bridge's Complaint - (1997) - shortstory
• Brandon and the Aliens - (1996) - shortstory
• Winter's King - (1992) - shortstory
• Lost Girls - (1997) - novelette
• Afterword: Running in Place: Some Thoughts Long After- (1997) - essay

Poor Henry. It's not enough that his mother has sent him away from home to learn magic. It's not enough that everyone at his new school calls him Thornmallow because he's "prickly on the outside, squishy within." It's not enough that the only talent he shows at Wizard's Hall is an ability to make messes of even the simplest spells. Now, when Wizard's Hall is threatened by a cruel sorcerer's fearsome beast, it is up to Henry--er, Thornmallow--to figure out how to save not only his new friends but also the entire school for wizards.

Young readers encounter dragons of every conceivable form, from horrifying to harmless, in an illustrated anthology of inventive stories and poems about these fascinating mythical beasts.

Table of Contents:

• Why Dragons? - (1993) - poem
• Great-Grandfather Dragon's Tale - (1986) - novelette
• The Dragon Woke and Stretched - (1990) - shortfiction
• "Story," the Old Man Said, - (1993) - shortstory
• Cockfight - (1980) - novelette
• Dragon Night - (1980) - poem
• Dragonfield - (1985) - novelette
• The King's Dragon - (1987) - shortstory
• Into the Wood - (1985) - poem
• The Dragon's Boy - [Merlin's Booke] - (1985) - novelette
• The Making of Dragons - (1986) - poem
• One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox, and the Dragon King - (1993) - novelette
• Here There Be Dragons - (1993) - poem

A fabulous collection of unicorn stories and poems, with both medieval and modern settings, weaves the author's imaginative perspective into traditional unicorn lore about the fabled beast's healing powers and quintessential goodness.

Table of Contents:

• The Making of a Unicorn - (1994) - poem
• Unicorn Tapestry - (1994) - shortstory
• Death of a Unicorn - (1984) - poem
• An Infestation of Unicorns - (1994) - shortstory
• The Lady's Garden - (1994) - shortstory
• The Hunting of the Narwhale - (1994) - poem
• The Boy Who Drew Unicorns - (1988) - shortstory
• The Promise - (1977) - shortstory
• The Hunt - (1994) - shortfiction
• The Unicorn Leaves - (1994) - poem
• De Natura Unicorni - (1994) - shortstory
• The Unicorn's Pool - (1994) - poem
• The Unicorn and the Pool - (1994) - shortfiction
• A Visitor's Account - (1994) - poem
• The Healing Horn - (1994) - shortstory
• Rhinoceros - (1959) - poem
• Li Po and the Unicorn - (1994) - shortstory
• Fossils - (1994) - poem

A collection of folktales and poetry explores the magical world of witches and warlocks, from Baba Yaga and Merlin to a Native American shapeshifter and the witch from Hansel and Gretel. By the creators of Here There Be Dragons.

Table of Contents:

• The Magic House - (1989) - poem
• The Witch's Ride - (1995) - shortstory
• A Conversation among Witches - (1995) - poem
• Boris Chernevsky's Hands - (1982) - shortstory
• Witch's Cat - (1992) - poem
• The Passing of the Eye - (1995) - poem
• The Face in the Cloth - (1985) - shortstory
• When I Grow Up, by Michael Dee - (1995) - shortstory
• Pythagoras - (1995) - poem
• The Promise - (1977) - shortstory
• Circles - (1995) - shortstory
• Weird Sisters - (1995) - poem
• The Woman Who Loved a Bear - (1994) - shortstory
• When Love Came to Witch Alfre - (1995) - poem
• The Sword and the Stone - (1985) - novelette
• Witchfinder - (1995) - shortstory
• Witch Call - (1995) - poem

This heavenly collection of stories and poems makes a beautiful companion volume to Here There Be Dragons, Here There Be Unicorns, and Here There Be Witches. Beautifully illustrated with exquisite duotone pencil drawings, each poem and story of these mysterious beings is prefaced by thoughts from the author on writing, storytelling, and the angels above and among us.

Table of Contents:

• Another Count of Angels - (1996) - poem
• Once a Good Man - (1977) - shortstory
• A Tale of Two Peters - (1996) - poem
• The School Visitor - (1996) - shortfiction
• Jacob's Ladder - (1996) - shortfiction
• The House of Seven Angels - (1996) - shortstory
• Manya's Story - (1996) - poem
• Lady Merion's Angel - (1996) - shortstory
• Angelica - (1979) - shortstory
• The Angel of Mons - (1996) - poem
• The Boy Who Had Wings - (1974) - shortstory
• Child's Prayer - (1996) - poem
• Brother Kenan's Bell - (1983) - shortstory
• Angel City Blues - (1996) - poem
• The Word the Devil Made Up - (1996) - shortfiction
• Fallen Angel - (1996) - shortstory
• Thinking of Angels - (1996) - poem
• Wrestling with Angels - (1996) - shortstory
• Angel Feather - (1996) - poem
• On the Head of a Pin - (1996) - poem

Ghosts, specters, the dead, and the undead fill the pages of this spectacular gift book by master storyteller Jane Yolen. From the ghostly goadings of an insistent - and recently deceased - choir teacher to the most frightening prom date you never want to have, this riveting collection of poems and stories is sure to leave even the most skeptical of readers all shivers and gooseflesh. Lavishly illustrated by David Wilgus's haunting pencil drawings, each tale is prefaced by a note from the author in which she discusses the writer's craft and why it is that storytellers - and their listeners - are drawn to spooky yarns.

Table of Contents:

• It Was the Hour - (1998) - poem
• Ghost Boy - (1998) - shortstory
• Tombmates - (1989) - poem
• Police Report - (1998) - shortstory
• The White Lady - (1998) - poem
• The Boy Who Sang for Death - (1979) - shortstory
• Seance for Eight - (1998) - poem
• Mrs. Ambroseworthy - (1994) - shortstory
• Night Wolves - (1995) - shortstory
• The Singer of Seeds - (1989) - shortstory
• In the Silvered Night - (1998) - poem
• Mandy - (1998) - shortstory
• Haunt - (1998) - poem
• Green Ghosts - (1998) - shortstory
• Souls - (1998) - shortfiction
• The Moon Ribbon - (1976) - shortstory
• Prom Ghost - (1998) - shortstory
• My Own Ghosts - (1998) - poem

The latest volume of the prestigious anthology series, published annually across six decades!

The Nebula Awards Showcase volumes have been published annually since 1966, reprinting the winning and nominated stories of the Nebula Awards, voted on by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). The editor, selected by SFWA's anthology Committee (chaired by Mike Resnick), is Jane Yolen, an author of children's books, fantasy, and science fiction. This year's Nebula Award winners are Charlie Jane Anders, Seanan McGuire, William Ledbetter, Amal El-Mohtar, and Eric Heisserer, with David D. Levine winning the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book.

A new middle-grade novel-the first in a series-from fantasy legend Jane Yolen and stunning newcomer Adam Stemple. Not much happens in fourteen-year-old Callie McCallan's sleepy Massachusetts town. So when the famous rock 'n' roll band, Brass Rat, schedules a concert in the Valley, it's big news. Callie isn't sure what the fuss is all about . . . until she meets the band. Lead singer Peter Gringras and his band mates are so cool. Especially Peter. When he plays his flute, it's as if he has some kind of hypnotic power. But there is something strange about the band. Maybe she's just being weird, but it's as if they're from here-but not from here-at the same time.

A wicked adventure--or deadly...trollble

For sixteen-year-old harpist prodigy Moira, the annual Dairy Princess event in Vanderby is just another lame publicity "op." Moira a dairy princess? Get real. Twelve girls have been selected to have their likeness carved in butter and displayed on the Trollholm Bridge. It's a Vanderby State Fair tradition that has been going on for, like, ever.

As far as Moira is concerned, the sooner it's over with the butter--er--better. 

About the same time and not far away, three brothers--members of the sensationally popular teen boy band The Griffsons--are in the middle of a much needed road trip to relax from the pressures of their latest tour. 

In a flash, however, the kids are suddenly transported to a strange and mystical wilderness where they find themselves in the middle of a deadly tug-of-war struggle between a magical fox named Fossegrim and the monstrous troll Aenmarr of Austraegir. At the heart of the feud is a battle for possession of a mysterious magical fiddle--and an ancient compact between Trollholm and the outer world.

Whatever. All Moira cares about is that eleven of her fellow princesses have been enchanted into a slumber and Moira needs to figure out a way to awaken them... and get home.

Unfortunately for Moira and the Griffsons, nothing in Trollholm is as it seems. Finding a way out of Trollholm may be a lot more difficult than they think.

Three American children, while visiting relatives in Scotland, come upon exactly what their mother has always said they lack: patience. Only this Patience is an old card game--one that summons sinister magic from the past: an ancient map that when altered, alters the world. And worse still, the children call forth the map's owner--the wickedest of Scotland's dark wizards, the bloody-minded Michael Scot. Can the children foil Michael Scot before he gets hold of his map and rewrites the world in his own image?

Even witches have to retire from magic sometime. When Peter, Jennifer, and their four-year-old sister, Molly, visit the Eventide Home, they find just what their gran promised: a coven of kindhearted, retired old witches. But on the heels of their visit, the children themselves are visited--by a Pictish girl fleeing a massacre more than a thousand years earlier. Evil forces are hunting the Pictish child, forces that have tracked her across centuries, bent on fulfilling the dark designs of a single mysterious person in the Eventide Home.

In most places, a graveyard is just a place full of tombstones and bones and wilting flowers. But in Scotland, where magic is everywhere, graveyards are something more, something worse....

On a midnight visit to the town cemetery, Peter and Jennifer get drawn into a deadly drama three hundred years past, a tale of two star-crossed lovers whose ghosts are furious about the betrayals that neither can forgive.

"Lovers of fantasy will appreciate this title," raved Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly called it a "fine novel." It is the story of Jenna. Raised on a mountainside, she learned the arts of the warrior, and from the mountain women the magic of the ancient lore. But the greatest magic of all was her ability to call forth her dark sister from the depths of the mirror of the land of light and shadow.

Skada was the dark one, able to exist only when the moonlight cast a shadow or lamplight flickered in a darkened room.

This is the story of Jenna and Skada. Sister Light and Sister Dark.

Book Two of the Great Alta Saga.

Jenna was the White Queen.

Skada was the Dark Queen. She is bound to Jennathe other half of Jennas self. Drawn out of a mirror by a rite of magic, a "dark sister" is confined to the dark. She vanishes in daylight. It is in this other world the dark sisters wait for moonlight or lamplight to call them forth again.

This is their story: of myths turned real, ordinary people turned heroes, a land turned inside out by the coming of White Jenna.

In a land of magic, the great warrior Queen known as White Jenna has found a frail, one-armed child on the battlefield. She adopts the child and names her Scillia. As is custom with the Hames of the Dales, Scillia will be next in line for the throne. A great honor.

But Jem-Jenna's natural-born son-covets the throne for himself. Will he risk open rebellion to claim what he believes is rightfully his?

Can Scillia stop him?

Dragons are trained to fight to the death, and two determined teens help free them in this spellbinding saga.

Training a dragon to be a fighting champion is the only way to freedom for fifteen-year-old Jakkin.

Jakkin risks everything--his freedom, his dragon, even his life--to rescue his beloved in this stirring sequel to Dragon's Blood.

Jakkin and his girlfriend, Akki, discover a primitive cult that sacrifices dragons.

Austar IV isn't the planet it once was, and when Jakkin and Akki finally return to the dragon nursery, their homecoming arouses mixed emotions. Together they've survived the insurmountable, and now they can weather the brutal conditions of Dark After and communicate with the dragons they love. But with this knowledge comes responsibility. What they've learned about survival could transform the planet--or, if entrusted to the wrong hands, bring about its destruction. Akki's insistence that she return to the Rokk to finish her training and begin new experiments drives a chasm between her and Jakkin. Suddenly she finds herself in the midst of a political battle that could claim her life. Only Jakkin can save her. If only he could reach her. . . .

Snail and Prince Aspen are unlikely companions. Snail is a midwife's apprentice; Aspen is a prince held hostage to prevent a war. Due to a series of misunderstandings, the two find themselves on the run, having adventure after mishap after scary, fast-paced escape. When they reach Aspen's kingdom, they learn to their horror that their actions have divided the country and plunged it into violence. Every minute counts: it is time for Snail and Aspen to figure out a way to stop the building war--together.

The Hostage Prince is a fast-paced, funny, exciting fantasy novel for young readers, both male and female. And who better to start tweens on their journey than Jane Yolen ("America's Hans Christian Andersen"--Time) and her son, Adam Stemple!

In The Hostage Prince, Prince Aspen and midwife's apprentice Snail tried to prevent the Seelie War by making a perilous journey to Aspen's father's kingdom. Their journey started the war instead. Chased by two armies, Aspen and Snail find refuge with the actors of Professor Odds' traveling troupe, dodging soldiers, Border Lord berserkers, a hungry troll, and assorted dwarfs, drows, lycants, boggles, and a cloaked spy. Will they make it out? Is any place safe for the two of them? And who, exactly, is the mysterious Professor Odds, who seems to have his own hidden powers and agenda? Fast-paced and funny, The Last Changeling, the second book of the Seelie Wars trilogy, is the perfect way to introduce newly fledged readers to fantasy.

The exciting conclusion to the Seelie Wars trilogy. Full of magic, battles, and page-turning excitement, this series is a perfect introduction to classic fantasy.

The war that Prince Aspen and midwife's apprentice Snail started--purely by accident--is at hand. The Unseelie Army, the evil side of Faerie, will soon invade and destroy the Seelie kingdom. Aspen is terrified, not simply because his homeland is on the verge of ruin, but because he is now, after the death of his father and brothers, the Seelie King.

He is a young, untried king; a king without a battle plan. But he has Snail, his first and only friend, and the only one who can raise the army Aspen needs--an army of changelings, like her. First, however, she has to convince the mysterious, dangerous Professor Odds, the changelings' leader, who has a destructive plan of his own.

Award-winning anthologists Jane Yolen and Patrick Nielsen Hayden have combed through a year's worth of books and magazines and websites to find the most outstanding fantasy and science fiction stories of 2004--and collected them into a single volume aimed specifically at teens and young adults.

Many of today's most popular authors are represented here, including:
* Garth Nix, author of Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen, who presents an unforgettable tale of two swords, two daughters, and two endings....
* S. M. Stirling, author of Island in the Sea of Time, sends a likeable young barbarian across the Channel to Alba, for a confrontation with a wizard from faraway Nantucket that will change his life forever...
* David Gerrold, creator of "The Trouble with Tribbles," who takes you to a remote countryside surrounded by a mysterious darkness, whose secret has yet to be revealed...

Table of Contents:

• Preface - essay by Jane Yolen
• Blood Wolf - (2004) - novelette by S. M. Stirling
• The Faery Handbag - (2004) - novelette by Kelly Link
• Sleeping Dragons - (2004) - shortstory by Lynette Aspey
• Endings - (2004) - shortstory by Garth Nix
• Dancer in the Dark - (2004) - novelette by David Gerrold
• A Piece of Flesh - (2004) - novelette by Adam Stemple
• CATNYP - (2004) - novelette by Delia Sherman
• "They" - (1904) - novelette by Rudyard Kipling
• The Wings of Meister Wilhelm - (2004) - novelette by Theodora Goss
• Displaced Persons - (2004) - shortstory by Leah Bobet
• Sergeant Chip - (2004) - novella by Bradley Denton
• Honor Roll 2004: The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy for Teens - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• Xanadu--Wouldn't You? - essay by Jane Yolen
• The Poacher - short story by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Lucy Maria - short story by Lisa Tuttle
• Unnalash - short story by Tanith Lee
• Return - short story by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
• Gravity - poem by Pat Schneider
• To Scale - short story by Nancy Kress
• The Stone Girl - short story by Elise Matthesen
• Attention Shoppers - poem by Steven Brust
• Jaguar Lord - short story by Anna Kirwan-Vogel
• Pale Moon - short story by Frances Stokes Hoekstra
• The Ring at Yarrow - poem by Jane Yolen
• Still Life with Woman and Apple - short story by Lesléa Newman
• The Perfectly Round Bagel - short story by Robert Abel
• Owlswater - novella by Pamela Dean
• After Centuries - poem by Donna J. Waidtlow
• Passage - short story by Gardner Dozois
• The Hound of Merin - novelette by Eleanor Arnason
• It Comes Lightly Out of the Sea - poem by William Stafford
• A Boy and His Wolf: Three Versions of a Fable - short story by John Morressy
• Time Travel, the Artifact, and a Famous Historical Personage - short story by Will Shetterly
• Baby Face - short story by Esther M. Friesner
• The Pale Thin God - short story by Mike Resnick

Table of Contents:

• Xanadu--After You - essay by Jane Yolen
• The Fifth Squashed Cat - novelette by Megan Lindholm
• Just Another Dragon-Slaying - short story by Vivian Vande Velde
• Laurel, Again - poem by Carol Jane Bangs
• In the Drought - short story by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Young Woman in a Garden - novelette by Delia Sherman
• from The Book of the Dead Man (#2) - poem by Marvin Bell
• The Little Tailor and the Elves - short story by Barbara Hambly
• Metamorphosis - short story by Milbre Burch
• Shell Story - short story by George Mackay Brown
• Orkney Lament - poem by Jane Yolen
• Raven, Jade and Light - short story by Richard Kearns
• while i was in the woods - poem by Susan Solomont
• Desert Angel - short story by P M F Johnson and Sandra Rector
• The Hell Gamblers - short story by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
• Japanese Fan with Waterfall - poem by Carol Edelstein
• A Most Obedient Cat - short story by Tappan King
• The Dovrefell Cat - short story by Diane Duane
• The Newcomer - poem by T. Winter-Damon and Thomas Wiloch
• The Executioner - short story by Rose Kremers
• Bloodtide - short story by Mary A. Turzillo
• Tale of the Crone Goddess - (1988) - poem by Bruce Boston
• Transmutations - short story by Patricia A. McKillip
• Last Day in May Grammar Lesson - poem by Barbara Van Noord
• The Spinner - short story by Martha Soukup
• Weaver's Cottage - poem by Terri Windling
• Oldthings - short story by Will Shetterly

Table of Contents:

• Xanadu and Porlock, Too - essay by Jane Yolen
• Dairy Queen - short story by Shira Daemon
• The Harmony - short story by Paul Levinson
• Residual Flight - short story by Richard Rowand
• Recent Collections - poem by Ruth Berman
• Mollusk Dreams - short story by Nancy Etchemendy
• Up the Mountain - short story by Sue Young Wilson
• Fortune Tellers - poem by L. A. Taylor
• East of the Sun and West of the Moon - novelette by Claire Parman Brown
• Witch Watch - poem by Anna Kirwan-Vogel
• The Apple Golem - (1995) - short story by Bruce Holland Rogers
• Clay - short story by Linda Mannheim
• Charon's Wife - poem by Julie Kinney
• Nvumbi - short story by Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem
• Tomorrow Never Knows - short story by Mark Garland
• Xanadu - poem by Christine Crow
• The Man Who Loved the River - short story by Jo Clayton
• The Night Journey - poem by Terri Windling
• A Report Concerning the Predator Population in the Northern Part of the Forest - short story by Jeremy Beckett
• The Champion - short story by Tanith Lee
• Old Woman Who Created Life - short story by Josepha Sherman
• Nettie's Garden - poem by Elise Matthesen
• King of Crows - short story by Midori Snyder
• Swan/Princess - poem by Jane Yolen
• The Lizard Queen - short story by Michelle Stone
• Arthur - poem by Brenda D. Crank
• Guinevere - poem by Brenda D. Crank
• Jo's Hair - short story by Susan Palwick
• The Hunter and the Stag - novelette by Astrid Julian
• Mothballs - short story by Marvin Bell
• Armdale Rotary Horse - short story by Malcolm Beckett
• Word Drift - short story by Jeanette Ingold
• The Asgard Philharmonic Plays Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture - poem by Lawrence Schimel
• Gil - short story by Dan Perez
• Gord and Fnord Go to the Zoo - short story by Charles Von Rospach
• Calliope - (1993) - short story by Micole Sudberg
• Your Essential Unsung Hero - short story by Nancy Kilpatrick

This is the legendary story of Merlin--from his abandonment by his parents at the age of eight to the discovery of his powers at twelve. Together, these three novels reimagine the origins of the greatest wizard of all time, giving readers a Merlin at once more human and more magical than any that has appeared before.

A boy is abandoned in the woods of medieval England. A year passes--a year of terror and hunger, of sleeping in trees and foraging for food, of outrunning packs of wild dogs--until one day a falconer captures and tames the boy as he would any passager, a young bird caught in the wild and trained. The falconer adopts the boy and teaches him all of the things he's forgotten, including the boy's true name--and the legacy of magic that will be his when he comes of age.

When young Merlin falls into the company of traveling performers, they rename him Hobby, after a small falcon. Nightmarish trouble lies ahead on the path that will lead him to greatness.

In flight from the magic visions that plague him, Merlin falls into the hands of the wodewose--wild folk who, according to legend, live in the company of wolves and devour children. But far from being wild, the wodewose are an enormous family of the unwanted, the abandoned, and the homeless. For once Merlin has found a place where an orphan like himself belongs. The triumphant conclusion to the Young Merlin Trilogy.