Arcadia Public Library

Beth Harmon becomes an orphan when her parents are killed in an automobile accident. At eight years old, she is placed in an orphanage in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, where the children are given tranquilizers twice a day. Plain and shy, she learns to play chess from the janitor in the basement and discovers she is a chess genius. Penniless and desperate to learn more, she steals a chess magazine and enough money to enter a chess tournament. She also...

Eighteen-year-old Salama Kassab, a pharmacy student volunteering at the hospital in Homs, is desperate to find passage on a refugee boat for herself and her pregnant best friend, but first she must learn to see the events around her for what they are--not a war, but a revolution.

When Ethan checks under the bed for his monster, he finds a note saying that Gabe has gone fishing and will be back in a week. He tries out several substitute monsters, but finds that none are as perfect as Gabe.

Jack Harmon, who is bullied at school, finds a cell phone and hears a strange voice who wants him to do bad things.

Possum is hiding from the sounds in the night, and his fear sets off a chain reaction in the other night animals.

Scaredy Squirrel, a squirrel who never leaves his nut tree because he's afraid of the unknown, finds someone perfectly safe to make friends with. Join him on his journey to friendship.

When thunder makes a young boy and his dog afraid, they decide to make as much noise as the storm.

Scaredy comes up with a Bad Dream Action Plan to avoid sleep but between counting stars, playing cymbals and making scrapbooks, disaster still strikes and exhaustion takes its toll. Will Scaredy survive this ordeal? Will he find sweet dreams?

From bugs and frogs to alligators and whales, frightened animals always move out of the way of a larger opponent.