Ramón de Ocampo

"Alisak, Prany, and Noi--three orphans united by devastating loss--must do what is necessary to survive the perilous landscape of 1960s Laos. When they take shelter in a bombed out field hospital, they meet Vang, a doctor dedicated to helping the wounded at all costs. Soon the teens are serving as motorcycle couriers, delicately navigating their bikes across the fields filled with unexploded bombs, beneath the indiscriminate barrage from the sky....

When the baddest of bad guys threatens the world with a giant black hole, Ben Braver is the only one who can stop it. Ready or not, he's about to learn what it really means to be a hero.--

Eleven-year-old Sam Abernathy, extremely overprotected and a reluctant celebrity since he was trapped in a well at age four, dreams of becoming a chef and starts by entering a local cook-off.

"Mario is spending winter break with his neighbors, Todd and Jewel, on their family vacation to Vermont. He is excited to see snow for the first time and meet his friend's beloved grandparents. But Todd and Jewel's grandparents turn out to be a little odd. They love telling tall tales of goblins, elves, and trolls. When Mario spots a blur of green fur in the garden, he wonders if the stories could be real. He's determined to find out more, but the...

"Reminiscent of the beloved novels by Mary Kubica and Jodi Picoult comes a chilling portrayal of a son's addiction and its harrowing effects on both him and his mother from New York Times bestselling author Courtney Cole. There comes a time when offering your life for your child's doesn't work, when you realize that it'll never be enough. The cold needle in his warm vein was a welcome comfort to my son at first. But then it became the monster that...

Best friends and members of a popular boy band find their once-easy rapport straining under the pressures of fame and their management's decision for gay singer Ruben to stay in the closet. Ruben Montez and Zach Knight are two members of the boy-band Saturday, one of the biggest acts in America. Along with their bandmates Angel Phan and Jon Braxton, the four are teen heartbreakers in front of the cameras and best friends backstage. But their once-easy...

Lena has a problem: she is a twelve-year-old giant child, but she is still only the size of a human: rejected by the giant king, she and her enormous talking cat, Rufus, go down to the human world seeking some magic that will restore her to her rightful status; Jin is a twelve-year-old genie, not yet allowed his full powers, and at the moment tied, for two more wishes, to the Golden King, an annoying, nasty tyrant who has sent him on a quest--and...

A collection of stories from the childhood of Charles "Peanut" Tillman, who would grow up to play as a cornerback for the Chicago Bears and have his off-field work recognized with the 2013 NFL Man of the Year award.

This book recounts one of history's most harrowing - and chilling - tales of survival. In 1846, a group of emigrants bound for California face a choice: continue on their planned route or take a shortcut into the wilderness. Eighty-nine of them opt for the untested trail, a decision that plunges them into danger and desperation and, finally, the unthinkable. This is a retelling of the ill-fated journey of the Donner party across the Sierra Nevadas...