Science Myths

Is mind reading a real skill? What about being able to move things with just your mind? Listeners will be captivated by claims of psychic powers while also learning the facts about each story. Which tales could be true, and which myths are busted?

A stunning fantasy inspired by familiar fairy-tales, complete with cursed princesses, thieves-turned-soldiers, and an orphan girl transformed into an immortal, shapeshifting heroine. The Nissera Chronicles start here.... Bristal, a 16-year-old kitchen maid, finds herself in a gritty fairy-tale gone wrong when she discovers she has elicromancer magic in her blood. Elicromancers are an ancient breed of immortal people, but only two remain in Nissera after a bloody civil war. Bristal joins their ranks without knowing that one of them has a dark secret.

When Chantella's mother died, she thought it couldn't get much worse. But now she is bullied by her stepfamily, and her dad has done nothing about it! Her one chance out is a singing competition. Chantella has a beautiful singing voice, but her stepsiblings are jealous.

Shalandra has fallen. Monsters of legend have risen from their graves to claim the City of the Dead. Kodyn and Evren have only one hope of stopping the evil Iron Warlord: break into the holiest, most secure stronghold in the city and steal ancient relics imbued with world-shattering magics. Issa joins the ranks of Shalandra's elite warriors in a desperate clash against the nightmare hordes flooding the streets and slaughtering every man, woman, and child.

The fate of a kingdom rests on the shoulders of three young wizards. Bakari is a brilliant scholar wizard who's more at home in a library than a battlefield. Alli is a beautiful young battle wizard whose grace in battle is both enchanting and deadly. Roland is a counselor wizard with a seemingly limitless depth of untapped power - and the ego to match it. As the magical barrier protecting the kingdom of Alaris from dangerous outsiders begins to fail, and a fomenting rebellion threatens to divide the country in a civil war, the three wizards are in the middle....

When Stephanie Kiser moves to New York City after college to pursue a career in writing, she quickly learns that her entry-level salary won't cover the cost of living. But there is one in-demand job that pays enough to allow Stephanie to stay in the city: nannying for the 1%. Desperate to escape the poverty of her own childhood, Stephanie falls into a job that hijacks her life for the next seven years: a glorified personal assistant to toddlers on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

This book is a three-part journey into the rabbit hole we call the nature of reality. Its ultimate destination is a plausible, living validation of transcendence. Each of its three parts is like a turn of a spiral, exploring recurring ideas through the prisms of religious myth, truth, and belief, respectively. With each turn, the book seeks to convey a more nuanced and complete understanding of the many facets of transcendence.

From the dark, haunted cave comes a man's plea. He’s a stuck climber in a hidden chamber inside the mountain. But as we travel to his rescue, things continue to deteriorate. Sick, hurt, and now deep underground, my worst nightmare is finally here. I’m trapped, with the dead lurking everywhere. Who can save me from ghosts? Who can heal my broken body? Who can make me never be defenseless again? Something in the dark can. Something inhuman. Something that wants to live in me, corrupting who I am. And if I want to survive, I have to let this monster live in my body.

When eight-year-old Kirstie brings home a strange egg from the Scottish shore, her family never expects it to hatch. But the next day, Kirstie discovers a baby sea monster swimming in her bathtub! Part horse, part toad, part turtle and part crocodile, he's the oddest-looking creature Kirstie's family has ever seen. Only Kirstie's grandfather knows what the beastie really is: a Water Horse! This lovable creature is the perfect pet. The only trouble is, he can't stop growing.

What magical beings inhabit Earth’s waters? Some are as almost-familiar as the mer-people; some as strange as the thing glimpsed only as a golden eye in a pool at the edge of the Great Desert Kalarsham, where the mad god Geljdreth rules; or the unknowable, immense Kraken, dark beyond the darkness of the deepest ocean, who will one day rise and rule the world. Here are seven tales from the remarkable storytellers Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson. Vividly imagined and written, they transform the simple element of water into something very powerful indeed.

Why were Prometheus and Loki envisioned as chained to rocks? What was the Golden Calf? Why are mirrors believed to carry bad luck? How could anyone think that mortals like Perseus, Beowulf, and St. George actually fought dragons, since dragons don't exist? Strange though they sound, however, these "myths" did not begin as fiction.

When twelve-year-old Milly Martin stumbles upon a golden-threaded shawl tucked away in her mother’s wardrobe, she has no idea it holds an ancient power. But when her beloved dog, Louie, leaps into its fabric and vanishes, Milly follows—only to find herself transported to a world where myths and legends come to life. One moment, she’s immersed in her favorite computer game, strategizing alongside virtual warriors. The next, she’s living it. The Shawl of Athena, a relic of immense power, has pulled her into a realm where gods, warriors, and ancient forces battle for control.

It’s finally summer break, and twelve-year-old Yumi is headed to Korea with her older sister, Minji, for the very first time. She can’t wait to explore the city of Seoul together—but Minji has other plans. The moment they land, Minji ditches Yumi to hang out with their cousins, who are more fashionable, better at soccer, and all-around cooler than Yumi. Lost and alone, Yumi is stuck at home painting with her grandfather. Everything changes when she finds an intriguing ink brush in a neighborhood art shop.

After surviving a disastrous battle at prom, Alyssa has embraced her madness and gained perspective. She's determined to rescue her two worlds and the people and netherlings she loves, even if it means challenging Queen Red to a final battle of wills and wiles... and even if the only way to Wonderland, now that the rabbit hole is closed, is through the looking-glass world - a parallel dimension filled with mutated and violent netherling outcasts.

Griffins, cyclopes, monsters, and giants - these fabulous creatures of classical mythology continue to live in the modern imagination through the vivid accounts that have come down to us from the ancient Greeks and Romans. But what if these beings were more than merely fictions? Through careful research and meticulous documentation, Adrienne Mayor convincingly shows that many of the giants and monsters of myth did have a basis in fact - in the enormous bones of long-extinct species that were once abundant in the lands of the Greeks and Romans.

Pahua Moua has a bit of a reputation for being a weirdo. A lonely 11-year-old Hmong girl with the unique ability to see spirits, she spends her summer days babysitting her little brother and playing with her best friend, a cat spirit no one else can see. One day Pahua accidentally untethers an angry spirit from the haunted bridge in her neighborhood - whoops. When her brother suddenly falls sick and can't be awoken, Pahua fears that the bridge spirit has stolen his soul.

Six months after Paola Santiago confronted the legendary La Llorona, life is nothing like she'd expected it to be. She is barely speaking to her best friends, Dante and Emma, and what's worse, her mom has a totally annoying boyfriend. Even with her chupacabra puppy, Bruto, around, Pao can't escape the feeling that she's all alone in the world. Pao has no one to tell that she's having nightmares again, this time set in a terrifying forest.

Fame. Fortune. Your most extravagant wish granted. These are the prizes promised to the team that wins the Faerie Race, the first and only reality television show to venture into the dangerous realm of the fae. But that's not why Jacqueline Cunningham wants in. She's after any sign of her sister - who vanished without a trace into the faerie world two years ago. Jacq thought getting into the race would be the hard part. But she didn't count on the other competitors - who will stop at nothing to finish first.

This work is a landmark in American political thought. Preeminent Richard Hofstadter examines the passion for progress and reform that colored the entire period from 1890 to 1940 with startling and stimulating results. The Age of Reform searches out the moral and emotional motives of the reformers, the myths and dreams in which they believed, and the realities with which they had to compromise.

With The Hound of Rowan, Henry H. Neff launches a scintillating series featuring ancient lore and a young boy thrust into a world of unimaginable possibility. Max McDaniels is visiting an art museum with his dad when he spies a mysterious Celtic tapestry - and is soon visited by a Recruiter who wants to whisk Max away to the fantastical Rowan Academy.