Shadow Spinner Study Guide

Shahrazad tells the Sultan a story every night, but does not quite finish by daybreak, and for almost a thousand days the Sultan has allowed her to live one more night to hear another story. But Shahrazad's time and imagination is running out. When a young girl named Marjan visits the harem, she has something Shahrazad needs--more stories. As the Sultan's mother plots against her, can Shahrazad, with Marjan's help, heal the Sultan's crippled heart and bring him peace? A gripping novel of hurt and the power of forgiveness. Setting: Ancient Persia

Shadow Spinner is a fresh and unique version of the story of the Arabian Nights and the 1001 Tales, but it focuses on the story teller and the people around her rather than simply retelling her stories, as most versions do. The Sultan's wife has betrayed him with a lover, and so the Sultan has killed the two of them. Unwilling to be alone, but believing that all women are betrayers, the Sultan marries a new girl each day and kills her before morning. No young woman in his kingdom is safe. Then Shahrazad, the daughter of the Sultan's own vizier, volunteers to be his wife. In the morning, facing death, she asks the Sultan if she can tell her younger sister one last story before she dies. The Sultan agrees, and listens as Shahrazad tells her story to Dunyazad. But as Shahrazad sees the sun rising, she breaks off her story at a particularly exciting spot, promising to finish it the next night if she still lives. The Sultan, entertained and intrigued, grants Shahrazad her life for one more day. And so begins a tense and uncertain pattern - each night Shahrazad tells a story, but there is always the danger that if it does not please the Sultan, death awaits. After two and a half years, Shahrazad is running out of stories. So Shadow Spinner begins with Marjan, a cripped orphan storyteller who goes with you Auntie Chava to sell jewelry to the few women who remain in the Sultan's harem. When the children gather around her, she naturally begins to tell them a story, just as she imagines her hero Shahrazad does. One of the listeners is Dunyazad, and when she realizes this is a story she has never heard, Marjan is summoned before Shahrazad and taken into the harem. Once in the harem, Marjan learns that the Sultan's mother is just as dangerous as the sultan himself, and she wants Shahrazad, and all who help her, to fail and die. When Shahrazad tells Marjan's story to the Sultan, they discover the story is a favorite of the Sultan's from his childhood and he looks forward to hearing the full story again - but Marjan only knows the small bit she has already told Shahrazad! They must find the blind beggar who first told the story to Marjan - but it is death to leave the harem! As they search for a way out of their deathtrap, they each learn the power of stories... when there is truth in the tale. Interactive CD-rom.

Every night, Shahrazad begins a story. And every morning, the Sultan lets her live another day -- providing the story is interesting enough to capture his attention. After almost one thousand nights, Shahrazad is running out of tales. And that is how Marjan's story begins.... It falls to Marjan to help Shahrazad find new stories -- ones the Sultan has never heard before. To do that, the girl is forced to undertake a dangerous and forbidden mission: sneak from the harem and travel the city, pulling tales from strangers and bringing them back to Shahrazad. But as she searches the city, a wonderful thing happens. From a quiet spinner of tales, Marjan suddenly becomes the center of a more surprising story than she ever could have imagined.

The Rosewater Insurrection continues the award-winning science fiction trilogy by one of science fiction's most engaging voices. All is quiet in the city of Rosewater as it expands on the back of the gargantuan alien Wormwood. Those who know the truth of the invasion keep the secret. The government agent Aminat, the lover of the retired sensitive Kaaro, is at the forefront of the cold, silent conflict. She must capture a woman who is the key to the survival of the human race. But Aminat is stymied by the machinations of the Mayor of Rosewater and the emergence of an old enemy of Wormwood. Innovative and genre-bending, Tade Thompson's ambitious Afrofuturist series is perfect for fans of Jeff Vandermeer, N. K. Jemisin, and Ann Leckie. Praise for The Wormwood Trilogy: "Smart. Gripping. Fabulous!" —Ann Leckie, award winning-author of Ancillary Justice "Mesmerising. There are echoes of Neuromancer and Arrival in here, but this astonishing debut is beholden to no one." —M. R. Carey, bestselling author of The Girl with All the Gifts "A magnificent tour de force, skillfully written and full of original and disturbing ideas." —Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of Children of Time The Wormwood Trilogy Rosewater The Rosewater Insurrection The Rosewater Redemption

Twelve-year-old Danny O'Carolan and his sister, Kathleen, arrive in New York City in 1863, at the height of the Civil War. Kathleen finds a job in domestic service for herself and Danny, hoping to keep Danny from being drafted into the US Army as a drummer boy. As he explores the city and shares his talent for Irish dancing, Danny discovers the vast variety of New York's neighborhoods. With the threat of the draft pitting Irish immigrants against the free Black population, stoking tensions between the rich and the poor, and threatening the life Danny hopes to build, can he find a safe place to call home?

To survive in the City of Sin, an innocent girl must choose her new identity in this dark YA fantasy—the sequel to Ace of Shades. Indulge your vices in the City of Sin, where a sinister street war is brewing and fame is the deadliest killer of them all. Prim and proper Enne Salta never expected to team up with an infamous con man like Levi Glaiyser. But winning the Shadow Game was not the victory they imagined. Now the duo are wanted for murder and Enne is forced to live in disguise as Séance, a mysterious figure of the underworld. Desperate to build his empire, Levi makes a deal with the estranged son of Mafia donna Vianca Augustine, while Enna remains trapped by Vianca’s binding oath, unsure whether to embrace the role of refined lady or cunning street lord. As they walk a path of unimaginable wealth, a dangerous game of crime and politics swirls around them. And when unforeseen players enter, they must each make an impossible choice: sacrifice everything . . . Or die as legends.

In the aftermath of 9/11 . . . Larry, a successful young Los Angeles lawyer, and his dog, Zeus, negotiate a life-changing, two-and-a-half-day odyssey that leads them to Joshua Tree National Park. There, Larry encounters an array of unlikely teachers including talking trees and stones, white buffaloes, and a rap-spouting raccoon. These unorthodox characters mock conventional wisdom with irreverential humor to reveal to him the back-stage mechanics of Creation. Larry for the first time understands who he really is and why he has chosen to be born on Earth at this precise time. He also comes to appreciate the perfection of the Great Experiment and the extraordinary possibilities awaiting the human race; should it awaken before it's too late.

Find out what happens to Connor, Risa, and Lev now that they've finally destroyed the Proactive Citizenry in this collection of short stories set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Unwind Dystology by Neal Shusterman. Connor Lassiter's fight to bring down Proactive Citizenry and find a suitable alternative to unwinding concluded in UnDivided. Now Connor, Risa, and Lev are free to live in a peaceful future--or are they? Neal Shusterman brings back his beloved Unwind characters for his fans to see what's left for those who were destined to be unwound.

Download Chapters 1-5 in Shadow and Bone, the much anticipated new trilogy by debut author Leigh Bardugo. Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee. Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling. Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha...and the secrets of her heart.

A Study Guide for Lois Lowry's "Gathering Blue", excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.