What does it mean when a fictional hero takes a journey?. Shares a meal? Gets drenched in a sudden rain shower? Often, there is much more going on in a novel or poem than is readily visible on the surface -- a symbol, maybe, that remains elusive, or an unexpected twist on a character - and there's that sneaking suspicion that the deeper meaning of a literary text keeps escaping you. In this practical and amusing guide to literature, Thomas C. Foster...

Lucy Hull, a young children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both a kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten-year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. The precocious Ian is addicted to reading, but needs Lucy's help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes with celebrity Pastor Bob. Lucy stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds Ian camped out in the library after hours...

Working at the local library, Aleisha reads every book on a secret list she found, which transports her from the painful realities she's facing at home, and decides to pass the list on to a lonely widower desperate to connect with his bookworm granddaughter.

Dog loves books so much that he decides to open a book store.

Life is delicious in the town of Chewandswallow where it rains soup and juice, snows mashed potatoes, and blows storms of hamburgers--until the weather takes a turn for the worse.

In this uproarious exploration of the joys of reading, a long-time teacher, lifelong reader and The New Yorker contributor shares surprising stories from her life and the poignant ways in which books have impacted her students and shows us how literature can transform us for the better.

At bedtime, a young boy who cannot find his favorite book imagines the various creatures that might have taken it from him.

Bored with another normal, inky evening, bats discover an open library window and fly in to enjoy the photocopier, water fountain, and especially the books and stories found there.

A children’s literacy advocate presents a story in which readers from everywhere pore over books, each with their own questions, ideas to explore, hopes for the future, and imaginations ready to spark, showing the many ways books can foster connection and empower children.

A groundbreaking vision on the future of reading, from an early innovator on Amazon's Kindle team.

Is digital the death knell for print?

Or will it reinvigorate the written word?

What will happen to bookstores, book browsing, libraries, even autographs?

Will they die out—or evolve into something new?

In Burning the Page, digital pioneer Jason Merkoski charts the ebook revolution's striking

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