Showing results by narrator "Katherine Kellgren" in All Categories

In 1953, Esref Armagan was born completely blind to a poor family in Istanbul, Turkey. He received no formal education, and spent his childhood days in his father's shop where he developed the curiosity to create and draw. He experienced the world through touch, and learned to visually reproduce his surroundings, including color, shadows, and perspective, with his hands. The blind artist's story will be an inspiration to young artists of all abilities.

Great Rapscott School for the Daughters of Busy Parents is not your typical boarding school. Students arrive in boxes, birthday cake is served for breakfast, and two very talented corgis assist the rather quirky headmistress. This semester the girls will learn how to get to The Top, but the semester is not off to a good start. One of the girls doesn't make it back to school, and when her friends try to rescue her, they wind up at the Bottom of the Barrel. Luckily Ms. Rapscott knows that learning to fail is the secret to Going Far in life.

Kaab and Diane, enemies bound by common interests, forge a new understanding. Micah and Rafe receive unexpected offers of employment. And Will, now the Duke Tremontaine in name only, languishes at Highcombe House, where it is hoped - by some - that he may yet recover.

On her way home from the shops, Nina Borg is attacked. Dazed and half conscious, she hears her assailant ask for her forgiveness. Only later does she understand that this isn't for what he's just done but for what he plans to do to. For the first time, she's the primary target of a hit, and it slowly dawns on her that this case is connected to a surprising and dangerous friendship among three young men from Manila.

It's time for Grayling to be a hero. Her mother, a "wise woman" - a sort of witch - has been turned into a tree by evil forces. Tangles and toadstools! Lacking confidence after years of being called "Feeble Wits" by her mother, Grayling heads off dubiously into the wilds in search of help, where she finds a weather witch, an aromatic enchantress, a cheese soothsayer, a slyly foolish apprentice, and a shape-shifting mouse named Pook!

This "Fantasy of Manners" follows the lives and intrigues of four very different characters as they maneuver the cobblestone streets and glittering ballrooms of a city that never was. Nameless, but inspired by Elizabethan London, 18th-century Paris, 1980s New York, and many others great cities both real and fictional, the setting of Tremontaine comes alive behind the colorful figures of Micah, Rafe Fenton, Ixkaab Balam, and, of course, Diane, the duchess of Tremontaine.

Sex, intrigue, and murder spice the latest installment in the stunning new prequel to Ellen Kushner's beloved Riverside saga. Rafe's academic troubles grow worse, but he finds comfort in surprising places. When Micah plunges into mathematical calculations that threaten to expose trade secrets long held close by Kaab's people, Kaab must do some quick thinking of her own. Meanwhile, Diane seeks to involve the house Balam in her intrigues....

A moment of staggering inspiration and insight sets events in motion that have the potential to fracture friendships, shatter alliances, and remake the balance of power in the city...and the world. As Micah explores the implications of her discovery, and Rafe moves quickly to exploit them, Kaab is faced with a calamity that threatens not only her own future, but that of her family and the Kinwiinik people.

In a city that never was, the rich live high on the Hill, the criminals and swordsmen live on the dangerous streets of Riverside, while foreign merchants keep them both supplied with their daily chocolate. And through it all weaves a dance of politics, intrigue, and secrets.

Afraid that he is losing his mind, Will looks for comfort in Rafe's arms. Rafe, meanwhile, blames himself for his lover's condition. And when Kaab hears of Diane's childhood and her long-ago encounter with Rupert Hawke, new questions arise that can be answered only within the walls of Tremontaine House itself.

Diane's secret arrangement with the Balam family bears fruit as a strategic withholding of chocolate wreaks havoc on the city's social fabric, from the Hill to Riverside. But Kaab has her own private stash, for which she has a special use in mind, involving a certain pretty forger. Meanwhile, Rafe sits for his exams, with his dreams of starting his own school hanging in the balance. Diane ploys all her wit and wiles upon the Dragon Chancellor.

Violent passions erupt at the Tremontaine Ball! A misunderstanding comes between Rafe and Will while Micah threatens to expose Kaab's secret to her family. Diane's plans to salvage the Tremontaine name and fortune hang by a thread, and Kaab recognizes the locket sketched by Tess...in the last place she would have expected to see it.

Duchess Diane de Tremontaine, the crowning gem of her city's high class, sits in her manor's window on The Hill and looks over her domain with eyes that cut and a mind that schemes. From below, and far away from the glitz of wealth, a poor country farm girl named Micah looks only toward her family, the harvest, and the complex web of math that entrances her. At the Docks, Ixkaab Balam surveys that same city from the deck of her family's merchant vessel and sees a land to manipulate for fortune and fun.

Kaab seeks out the services of a good forger before paying a visit to the Duchess Tremontaine. Diane, meanwhile, pays a visit to Highcombe House, the Tremontaine country estate. And at long last, Kaab and Diane face off in a drawing-room duel where the weapon of choice is words.

When Tess finds herself plagued by mysterious dreams of her murdered ex-protector, Ben, Kaab vows to solve the mystery. But she may never get the chance, for Reynald is on her trail, with more murder on his mind. Meanwhile, Will tells Diane of Micah's discovery, but her response is not what he had hoped for. And Micah gets an unexpected job offer.

Swordplay and stolen kisses keep the blood pumping and flowing in the new installment of Tremontaine, the online episodic series set in Ellen Kushner's beloved Riverside universe.

Everyone in New Orleans thinks the Button family lives in a spooky old haunted house - except the three Button children. The bumps in the night are perfectly normal to them until one day when an elderly ghost appears to investigate this mystery with his mechanically enchanted umbrella. Soon he discovers a world behind their walls, a world that takes him and the three Button children down to a village far below their home, a village of jack-o-lantern houses, a village of scary creatures, a village called Halloween Hollow.

The Magic Library is finally reopening its long-locked doors. But it needs four librarians. To become one, four magic books need to be found. Surprisingly, four homeless people find them. One is called Peter Butterpig, a bright-pink pig with great big butterfly wings. Two others are old robots called Sir Copperpot and Uncle Glitch, who are falling apart with failing memory banks, yet they never forgot to take care of the fourth.

Key the Steampunk Vampire Girl has been thrown into the Dungeon of Despair and lost in the past through the Tower Tomb of Time, and now she lives in a magical mansion that floats beneath a hot air balloon. On the outside it looks ordinary while the inside has numerous bewitched hallways like a maze and countless enchanted doors that can lead anywhere in the world! But when two villains take over the Floating Mansion, Key works desperately to get it back with the aid of old friends.

Good is a seven-year-old girl who was adopted by absolutely ghastly parents. One night, after wishing on hundreds of shooting stars to become a queen, an elderly ghost appears to grant her wish in the most unexpected way, making her queen of the goblin kingdom. Yet what seems like a curse becomes a blessing when she meets seven goblins on their way home. They lead Queen Good to the goblin kingdom until stopped upon discovering that a mysterious enemy has destroyed their homeland completely.