LitBit Speaks

At Zeppelin Bend, an outdoor education program designed to teach troubled youth the value of hard work, cooperation, and compassion, ten teens are left alone in the wild. The teens are a diverse group who come from all walks of life, and they were all sent to Zeppelin Bend as a last chance to get them to turn their lives around. They’ve just spent nearly two weeks learning to survive in the wilderness, and now their instructors have dropped them off eighteen miles from camp with no food, no water, and only their packs, and they’ll have to struggle to overcome their vast differences if they hope to survive. Inspired by The Canterbury Tales, Feral Youth features characters, each complex and damaged in their own ways, who are enticed to tell a story (or two) with the promise of a cash prize.  Contributors: Shaun David Hutchinson - The main narrative Suzanne Young - A Violation of Rule 16 Marieke Nijkamp -  The Butterfly Effect ;  The Chaos Effect Robin Talle...

In this rather bizarre, but ultimately worthwhile collection of stories about villains, readers will have the opportunity to explore backstories of known and unknown "evil" characters alike, all of whom are given realistic motivations for their own existence in the world. Without demonizing anyone, these individual stories explore motivations, histories, and family drama that lead to choices which we, as readers, often label as "evil" or "villainous." For instance, did you ever think Medusa could have a good reason for being so pissed off? Or that there might be a reason why a drug lord has killed off a LOT of people around a large urban centre? Or what about the backstory of beauty and the beast? This is a gorgeous collection of stories from a series of truly talented authors. Check it out!! Recommended

Whether it is basketball dreams, family fiascos, first crushes, or new neighborhoods, this bold anthology—written by the best children’s authors—celebrates the uniqueness and universality in all of us. In a partnership with We Need Diverse Books, industry giants Kwame Alexander, Soman Chainani, Matt de la Peña, Tim Federle, Grace Lin, Meg Medina, Walter Dean Myers, Tim Tingle, and Jacqueline Woodson join newcomer Kelly J. Baptist in a story collection that is as humorous as it is heartfelt. This impressive group of authors has earned among them every major award in children’s publishing and popularity as New York Times bestsellers. I love short stories so much! And short stories by people that I know, respect, and appreciate the work of, is even more amazing! This collection, therefore, is just spectacular! Okay, enough exclamation points. Let's get to the review. There are so many incredible authors involved in this collection, many of whom you will recognize fr...

Before Miss Peregrine gave them a home, the story of peculiars was written in the Tales. Wealthy cannibals who dine on the discarded limbs of peculiars. A fork-tongued princess. The origins of the first ymbryne. These are but a few of the truly brilliant stories in Tales of the Peculiar —known to hide information about the peculiar world—first introduced by Ransom Riggs in his Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series. Riggs now invites you to share his secrets of peculiar history, with a collection of original stories, as collected and annotated by Millard Nullings, ward of Miss Peregrine and scholar of all things peculiar. I love a good short story collection. For fans of Miss Peregrine , this collection will not disappoint. The tales themselves are bizarre, sometimes hilarious, and at others disturbing. There are origin stories describing the history of the ymbrynes and the beginnings of the time loops that shelter peculiars. There are stories of shape shifting royalty,...