FREE/BARGAIN - Children's, YA - 2015

[gabby98]

We point out free and bargain Children's and YA titles to each other, and recommend certain books that are/were free (or the opposite!).

Because Kindle freebies are easiest to find, the majority of the books listed are from Amazon, but freebies and bargains from other retailers and in other formats are more than welcome!

In case no retailer is specifically mentioned in a post, it is safe to assume it's for Amazon US.

Be aware that many freebies are only free for a day, so grab them fast!

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2014 Thread

FREE @ Amazon

Hannah And The Gnome
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KV98L4W/

The Midnight Feast
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KVAE370/

[ATDrake]

X-link to the Non-Fiction megathread since some of you might know kids who are artistically inclined:

Free from the small press publisher @ iTunes and thence price-matched at selected regional Amazon stores: Draw Chibi Dark: Evil is the New Cute by Christopher Hart, a drawing instruction book by the author/artist of a whole bunch of Watson-Guptill How to Draw Manga paperbacks

[ATDrake]

Free again from the author('s republishing consortium) via KDP Select @ Amazon: (linkage for the lot)

The New, Thinking Annabel & Little Yearnings of Annabel by UK author Alan Davidson, in his tween-level humorous novel series starring the adventurous eponymous schoolgirl, originally out from Armada in 1986 and Penguin's Puffin imprint in 1988.

Annabel's in big trouble at school but when a book on 'problem behavior' drops at her feet, it proves inspirational. In its pages she meets the wayward Betsy-Lou - Case History No.36 - her 'transatlantic cousin'. And Betsy-Lou can help her..... An even bigger thinking challenge comes along when she has to prove to Kate's father that she can be trusted at the seaside if she's to go on holiday with Kate. That she is, indeed, a very sensible person.

More hilarious episodes from the life of thirteen-year-old Annabel Bunce.

[ATDrake]

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Lancelot du Lac by multiple Nebula-finalist A. A. Attanasio (ISFDB, Wikipedia) with illustrations by Jesse Lindsay, 1st in their Provenances of the Perilous Order series of YA Arthurian fantasy. This is out from Firelords Press, which appears to be their self-pub imprint, but Attanasio has been very generous with his backlist reprint freebies both via KDP and Phoenix Pick and the title of the series suggests it ties into his HarperPrism-published adult Arthurian fantasy quartet which we've previously gotten free way back when.

This is a fully-illustrated novel which is done in one of the picture-based formats, so you'll need a compatible level of app/device to read it on (Kindle Cloud Reader will do, but not K4Mac/PC).

Of all the formidable knights of Camelot, why is Lancelot the fiercest warrior?

In his own voice, this peerless knight reveals how the joy of the blade possessed him. Blood and magic shape his story.

Orphaned by war and brought up by a fairy in the depths of an enchanted lake, Lancelot belongs to two worlds. He takes to the field of battle in 6th century Britain as a creaturely spirit of death. And as a champion of love, spiritual and carnal, he reaches into legend, into the soul of the West, our Celtic twilight.

[ATDrake]

X-link to the Non-Fiction megathread since the new Humble Bundle has a whole bunch of kid-friendly computer/science/LEGO®-oriented books in it:

Bargain @ pay-what-you-want to $15: the Humble Brainiac Book Bundle Presented by No Starch Press, containing a whole lot of LEGO® guides, and programming introductions for kids for the Ruby, Python, and JavaScript, and more!

[ATDrake]

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon: (linkage for the lot)

The Kingston Castle by Ruth Benjamin, a Jewish-themed (NB: the author is an Orthodox Jew according to her bio-blurb and many of her books are generally filed under Religious Fiction in the Amazon categories) YA mystery novel originally out from specialty small press Hachai Distributions in 1991 under the pseudonym of Ruth Abrahamson.

When the Rosenbergs decide to vacation in Kingston, it is to get away from the bustle of city life. Little do they know that the town and its famous castle hold in store the adventure of a lifetime.

The Rosenberg kids become fast friends with the Sandler family. The Sandlers are Orthodox Jews and the Rosenbergs begin to discover a world about which they know very little.

Meanwhile the children become involved in a terrifying mystery.

Quinton Holiday Adventure, another YA mystery, which the blurb says was originally published in serial format in Concord Magazine.

The Dinansky Family have gone to spend their holiday in a caravan park in the seaside resort of Quinton. They have taken with them two old transmitter sets (walkie-talkies) from the Second World War which their grandfather has lent them.

Walking along the beach, at some distance from one another,the two older children are talking to one another on the transmitters. Chaya trips and and the dials move frequency and she hears from the machine a man's voice, a voice full of terror. "Please, please help! If anyone can hear me, please help".

Immediately they are all plunged into a breathtaking and dangerous adventure.

Benjamin also offers a few more self-published-looking YA things and some adult-level backlist literary & mysterious identity thrillers, if you're interested.

[septentrion]

Seraphina by Rachel Hartmann is 1.99$ at amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Seraphina-1-Ra.../dp/B005IQZC2M.


In the kingdom of Goredd, dragons and humans live and work side by side – while below the surface, tensions and hostility simmer.

The newest member of the royal court, a uniquely gifted musician named Seraphina, holds a deep secret of her own. One that she guards with all of her being.

When a member of the royal family is brutally murdered, Seraphina is drawn into the investigation alongside the dangerously perceptive—and dashing—Prince Lucien. But as the two uncover a sinister plot to destroy the wavering peace of the kingdom, Seraphina’s struggle to protect her secret becomes increasingly difficult… while its discovery could mean her very life.

[ATDrake]

Free from the author('s republishing consortium) via KDP Select @ Amazon:

The Bunce Saga by Alan Davidson, a short story in his Annabel series of tween/YA novels starring the eponymous adventurous schoolgirl, which were originally out from Penguin's Puffin imprint and which we've also previously received a few of upthread.

Selected from the first Annabel collection [A FRIEND LIKE ANNABEL] this hilarious taster story features the classic teenage heroine at her most riotously imaginative.

Here, Annabel Fidelity Bunce decides to reveal in full to best friend Kate the tragic family history behind her middle name---much to the annoyance of classmate Miles Noggins, who'd much prefer to discuss who has the last raspberry trifle left over from Angela Dill's birthday party.

But as the story unfolds of Annabel's 19th century ancestor, Fidelity Bunce, blow by shocking blow, even Miles finds himself enthralled - and horrified.

Free again from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

The Time Keeper by Barbara Bartholomew (ISFDB), 1st in her The Timeways trilogy of tween/YA sci-fi time-travel adventures, originally out from Signet in 1985.

The glowing stones seemed to throb with some unknown power. What were these stones and why were they here in this hidden cavern? All fifteen-year-old Jeanette Lacy and her younger brother Neil knew was that the stones were calling to them. . .and they couldn't resist.
But their first steps on this weird pathway took them whirling through time to Texas--one hundred and thirty years ago in another past. Texas, where two moons hung in the sky, where unicorns were only too real, and where a boy named Jesse became an unexpected ally in their quest to return home. Then, instead of home, the stones sent them off to a frightening future where traveling in time was the worst crime of all.

ETA: free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon (linkage for the lot):

The Cresta Adventure by Ruth Benjamin, a tween/YA mystery adventure originally out from Orthodox Jewish specialty publisher Feldheim (Wikipedia) in 1989.

It was to be a quiet, restful summer vacation at Cresta, but instead, Lea Greenberg has the greatest adventure ever! When she and her mother arrive at the quaint coastal village, they find a charming cottage and a whole family of delightful neighbors, the Rubins, to liven up their stay.

Lea and the Rubin twins, Devorah and Dina, quickly become friends and set out to explore the local attractions. At the Cresta Museum - a genuine castle that was once the elegant home of Lord and Lady Tranfield - they accidently discover a secret passage leading to a whole network of under¬ground caves.

Benjamin's other YA & adult-level backlist & self-published novels from previous days are also still free.

[orangekiwi]

Terry Pratchett's Dodger (Not a Discworld novel) is currently $1.99 in the US.

I have seen it available at amazon, kobo and Barnes and Noble.

http://www.amazon.com/Dodger-Terry-P.../dp/B007HBLOZA
https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/dodger-1

publishers description
Beloved and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett's Dodger, a Printz Honor Book, combines high comedy with deep wisdom in a tale of one remarkable boy's rise in a fantasy-infused Victorian London.

Seventeen-year-old Dodger is content as a sewer scavenger. But he enters a new world when he rescues a young girl from a beating, and her fate impacts some of the most powerful people in England.

From Dodger's encounter with the mad barber Sweeney Todd, to his meetings with the great writer Charles Dickens and the calculating politician Benjamin Disraeli, history and fantasy intertwine in a breathtaking account of adventure and mystery.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

ETA: free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon (linkage for the lot):

The Cresta Adventure by Ruth Benjamin, a tween/YA mystery adventure originally out from Orthodox Jewish specialty publisher Feldheim (Wikipedia) in 1989.

It was to be a quiet, restful summer vacation at Cresta, but instead, Lea Greenberg has the greatest adventure ever! When she and her mother arrive at the quaint coastal village, they find a charming cottage and a whole family of delightful neighbors, the Rubins, to liven up their stay.

Lea and the Rubin twins, Devorah and Dina, quickly become friends and set out to explore the local attractions. At the Cresta Museum - a genuine castle that was once the elegant home of Lord and Lady Tranfield - they accidently discover a secret passage leading to a whole network of under¬ground caves.

Benjamin's other YA & adult-level backlist & self-published novels from previous days are also still free.

Interesting to see some Jewish literature showing up.

My previous experience with Feldheim tells me they are a pretty good source of special interest non-fiction, but I haven't had much success finding decent Jewish fiction (Feldheim or otherwise, but they do seem to have an incidental stranglehold).
OTOH, I have apparently read a few books by Mrs. Benjamin -- although it was some time ago.

Have you read her/others' work, and what do you think about them?

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Have you read her/others' work, and what do you think about them?

Sorry, no, I haven't read Ruth Benjamin's freebies (I have a low read-rate for KDP stuff in general), and I should probably mention at this point that I'm an atheist from a secular background who lives in one of the most agnostic regions of Canada and the most acquaintance I've had with any religion in the past decade or so has been walking past the Scientology centre downtown on my way to the central library and I really just post what I see that pops up free that has a recognizable (non-self-)publisher and/or author with decent provenance in the form of previous trad-pub credentials.

That said, if you're willing to consider a few quasi-recommendations for Jewish-themed literary works I've personally read (or watched in adapted form) and enjoyed, I'll put the ones which immediately spring to mind under the cut (since it gets a bit long, and this is technically off-topic for the Kids/YA thread, though I'll mention that Mordecai Richler also wrote one of the classic Canadian children's storybooks):

Spoiler:

Disclaimer: none of these are dedicated Jewish religiously observant works in the same way that we have the dedicated Christian publisher freebies, and some of them are written by non-Jews. But all of them involve what seem to me to be prominent Jewish-background characters and themes where their background seems to be very important to the setting/plot, and IMHO as a secular humanist atheist, seem to be handled in a reasonably respectful manner, though YMMV.

1. The Magicians of Night by Barbara Hambly (ISFDB, Wikipedia), 2nd in her Sun-Cross duology (it was actually meant to go to more books, but she never got around to writing the 3rd) of fantasy/real-world crossover. This is a self-contained story that draws back on stuff established in the 1st book, but can be read standalone as a WWII adventure, and stars a wizard from an alternate universe who's been tricked into working for the Nazi Occult Bureau and tries to find a means of escape, with the help of a Polish-American Jewish woman who herself is trying to find and free her Kabbalist father who's another of the Occult Bureau's prisoners.
   
   According to the note in the back, while Hambly herself isn't Jewish, she does have distant relatives on one side of the family who left Poland just in time. This is an Open Road Media title and it tends to go on sale periodically (I got mine during one of their CyberMonday sale promos, although I've also owned it in paperback for some time, since Barbara Hambly is one of my favourite authors) and is couponable otherwise.
2. The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals by Ann (ISFDB, Wikipedia) & Jeff VanderMeer (ISFDB, Wikipedia), which is Exactly What It Says In The Title. IIRC, Ann is Jewish, Jeff is not, and they argue (Jeff in the form of his persona as "The Evil Monkey") about which monsters make suitable munchies for observant Jews and why (the Chupacabra is not, but the vegetable lamb is). This is amazingly funny and rather educational for the uninitiated as to several moderately obscure mythological/folklore/urban legend critters, and kosher food laws as well. This was part of the Jeff VanderMeer's Weird Fiction bundle from StoryBundle.
3. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen (ISFDB, Wikipedia). This was part of Terri Windling & Ellen Datlow's line of fairy-tale retellings, this one a post-Holocaust resetting of Sleeping Beauty, as a woman begins to retrace her roots after her grandmother's death and finding out just how much of her family history she doesn't know about. This is really very good and I highly recommend it (if you try only one book out of this list, it should be this one); Wikipedia says it was a Nebula finalist and has a Mythopoeic Prize.
4. Peony by Nobel Prize-winner Pearl S. Buck (Wikipedia, and Wikipedia entry for the novel itself). This is an historical literary novel about the Kaifeng Jews of 19th century China, and deals with themes of separation and assimilation and intermarriage and maintaining faith despite outside not-so-much-pressure-from-alienation-as-apathy-in-the-face-of-acceptance. This is only a partial recommend as I'm only about halfway through this, and the prose phrasing seems a bit old-timey and stilted (this may or may not be a deliberate narrative stylistic choice to give some added historical flavour), but so far it's been pretty interesting and seems like it'll conclude promisingly. This was a $1.99 sale title from Open Road Media a few months ago and they'll probably drop it on promo again at some point.
5. The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick by Canadian author Morley Torgov (Wikipedia) has been a freebie giveaway from re-publisher BevEditions a few times during Smashwords' Read An Ebook Week annual sale. This is a Jewish experience coming-of-age novel which won the 1983 Stephen Leacock Memorial Award for Humour, and was adapted into a movie (Wikipedia) which gets shown on CBC every so often. I haven't actually read the book even though I've got the freebie, but I did see a good chunk of the film (but not the entire thing, IIRC, as my viewing was interrupted), and it is pretty funny, with some poignant moments, and was highly recommended by some other MR members when it first came free a couple of years ago.
6. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler (Wikipedia), another Jewish Canadian novelist, and one of our top literary figures. This is another work I know more from the film (Wikipedia) than the actual novel (Wikipedia entry; again, a Jewish experience coming-of-age type story, though more of a bleaker coming-to-terms-with kind of thing than TOCOMG), but both are generally considered to be quite good, and the film itself won a bunch of prizes, including an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and a Canadian Film Award for Film of the Year.

Hopefully there might be something which looks like it's of interest that you'll end up enjoying.

[gabby98]

From CNET's Cheapskate blog:

Calling all parents! For a limited time, you can stock up on some excellent Dr. Seuss e-books for just 99 cents apiece. (Most of them normally run $3-4, and the print versions will typically run you double.) They're available on both Google Play and iTunes; just search for Oceanhouse Media and look for the 99-cent titles. They include The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, and Oh, The Places You'll Go! These are fantastic apps, and a steal at a buck apiece.

I believe this to be the link for Google Play,though they seem to be $1.11 there, it was not included in the article.
https://play.google.com/store/books/...5c0_seuss_sale

ETA: The $1.11 make sense since it's his 111 Birthday

[bookmarked]

Originally Posted by gabby98

From CNET's Cheapskate blog:



I believe this to be the link for Google Play,though they seem to be $1.11 there, it was not included in the article.
https://play.google.com/store/books/...5c0_seuss_sale

ETA: The $1.11 make sense since it's his 111 Birthday

Also available at Amazon:

Green Eggs and Ham - $0.99/99 coins + earn 30 coins

The Cat in the Hat - $0.99/99 coins + earn 30 coins

Oh, the Places You'll Go! - $0.99/99 coins + earn 30 coins

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish - $0.99/99 coins

Dr. Seuss's ABC - $0.99/99 coins

[ATDrake]

Free from the author('s republishing consortium) via KDP Select @ Amazon:

A Friend Like Annabel by Alan Davidson, another one in his eponymous tween-level comedic series starring the adventurous schoolgirl, this installment a collection of shorts originally out from Armada in 1984 and later also picked up by Penguin's Viking imprint.

"I saw your friend Annabel in the High Street," said Kate's mother. "There was a duck following her around. It went into the newsagent's after her."
"Yes," said Kate absently.

She's completely bonkers - but then she's British! Classic comedy featuring 13-year-old Annabel Bunce, her best friend Kate Stocks, their assorted schoolmates [and some fairly eccentric grown-ups!] in the small English country town of Addendon. Five complete stories in one volume.

[gabby98]

FREE @ Amazon
Little Ghostie (A Halloween Fantasy for Children) by Pamela M. Richter
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FXNCSFO/

Publication Date: October 15, 2013
LITTLE GHOSTIE
When a tiny ghost is caught on Halloween by the dreaded Ghost Buster Hunters he is placed in a Haunted House with other magical creatures. Cindy and Bobby, two children who can actually see ghosts, attempt to free the tiny ghost from his trap in the spooky house. (This is a book for children with lots of pictures for their enjoyment. Also included is a recipe for Triple Dipped Smores Candy Apples.)

Christmas with Uncle Nick and The Sugarplum Fairies: A Children's Fantasy Story - by Pamela M. Richter
http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Uncl...dp/B00FIICWY6/

Publication Date: September 28, 2013 | Grade Level: P - 2
A mysterious relative called Uncle Nick comes to babysit on Christmas Eve. The children, Bobby and Cindy, are surprised because they didn't even know they had an uncle. When the lights go out, Uncle Nick starts telling them wonderful Christmas tales and fantasies. (The entire Night Before Christmas poem and a recipe for Sugarplum candy is included.)

ETA: I just remembered that this is one of MR's own authors...I want to disclose that I have no affiliation with this author other than having read some of her material.