Syd Chambers grew up on Earth with his human mother and barely remembers his alien father from Denza, who left on a mission when Syd was very young. After leaving Earth, Syd learned the truth of his father’s disappearance on the planet Ashfall—his father had died protecting a devastating secret about the history between humans and Denzans. Syd is now faced with a choice—free humanity from imprisonment on Earth, which will allow them to come...

"In fifty years, Myrra will be free. Until then, she's a contract worker. Ever since she was five, her life and labor have belonged to the highest bidder on her contract--butchers, laundries, and now the powerful, secretive Carlyles. But when one night finds the Carlyles dead, Myrra is suddenly free a lot sooner than she anticipated--and at a cost she never could have imagined. Burdened with the Carlyles' orphaned daughter and the terrible secret...

Nick of time: A newlywed husband comes under the spell of a fortune-telling machine in a restaurant. The prime mover: A man with telekenetic powers tries his luck in Las Vegas. It's a good life: A 6-year-old boy from Ohio has the ability to change the world. The mind and the matter: A man uses the power of his mind to re-create his environment.

In I sing the body electric, a girl comes to understand that a grandmother can be a tender, thoughtful, caring, loving woman, even if she is a robot. In Long distance call, a young boy uses a toy telephone to talk with his dead grandmother. In Lonely, a murderer is sentenced to solitary confinement on a distant asteroid. In Probe 7, over and out, the lone survivors of two annihilated planets must begin new lives together on a new world.

Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks?those that are honest about the past and those that are not?that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation?s collective history, and ourselves. It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty...

In an alternate nineteenth-century America that is still a colony of Britain's industrial empire, sixteen-year-old Charlotte and her fellow refugees' struggle to survive is interrupted by a newcomer with no memory, bearing secrets about a terrible future.

Although made of straw and borrowed clothes, a scarecrow appreciates his peaceful, gentle life and the privilege of watching nature at work.

In a post-apocalyptic future, teenaged Leyla feels compelled to search for Ari, while seeking to uncover the mystery behind her past.

SLO Library Science Kits: For ages 6 and up. For more information about checking out this set, contact the Santa Margarita Library 805-438-5622.

Twelve-year-old Aru stretches the truth to fit in at her private school, but when she is dared to prove an ancient lamp is cursed, she inadvertently frees an ancient demon.