title: A Small Free Kiss in the Dark
author:  Glenda Millard 
description: Starred Review. Grade 6&ndash;8&mdash;Millard's latest offering is a touching story of paradoxes&mdash;destruction and beauty, war and love, homelessness and family. Skip is a runaway foster child living on the streets when an explosion overturns the Dumpster in which he is sleeping. War has broken out, and he finds himself in a city of broken buildings and terrified survivors. He and his friend Billy, a resourceful and kindhearted homeless man, attempt to escape the chaos and avoid enemy soldiers by hiding in an abandoned amusement park. Joined by an orphan boy and a teenage mother, they huddle in the House of Horrors while the world collapses around them. Through it all, Skip comforts himself by drawing chalk pictures and thinking about his favorite works of art. He narrates with an artist's attention to detail and rich use of visual metaphor, depicting horrific scenes of bombing and devastation in poetic and surprising language. He finds beauty in everything, particularly in his companions, who become his longed-for surrogate family. Skip's optimism against the apocalyptic background lends the story a haunting quality that is not to be easily forgotten.&mdash;<I>Emma Burkhart, Springside School, Philadelphia, PA</I> <BR>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  Kissed At Midnight
  
  Samantha Holt
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright 2015 ©Samantha Holt
  
  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
  manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
  quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
  
  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are
  products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to
  be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales,
  organisations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Chapter One
  
  Manchester, England 1844
  
  Perhaps it was Ivy’s imagination but the impressive brass knocker on the shiny
  black door was certainly smirking at her. The lion had an air of derision to
  him. Instead of looking aggressive, he seemed to be lifting his jowls in a
  certain dismissive manner.
  
  Braving the lion’s disdain, she reached for the knocker and rapped it again.
  Ivy reminded herself to breat