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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  CAPTOR’S KISS
  
  “Are you looking for your father to ride to your rescue?” Gabel asked, leaning
  against the wall.
  
  Ainslee gave him a brief look of disgust. “I am looking for your weak points,
  my cocksure knight, so that I may return to conquer your lands and give you a
  wee taste of captivity.”
  
  “I am all atremble.” He took her hand in his, slowly drew it to his lips, and
  brushed a kiss over her knuckles. “Yet, what man could protest imprisonment by
  such fine blue eyes?”
  
  It was nonsense, Ainslee knew, but she smiled and even felt her heart flutter.
  The tone of his deep voice stroked her. She tensed only briefly, when he
  reached out to thread his long fingers through her hair. She was not so naive
  that she was unable to recognize an attempt at seduction, but she did not feel
  any inclination to rebuff him.
  
  “Ye talk a great deal of pretty foolishness,” she murmured, making no attempt
  to elude him when he gently caged her body between his and the wall.
  
  “Foolishness? Nay.