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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  v1.0
  
  January 8, 2007
  
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  Pride and Petticoats
  
  Shana Galen
  
  "I can take anything you English throw at me."
  
  Dewhurst's hand flexed on her waist, the threadbare bombazine hiding nothing
  of the sweet curve of her back and the swell of her hip. She was warm—as hot
  as the fire in her hair. "So this is to be war between us?" he asked, his
  voice little more than a whisper.
  
  "What else? Neither of us can forget what the other is," she retorted, but her
  rich voice was even lower now. Ragged and husky and full of sweltering days
  and sweaty nights.
  
  "I'll make you forget. I'll make you surrender." He bent his head close,
  brushing his lips against hers with just a hint of pressure. She inhaled
  sharply and tried unsuccessfully to pull away.
  
  "Only if you surrender first."
  
  "Never." He took her mouth with his in a relentless kiss. She gasped, and her
  body went rigid with shock, but he gave no quarter…
  
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