The adventures of a mischievous young boy and his friends growing up in a Mississippi River town in the nineteenth century.

Nahoko Uehashi's The Beast Player is an epic YA fantasy about a girl with a special power to communicate with magical beasts and the warring kingdom only she can save. Erin's family cares for the fearsome water serpents that form the core of their kingdom's army. When some of the beasts mysteriously die, Elin's mother is sentenced to death as punishment. With her last breath she manages to send her daughter to safety. Alone, far from home, Elin discovers...

Escaping from the prison where he was born, Pong discovers harrowing truths about the gap between the world's privileged ruling class and impoverished laborers, while the prison warden's daughter who is hunting him uncovers other daunting secrets. "A boy on the run. A girl determined to find him. All light in Chattana is created by one man -- the Governor, who appeared after the Great Fire to bring peace and order to the city. For Pong, who was born...