Bored with another normal, inky evening, bats discover an open library window and fly in to enjoy the photocopier, water fountain, and especially the books and stories found there.

On the third afternoon of going to the library with her brother Henry, Beatrice finally finds something she enjoys doing.

In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska's ice. Thus was Dr. Blue's Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born. But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing...

Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands. The child arrives having just stolen her first bookalthough she has not yet learned how to readand her foster father uses it, The Gravediggers...

Jim Qwilleran, crime reporter turned editor, first meets Kao K'o-Kung, a pure-bred Siamese cat whom he calls Koko, and they become an unstoppable pair of investigators.

Emily Bartlett lives in an old farmhouse in Pitchfork, Oregon-at a time when automobiles are brand-new inventions and libraries are a luxury few small towns can afford. Her runaway imagination leads her to bleach a horse, hold a very scary sleepover, and feed the hogs an unusual treat. But can she use her lively mind to bring a library to Pitchfork.

Leonard, a seasoned ultramarathoner, encountered a stray dog while he was racing through the Gobi Desert in China and Mongolia. The dog kept pace with him for nearly 80 miles. Taking care of the dog gave Leonard a new perspective on life. He named the dog Gobi, and fought to bring her home with him with the help of strangers and a viral outpouring of assistance on the internet.

The guitarist and vocalist of feminist punk trio Sleater-Kinney presents a candid and deeply personal assessment of life in the rock-and-roll industry that reveals her struggles with rock's double standards and her codevelopment of the comedy "Portlandia.".

Elizabeth Brown loves to read more than anything else, but when her collection of books grows and grows, she must make a change in her life.

Miss Lotta Scales is a dragon who believes her job is to protect the school's library books from the children, but when she finally realizes that books are meant to be read, the dragon turns into Miss Lotty, librarian and storyteller.