Showing results by narrator "Ramón de Ocampo" in All Categories

At 30 years old, Phil is an unemployed gamer who struggles to make ends meet. His only source of income is freelance writing (when he feels inspired enough to add another article to his less-than-popular blog). His wife has just walked out on him, leaving him without money, purpose, or food in the fridge. On the day his wife dumps him, Phil receives a mysterious piece of wetware. A game interface seems to have been implanted in his brain, which allows him to see the world through the eyes of an RPG player. Now that Phil discovers his real-life stats, he can see they're below average.

Fourteen-year-old Dewy Marriss never imagined America’s gas pumps would dry up the same week he promised to manage his family’s bicycle shop. Suddenly everyone wants a bike, and nobody wants to wait. With his parents stranded far from home, Dewey tries to keep up with his overwhelming responsibilities.

Having lost the Trial, Hagen didn't just lose his interface and his memory of it, but also everything he'd achieved. His UFC career was ruined before it even began. Stripped of all his skills and abilities, Mike is once again a useless weakling. The last straw is the loss of all the money that he'd bet on his own victory. But you do remember, don't you, that Phil Panfilov promised to take care of his old comrade from Pibellau? What can Mike achieve with a non-combat version of Phil's augmented reality interface?

The acclaimed author of seven ALA Best Books for Young Adults, Will Hobbs pens a spellbinding true-to-life adventure. With nothing but dogged determination, 15year-old Victor leaves his Mexican village to illegally enter the U.S. and help his starving family. Soon he must outwit gangs, drug-runners, and border agents as he endures shivering nights, blistering days, and gnawing hunger. But can his longing for the beckoning opportunity of El Norte carry him through such impossible obstacles?

New York Times Notable Book author Charles Yu wrote the best-selling novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. In his stunning, often humorous, collection Sorry Please Thank You, Yu draws on pop culture and science to make incisive observations about society - and offer touching insight into the human condition. In two of Yu’s remarkable stories, he focuses on a big-box-store night-shift employee with girl trouble and a company that outsources grief for profit.

Based on the massively successful CW show, Riverdale, this prequel novel explores what the gang was doing before season one. Why did Jughead and Archie have a falling out? What did Veronica’s life look like in the Big Apple? And how long has Betty really been in love with Archie? Told from multiple points of view, your favorite characters tell their story their way.

First contact with a mysterious race of aliens reveals an unusual request; a family's pet dog comes to grips with the newly bestowed gift of human-like intelligence; a poet, in danger and alone on a distant world, makes unlikely allies; hundreds of years in the future, a famous hermit lives in the sea above the now-underwater Harvard University; former friends navigate unsteady peace between human refugees and the technologically superior race that saved them; in a future where human life can be infinitely extended through cybertronic rebirth, one woman declines immortality.

An all-new, mesmerizing adventure from the masterful Gordon Korman! Jackson Opus has always been persuasive, but he doesn't know that he's descended from the two most powerful hypnotist bloodlines on the planet. He's excited to be accepted into a special program at the Sentia Institute - but when he realizes he's in over his head, Jackson will have to find a way to use his powers to save his friends, his parents, and his government.

A lazy and wussy ex-gamer, Phil becomes one of the few humans who receive a mysterious alien piece of wetware that allows them to see the world through an augmented-reality interface very similar to those used in an MMORPG game. Guided by its stats and messages, Phil begins to level up, gradually transforming himself and his life. He even opens his own business in order to help his friends and complete strangers who acquire a newfound respect for him, assisting him in his travails.

Callum Drift has been head of E.L.F. security at the North Pole for hundreds of years, and his worst nightmare just came true. Santa, code name “Red One,” has been kidnapped. Cal will do anything he can to save Red One, even if it means teaming up with the world’s most infamous bounty hunter, Jack O’Malley. Together, this unlikely duo crisscrosses the globe on an action-packed mission to figure out who took him and why. Will they be able to find Red One and save Christmas?

The entire world has changed, and Noah has changed with it. A year after the Shift, the plans he'd laid, caches he'd hidden, and infrastructure he'd put in place have saved millions, but the world's death toll has still been astronomical. Now he continues his struggle to protect the people he cares about and to atone for his past weakness. Journeying with his elite group, the Merriweathers, Noah has been patrolling the Eastern United States.

When Marco runs into his old friend Erek, he doesn't think too much of it. He's got more important things to do, like helping to save the world. But then Marco finds out Erek's been hanging with some of the kids at the Sharing, and he starts to think that something just a little weird is going on. So Marco, Jake, and Ax decide to morph and check old Erek out. Just to see if he's been infested with a Yeerk. The good news is that Erek's not a human-Controller. The bad news is that Erek's not even human.

Twelve-year-old Tor Luna was born with a leadership emblem, just like his mother. But he hates his mark and is determined to choose a different path for himself. So, on the annual New Year's Eve celebration, where Emblemites throw their wishes into a bonfire in the hopes of having them granted, Tor wishes for a different power. The next morning Tor wakes up to discover a new marking on his skin...the symbol of a curse that has shortened his lifeline, giving him only a week before an untimely death.

With a mix of Spanish and French words and phrases within the text and the endearing energy of the irrepressible Julieta, young listeners will be transported to Paris and the world of art in this middle-grade mystery about a diamond stolen from the Louvre — a robbery that nine-year-old Julieta and her art-handler dad walk in on and are accused of!

Satan prowls around, ready to pounce on our every weakness, fill us with fear, and destroy our intimate relationship with Christ. But we are not defenseless. We have weapons of warfare enabling us to be spiritually aggressive and face the devil head on. Rather than lose ground in our faith, we can live armed and dangerous. In this handbook of militant prayers, evangelist and ex-satanist John Ramirez helps you prepare for and move into advanced combat.

A distinctive new voice: Rex Ogle's story of starting middle school on the free lunch program is timely, heartbreaking, and true. Free Lunch is the story of Rex Ogle's first semester in sixth grade. Rex and his baby brother often went hungry, wore secondhand clothes, and were short of school supplies, and Rex was on his school's free lunch program. Grounded in the immediacy of physical hunger and the humiliation of having to announce it every day in the school lunch line, Rex's is a compelling story of a more profound hunger - that of a child for his parents' love and care.

Finding the right venture capitalist to back your start-up is a challenge. Even if you manage to get backing, you want your VC to be a partner, not some dictator who will undermine your vision and take control of your life's work. Jeffrey Bussgang is one of a very few people who have played on both sides of this high-stakes game. Now he draws on his unique perspective to offer high-level insights, colorful stories, and practical advice. He reveals how to get noticed, perfect a pitch, and negotiate a partnership that works for everyone.

Zach should’ve outgrown his imaginary friend by now. He knows this. He’s 11, long past the days when kids are supposed to go on epic make-believe adventures with their invisible friends. But after the death of his father five years ago, all Zach wanted was an escape from the real world. So his imaginary friend, Shovel, hasn’t faded away like the other kids’ have. Their imaginary friendship grew stronger. But now Zach’s in middle school, and things are getting awkward. His best friend ditched him for a cooler crowd.

In powerful, vivid verse, the master behind The Watch That Ends the Night recounts one of history’s most harrowing - and chilling - tales of survival.

In the exciting follow-up to The Nebula Secret in the seven-book Explorer Academy series, Cruz, Sailor, and Emmett, along with their new ally Bryndis, embark on their first globe-trotting mission aboard the ship Orion. Cruz jumps right back into school and starts using the latest technology in submersible underwater dives, but is soon reminded of the dangers of exploration when his equipment fails and he almost drowns. Determined to keep his eyes on the prize, Cruz sneaks away to try to find answers, but unknowingly lures his friends into bigger trouble.