The Book Hog loves books and has a large collection, although he never learned to read.

A woman explains to her son how she grew up in a remote village where almost no one could read and write, but she found a way to learn how when her sister began getting letters from a young doctor who used to live there.

"When the new teacher announces all 3rd graders must read in front of everyone on Parents Night, Trevor Lee and his best friend take action before his secret of not being a good reader gets out."--

The young man known as Teach secretly learned to read, write, and use numbers growing up alongside the master's son. And although on this Southern plantation these are skills he can never flaunt, Teach doesn't keep them to himself: In the course of a week, he'll teach little ones the alphabet in the corner stall of a stable and hold a moonlit session where men scratch letters in the dirt. He'll decipher a discarded letter bearing news of Yankee soldiers...

"The Joneses have just won the Great Montgomery Book Emporium in a contest, and it's every book lover's dream! The pull of a lever calls forth a room full of marvelous wonders--from the Room of Woodland tales with its squirrels and mice, to the rocket ship in the Room of Space Adventures, and the aquarium ceiling in the Room of Ocean Tales. But there is more to the Emporium than its thousands of books in extravagant displays. In fact, the previous...