Many of the animals that live in the southwestern desert witness the race between slow but steady Tortoise and the quick, overconfident Jackrabbit.

"When thirteen-year-olds T.E. and Audrey meet at a wilderness camp in the desert, they think their quirks are enough to prevent them from ever having friends. But as they trek through the challenging and unforgiving landscape, they learn that they each have what it takes to make the other whole"--

When her peaceful village of Lagusa is attacked by a Mistress sent to do the bidding of the power-hungry Sothpike and his army of undead monsters, Naira Khoum forms a resistance to stop the Mistress before Lagusa is beyond saving. "Naira Khoum has only known life in Lagusa, a quiet village at the desert's end. But to the rest of the world, Lagusa is a myth, its location shrouded in secrecy. While war rages to the north led by power-hungry Sothpike...