Defying all stereotypes, Babe is a hardworking, clean, fit, polite, and friendly young pig who lives on the farm run by Mr. and Mrs. Hogget. Although the Hoggets originally viewed Babe as a Christmas dinner, his winning personality, and his ability to get along with all the other animals on the farm, soon transforms him from potential meal to beloved pet. Babe's stock on the farm is raised even higher when following the example of his adoptive mother, a boarder collie, he sets out to become a sheep dog, or rather, a sheep pig. Impressed by Babe's skill, Farmer Hogget trains him to compete in the Grand Challenge Sheep Dog Trials. Inspired by the author's own experiences as an English farmer, this chapter book is illustrated with B&W drawings. BABE THE GALLANT PIG was made into a film called BABE, which was a 1995 Academy Award nominee for Best Picture.

Anne Tyler's 15th novel takes us into the life of Rebecca and the noisy, rowdy, difficult members of the Davitch family. When Rebecca marries Joseph Davitch, she becomes the stepmother of his three kids, then has a daughter of her own. Her husband dies in a car crash, after which yet more Davitches come to live with her. Somehow, Rebecca--in the midst of her own troubles--holds it all together, but, she begins to suspect, at the cost of her own self. A New York Times Notable Book for 2001.

In a collection of 11 stories set in Wyoming (where--though born in Connecticut--she has spent much of her time), Annie Proulx writes about hard living in an unforgiving landscape. Stories include "The Wamsutter Wolf" (about a vagabond's encounter with a very American form of violence), "What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?" (about an obsessed, debt-plagued rancher named Gilbert Wolfscale), "The Contest" (a humorous tale about competitive beard-growing), and "Man Crawling Out of Trees" (in which an eastern couple retire to Wyoming and find it to be rather different from their expectations). Proulx's earlier collection, CLOSE RANGE, also contained stories set in Wyoming.

Mike Noonan, an author who has had writer's block since his wife died four years ago, retreats to a country house in Maine. Once there, he becomes entangled in a complex relationship between a 3-year-old girl, her young mother, and her grandfather, and, since this is, in fact, a Stephen King novel, Mike is also in for sleepless nights haunted by secretive pasts and the ghosts that those secrets have left in their wake.

When he is asked to witness the execution of a young man found guilty of a double murder, Tennessee Sheriff Spencer Arrowood is reminded of a convicted murderer hanged in 1833. But like the long-ago trial and hanging of Frankie Silver, this new case seems far less clear-cut than the judge and jury believe it to be. Will Sheriff Arrowood witness another unjust execution, or is the young man on death row guilty as charged? A "New York Times" Notable Book for 1998.

In this humorous tribute to all those born in the United States between 1947 and 1961, film and pop culture critic Queenan argues that baby boomers have sold out and discusses movies, music, and trends that are favorites of this populous generation.