Kirjahaku

Stay hidden or be hunted. Possessing a magical Curse is a criminal offense, making every day a challenge for thirteen-year-old Mason Davis. Blowing up the Christmas tree, tearing off the car door, giving the neighbors' dog three heads-his unpredictable power changes every twelve hours, and he has no idea what it will conjure next. Mason yearns for a normal life, but when the authorities pay the Davis family an unexpected visit, he is exposed and hauled away to a prison for the magically Cursed.As he plans his escape from the gloomy corridors, Mason comes face-to-face with a terrifying truth: someone dangerous knew his secret all along.With help from a shape-shifting boy, and a girl with secrets tattooed on her skin, Mason uncovers an ominous prophecy that is either the key to their freedom or the end of Mason and the Cursed forever.

On the Battleground, only one thing sets heroes and villains apart: choice. Thirteen-year-old Mason Davis and his friend, Abigail, are two of the mysterious Four Hexed3/4the most powerfully Cursed people in the world. After their narrow escape from prison, they must go into hiding as the authorities ramp up their efforts to recapture the fugitives. But when Mason's careless choices result in the discovery and imprisonment of another member of The Four Hexed, he must rely on an old enemy to find a way into the impenetrable prison, Hydra Solaris, to rescue her. What Mason uncovers inside is more horrifying than he ever imagined: a battleground that pits inmates against each other in epic Cursed contests for the entertainment of the world's most wealthy and elite. To save his new friends and return home, Mason and his unpredictable Curse must outwit the devious Commander-in-Chief and outlast the perilous tournaments on the Battleground. If he fails, he will come face-to-face with Hydra Solaris' greatest threat: the Curse-stealing creature lurking within the prison. And if it catches up to Mason, it could end both his magic and his life.

When Francis Schmidt, a bow tie–wearing law school graduate with a bombastic personality, got started as a volunteer high school coach, football still followed Victorian tenets of caution and simplicity and often employed fewer than fifty plays. By the time "Frantic Francis" had risen through the ranks of small colleges on the plains to one of the top coaching jobs in America—head coach at Ohio State University in the 1930s—football was a wild, wide-open game, largely because of Schmidt's own daring style. With a mind that never stopped thinking about football, he created a playbook ten times larger than those previously used during his era and filled it with daring, complex plays that broke all the decades-old golden rules of offense. This book tells the little-known story of the man who forever changed the way football is played—and whose coaching lineage can be traced to such current names as Bill Walsh, Al Davis, and Mike Holmgren. Frantic Francis offers an unforgettable portrait of an eccentric character whose paranoid, manic, brusque, and profane ways shocked and confused even his players, but whose speedy, deceptive, and imaginative plays remade the sport of football. Although Schmidt's mania eventually sabotaged his career, his legacy was secure and the style he introduced continues to make football one of the most popular spectator sports in America.