Game developers love what they do because of whizzy graphics and clever technical ideas, but creating games boils down to one hard reality we all know and hate to admit: the entire process depends on the robustness of the game tools pipeline. This book is all about that pipeline and the tools that support it. And that simply means one thing: if you’re a game developer, you must have it. Written by developers and researchers, the book offers tips and tricks relating to asset and data management, geometry and models, Web tools, and programming.

Game Tool Gems

Paula Berinstein

The Writing Show

Some people just can’t catch a break. Born and raised in a chicken coop, brain-damaged by scarlet fever, and blamed for the death of his baby brother, Ed Lantzer became what everyone expected him to be: unworthy of love and unable to give it. Knowing no other way, he made sure he lived up to this label by concealing his feelings for his wife and children, eventually abandoning them and setting off in search of his purpose—a purpose he was sure existed, even though he had no idea what it was. He couldn’t write and his only skills involved working with wood, but he had a gift. When he put two pieces of wood together, something magical happened, and people noticed. But Ed continued to sabotage himself and lost everything, until one day his purpose was revealed. This enormous task involved complicated mathematical formulas, esoteric knowledge, and an ability to see in ways inaccessible to normal human beings. And it required that he live the rest of his life in seclusion, deprivation, and complete faith. The result was a masterpiece so exceptional, so profound, that it stands alone in the world. Ed’s amazing journey will inspire some to renew their faith. It will move others to understand the power of love. Ultimately, this is a story that pulls those hidden emotions and secrets from deep down inside our hearts and brings them to the surface. It tells us we’re not alone and that we are loved more than we could possibly have dreamed. We are all born into this world with a purpose. We just need to be quiet and listen for it. Can you hear yours?

The Mural Writer: The unlikely story of an outcast who fulfilled an extraordinary purpose

Biographies & Memoirs

VanHouten, LaShelle

Arts & Literature

Twelve-year-old Amanda Lester wouldn’t be caught dead going into the family business. Just because she’s related to Inspector G. Lestrade, that bumbler who sometimes worked with master sleuth Sherlock Holmes, doesn’t mean she should become a detective and give up her dream of becoming a filmmaker. Unfortunately, her plans are in jeopardy. Her latest project with the Stick Dog Filmmakers Club and Production Company isn’t coming together, and her control freak tendencies have driven away all her actors. If she doesn’t make a winning film soon, her parents will insist that she go into the L.A.P.D. young cadets training program, and her budding career will be over. So when Herb and Lila Lester suddenly send her to a secret English school for the descendants of famous detectives, Amanda resists—until she and her new friends notice drops of blood and weird pink substances in odd places. Are these strange happenings clues to a real mystery or simply part of the elaborate class project the teachers assign every year? The answer comes all too soon. When Amanda’s father disappears and the school’s cook is found dead with her head in a bag of sugar, the kids are certain that crimes are taking place. Now Amanda must embrace her destiny and uncover the truth. The only snag is that arch-villain Blixus Moriarty, a descendant of Holmes’s nemesis Professor James Moriarty, might be involved, and he doesn’t like nosy little girls interfering in his business.

Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy (Amanda Lester, Detective)

Children's Books

Berinstein, Paula

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Purple rainbows, a mysterious crypt, and pots of gold . . . Things are not going well for Amanda and the secret detective school. A priceless artifact has disappeared, a dangerous hacker is manipulating matter, and zombies are being seen all over the Lake District. Then the real trouble starts. When her cousins go missing and her friend Clive is kidnapped, Amanda is forced to turn to someone she’d rather not deal with: her old boyfriend Scapulus Holmes. But then he vanishes too. Now’s she’s sure that arch-villain Blixus Moriarty is involved . . . or is he?

Amanda Lester and the Purple Rainbow Puzzle (Amanda Lester, Detective)

What is Professor Scribbish hiding? Amanda and her friends have known about the mysterious Detective’s Bible for some time. But what they never dreamed was that old Lovelace Earful, Legatum’s founder and the author of the precious book, had much more up his sleeve than that. Now a strange pair of gold-rimmed spectacles he designed has fallen into the hands of the Moriarty brothers. But the glasses have been stolen, and it falls to Amanda to figure out where they are and get them back before . . . what? All she knows is that they’re powerful and the bad guys want them. But in order to acquire them she’ll have to penetrate a fortress where a new enemy is waiting—one who has already targeted Scapulus Holmes and is coming for her next. What she doesn’t know is that sometimes you should leave well enough alone.

Amanda Lester and the Gold Spectacles Surprise (Amanda Lester, Detective)

Teen & Young Adult

Literature & Fiction