A Pirate's Guide to Recess by James Preller

A Pirate's Guide to Recess by James Preller

Rick Shelley's Federation War trilogy begins with a novel that takes you through the barracks corridors and the trenches of war, bringing the war of the future home with a combination of battlefield action and home-town heroics.

For Doug Weintraub of the Buchanan Planetary Commission, it begins with a fuzzy call, quickly cut off. Federation troops have invaded his world. The battle they've long feared and tried to avoid is coming. Now it's time to seek help, to launch a rocket into Q Space, and hope for Second Commonwealth troops to arrive - and soon.

Aboard the Starship Victoria, it begins differently. It's a short, unexpected message on the screen for Sergeant David Spencer of the Royal Marines. New orders - surprising ones - that will send him and his men to an independent frontier world that's become a new front in the war between the Commonwealth and Federation.

Doug Weintraub and David Spencer soon find themselves in unexpected roles - a skilled warrior in the Royal Marines side-by-side with a back-world farmer. They'll need each other to keep the Federation at bay.

James Preller is the author of the popular Jigsaw Jones mystery books, which have sold more than 10 million copies since 1998. He is also the author of Bystander, named a 2009 Junior Library Guild Selection; Six Innings, an ALA Notable Book; and Mighty Casey, his own twist on the classic poem Casey at the Bat. In addition to writing full-time, Preller plays in a men's hardball league and coaches Little League. He compares coaching kids to trying to hold the attention of a herd of earthworms. He lives in Delmar, New York, with his wife, three children, cats and dog.

Greg Ruth lives and works in the landlocked woodlands of Western Massachusetts with his wife, Jen, and two boys, Emmett and Nathaniel, where he crafts graphic novels, children's picture books, and many other items to pass the long days not at sea. While he did indeed attend first grade, sadly, he was without pirate accompaniment. However, he has pondered a hook for his left hand (but only because he thinks they're really cool).