Twelve-year-old Tom Elm is just an ordinary turnip farmer from the Valley, but he's always felt destined for something bigger. So when he discovers everyone in his village is asleep and plagued by nightmares, he assembles a band of unlikely heroes. They must fight to preserve the Spark-a divine light born at the core of a vast, dark nothingness called the Nacht. The Nacht is trying to permeate the Waking World with nightmares of the Dreaming, and it's Tom's mission to defeat the Nacht and its most loyal follower, the Constable. If he fails, his family-and everyone-might never wake up again.

Tom Sniegoski Tom Sniegoski is the author of more than two dozen novels, including The Fallen, a teen fantasy quartet that was adapted into an ABC Family Channel miniseries, and the Billy Hooten: Owlboy books. With Christopher Golden, he coauthored the OutCast series, which is in development as a film at Universal. Sniegoski was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his wife and their Labrador retriever. Visit him online at www.sniegoski.com. Jeff Smith Born and raised in the American Midwest, Jeff Smith learned about cartooning from comic strips, comic books, and watching animation on TV. After four years of drawing comic strips for Ohio State's student newspaper, Smith cofounded the Character Builders animation studio in 1986. In 1991, he launched a company called Cartoon Books to publish his comic book BONE, a comedy/adventure about three lost cousins from Boneville.

From Bone: Quest for the Spark Book OneThere's nothing worse than starting a day off with the gitchy feeling, Gran'ma Ben thought, throwing back the covers and pulling on her robe against the chill that filled her bedroom. It was an omen of bad things to come. She could spend the whole day just waiting for something to happen, and it always did. The gitchy feeling was never wrong. And this time, Gran'ma didn't have long to wait. She stood in front of the window in the royal castle, the damp wind tousling her white hair, and took note of the heavy sky. That was when she heard the scream, high pitched and filled with fear. Gran'ma Ben tore from her room out into the castle hallway, eyes squinting through the early morning dimness as she searched for the source of such a horrible sound. The scream came again, and she found herself growing afraid as she ran toward it, for the scream was coming from the royal bedchamber. From Queen Thorn's room.