''The Bad Seed'' by William March (1893-1954), public domain. What happens to ordinary families into whose midst a child serial killer is born? This is the question at the center of William March's classic thriller. After its initial publication in 1954, the book went on to become a million-copy bestseller, a wildly successful Broadway show, and a Warner Brothers film. The spine-tingling tale of little Rhoda Penmark had a tremendous impact on the thriller genre and generated a whole perdurable crop of creepy kids. Today,The Bad Seed remains a masterpiece of suspense that's as chilling, intelligent, and timely as ever before.

The Bad Seed

The bestselling novel that inspired Mervyn LeRoy’s classic horror film about the little girl who can get away with anything—even murder. There’s something special about eight-year-old Rhoda Penmark. With her carefully plaited hair and her sweet cotton dresses, she’s the very picture of old-fashioned innocence. But when their neighborhood suffers a series of terrible accidents, her mother begins to wonder: Why do bad things seem to happen when little Rhoda is around? Originally published in 1954, William March’s final novel was an instant bestseller and National Book Award finalist before it was adapted for the stage and made into a 1956 film. The Bad Seed is an indelible portrait of an evil that wears an innocent face, one which still resonates in popular culture today. With a new foreword by Anna Holmes. Vintage Movie Classics spotlights classic films that have stood the test of time, now rediscovered through the publication of the novels on which they were based.

From The Omen to The Good Son, American pop culture has produced a legion of bad seed spinoffs. For his novel, William March draws on actual case histories to explore a serious question: What happens to ordinary families into whose midst a criminal is born? Featuring a cast of memorable characters, The Bad Seed is a solid suspense story that's more chilling, more intelligent, and far more absorbing that its Hollywood namesake.

Love, betrayal and murder. He’s the new kid in town, complete with a sordid past and a tarnished family name, doomed to fail even before he begins. Jenna is the only person who sees beyond Joey’s past and they fall deeply in love. But there are already forces determined to separate the pair by any means necessary. Tommy, the thug, who is hell bent on breaking Joey by brute force, Jenna’s mother, whose connection with Joey cannot be ignored, and Joey’s own past, the strongest weapon against them. Only Tim, the local police officer, shows any compassion to the plight of Joey and Jenna, but is Tim all he seems? And what role will he play in their fate? Can young love survive in a town filled with discrimination? Can Joey and Jenna get out before they fall apart, or is it already too late?

on the day Zachery Morely's mother asks him to fetch herbs from the garden, he never expected to find himself face to face with a demon. A demon who has planted the seed of a sinister tree that feeds off the living. Zachery and his father, George, request the help of the King to figure out what this tree means. Only when the tree consumes its first human being and takes it true, human like form, and hear its warnings do they realize their world is in serious danger. Zachery sets off on an epic journey with the King and the kings guard through lands of men, dwarves, and elves. He confronts elven wizards, dragons and acknowledges that he is more powerful than he thinks, to help find the champion of light and save his world from evil.

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