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The Probability of Everything
By Sarah Everett. 2023
“One of the best books I have read this year (maybe ever).” —Colby Sharp, Nerdy Book ClubNPR Books We Love…
2023 | Publishers Weekly Best of 2023 | Winner of the Governor General's Literary Awards for Young People's LiteratureA heart-wrenching middle grade debut about Kemi, an aspiring scientist who loves statistics and facts, as she navigates grief and loss at a moment when life as she knows it changes forever.Eleven-year-old Kemi Carter loves scientific facts, specifically probability. It's how she understands the world and her place in it. Kemi knows her odds of being born were 1 in 5.5 trillion and that the odds of her having the best family ever were even lower. Yet somehow, Kemi lucked out.But everything Kemi thought she knew changes when she sees an asteroid hover in the sky, casting a purple haze over her world. Amplus-68 has an 84.7% chance of colliding with earth in four days, and with that collision, Kemi’s life as she knows it will end.But over the course of the four days, even facts don’t feel true to Kemi anymore. The new town she moved to that was supposed to be “better for her family” isn’t very welcoming. And Amplus-68 is taking over her life, but others are still going to school and eating at their favorite diner like nothing has changed. Is Kemi the only one who feels like the world is ending?With the days numbered, Kemi decides to put together a time capsule that will capture her family’s truth: how creative her mother is, how inquisitive her little sister can be, and how much Kemi's whole world revolves around her father. But no time capsule can change the truth behind all of it, that Kemi must face the most inevitable and hardest part of life: saying goodbye."My heart hurt as I raced through the last chapters of this unique book that shines a light on family, friends, grief, and love." —Lisa Yee, author of Maizy Chen's Last ChanceSmall Pleasures: Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction
By Clare Chambers. 2020
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021'A WORD-OF-MOUTH HIT' Evening Standard 'A very fine book... It's witty and sharp…
and reads like something by Barbara Pym or Anita Brookner, without ever feeling like a pastiche'David Nicholls'Perfect'India Knight 'Beautiful' Jessie Burton'Wonderful'Richard Osman 'Miraculous'Tracy Chevalier 'A wonderful novel. I loved it'Nina Stibbe 'Effortless to read, but every sentence lingers in the mind' Lissa Evans 'This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. I honestly don't want you to be without it'Lucy Mangan'Gorgeous... If you're looking for something escapist and bittersweet, I could not recommend more' Pandora Sykes'Remarkable... Small Pleasures is no small pleasure'The Times'An irresistible novel - wry, perceptive and quietly devastating'Mail on Sunday'Chambers' eye for undemonstrative details achieves a Larkin-esque lucidity' Guardian'An almost flawlessly written tale of genuine, grown-up romantic anguish' The Sunday Times 1957, the suburbs of South East London. Jean Swinney is a journalist on a local paper, trapped in a life of duty and disappointment from which there is no likelihood of escape. When a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud. As the investigation turns her quiet life inside out, Jean is suddenly given an unexpected chance at friendship, love and - possibly - happiness. But there will, inevitably, be a price to pay.Book of the Year for: The Times, Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard, Daily Express, Metro, Spectator, Red Magazine and Good HousekeepingBivouac
By Kwame Dawes. 2019
The death of a Jamaican man's father raises questions about the father's political endeavors, and about the plight of 1980s…
Jamaica. Kwame Dawes has been named a 2019 Windham-Campbell Prize Recipient in poetry "Few other novels encapsTo the front!: Clara Barton braves the battle of Antietam
By Claudia Friddell. 2022
During the Civil War, nurse Clara Barton carefully snuck her wagon filled with supplies and provisions onto the field where…
Antietam, the bloodiest battle of the war, was set to take place. On the day of the battle, Clara and her team of helpers sprang into action. She found herself comforting the wounded and dying, cooking meals for soldiers, and providing doctors with innovative sources of light so they could see better. No soldier went unnoticed or unaided by the woman called "The Angel of Antietam." Author Claudia Friddell blends her words with Clara Barton's firsthand account to capture the nurse's brave actions while Christopher Cyr's accurate and dramatic illustrations portray one of the most heroic women in history. For grades 3-6All aboard the schooltrain: a little story from the Great Migration
By Glenda Armand. 2023
Hadriana in All My Dreams
By René Depestre. 2017
Included in "10 Best New Books to Read This May," Chicago Review of Books."Originally published in 1988 and written by…
one of Haiti’s seminal authors, still with us at age 90, this vibrant, erotically charged work shows how humans counter fear—particularly the fear of death—in varied more or less magical ways, even as it paints a fresh and enticing picture of Haitian culture. . .Luscious and affirmative reading, this is work both the serious-minded and the lighthearted can enjoy."—Library Journal, Starred review"Depestre presents a rich and nuanced exploration of large and significant themes expertly couched in one fantastical, expertly translated tale."—Booklist, Starred review"One-of-a-kind...[A] ribald, free-wheeling magical-realist novel, first published in 1988 and newly, engagingly translated by Glover. . .An icon of Haitian literature serves up a hotblooded, rib-ticking, warmhearted mélange of ghost story, cultural inquiry, folk art, and véritable l'amour."—Kirkus Reviews, Starred review"The sights and sounds of Haiti’s vibrant carnival season invigorate this tale of vodou and Haitian culture. . .The truth of Hadriana’s fate proves more poignant than horrifying, but in Depestre’s hands, this incident is a touchstone of a culture in which distinctions between the empirical and spiritual are obscured, and whose traditional celebrations and beliefs introduce an element of the mythic into the everyday. Eroticism and humor course through his narrative. Depestre’s intimacy with his subject matter and his familiarity with the people he portrays—the story is set in his hometown, at the time when he was 12 years old—give readers an insider’s look at Jacmelian culture."—Publishers Weekly"For the first time, this slim and beguiling novel about the mysterious death and possible zombification of a young woman on her wedding day has been translated into English...With its lyrical commentary on the origins of myth, this mesmeric and frequently erotic work transcends its focus on a young woman to address the complexities of race, class and religion."—Shelf Awareness for Readers, Starred ReviewWith a foreword by Edwidge Danticat. Translated from the French by Kaiama L. Glover.Hadriana in All My Dreams, winner of the prestigious Prix Renaudot, takes place primarily during Carnival in 1938 in the Haitian village of Jacmel. A beautiful young French woman, Hadriana, is about to marry a Haitian boy from a prominent family. But on the morning of the wedding, Hadriana drinks a mysterious potion and collapses at the altar. Transformed into a zombie, her wedding becomes her funeral. She is buried by the town, revived by an evil sorcerer, and then disappears into popular legend.Set against a backdrop of magic and eroticism, and recounted with delirious humor, the novel raises universal questions about race and sexuality. The reader comes away enchanted by the marvelous reality of Haiti's Vodou culture and convinced of Depestre's lusty claim that all beings—even the undead ones—have a right to happiness and true love.From the introduction by Edwidge Danticat:Despestre offers us the kind of tale we rarely get in the hundreds of zombie stories featuring Haitians, stories set both inside and outside of Haiti. In Hadriana in All My Dreams we get both langaj—the secret language of Haitian Vodou—as well as the type of descriptive, elegiac, erotic, and satirical language, and the artistic license needed to create this most nuanced and powerful novel.Kaiama L. Glover is an associate professor of French and Africana Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is the author of Haiti Unbound: A Spiralist Challenge to the Postcolonial Canon, coeditor of Yale French Studies' Revisiting Marie Vieux-Chauvet: Paradoxes of Postcolonial Feminine (issue no. 128), and translator of Frenkétienne's Ready to Burst and Marie Vieux-Chauvet's Dance on the Volcano. She has received awards from the National EndowmThe long-awaited paperback reissue of the acclaimed Jamaican author's debut novel. The incredible debut novel from 2015 Man Booker Prize…
winner Marlon James Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize "A powerful first novel...Writing with assurance and control, James uses his small-town drama to suggest the larger anguish of a postcolonial society struggling for its own identity." --New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice "A Brief History of Seven Killings might have won the Booker, and Black Leopard, Red Wolf might be the next Game of Thrones, but if you're looking for an entry point into the much-lauded, highly raucous mind of Marlon James, his 2005 debut could actually be the place to start: it's just as powerful and intricately written as James's later works, but it's quite a bit shorter, and easier to carry around with you everywhere you go, something you will surely want to do." --Literary Hub, 10 Debut Novels Nobody Reads Anymore--But Should "Elements coalesce in a Jamaican stew spicier than jerk chicken. First novelist James moves effortlessly between lyrical patois and trenchant observations...It's 150-proof literary rum guaranteed to intoxicate and enchant. Highly recommended." --Library Journal, Starred review "Set in James's native Jamaica, this dynamic, vernacular debut sings of the fierce battle between two flawed preachers...an exciting read." --Publishers Weekly "A mesmerizing treatise on the nature of good and evil, faith and madness, guilt and forgiveness, eloquently captured in a microcosm of society." --Booklist "John Crow's Devil engages the political legacy of Frantz Fanon without sacrificing the power of fiction...There's a temptation to compare John Crow's Devil to novels by Toni Morrison or Earl Lovelace, among others, and there are certainly similarities to those works in this one. There is even an echo of Faulkner in the meticulous, multi-vocal rendering of conflicts entrenched in village life. But more important than any comparison is that James' debut is very much its own book, and stands as tall on its own as it would with any other volume beside it." --Small Spiral Notebook This stunning debut novel tells the story of a biblical struggle in a remote Jamaican village in 1957. With language as taut as classic works by Cormac McCarthy, and a richness reminiscent of early Toni Morrison, Marlon James reveals his unique narrative command that will firmly establish his place as one of today's freshest, most talented young writers. In the village of Gibbeah--where certain women fly and certain men protect secrets with their lives--magic coexists with religion, and good and evil are never as they seem. In this town, a battle is fought between two men of God. The story begins when a drunkard named Hector Bligh (the "Rum Preacher") is dragged from his pulpit by a man calling himself "Apostle" York. Handsome and brash, York demands a fire-and-brimstone church, but sets in motion a phenomenal and deadly struggle for the soul of Gibbeah itself. John Crow's Devil is a novel about religious mania, redemption, sexual obsession, and the eternal struggle inside all of us between the righteous and the wicked.A Tall History of Sugar
By Curdella Forbes. 2019
A haunting, epic Caribbean love story, reminiscent of García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera.WINNER of the 2020 Hurston/Wright…
Legacy Award for Fiction!"A Tall History of Sugar is a gift for grown-up fans of fairy tales and those who love fiction that metes out hard and surprising truths. Forbes's writing combines the gale-force imagination of Margaret Atwood with the lyrical pointillism of Toni Morrison."--New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice"A mesmerizing love story that takes place over 50 years in Jamaica."--Tayari Jones in O, the Oprah MagazineA Tall History of Sugar has been longlisted for the 2020 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature (Fiction shortlist)!"Curdella Forbes's A Tall History of Sugar is the most recent in an impressive new wave of novels by Jamaican writers--from Marlon James's Booker Prize–winning A Brief History of Seven Killings to Kei Miller's Augustown, Marcia Douglas's The Marvelous Equations of the Dread, and Nicole Dennis-Benn's Patsy, among others. Forbes provides an eclectic, feverish vision of Jamaican 'history' from the 1950s to the present glimpsed through the experiences of an abandoned mystic-child named Moshe, whose translucent skin and mismatched eyes defy racial category. Who he is and who he becomes--like the country itself--is a riddle that unfolds in episodic bursts and linguistic flourishes."--Vanity Fair, one of the Best Books of 2019"An epic tale of two soulmates: Moshe Fisher, born with mismatched eyes and pale skin that bruises easily, and Arrienne Christie, 'her skin even at birth the color of the wettest molasses, with a purple tinge under the surface.' Arrienne is his protector at school--and later his lover--but how they eventually wind up together is part of this unconventionally crafted story that spans decades, from the years before Jamaica's independence to the 2010s. Forbes' sentences are the stars here; it's a book that rewards slow, careful reading."--BuzzFeed, included in BuzzFeed's Fall 2019 PreviewA Tall History of Sugar tells the story of Moshe Fisher, a man who was "born without skin," so that no one is able to tell what race he belongs to; and Arrienne Christie, his quixotic soul mate who makes it her duty in life to protect Moshe from the social and emotional consequences of his strange appearance.The narrative begins with Moshe's birth in the late 1950s, four years before Jamaica's independence from colonial rule, and ends in the era of what Forbes calls "the fall of empire," the era of Brexit and Donald Trump. The historical trajectory layers but never overwhelms the scintillating love story as the pair fight to establish their own view of loving, against the moral force of the colonial "plantation" and its legacies that continue to affect their lives and the lives of those around them.Written in lyrical, luminous prose that spans the range of Jamaican Englishes, this remarkable story follows the couple's mysterious love affair from childhood to adulthood, from the haunted environs of rural Jamaica to the city of Kingston, and then to England--another haunted locale in Forbes's rendition.Following on the footsteps of Marlon James's debut novel, John Crow's Devil, which Akashic Books published in 2005, we are delighted to introduce another lion of Jamaican literature with the publication of A Tall History of Sugar.Sinister touches: the secret war against Hitler
By Robert Goldston. 1982
A dramatic account of the daring covert operations carried out by scientists, private citizens, professors, and assassins who risked their…
lives for an allied victory. This compelling and well-documented report penetrates the veils of secrecy that have shrouded some of the most important activities of World War II. For junior and senior high and adult readersGeorge Washington's socks
By Elvira Woodruff. 1991
Matthew and his friends form an adventure club so they can talk about real adventures from throughout history. But at…
their first meeting, in which they plan to discuss George Washington's crossing of the Delaware, the members suddenly find themselves back in the time of the American Revolution. For grades 4-7The cuckoo's child
By Suzanne Freeman. 1996
Mia Veery did not like living in Beirut; she wanted to come back to the United States and be a…
typical 1962 American teenager in an ordinary family. When her parents disappear at sea, Mia and her two older half sisters go to live with Aunt Kit in Tennessee. There Mia finds being "typical" is not easy. For grades 6-9The Kinship of Secrets
By Eugenia Kim. 2019
"A gorgeous achievement.&”—Min Jin Lee, author of Pachinko From the author of The Calligrapher&’s Daughter comes the riveting story of…
two sisters, one raised in the United States, the other in South Korea, and the family that bound them together even as the Korean War kept them apart. In 1948 Najin and Calvin Cho, with their young daughter Miran, travel from South Korea to the United States in search of new opportunities. Wary of the challenges they know will face them, Najin and Calvin make the difficult decision to leave their infant daughter, Inja, behind with their extended family; soon, they hope, they will return to her. But then war breaks out in Korea, and there is no end in sight to the separation. Miran grows up in prosperous American suburbia, under the shadow of the daughter left behind, as Inja grapples in her war-torn land with ties to a family she doesn&’t remember. Najin and Calvin desperately seek a reunion with Inja, but are the bonds of love strong enough to reconnect their family over distance, time, and war? And as deep family secrets are revealed, will everything they long for be upended? Told through the alternating perspectives of the distanced sisters, and inspired by a true story, The Kinship of Secrets explores the cruelty of war, the power of hope, and what it means to be a sister.My Louisiana sky (Major And Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide To Ser.)
By Kimberly Holt. 1998
Louisiana, 1950s. Twelve-year-old Tiger Ann Parker begins to feel embarrassed in front of the other kids about the "slowness" of…
her parents. Her grandmother is the one who keeps the family intact. After Granny dies, Tiger has a chance to move to the city with her sophisticated aunt, but she is reluctant to abandon the parents who love her. For grades 6-9Nos enfants de la guerre: récit
By Jean-Pierre Denis. 2002
Hameau de Massip, hiver 1942 : sur le voeu du cardinal Saliège, des enfants juifs pourchassés trouvent refuge dans le…
pensionnat dirigé par deux religieuses, Denise Bergon et Marguerite Roques. Pendant plus de deux ans, près de 80 personnes partageront la vie de cette minuscule école de la campagne aveyronnaise, à l'insu des élèves catholiques et bien sûr de l'occupant. En dépit de multiples alertes, Massip tiendra jusqu'au bout. Durant une commune traversée du siècle, Denise Bergon et Marguerite Roques resteront volontairement dans l'ombre. Elles confient aujourd'hui le plus intime de leur vocation et de leurs combats. Pourquoi avoir choisi de résister à l'heure où tant d'autres se taisaient ? Que reste-t-il de la mémoire alors que disparaissent les derniers témoins ? Comment raconter cette histoire d'amour entre deux religions que l'histoire déchire ? L'auteur est journaliste dans un hebdomadaire catholique. Sa mère faisait partie des enfants juifs cachés à MassipOpération étoile jaune (Documents)
By Maurice Rajsfus. 2002
Un récit en deux temps: le port obligatoire de l'étoile jaune, imposé en 1942 aux Juifs de la zone occupée…
par la Gestapo mais appliqué par les policiers français; l'arrestation de l'auteur et de sa famille et leur déportation à AuschwitzLa guerre et le vin: comment les vignerons français ont sauvé leurs trésors des nazis
By Petie Kladstrup. 2002
Les vignobles faisaient partie des grandes richesses de la France et furent d'abondance pillées par les troupes allemandes d'occupation. L'ouvrage…
raconte comment les vignerons tentèrent de protéger leurs trésors des convoitises nazies. Élaboré à partir de nombreux témoignages, le récit d'épisodes dramatiques dans l'histoire du vin et de sa production. [SDMThe Kinship Of Secrets
By Eugenia Kim. 2019
"A gorgeous achievement.&”—Min Jin Lee, author of Pachinko From the author of The Calligrapher&’s Daughter comes the riveting story of…
two sisters, one raised in the United States, the other in South Korea, and the family that bound them together even as the Korean War kept them apart. In 1948 Najin and Calvin Cho, with their young daughter Miran, travel from South Korea to the United States in search of new opportunities. Wary of the challenges they know will face them, Najin and Calvin make the difficult decision to leave their infant daughter, Inja, behind with their extended family; soon, they hope, they will return to her. But then war breaks out in Korea, and there is no end in sight to the separation. Miran grows up in prosperous American suburbia, under the shadow of the daughter left behind, as Inja grapples in her war-torn land with ties to a family she doesn&’t remember. Najin and Calvin desperately seek a reunion with Inja, but are the bonds of love strong enough to reconnect their family over distance, time, and war? And as deep family secrets are revealed, will everything they long for be upended? Told through the alternating perspectives of the distanced sisters, and inspired by a true story, The Kinship of Secrets explores the cruelty of war, the power of hope, and what it means to be a sister.A pride of African tales
By Donna L Washington. 2004
Six folktales from West Africa. "The Boy Who Wanted the Moon" is a pourquoi tale from the Congo that explains…
why there are monkeys in the world. It tells about "a spoiled child, his doting father, and a great deal of foolishness." For grades 4-7 and older readers. 2004Summer of the war
By Gloria Whelan. 2006
Michigan, 1942. With their parents working for the war effort, Mirabelle and her siblings travel to live with their grandparents…
on Turtle Island. Fourteen-year-old Belle is resentful when her more sophisticated fifteen-year-old cousin Caroline joins them, but during the summer they become real family. For grades 6-9. 2006The Wednesday wars: A Newbery Honor Award Winner
By Gary D. Schmidt. 2007
Long Island, 1967. Seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood knows that Mrs. Baker "hates his guts" because she would have Wednesday afternoons free…
if he went to catechism or Hebrew school like his classmates. Mrs. Baker worries about her husband in Vietnam and introduces a reluctant Holling to Shakespeare. For grades 5-8. Newbery Honor. 2007