Title search results
Showing 1 - 20 of 35 items
Autumn Bird and the Runaway
By Melanie Florence, Richard Scrimger. 2022
Two kids from different worlds form an unexpected friendship.Cody’s home life is a messy, too-often terrifying story of neglect and…
abuse. Cody himself is a smart kid, a survivor with a wicked sense of humour that helps him see past his circumstances and begin to try to get himself out.Autumn is, quite literally, on the other side of the tracks from him. Her home life is loving and secure, and she is “in” with the popular girls at school, even if she has a secret life as a glasses-wearing, self-professed comic book nerd at home. And even if the pressure to fit in at school requires hours of time spent making herself look “perfect.”Returning home from a movie one evening, Autumn comes across Cody, face down in the laneway behind her house. All Cody knows is that he can’t take another beating from his father like the one he just narrowly escaped. He can’t go home, but he doesn’t have anywhere else to go either. Autumn won’t turn her back on him, even if they never really were friends at school. She agrees to let him hide out in her dad’s art studio at night.Over the next couple of days of Autumn sneaking Cody food and bandages, his story comes out. And so does hers.Told in alternating narratives, Autumn Bird and the Runaway is a breathtaking collaboration by two of Canada’s finest writers of books for young readers. Infused with themes of identity, belonging and compassion, it’s a story that reminds us that we are all more than our circumstances, and we are all more connected than we think.Simply Divine
By Thomas. 2006
To forgive may be divine . . . The daughter of two Hollywood superstars, Divine Matthews-Hardison lives the privileged life…
most fifteen-year-olds only dream of: she's all about designer clothes, awards ceremonies, parties, and having a name that opens doors. Divine could be a model, an actress, anything she wants. But when you live in the spotlight, there's nowhere to hide when your family falls apart. Her father is in trouble with the law, her mother has her own demons, and no one has room for Divine -- no one except her uncle, a Georgia pastor with a modest country home and a big heart. . . . but can Divine ever forgive? Divine can't believe she's been sent to live with her mom's family in the sticks. Doing chores, getting an allowance, and church-going are hardly what she's used to, and she lets everyone -- from her patient Uncle Reed and Aunt Phoebe to her cousins, Alyssa and Chance -- know she's not trading in her Gucci bags for a feedbag any time soon. But as the love and faith of a good family take hold in her heart, miraculous changes start to occur. And when the chance comes to return to her high-flying life, Divine is faced with her toughest decision: Now that she's found the one thing she's never had, could she ever leave it behind?Divine Confidential
By Jacquelin Thomas. 2007
Divine is used to getting what she wants.... Thanks to her loving Aunt Phoebe and Uncle Reed, Divine Matthews-Hardison has…
a place to call home after the Hollywood life she was accustomed to fell apart at the seams. Getting away from the spotlight that nearly destroyed her own parents, Divine has changed for the better -- though there's still enough diva in Divine to keep life in Temple, Georgia, very lively, from mall shopping with her cousin Alyssa and her fashion-challenged aunt, to worshipping at her uncle's church, to dating. But what if it's too much too soon? Divine has boys on the brain and she's itching for a social life -- at least as much as is allowed under Uncle Reed's watchful eyes. She knows she's too young for the kind of secretive drama her cousin Chance is going through with his girlfriend, but still.... Turning to the internet, Divine gets a major crush on sixteen-year-old Sean, who sounds and looks like the perfect guy. But she is about to learn a difficult -- and potentially dangerous -- lesson: Things are not always what they appear to be....Give It To Me
By Ana Castillo. 2014
Recently divorced, Palma, a forty-three-year-old Latina, takes stock of her life when she reconnects with her gangster younger cousin recently…
released from prison. As she checks out her other options, her sexual obsession with her cous' ignites but their family secrets bring them together in unexpected ways. In this wildly entertaining and sexy novel, Ana Castillo creates a memorable character with a flare for fashion, a longing for family, and a penchant for adventure. Give It to Me is Sex in the City for a Chicana babe who's looking for love in all the wrong places.Ana Castillo is one of the most powerful voices in contemporary Chicana literature. She is the author of So Far From God and Sapogonia, both New York Times Notable Books of the Year, as well as The Guardians, Peelemselves onto love and desire are the same people who, at one time or another, must flee from it. An evocative page-turner."-Rigoberto González, author of Butterfly Boy, Memories of a Chicano Mariposa"Through deadpan humor, impulsive characters, and a romp across America, Castillo's absorbing novel is a search for twenty-first-century identity at a time when we find that very notion at its most unstable."-Tony Valenzuela, executive director of the Lambda Literary Foundation"In her new novel, Give It To Me, Castillo delivers a story that is both tawdry and transcendent. The sense of contemporary rootlessness chafes against deeply rooted Mexican-American culture creating a raw friction unlike any other story out there."-Jewelle Gomez, author of The Gilda Stories"Give It To Me gives us a post-9/11, post-Bush, fast-talking, fast-walking multicultural, multiracial, multisexual panoply of characters...I thought I would die laughing."-Cheryl Clarke, author of The Days of Good Looks: Prose and Poetry 1980-2005"The novel, released last month, is a brave exploration of uninhibited feminine sexuality - at least on the surface. But it's also, in many ways, a great American novel, an examination of family, class issues and the search for happiness."-Las Cruces Sun-News"Full of drama and gossip (because who doesn't love chisme), this is a must-read for any chica in the process of finding her true self."-Krystyna Chávez for Cosmopolitan"Palma Piedras, 43 and divorced, tries on lovers of both sexes like a woman grabbing stilettos at a sample sale. She's a Latina Moll Flanders, cheeky and passionate, clawing her way up from some very mean streets. Raw, funny and real."-Marcia Menter for MoreRecently divorced, Palma, a forty-three-year-old Latina, takes stock of her life when she reconnects with her gangster younger cousin recently released from prison. As she checks out her other options, her sexual obsession with her cous' ignites but their family secrets bring them together in unexpected ways. In this wildly entertaining and sexy novel, Ana Castillo creates a memorable character with a flare for fashion, a longing for family, and a penchant for adventure. Give It to Me is Sex in the City for a Chicana babe who's looking for love in all the wrong places.Ana Castillo is one of the most powerful voices in contemporary Chicana literature. She is the author of So Far From God and Sapogonia, both New York Times Notable Books of the Year, as well as The Guardians, PeelSpirit Walk
By Jay Treiber. 2014
"A thrilling and elegantly wrought debut about the far-reaching effects of our decisions, and our irrepressible desire to undo the…
worst of them. Treiber is a writer of enormous talents, and Spirit Walk will leave you breathless until the final page."--JONATHAN EVISON, author of The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving"At once gritty and lyrical, Spirit Walk is a haunting tale of the modern American West. Out of the explosive violence, hard living, and stark beauty of the Arizona borderlands, Jay Treiber has woven a gripping story of remembrance and redemption, beautifully painting the place and giving voice to its people. I can't stop thinking about it."--JENNIFER CARRELL, author of Haunt Me Still and Interred with Their Bones"The borderland setting of Spirit Walk only appears empty. This landscape is inhabited by commingled cultures, criss-crossed jurisdictions and colliding values--where a rancher wouldn't leave a bottle cap, traffickers litter bodies. Depicting an episode of violence as confounding in memory as the day it erupted, Jay Treiber shows the corrosive costs of the drug trade--and of burying the past. In the vein of Philip Caputo's Crossers."--CHARLIE QUIMBY, author of Monument Road"There's a wonderful sense of authenticity and place here...Jay Treiber has given us a rich, well-written, multi-layered book to satisfy wide reading appetites."--ROBERT HOUSTON, author of Bisbee 17"In this intersection of New West and Old West, Jay Treiber writes without sentiment about life, love, and death in the borderlands of the American southwest. Spirit Walk bleeds a rawness and honesty missing from much of today's fiction--this triumph belongs within the canon of western literature. Watch out, Cormac!"--ANDY NETTELL, owner of Back of Beyond Books, Moab, UTThe Marvellous Equations of the Dread: A Novel In Bass Riddim
By Marcia Douglas. 2018
The ancestors have awakened. Somebody has called them. The long-dead are stirring. Jah ways are mysterious ways. “Is me—Bob. Bob…
Marley.” Reincarnated as homeless Fall-down man, Bob Marley sleeps in a clock tower built on the site of a lynching in Half Way Tree, Kingston. The ghosts of Marcus Garvey and King Edward VII are there too, drinking whiskey and playing solitaire. No one sees that Fall-down is Bob Marley, no one but his long-ago love, the deaf woman, Leenah, and, in the way of this otherworldly book, when Bob steps into the street each day, five years have passed. Jah ways are mysterious ways, from Kingston’s ghettoes to London, from Haile Selaisse’s Ethiopian palace and back to Jamaica, Marcia Douglas’s mythical reworking of three hundred years of violence is a ticket to the deep world of Rasta history. This amazing novel—in bass riddim—carries the reader on a voyage all the way to the gates of Zion.The Fat Chubby King
By Pedro Marangoni. 2018
The Fat Chubby King is a short children’s story where vegetables are the main characters and the kitchen table is…
the stage. It enthrals children, taking them into a magic world of simple lines where vegetables have their own personality and playfully become part of their day to day routine, thus encouraging healthy and fun feeding habits, as well as promoting the self-esteem of those already a little plumper and cuddlier. It is a story to help parents with the difficult task of making fruits and vegetables more attractive to our computer generation little ones. With its simple rhyming, it is also suitable as a short school play.Stance: Ideas about Emotion, Style, and Meaning for the Study of Expressive Culture (Music Culture)
By Harris M. Berger. 1997
Why does music move us? How do the immediate situation and larger social contexts influence the meanings that people find…
in stories, rituals, or films? How do people engage with the images and sounds of a performance to make them come alive in sensuous, lived experience? Exploring these questions, Stance presents a major new theory of emotion, style, and meaning for the study of expressive culture. In clear language, the book reveals dimensions of lived experience that everyone is aware of but that scholars rarely account for.Though music is at the heart of the book, its arguments are illustrated with a wide range of clear examples--from the heavy metal concert to the recital hall, from festivals to dance, stand-up comedy, the movies, and beyond. Helping ethnographers get closer to the experiences of the people with whom they work, this book will be of immediate interest to anyone in ethnomusicology, folklore, popular music studies, anthropology, or performance studies.The Nutcracker: The Original Holiday Classic
By E. T. Hoffman. 2018
On Christmas Eve, seven-year-old Marie and her eight-year-old brother Fritz anxiously await their Christmas gifts. When their godfather—a clock builder…
and toymaker—arrives, he unveils an ornate clockwork castle adorned with whirling figurines for the children. While Fritz plays with the clock, Marie is taken aside and given another gift—a nutcracker. After Fritz grabs the nutcracker from Marie and breaks its jaw by cracking too many nuts, their playtime ends and they head off to bed. When the clock strikes twelve, magic makes its way into this enduring tale and an epic battle ensues. This timeless classic, featuring all-new full-color and black-and-white illustrations by artist Arkady Roytman and abridged text by Gina Gold, is the perfect story to get anyone in the holiday spirit!The Miracles of Jesus: The Brick Bible for Kids
By Brendan Powell Smith. 2017
As in all the Brick Bible books, Brendan Powell Smith creates a magical “brick” world—all in LEGOs—to illustrate stories from…
the Bible that are then photographed and accompanied by a simple text.In this book, there are many stories to tell. After being baptized, and in the company of his twelve disciples, Jesus began performing many great acts, including giving a blind man sight, raising a young girl from death, feeding five thousand people with two fish and five loaves of bread, and, perhaps the most famous of all, walking on water.NW London: Roman
By Zadie Smith. 2013
Una novela magistral e íntima de la vida moderna de Londres. Los protagonistas de la historia, Leah, Natalie, Felix y…
Nathan, crecieron entre edificios de protección oficial y, ahora en la treintena, la ambición y el azar los han llevado a alcanzar posiciones sociales muy distintas. Los encuentros y desencuentros entre ellos ponen de manifiesto sus diferencias raciales, la validez del ascenso social, su actitud ante cuestiones de fondo como la maternidad, la amistad, la lealtad. Al tiempo que va desvelando los secretos de sus personajes, Zadie Smith ofrece al lector un recorrido por una zona de Londres tan cautivadora como violenta, donde las animosas avenidas enmarcan lóbregas callejas y errar el camino puede conducir a un callejón sin salida. Así pues, el incesante flujo de personas de todo tipo y color, individuos obligados a reinventarse día a día, año tras año, conforman un auténtico laboratorio de prueba de la sociedad mixta y universal que el futuro nos depara. Finalista del Premio Orange y del National Book Critics Circle Award, esta última novela de Zadie Smith viene a confirmar su sólida posición entre los autores más destacados del panorama narrativo en lengua inglesa. Dueña de una brillante combinación de sentido del humor, inteligencia y empatía, y de una especial sensibilidad para captar las facetas más peculiares de la naturaleza humana, Zadie vuelca como nadie la diversidad de voces, rostros y emociones de los habitantes del noroeste de Londres, barrio donde se crio y uno de los enclaves urbanos con mayor índice de multiculturalidad no sólo de Inglaterra, sino del mundo. Reseñas:«Esta novela es un compañero inesperado e irónico de Dientes blancos: un retrato más sombrío y matizado de la cultura multirracial.»Joyce Carol Oates «La brillante escritora Zadie Smith es la sucesora legítima de Dickens.»The Independent «Una novela excepcional, desternillante y, a veces, algo macabra. NW London es una declaración de amor, lírica y muy cómica, a la zona noroeste de Londres. Al igual que Dickens, Zadie Smith posee un don para los diálogos y para combinar la indignación social con el humor que le permite crear intensas obras literarias.»The Sunday Telegraph «Una soberbia novela, vital y airada.»The Telegraph «Una novela de amplio espectro, compleja, sobre las fuerzas que envenenan nuestros sueños de promoción económica [...]. Brillante [...], una radiografía del Londres contemporáneo.»The Washington PostBrigid's Cloak: An Ancient Irish Story
By Bryce Milligan. 2002
The wind groaned and swirled that night and likely it seemed to tear the thatch from the roof. But when…
the baby gave her first cry, the wind shushed to a whisper and the stars began to sing. Brigid's Cloak retells an ancient tale about one of Ireland's most beloved saints. On the day she is born Brigid receives a brilliant blue cloak from a mysterious Druid. Years later, the young girl still wears the now tattered but beloved cloak while she tends her sheep. Is it her imagination that suddenly takes her to an unfamiliar land? Or is it something far greater that leads Brigid to a crowded inn in a town called Bethlehem? Bryce Milligan's eloquently told story about Brigid is a moving tale of compassion and wonder, and it sparkles with the timelessness of legend and the transcending power of faith.Empire of Wild: A Novel
By Cherie Dimaline. 2019
A #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLEROne of the most anticipated books of the summer for Time, Harper's Bazaar, Bustle and Publishers Weekly'Deftly…
written, gripping and informative. Empire of Wild is a rip-roaring read!' Margaret Atwood'Empire of Wild is doing everything I love in a contemporary novel and more. It is tough, funny, beautiful, honest and propulsive' Tommy Orange, author of There There 'Dimaline turns an old story into something newly haunting and resonant' New York Times'Close, tight, stark, beautiful - rich where richness is warranted, but spare where want and sorrow have sharpened every word. Dimaline has crafted something both current and timeless' NPR'Revelatory... Gritty and engaging, this story of a woman and her missing husband is one of candor, wit and tradition'Ms. Magazine Broken-hearted Joan has been searching for her husband, Victor, for almost a year - ever since he went missing on the night they had their first serious argument. One hung-over morning in a Walmart parking lot in a little town near Georgian Bay, she is drawn to a revival tent where the local Métis have been flocking to hear a charismatic preacher. By the time she staggers into the tent the service is over, but as she is about to leave, she hears an unmistakable voice.She turns, and there is Victor. Only he insists he is not Victor, but the Reverend Eugene Wolff, on a mission to bring his people to Jesus.With only two allies - her Johnny-Cash-loving, 12-year-old nephew Zeus, and Ajean, a foul-mouthed euchre shark with deep knowledge of the old Métis ways - Joan sets out to remind the Reverend Wolff of who he really is. If he really is Victor, his life and the life of everyone she loves, depends upon her success.Inspired by traditional Métis legends, Cherie Dimaline has created a propulsive, stunning and sensuous novel.Betty: The International Bestseller
By Tiffany McDaniel. 2020
'Breahtaking'Vogue'So engrossing! Betty is a page-turning Appalachian coming-of-age story steeped in Cherokee history, told in undulating prose that settles right…
into you'Naoise Dolan, Sunday Times bestselling author of Exciting Times 'I felt consumed by this book. I loved it, you will love it' Daisy Johnson, Booker Prize shortlisted author of Everthing Under'I loved Betty: I fell for its strong characters and was moved by the story it portrayed' Fiona Mozley, Booker Prize shortlisted author of Elmet 'A girl comes of age against the knife.' So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit is one of poverty and violence - both from outside the family and also, devastatingly, from within. When her family's darkest secrets are brought to light, Betty has no choice but to reckon with the brutal history hiding in the hills, as well as the heart-wrenching cruelties and incredible characters she encounters in her rural town of Breathed, Ohio.Despite the hardship she faces, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about the natural world, her fierce love for her sisters and her father's brilliant stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination, and in the face of all she bears witness to, Betty discovers an escape: she begins to write.A heartbreaking yet magical story, Betty is a punch-in-the-gut of a novel - full of the crushing cruelty of human nature and the redemptive power of words. 'Not a story you will soon forget' Karen Joy Fowler, Booker Prize shortlisted author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves 'Shot through with moonshine, Bible verses, and folklore, Betty is about the cruelty we inflict on one another, the beauty we still manage to find, and the stories we tell in order to survive' Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow ChildWild Embers: Poems of rebellion, fire and beauty
By Nikita Gill. 2017
'You cannot burn awayWhat has always been aflame'WILD EMBERS explores the fire that lies within every soul, weaving words around…
ideas of feeling at home in your own skin, allowing yourself to heal and learning to embrace your uniqueness with love from the universe. Featuring rewritten fairytale heroines, goddess wisdom and poetry that burns with revolution, this collection is an explosion of femininity, empowerment and personal growth.Tropic of Violence
By Nathacha Appanah. 2016
Marie, a nurse on the island of Mayotte, adopts an abandoned baby and names him Moïse, raising him as a…
French boy. As he grows up, Moïse struggles with his status as an "outsider" and to understand why he was abandoned as a baby. When Marie dies, he is left alone, plunged into uncertainty and turmoil, ending up in the largest and most infamous slum on Mayotte, nicknamed "Gaza".Narrated by five different characters, Tropic of Violence is an exploration of lost youth on the French island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean. Shining a powerful light on problems of violence, immigration, identity, deprivation and isolation on this island that became a French département in 2011, it is a remarkable, unsettling new novel that draws on the author's own observations from her time on Mayotte.Rolling Fields
By David Trueba. 2020
WINNER OF AN ENGLISH PEN AWARD'Effortlessly readable and fizzing with energy, this novel is by turns quirky, funny and thoughtful'Mail…
on Sunday Dani Mosca is 40 and his father has just died. Fulfilling his father's last wishes, Dani embarks on a road trip back to his childhood village, a three-hour hearse journey from Madrid. Leaving behind the busy streets of the city for the deserted, archaic heart of Spain, Dani revisits the key junctions of his life: his conflicted relationship with a pragmatic and authoritarian father; the mystery of his birth; his school years in the repressed atmosphere of Catholic Spain; the origin of his band and its early successes; the emptiness left by a tragically lost friendship; his great loves. Laugh-out-loud funny, deeply moving and featuring an unforgettable cast of characters - from Ecuadorian drivers to Spanish Bowie lookalikes - Rolling Fields is a novel full of the grace and messiness of life: brave, exciting and completely irresistible.Translated from Spanish by Rahul BeryCold White Sun
By Sue Farrell Holler. 2019
A stranger-than-fiction story based on the real-life experiences of a young boy who was smuggled out of Ethiopia amid political…
unrest to start a new life from nothing in Calgary, Alberta.Tesfaye lives behind the safe walls of his family’s compound in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His father is an important man, Tesfaye goes to one of the best schools in the city, his mother and older sisters keep him fed and cared for. He and his beloved brother, Ishi, can spend their time playing soccer, racing chickens and spying on the guests — as long as they stay away from the sharp horns of the family’s goat and avoid their father’s fiery temper.When rebel forces take over the capital, life becomes more complicated. Tesfaye’s father’s cousin takes him to live in the former imperial palace, and Tesfaye becomes the most favored son. His father takes him along when he gives political speeches and distributes leaflets. It is all very exciting, even if Tesfaye doesn’t pay attention to what the leaflets actually say.And then suddenly his father is arrested, and Tesfaye’s own life is in peril. His mother sends him into hiding in her father’s village, until even that is too dangerous. Tesfaye is put in the care of a human smuggler and embarks on an uncertain, confusing and terrifying journey through Kenya, Europe and finally to Canada, where he is put on a Greyhound bus with ten dollars and instructions to stay on the bus until someone tells him to get off. You are safe now, says the smuggler. You are in Canada. This country will protect you.And so begins his new life in North America, sheltered for a while by fellow expats, threatened by the authorities, shunted from a group home to foster care. But through it all he is plagued by confusion and grief, wondering whether he will ever know what has happened to the family he left behind.Key Text Featuresauthor’s notemaphistorical contextCorrelates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.Rolling Fields
By David Trueba. 2020
WINNER OF AN ENGLISH PEN AWARD'Effortlessly readable and fizzing with energy, this novel is by turns quirky, funny and thoughtful'Mail…
on Sunday Dani Mosca is 40 and his father has just died. Fulfilling his father's last wishes, Dani embarks on a road trip back to his childhood village, a three-hour hearse journey from Madrid. Leaving behind the busy streets of the city for the deserted, archaic heart of Spain, Dani revisits the key junctions of his life: his conflicted relationship with a pragmatic and authoritarian father; the mystery of his birth; his school years in the repressed atmosphere of Catholic Spain; the origin of his band and its early successes; the emptiness left by a tragically lost friendship; his great loves. Laugh-out-loud funny, deeply moving and featuring an unforgettable cast of characters - from Ecuadorian drivers to Spanish Bowie lookalikes - Rolling Fields is a novel full of the grace and messiness of life: brave, exciting and completely irresistible.Translated from Spanish by Rahul BeryDirty Bird Blues
By Clarence Major. 1996
A quietly influential force in African American literature and art, Clarence Major makes his Penguin Classics debut with the twenty-fifth-anniversary…
edition of Dirty Bird BluesSet in post-World War II Chicago and Omaha, the novel features Manfred Banks, a young, harmonica-blowing blues singer who is always writing music in his head. Torn between his friendships with fellow musicians and nightclub life and his responsibilities to his wife and child, along with the pressures of dealing with a racist America that assaults him at every turn, Manfred seeks easy answers in "Dirty Bird" (Old Crow whiskey) and in moving on. He moves to Omaha with hopes of better opportunities as a blue-collar worker, but the blues in his soul and the dreams in his mind keep bringing him back to face himself. After a nightmarish descent into his own depths, Manfred emerges with fresh awareness and possibility. Through Manfred, we witness and experience the process by which modern American English has been vitalized and strengthened by the poetry and the poignancy of the African-American experience. As Manfred struggles with the oppressive constraints of society and his private turmoil, his rich inner voice resonates with the blues.