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The girl in the painted caravan: memories of a Romany childhood
By Eva Petulengro. 2011
Born into a Romany gypsy family in 1939, Eva Petulengro's childhood seemed to her to be idyllic in every way.…
She would travel the country with her family in their painted caravan and spend evenings by the fire as they sang and told stories of their past. She didn't go to school or visit a doctor when she was unwell. Instead her family would gather wild herbs to make traditional remedies, hunt game and rabbits, and while the men tended horses to make a living, the young girls would join the women in reading palms. But Eva's perfect world would be turned upside down as the countryside became increasingly hostile to all travellers. 2011.The gift of a home: with decorations
By Beverley Nichols. 1972
The four walls of my freedom: Lessons I've Learned From A Life Of Caregiving
By Donna Thomson. 2014
Donna Thomson’s life was forever changed when her son Nicholas was born with cerebral palsy. A former actor, director, and…
teacher, Donna became his primary caregiver and embarked on a second career as a disability activist, author, and consultant. Thomson vividly describes her experience in treading delicately through daily care, emergencies, and medical bureaucracy as she and her family cope with her son’s condition while maintaining value and dignity (for Nicholas, too). She demonstrates the vital contribution that people with disabilities make to our society and addresses the ethics and economics of giving and receiving care. 2014.The follow: a true story
By Linda Spalding. 1998
The author recounts her expedition into the forests of Borneo in search of a reclusive primatologist, who has devoted her…
life to protecting orphaned orangutans. Describes the beauty of the island, the local society, and the despoilment of natural resources through poaching, deforestation, and misguided ecotourism. 1998.The first man in my life: daughters write about their fathers
By Sandra Martin, Ed Martin Sandra. 2007
In twenty-two original narratives, some of Canada's most acclaimed writers share stories, memories, insights, and revelations - from the comic…
to the tragic - about the first man in their lives. These complex stories will open a fresh and intense conversation with daughters everywhere about the men they've observed since childhood: their fathers. Some descriptions of sex and violence and some strong language. 2007.The elusive Mr. Pond: the soldier, fur trader and explorer who opened the Northwest
By Barry M Gough. 2014
Born in Connecticut in 1739, Peter Pond volunteered for the colonial Connecticut and New York regiments that fought against the…
French for control of North America. Soon after, drawn by the promise of wealth and adventure, Pond paddled into the wild territory of the Indians to the west with only a canoe, some trade goods and a few French Canadians to aid him. What he returned with is the stuff of legend. 2014.The Everest years: a climber's life
By Chris Bonington. 1987
At the age of 50, the author, one of the world's best-known mountaineers, reached the summit of Mount Everest in…
1985 after four attempts. He chronicles his Everest expeditions and the ascent of Mount Vinson in the Antarctic with Frank Wells. 1987.The errand runner: reflections of a rabbi's daughter
By Leah Rosenberg. 1981
The color of water: a Black man's tribute to his white mother
By James McBride. 1996
One of twelve siblings in Brooklyn, the author was confused about his mother's race. She called herself light-skinned and refused…
to discuss her past. Years later she admitted to being an Orthodox rabbi's daughter whose family shunned her after her marriage to the first of her two black husbands. Some strong language. 1996.The draw: a memoir
By Lee Siegel. 2017
Hoping to make a killing in New Jersey real estate, the author's father, Monroe Siegel, takes a draw from his…
employer against unearned commission. When the recession hits in the 1970s, Monroe finds himself owing a small fortune to his firm. He sinks toward divorce and bankruptcy, while Lola, Lee's mother, suffers a nervous breakdown that turns her into a different person. Shamed and enraged by his father's fate, Lee grows up wondering what society owes a person who has failed materially but preserved his humanity. Touches on fundamental questions: How do we balance our obligations to ourselves with our obligations to others? What do we owe society when its rules have a legal basis but not a moral one? 2017.The history of the Bronte family: from Ireland to Wuthering heights
By John Cannon. 2000
This account of the Bronte family traces their Irish ancestry from its murky origins around 1710 to 1820 when the…
Bronte family arrived at Haworth Parsonage, Yorkshire. Patrick Brunty was the eldest of a family of ten from Ballynaskeagh near Newry in County Down. His parents were uneducated and impoverished, but his father, Hugh, was known locally as a storyteller whose repertoire included the strange tale of Welsh Brunty, almost certainly a prototype for Heathcliff. Patrick won a scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge, was ordained a Church of England priest, and held various ministries until finally he arrived in Haworth with his wife suffering from cancer and six young children. He cherished literary ambitions which he passed on to Charlotte, Emily and Anne; and this book points out certain themes and stories in their novels which could only have come from a profound knowledge of their Irish roots as told to them by their father. 2000.The glass castle: A Memoir
By Jeannette Walls. 2006
Reporter for MSNBC.com looks back on her unsettled life. Describes growing up in a dysfunctional family, which was always on…
the move. She recalls her father's dream of building a "glass castle," and relates how she and her siblings escaped to make lives of their own. Bestseller. 2006.The hall of the mountain king
By Howard H Snyder. 1973
The disability rights movement: from charity to confrontation
By Frieda Zames, Doris Zames Fleischer. 2011
The education of Laura Bridgman: first deaf and blind person to learn language
By Ernest Freeberg. 2001
Chronicles the life of Laura Bridgman, who, born into a New Hampshire farm family in 1829, became deaf and blind…
at the age of two. Freeberg recounts Laura's transformation into a woman who voraciously absorbed the world around her under the tutelage of Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe of the Perkins Institution for the Blind. 2001.The Duke of deception: memories of my father
By Geoffrey Wolff. 1979
The author recaptures the paradox of his brilliant father's turbulent life. Although he found it "fun to be Duke Wolff’s…
son," it was also harrowing to see his father's lies, debts, drinking, and irresponsibility. Some strong language. 1979.The dig tree: the extraordinary story of the ill-fated Burke and Wills 1860 expedition
By Sarah Murgatroyd. 2003
In 1860, an eccentric Irish police officer named Robert O'Hara Burke set out to Melbourne at the head of the…
most ambitious expedition of his age. Up until this point Australia had remained a truly dark continent, but times were changing. On 20 August Burke and his team of eighteen men made a confident start - journeying north towards the Gulf of Carpentaria. Accompanied by William Wills, a shy English scientist, he was prepared to risk everything to cross the continent. Meanwhile, John McDouall Stuart, a dour Scotsman with a fondness for the bottle, was already trekking north from Adelaide. The race was on. 2003.The disability rights movement (Cornerstones of freedom)
By Deborah Kent. 1996
A chronicle of milestones in the ongoing fight for disability rights in the United States; includes the 1940 establishment of…
the National Federation of the Blind and the passing of both the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Grades 4-7. c1996.The desire of every living thing: a search for home
By Don Gillmor. 1999
When Don Gillmor's grandmother broke her hip at the age of eighty, a family secret was revealed: her twin sister…
was not really her twin, but her aunt. The secret had been hidden since the family moved from Scotland to Winnipeg in order to escape the shame of her illegitimacy. The discovery of this secret prompted Gillmor to journey to Scotland and trace his family's history. 1999.The cinema of isolation: a history of physical disability in the movies
By Martin F Norden. 1994
Film has often shown people with physical disabilities as deserving isolation from the rest of society. Norden examines hundreds of…
Hollywood and international movies and uncovers the industry's practices for maintaining this status quo, while offering an array of physically disabled characters who embody or break out of stereotypes. He observes the arrival of a new set of stereotypes tied to the growth of science and technology in the 1970s and 1980s, and underscores later movies that display a newfound sensitivity. Some descriptions of sex, strong language. 1994.