Troy Onyango’s For What Are Butterflies Without Their Wings is a collection of 12 short stories that have a quickening pulse and pages crackling with sharp observations and gentle revelations about solitude, loneliness, connection, loss, love, and the infinite intricacies of daily human life.
Coconut trees. Carnival. Rum and coke. To many outsiders, these and other sunny images are all they know about life in the Caribbean. However, if you want to learn how the locals truly live and experience the dark and often harrowing truths that lurk behind the idyllic imagery of Caribbean culture, then come visit the town of Pleasantview.
Come during election season, and see how one candidate sets out to slaughter endangered turtles- just for fun. Or come on the day the other candidate beats his outside woman,’ so badly she ends up losing their baby. Then come on the night of the political rally, where this grieving woman exacts very public revenge.
Stay a while, and see how this single event has a trajectory far beyond the lives of the immediate actors, with often tragic and heartbreaking consequences.
written in a remarkable combination of Standard English and Trinidad Creole.
Pleasantview showcases the entrenched political, racial, patriarchal, and class dichotomies of life in Trinidad. Merging the vibrancy and darkness of recent Caribbean writers such as Ingrid Persaud and Claire Adam with the linguistic experimentation of Marion James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings, Pleasanfview is a landmark work in international fiction.
Convinced that distance is the reason her long-term relationship is failing, Legachi sets off to London on the Skyline scholarship, to reunite with her beloved Mezie. But things do not turn out the way she expects and not only does her relationship continue to go downhill when she gets there, she finds herself penniless and without reasonable accommodation. She is forced to juggle several jobs while at the same time doing everything she can to fix things with her man. But when she is hired by the handsome Doctor Roman, a single father desperate for decent childcare, it throws into question everything she thinks she feels for Mezie and everything she wants for her future. But alas, things are really never as they seem.
Calling My Name is a striking, luminous, and literary exploration of family, spirituality, and self—ideal for readers of Jacqueline Woodson, Jandy Nelson, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Sandra Cisneros.
This unforgettable novel tells a universal coming-of-age story about Taja Brown, a young African American girl growing up in Houston, Texas, and deftly and beautifully explores the universal struggles of growing up, battling family expectations, discovering a sense of self, and finding a unique voice and purpose.
Told in fifty-three short, episodic, moving, and iridescent chapters, Calling My Name follows Taja on her journey from middle school to high school. Literary and noteworthy, this is a beauty of a novel that captures the multifaceted struggle of finding where you belong and why you matter.
Here are stories of women traveling with the weight of broken dreams, with kids in tow, with doubt and regret, with memories of lost loves, with lovers who have their own hard pasts and hard edges. Some from the South, some from the North, some rich and some poor, the characters that inhabit InLove & Trouble all seek a measure of self-fulfillment, even as they struggle with difficult circumstances and limiting social conventions.
The stories that make up Alice Walker’s debut short fiction collection reflect her tenacious commitment to face brutal and sometimes melancholy truths while also illuminating the ways in which the courageous pursuit of love brings hope to even the most harrowing lives.
Aislin is more than just a princess. Born to a fairy king and pedrasi queen, she’s strong, smart, and brave, with magical gifts she’s only beginning to discover. Aislin has spent her whole life keeping her family’s gifts hidden from the non-magic folk who surround her kingdom, and is shocked to find out the humans knew about these enchantments all along. But when the fairies decide to move back onto human territory, it soon becomes clear that some will not be happy about this change.
As she sets out to restore the balance, Aislin chooses a surprising group of young women to join her – girls she knows are brave and loyal, but who don’t have the qualities of typical guards or princess confidantes. Things only get more complicated when an old foe appears, surely up to no good. The princess knows she has the power and ingenuity to stand up for herself and her kingdom, especially with her friends by her side – will that be enough to set things right?
“STAY IN YOUR LANE.” Stephen doesn’t want to hear that–he wants to have no lane.
Anything his friends can do, Stephen should be able to do too, right? So when they dare each other to sneak into an abandoned building, he doesn’t think it’s his lane, but he goes. Here’s the thing, though: Can he do everything his friends can? Lately, he’s not so sure. As a mixed kid, he feels like he’s living in two worlds with different rules–and he’s been noticing that strangers treat him differently than his white friends . . .
So what’ll he do? Hold on tight as Stephen swerves in and out of lanes to find out which are his–and who should be with him.
Torrey Maldonado, author of the highly acclaimed Tight, does a masterful job showing a young boy coming of age in a racially split world, trying to blaze a way to be his best self.
Joyce Meyer has a knack for coining phrases (Joyce-isms) and one of her best loved is “Where the mind goes, the man follows.”Meyer provides keys for “powerful thinking,” giving the reader an ability to use the mind as a tool to achievement.
In Powerful Thinking, a book small and portable enough to fit in a purse, suitcase, backpack, briefcase, or even a pocket, she outlines a flexible program to turn thoughts into habits, and habits into success. Sections include:
-The Power of a Positive You
-Keeping Your Attitude at the Right Altitude
-The Power of Perspective
-More Power To You
Nobody has more of a “can-do” attitude than Joyce Meyer. Now you can, too!
Focus on a single aspect of the craft of writing with help from the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. Writing Character begins with an essay by author and educator Constance Hale, who offer pointers for observing and capturing human complexity. The rest of the book consists of prompts and space to think, providing opportunities for you to develop your own characters. Among other ideas, you’ll be asked to create:
-a sketch of a famous person you admire
-a portrait of someone based on the items on his desk
-a positive take on someone you loathe
-a description of your mother’s emotions as they are expressed by her eyes
-a scene involving a group of people, focusing exclusively on how they use their hands
Take to a café, on vacation, or on your morning commute and practice your creative writing a little bit at a time.
When Beverley Bass was a young girl in the late 1950s, she told her parents she wanted to fly planes–and they told her that girls couldn’t be pilots. Still, they encouraged her, and brought her to a nearby airport to watch the planes take off and land.
After decades of refusing to take no for an answer, in 1986 Beverley became the first female pilot promoted to captain by American Airlines and led the first all-female crewed flight shortly thereafter. Her revolutionary career became even more newsworthy when she was forced to land in the remote town of Gander, Newfoundland, on September 11, 2001, due to US airspace closures. After several days there, she flew her crew and passengers safely home.
Beverley’s incredible life is now immortalized in the hit Broadway musical Come from Away. Here, discover how she went from an ambitious young girl gazing up at the sky to a groundbreaking pilot smiling down from the cockpit.
Following the events of Scorpia Rising, Alex relocates to San Francisco as he slowly recovers from the tragic death of his best friend and caregiver, Jack Starbright, at the hands of terrorists working for SCORPIA. With Jack gone, Alex feels lost and alone, but then, out of the blue, he receives a cryptic email–just three words long, but enough to make Alex believe that Jack may be alive. Armed with this shred of hope, Alex boards a flight bound for Egypt and embarks on a dubious quest to track Jack down.
Yet SCORPIA knows Alex’s weakness. And the question of whether Jack is alive soon takes a backseat to a chilling new terrorist plot–one that will play with Alex’s mind as he grasps the magnitude of what is at stake.
From Egypt to France to Wales, from luxury yachts to abandoned coal mines, Alex traverses a minefield of dangers and cryptic clues as he fights to discover the truth. The #1 New York Times bestselling series, perfect for fans of James Bond and Jason Bourne, is back with a vengeance!
There’s nothing like a pair of sparkly, shiny, and pretty la-di-da shoes to bring out the Big Cheese in a girl. But Louise’s mother doesn’t quite see it that way. Instead Louise has to wear the dull and drab brown tie shoes she has worn for years. They are practical, Louise’s mother says. They are better in the rain, the shoe salesman says. It doesn’t matter that Louise doesn’t see it that way. Then Louise’s best friend Fern comes to school with shiny new patent leather shoes from Paris with sparkles on the toes! Are the bonds of friendship greater than shoe envy? Only Louise can say…
Time out! Simon got Max Brutus’s prized World Cup soccer ball stuck in the tallest tree in Picasso Park! Now he’s in more trouble than a tater tot in ketchup. Can his friends at Table 5 help him get the ball before the big game? Or has Simon’s luck maxed out?
HarperChapters build confident readers one chapter at a time! With short, fast-paced books, art on every page, and milestone markers at the end of every chapter, they’re the perfect next step for fans of I Can Read!
There is nothing more important to a child than to feel loved, and this gorgeous gathering of poems written by Nikki Giovanni celebrates exactly that. Hand-selected by Newbery honoree Ashley Bryan, he has, with his masterful flourish of color, shape, and movement, added a visual layering that drums the most impartant message of all to young, old, parent, child, grandparent, and friend alike: You are loved. You are loved. You are loved. As a bonus, one page is mirrored, so children reading the book can see exactly who is loved—themselves!
Katy Carr is a lively, daredevil oldest sister in a big family. She loves messing around outdoors, climbing on the garage roof or up a tree, cycling, skateboarding, swinging…. But her life changes in dramatic and unexpected ways after a serious accident.
Inspired by the classic novel What Katy Did, Jacqueline Wilson creates an irresistible 21st-century heroine. Fans of Hetty Feather and Tracy Beaker will fall in love with Katy and her family too.
Give the gift of ballet and magic this Christmas with an original take on The Nutcracker ballet!
Georgie has waited for this moment her whole life–to dance the part of Clara in The Nutcracker ballet. And when she finally gets the part, it’s like a dream come true. . . .
Literally.
Every time Georgie dances with the Nutcracker doll, she leaves the ballet studio and enters a world where everything around her-the old wooden furniture, the Christmas tree, the carefully wrapped presents-is larger than life. It’s so magical, Georgie can’t wait to return again and again.
Then the Nutcracker’s magic seeps into the real world, putting Georgie’s friend in danger. Everything is falling apart, and it’s almost Christmas! Can Georgie save her friend, the Nutcracker, and most of all, herself?
