Long Walk to Freedom


Book Description

"Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand history – and then go out and change it." –President Barack Obama Nelson Mandela was one of the great moral and political leaders of his time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. After his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela was at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is still revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality. Long Walk to Freedom is his moving and exhilarating autobiography, destined to take its place among the finest memoirs of history's greatest figures. Here for the first time, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela told the extraordinary story of his life -- an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph. The book that inspired the major motion picture Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.




A Country Childhood


Book Description

"My life in rural NSW last century, and comparisons with life to-day."--Provided by publisher.




Growing Up with the Country


Book Description

This illustrated study shows how frontier life shaped children's character.




War Boy


Book Description

Michael Foreman woke up when an incendiary bomb dropped through the roof of his Lowestoft home. Luckily, it missed his bed by inches, bounced off the floor and exploded up the chimney. So begins Michael's fascinating, brilliantly illustrated tale of growing up on the Suffolk frontline during World War II. He tells how he and his friends and family coped with bombing raids and deadly doodlebugs, how gas masks were great for making rude noises, and how nothing could beat rabbit pie! ' ... vivid, humorous and touching' Guardian.




Once There Was a Farm


Book Description

A memoir of life on a backwoods Virginia farm in the first half of the 20th century. Virginia Bell Dabney recalls the hardships of the Depression, the fire that destroyed her home and how her mother struggled to make a life for her family, but also finds much to rejoice in her country childhood.




My Italian Country Childhood - A Chef's Journey From the Hills of Abruzzo to the Heart of Soho


Book Description

A boy from a dirt-poor farmhouse in the Italian mountains should never have ended up running one of London's most popular restaurants. Aldo Zilli's extraordinary journey began as a cook in a kitchen with no electricity or running water and took him all the way to Soho where he ended up serving royalty.With a passion to please, charm and good humour, Zilli transformed the way London restaurants were run - the famous and the infamous came to eat his food and soon they became his friends.It hasn't always been easy for him. Along the way Zilli has had to survive prison, divorce, health scares and financial collapse. But now he's a happily married, hands-on father determined to work hard and carry on living life to the full.As irrepressible and mischievous as ever, Aldo Zilli has a heart-warming, hilarious story to share.




In the First Country of Places


Book Description

These authors describe their relationships with nature and childhood in the context of major Western traditions of philosophy and religion. Each poet confronts the Western image of an alien nature within which histories of individuals are insignificant, and three poets elaborate alternative versions of connection with nature and their own past.




I am Abraham Lincoln


Book Description

Each picture book in this series is a biography of an American hero, told in a simple, conversational, vivacious way, and always focusing on a character trait that made the person heroic. (Cover may vary) The heros are depicted as children throughout, telling their life stories in first-person present tense, which keeps the books playful and accessible to young children. This book spotlights Abraham Lincoln who always spoke his mind and was unafraid to speak for others.This friendly, fun biography series inspired the PBS Kids TV show Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum. One great role model at a time, these books encourage kids to dream big. Included in each book are: • A timeline of key events in the hero’s history • Photos that bring the story more fully to life • Comic-book-style illustrations that are irresistibly adorable • Childhood moments that influenced the hero • Facts that make great conversation-starters • A virtue this person embodies: Abraham Lincoln's compassion made him a great leader. You’ll want to collect each book in this dynamic, informative series!




Childhood


Book Description

The celebrated Danish poet Tove Ditlevsen begins the Copenhagen Trilogy ("A masterpiece" —The Guardian) with Childhood, her coming-of-age memoir about pursuing a life and a passion beyond the confines of her upbringing—and into the difficult years described in Youth and Dependency Tove knows she is a misfit whose childhood is made for a completely different girl. In her working-class neighborhood in Copenhagen, she is enthralled by her wild, red-headed friend Ruth, who initiates her into adult secrets. But Tove cannot reveal her true self to her or to anyone else. For "long, mysterious words begin to crawl across" her soul, and she comes to realize that she has a vocation, something unknowable within her—and that she must one day, painfully but inevitably, leave the narrow street of her childhood behind. Childhood, the first volume in the Copenhagen Trilogy, is a visceral portrait of girlhood and female friendship, told with lyricism and vivid intensity.




An American Childhood


Book Description

"An American Childhood more than takes the reader's breath away. It consumes you as you consume it, so that, when you have put down this book, you're a different person, one who has virtually experienced another childhood." — Chicago Tribune A book that instantly captured the hearts of readers across the country, An American Childhood is Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard's poignant, vivid memoir of growing up in Pittsburgh in the 1950s and 60s. Dedicated to her parents—from whom she learned a love of language and the importance of following your deepest passions—Dillard's brilliant memoir will resonate with anyone who has ever recalled with longing playing baseball on an endless summer afternoon, caring for a pristine rock collection, or knowing in your heart that a book was written just for you.