A Walker in the City


Book Description

A literary icon’s “singular and beautiful” memoir of growing up as a first-generation Jewish American in Brownsville, Brooklyn (The New Yorker). A classic portrait of immigrant life in the early decades of the twentieth century, A Walker in the City is a tour of tenements, subways, and synagogues—but also a universal story of the desires and fears we experience as we try to leave our small, familiar neighborhoods for something new. With vivid imagery and sensual detail—the smell of half-sour pickles, the dry rattle of newspapers, the women in their shapeless flowered housedresses—Alfred Kazin recounts his boyhood walks through this working-class community, and his eventual foray across the river to “the city,” the mysterious, compelling Manhattan, where treasures like the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum beckoned. Eventually, he would travel even farther, building a life around books and language and literature and exploring all that the world had to offer. “The whole texture, color, and sound of life in this tenement realm . . . is revealed as tapestried, as dazzling, as full of lush and varied richness as an Arabian bazaar.” —The New York Times




Alfred and Emily


Book Description

Doris Lessing’s first book after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature revisits her childhood in Southern Africa and the lives, both fictional and factual, that her parents led.







The Adventures of Alfred in Mom, I'm Growing Up Now


Book Description

Alfred has a birthday coming soon. He thinks he is ready to take on some other responsibilities now that he is growing up. He also hopes he can show his parents he can handle responsibilities. He wants to make his own decisions about music, video games, and television shows. He also wants to ask his parents about getting back on the football team. He has had behavior problems at school in the past. However, his teachers agree that he has improved. Now he wants a chance to prove it to his parents, because they think the additional responsibility might be too much for Alfred. They know that he can be forgetful when it comes to his homework, and they have to state the rule of homework before play. Alfred learns how to recognize good and bad choices and how to ask for help when he needs it as he discovers if he is really ready to grow up. He will learn that responsibility and accountability come with growing up.




Salt to the Sea


Book Description

#1 New York Times bestseller and winner of the Carnegie Medal! "A superlative novel . . . masterfully crafted."--The Wall Street Journal Based on "the forgotten tragedy that was six times deadlier than the Titanic."--Time Winter 1945. WWII. Four refugees. Four stories. Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies, war. As thousands desperately flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom. But not all promises can be kept . . . This paperback edition includes book club questions and exclusive interviews with Wilhelm Gustloff survivors and experts.




The Contender


Book Description

The breakthrough modern sports novel The Contender shows readers the true meaning of being a hero. This acclaimed novel by celebrated sportswriter Robert Lipsyte, the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in YA fiction, is the story of a young boxer in Harlem who overcomes hardships and finds hope in the ring on his path to becoming a contender. Alfred Brooks is scared. He’s a high-school dropout, and his grocery store job is leading nowhere. His best friend is sinking further and further into drug addiction. Some street kids are after him for something he didn’t even do. So Alfred begins going to Donatelli’s Gym, a boxing club in Harlem that has trained champions. There he learns it’s the effort, not the win, that makes the boxer—that before you can be a champion, you have to be a contender. ALA Best of the Best Books for Young Adults * ALA Notable Children’s Book * New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age




Alfred


Book Description

"Great for fans of Rick Riordan."#9733#9733#9733#9733#9733 "To me, it brings to mind such classics as Narnia and The Castle in the Attic." #9733#9733#9733#9733#9733 "If I would describe this book in one word it would be Magical." #9733#9733#9733#9733#9733 "I was drawn in by the fast paced action and intrigued by the vivid details." #9733#9733#9733#9733#9733 "Great detail in the combat exchanges from clashes and gashes to fears and tears." #9733#9733#9733#9733#9733 Do you love the Harry Potter stories but want more oomph and action? Do you love Lord of the Rings but want faster pacing and kid-centered storylines? Well look no further. Aflred the Boy King series offers just that. It's about kids in an adventurous fantasy world, in epic battles, and learning about noble causes. Ron, the author, has been in Hollywood working in the industry for many years as a CG animator. Being in love with story and seeing wonderful works of fantasy come out, there was something missing for this storyteller. Ron decided to write a story he loved telling to his young daughters. An epic story about a computer-game playing boy being magically transported into a scary fantasy world. A grim realm in need of a hero. Kids will love reading this. Adults will love reading this, but more importantly, dads reading to their daughters, moms reading to their sons. Alfred the Boy King series will enthrall and move you, at whatever age. From the editor:"This was a pleasure for me. The story has gripped me strongly. You tell it well. I can hardly wait to see what happens next. I don't want it to be over. Also, to me, for whatever it is worth, there is increasing depth, especially in your portrayal of Alfred. As he assumes the mantle of kingship uncertainly, faltering in places, he is growing into the role. This feels authentic. It is natural, marvelous and to me inspired -- a notable accomplishment." ~ Larry Haise, editor Categories for Alfred the Boy King Series Coming of Age Action & Adventure Alternate History Christian Fantasy Coming of Age Juvenile Fiction Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology Fantasy Epic Fantasy & Magic Fiction Historical Humorous Medieval Monsters Sword & Sorcery Knights




Alfred


Book Description

For 57 years, Alfred told his family he had been a barber, chauffeur, and translator in World War II. Following the death of his wife, he shared glimpses into his actual wartime experiences as a reluctant front-line machine gunner in Europe, 1944-45 with his daughter during her weekly nursing home visits.




Alfred Kazin's America


Book Description

Over the course of sixty years, Alfred Kazin's writings confronted virtually all of our major imaginative writers, from Emerson to Emily Dickinson to James Wright and Joyce Carol Oates -- including such unexpected figures as Lincoln, William James, and Thorstein Veblen. This son of Russian Jews wrote out of the tensions of the outsider and the astute, outspoken leftist -- or, as he put it, "the bitter patriotism of loving what one knows." Editor Ted Solotaroff hasselected material from Kazin's three classic memoirs to accompany his critical writings. Alfred Kazin's America provides an ongoing example of the spiritual freedom, individualism, and democratic contentiousness that he regarded as his heritage and endeavored to pass on.