Enduring Questions


Book Description

This accessible guide to Jewish children’s literature explores many of the enduring questions of the Jewish tradition: What is Jewish history? What are love, wisdom, humor, ritual, evil, and justice? Jewish children’s literature matters for all children, and with this practical guide parents and teachers will be empowered to choose and discuss books and stories with Jewish or non-Jewish children. Jewish children’s literature is often absent in school classrooms and when it is available, it presents a picture to children of Jews as victims. Enduring Questions provides teachers with guidance in the use of Jewish children’s literature in the preschool and elementary school classroom. Enduring Questions includes extensive bibliographies of Jewish children’s literature, digital resources for teachers, and suggestions for further reading. With summaries of suggested books and texts, honest recommendations from teachers who have used these texts in the classroom, and practical curricular connections, this comprehensive book is suited for those looking for an introduction to teaching Jewish children's literature and those familiar with it. The book provides a framework about the use of Jewish children’s literature as an opportunity for all children, both Jewish and non-Jewish, to be philosophers and engage in dialog and debate. The enduring questions thoughtfully explored through Jewish literature are important for all students growing up in a diverse multicultural world.




Listening to Olivia


Book Description

For nineteen years, Olivia lived the shadowy life of stripper, streetwalker, and heroin addict on the fringes of society. Leaving a troubled home at age sixteen to land a seemingly glamorous job at a Chicago stripclub, she became trapped in a web of prostitution and drug addiction that eventually forced her onto the streets and into a world of hardship at the hands of abusive men. But Olivia, a resourceful, vibrant woman of color, ultimately escaped the prostitution lifestyle and is now director of addiction services at a community counseling program, working to support drug-dependent women. Listening to Olivia is the compelling account of her descent into poverty and abuse together with her hard fought recovery. By assimilating new research on the women and girls in prostitution - in addition to their male customers - Jody Raphael discovers that experiences like Olivia's are alarmingly common and argues that the sex trade as an institution promotes violence against women. Smashing both the common stereotype of the depraved streetwalker and abstract feminist arguments legitimizing prostitution as the sexual liberation of women, the author uncovers an emerging multimillion-dollar global trafficking industry that detains women in a violent cycle of exploitation and dependence. Olivia's own insights on her turbulent childhood, stripping in clubs, soliciting on the street, drug addiction, brutal pimps, her three pregnancies, and her extraordinary transformation highlight important new questions: who are the men who buy sex from such poor, strung out women; and why are so many of these men so violent? Olivia's story gives a human face to the overwhelmingly low-income, non-white, and unempowered young women in prostitution today. Combined with a wealth of new findings, this gripping and accessible study challenges the academy, the legal system, and society as a whole to wake up and listen to the women like Olivia.




The Argosy


Book Description




A Portrait of Olivia


Book Description

The old axiom of "What you see is what you get" cannot be said to apply to Olivia Winters, the seemingly gracious and vivacious daytime television host whom Peter Brandon is commissioned to paint after he and his partner, Jeff Stevens, appear on her popular show. Peter quickly discovers that underneath the veneer of warmth and sophistication, is a bitter and vindictive woman-with an ego bigger than the lavish Beverly Hills penthouse she owns. Her perfect world, however, starts to unravel when she receives threatening letters from a religious fanatic, and when her blackmailing ex-boyfriend attempts to reenter her life. Jeff, hired to investigate the source of the threats, is convinced that Patricia Hastings, the mother of their close friends, Emily and Anthony, may very well be the perpetrator. Patricia is particularly incensed when her son and daughter are interviewed by Olivia on the subject of child abuse-something Patricia has long denied her children suffered. Challenged by Olivia to counter her children's stories, an enraged Patricia physically attacks Olivia in front of a studio audience. Olivia seeks to benefit from the resulting media frenzy, but a murder and a suicide deflate her plans. She turns her fury on those around her, but is silenced when confronted by a vengeful killer-with only Peter's erratic psychic ability to prevent another murder. A Portrait of Olivia, the fifth in the Portrait series, is another entertaining mix of mystery, thrills, chills and the complexity of love and friendship.




Olivia’s Journey


Book Description

Olivia thinks she was ready for a relationship. Little does she know the progression of time for the dating scene is not at all like it was fifteen years ago when she met her only true love, Isaiah. There is not a day that goes by that Olivia does not think of him. It was the simple things that he would do. Seldom did he need to tell her that he loved her, because his actions would speak loud and clear for themselves. Never had she even considered life without her husband, her best friend, and the father of their children, Isaiah II and Isabella. Now she is faced to journey the rest of her life without him. During the first couple of years, it took all her strength to maintain her daily routine. Her children, family, career, and friends were her distractions. However, now that her children are older and her businesses are well established, Olivia faces her true feelings on love and relationship. Each of her three chosen relationships presented its own challenges, and at the end of each relationship, Olivia would always question God: why on earth would he take her Isaiah and leave them walking the earth? Olivia knew that if she wanted a reputable relationship, it was imperative she learn how to trust. Could she believe true love would find her again? Would she continuously allow deversions to distract her journey? Or would she finally realize that everything she needed was already inside of her?




Always an Olivia


Book Description

An elderly black grandmother passes on the story of the family’s Jewish origins to her young granddaughter, Carol Olivia. As family members flee the Spanish Inquisition, are kidnapped by pirates and eventually sail to America, one daughter in each generation is given the name Olivia, from the Hebrew Shulamit meaning “peace,” to honor the Jewish part of their ancestry. Critically-acclaimed author Carolivia Herron (Nappy Hair) shares this engaging, multicultural tale is based on her own family's heritage.




Olivia's Time


Book Description

Two boys, whose father, a mob boss, is gunned down in cold blood, catapulting one into sudden unwanted responsibility. A girl, orphaned at three, taken by her rich grandmother to live in Atlanta. A ghetto kid, turned football player, shot down in an alley. An FBI agent, losing almost his entire family in a single day. A gifted musician, with an eye for women, suddenly distracted by a stranger. A woman, to all outward appearances wealthy and talented, who carries a dark secret. Then a murder occurs. Is there a connection?







Olivia's Awakening


Book Description

Olivia Savage is newly divorced and embarking on the not-so-easy task of getting into shape. One morning, after struggling to run up a mountain trail, she meets Eve Monroe who stirs her in ways she doesn’t understand. Eve helps women achieve the physical fitness they yearn for, but when it comes to her love life, she buries her own yearnings and only dates casually. All that changes the day she meets the beautiful and sheltered Olivia. Eve is surprisingly smitten, and she soon finds that her desire to help is quickly overshadowed by her desire to make love. When Olivia hires Eve as her trainer, their attempts at controlling their attraction are no match for their unbridled passion. But it’s the deeper, more poignant feelings neither of them can ignore that have Olivia and Eve questioning everything they’ve ever known about love.




The 716


Book Description

Olivia is destined to be the future leader of Meliora. She’s smart, rich, and innovative, and she has a pink Identifeye light. Andy is destined to be a waiter and househusband. His blue Identifeye light prevents him from pursuing his dream of becoming an engineer. After all, who ever heard of a male engineer? But when Andy’s life becomes entangled with Olivia’s and he gets the chance to prove himself on the female stage, everything starts to change. In a society where men are second-class citizens and only binary gender norms are acceptable, Andy and Olivia must confront their own beliefs and decide what kind of world they want to live in. Will they do what is expected or what is right? And will the wrong choice spell disaster? Debut author S.J. Pratt bursts onto the YA literary scene with a vivid coming-of-age story filled with resistance, romance, and the courage of everyday heroes. Fans of The Lunar Chronicles and Noughts and Crosses will enjoy this original and thought-provoking Sci-Fi adventure.