Birdie's First Day of School


Book Description

Tomorrow is Birdie's first day of school and she is just SO nervous. What will her teacher be like? What should she bring? What should she WEAR? When Birdie walks into her brand-new classroom . . . oh my! A whole new world opens up as she discovers all the fun and adventure that school has to offer. Sujean Rim has crafted another gorgeously illustrated Birdie adventure, featuring a brand-new "big girl" moment as Birdie conquers her back-to-school jitters and discovers that learning new things is always in fashion!




Birdie's Bargain


Book Description

In a poignant and unflinching new realistic novel from the Newbery Medal–winning author of Bridge to Terabithia, a ten-year-old girl makes a deal with God for her father's safe return from the Iraq War. Birdie has questions for God. For starters, why couldn’t God roll history back to September 10, 2001, and fix things—so the next day was an ordinary sunny day and not the devastating lead-in to two wars? Daddy has already been to Iraq twice. Now he’s going again, and Birdie is sure he’ll die. At the very least, she won’t see him again for a year, and everything will not be OK. (Why do grown-ups lie?) To save money, she, Mom, and baby Billy have moved to Gran’s, where shy Birdie must attend a new school, and no one but bossy Alicia Marie Suggs welcomes her. Doesn’t God remember how hard it was for Birdie to make friends at Bible Camp? Counselor Ron taught about Judgment there—and the right way to believe. Has Birdie been praying wrong? Why else would God break their bargain? Readers of all faiths and backgrounds, especially children of military families, will identify with and root for the unforgettable Birdie, given inimitable voice by a master storyteller.




The Homeplace


Book Description

“Culled from the rarefied air of James Lee Burke, Greg Iles, and John Hart, Kevin Wolf has fashioned a painstakingly perfect tale of murder, angst, and the enduring power of the human spirit. If the late, great Pat Conroy had ever decided to write a mystery, this would be it.” —Jon Land “Kevin Wolf’s debut novel, The Homeplace, succeeds in every way. He has crafted a gripping, fast-paced narrative with beautifully drawn characters in an authentic and interesting small-town Colorado setting. Not only is the mystery compelling, but so are the characters. Even if there were no murders to solve, you would still want to spend time with these fascinating people whose lives echo the sparse and gorgeous landscape they inhabit and whose pasts refuse to leave them to their futures.” —Christine Carbo, author of The Wild Inside Chase Ford was the first of four generations of Ford men to leave Comanche County, Colorado. For Chase, leaving saved the best and hid the worst. But now, he has come home. His friends are right there waiting for him. And so are his enemies. Then the murder of a boy, a high school basketball star just like Chase, rocks the small town. When another death is discovered—one that also shares unsettling connections to him—law enforcement’s attention turns towards Chase, causing him to wonder just what he came home to. A suspenseful, dramatic crime novel, The Homeplace captures the stark beauty of life on the Colorado plains.




A to Zoo


Book Description

Whether used for thematic story times, program and curriculum planning, readers' advisory, or collection development, this updated edition of the well-known companion makes finding the right picture books for your library a breeze. Generations of savvy librarians and educators have relied on this detailed subject guide to children's picture books for all aspects of children's services, and this new edition does not disappoint. Covering more than 18,000 books published through 2017, it empowers users to identify current and classic titles on topics ranging from apples to zebras. Organized simply, with a subject guide that categorizes subjects by theme and topic and subject headings arranged alphabetically, this reference applies more than 1,200 intuitive (as opposed to formal catalog) subject terms to children's picture books, making it both a comprehensive and user-friendly resource that is accessible to parents and teachers as well as librarians. It can be used to identify titles to fill in gaps in library collections, to find books on particular topics for young readers, to help teachers locate titles to support lessons, or to design thematic programs and story times. Title and illustrator indexes, in addition to a bibliographic guide arranged alphabetically by author name, further extend access to titles.




The “White Other” in American Intermarriage Stories, 1945–2008


Book Description

Fictional depictions of intermarriage can illuminate perceptions of both 'ethnicity' and 'whiteness' at any given historical moment. Popular examples such as Lucy and Ricky in I Love Lucy (1951-1957), Joanna and John in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), Toula and Ian in My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) helped raise questions about national identity: does 'American' mean 'white' or a blending of ethnicities? Building on previous studies by scholars of intermarriage and identity, this study is an ambitious endeavor to discern the ways in which literature and films from the 1960s through 2000s rework nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century intermarriage tropes. Unlike earlier stories, these narratives position the white partner as the 'other' and serve as useful frameworks for assessing ethnic and American identity. Lauren S. Cardon sheds new light on ethno-racial solidarity and the assimilation of different ethnicities into American dominant culture.




The Sisters of Luna Island


Book Description

Twelve-year-old Marigold Lafleur must uncover the origins of a curse threatening her family, but to do so she must learn to trust her instincts and use the magic she promised her sisters she would abandon.




My Soul Is a Witness


Book Description

An intimate look at the afterlife of lynching through the personal stories of Black victims and survivors who lived through and beyond its trauma Mari N. Crabtree traces the long afterlife of lynching in the South through the traumatic memories it left in its wake. She unearths how African American victims and survivors found ways to live through and beyond the horrors of lynching, offering a theory of African American collective trauma and memory rooted in the ironic spirit of the blues sensibility—a spirit of misdirection and cunning that blends joy and pain. Black southerners often shielded their loved ones from the most painful memories of local lynchings with strategic silences but also told lynching stories about vengeful ghosts or a wrathful God or the deathbed confessions of a lyncher tormented by his past. They protested lynching and its legacies through art and activism, and they mourned those lost to a mob’s fury. They infused a blues element into their lynching narratives to confront traumatic memories and keep the blues at bay, even if just for a spell. Telling their stories troubles the simplistic binary of resistance or submission that has tended to dominate narratives of Black life and reminds us that amid the utter devastation of lynching were glimmers of hope and an affirmation of life.




Her Improper Affair


Book Description

He’s about to be conquered and hasn’t a clue . . . After college, Birdie Ferguson hits London like a ray of California sunshine. She’s fresh, cheery, and positive she’s about to be the best Executive Assistant her father has ever had. But her chipper outlook is guaranteed to clash with her stuffy coworker Oswald Attenborough, who has probably never had a belly laugh in his life . . . Oswald knows he’s not good enough for the boss’s daughter. Although he’s born of aristocracy and is proving himself at Lynford International, he’s always had to play second or third fiddle to his Peers. But now he’s ready to take his talents elsewhere. Until he’s tasked with mentoring Birdie. Despite his own reluctance, he can’t help but notice life’s a lot less dreary with this West Coast beauty around . . .




Photography in Children's Literature


Book Description

Photography in Children’s Literature is the first study that examines the wide array of artistic techniques, topics, and genres used within photographic books for children. Covering a time period from the 1870s to the 1980s, the collection offers multifaceted insights into changing perceptions of children and childhood during an era when the world changed in unprecedented ways. More than sixty full-color illustrations demonstrate an impressive variety of genres, from ABC books, concept books, and country portraits to photo reportage and poetry. By discussing photographic books from ten countries and three continents, the collection offers an international scope, providing a glimpse into the production and reception of photography in children’s literature in a range of contexts and cultures. Photographic books for children thus open up new vistas for scholars interested in an interdisciplinary and transnational investigation of children’s literature, text and images, across the centuries.




The Fifties


Book Description

The Fifties is a sweeping social, political, economic, and cultural history of the ten years that Halberstam regards as seminal in determining what our nation is today. Halberstam offers portraits of not only the titans of the age: Eisenhower Dulles, Oppenheimer, MacArthur, Hoover, and Nixon, but also of Harley Earl, who put fins on cars; Dick and Mac McDonald and Ray Kroc, who mass-produced the American hamburger; Kemmons Wilson, who placed his Holiday Inns along the nation's roadsides; U-2 pilot Gary Francis Powers; Grace Metalious, who wrote Peyton Place; and "Goody" Pincus, who led the team that invented the Pill. A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER