Fly While You Still Have Wings


Book Description

Winner of a Catholic Press Association Award: Soft cover-spirituality books. (Third Place). For thirty years, beginning with Fresh Bread in 1985, Joyce Rupp has comforted millions with books such as Praying Our Goodbyes and May I Walk You Home. For the first time, she shares the story of her own grief in the wake of her mother's death, offering readers both a profile of her mother's resilient spirit and a voice of compassion for their own experience of loss. In this heartfelt memoir about her mother Hilda's final years, Joyce Rupp shares the lessons her mother taught her, especially to "fly while you still have wings." As a poor farmer's wife and the mother of eight living on rented land in Maryhill, Iowa, Hilda lived a life of hard labor and constant responsibility--from milking cows and raising chickens to keeping the farm's financial ledger. Rupp shows how the difficulties of her mother's early years and family life, including the loss of a twenty-three-year-old son, forged a resilience that guided her through the illnesses and losses she faced in later years. This affectionate profile of their relationship is, at the same time, an honest self-examination, as Rupp shares the ways she sometimes failed to listen to, accept, and understand her mother in her final years. Rupp begins each chapter with a meditative poem that captures the essence of each stage in the journey. Her unfailing candor and profound faith illumine this story of a mother and daughter with a universal spirit of hope, reconciliation, and peace.




How to Fly with Broken Wings


Book Description

'If Finn Maison shouts jump you jump or you are dead.' Twelve-year-old Willem has two main aims in life: to fly and to make at least two friends of his own age. But all the other boys from the Beckham Estate do is make him jump off things. First his desk - and now the wall. As his toes teeter on the edge, Sasha Bradley gives him a tiny little wink. Might she become his friend? Bullied by Finn and his gang the Beckham Estate Boyz, Willem has no choice but to jump. As he flies through the air he flaps his arms, wishing he could fly and escape into the clouds. Instead he comes crashing down and breaks his ankle. Sasha, angry with herself for not stopping Finn and his Boyz, is determined to put things right. And soon, while the gangs riot on their estate, Willem and Sasha form an unlikely friendship. Because they share a secret. Sasha longs to fly too. And when Magic Man Archie arrives with stories of war-flying spitfires, he will change the lives of the kids on the Beckham Estate for ever. And perhaps find a way for Willem and Sasha to fly ... Touching on themes such as friendship and bullying, this is a charming tale about overcoming obstacles and finding friendship in unlikely places. 'heart-rending, heartbreaking and heartening' The Best New Children's Books Guardian Supplement




If These Wings Could Fly


Book Description

Perfect for fans of Laura Ruby, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Mindy McGinnis, Kyrie McCauley’s stunning YA debut is a powerful story about the haunting specter of domestic violence and the rebellious forces of sisterhood and first love. Winner of the William C. Morris Award! Tens of thousands of crows invading Auburn, Pennsylvania, is a problem for everyone in town except seventeen-year-old Leighton Barnes. For Leighton, it’s no stranger than her house, which inexplicably repairs itself every time her father loses his temper and breaks things. Leighton doesn’t have time for the crows—it’s her senior year, and acceptance to her dream college is finally within reach. But grabbing that lifeline means abandoning her sisters, a choice she’s not ready to face. With her father’s rage worsening and the town in chaos over the crows, Leighton allows herself a chance at happiness with Liam, her charming classmate, even though falling in love feels like a revolutionary act. Balancing school, dating, and survival under the shadow of sixty thousand feathered wings starts to feel almost comfortable, but Leighton knows that this fragile equilibrium can only last so long before it shatters.




Fly!


Book Description

At age eight, Elexis "Lex" Gillette, learned he would never see again. Little did he know the devastating news was the beginning of a fascinating adventure that would lead him to athletic competitions all over the world. With the encouragement and support of a dynamic and resolute mother who was deteremined for her son to function independently in the sighted world, Lex attended public schools in Raleigh, NC. In high school, Lex met Coach Brian Whitmer and was introduced to a life-changing track and field event... ...the long jump "Fly!" is more than the story of an athlete. The chapters not only tell great stories but also convey important, inspirational messages. This is a book for all ages. It inspires, entertains, and informs as it encourages everyone to "Fly!"




When You Need Wings


Book Description

In the tradition of Where the Wild Things Are, beloved author-illustrator Lita Judge brings us a soaring story about the power of imagination. On a day when you feel like no one is listening, and you wish you could just disappear, shut your eyes and listen. Do you hear it? That isn’t your heart. That is the sound of your very own wings beating within. Acclaimed author-illustrator Lita Judge takes readers on a wonder-filled exploration of a child’s imagination, thoughtfully weaving in a gentle suggestion of how to explore that bountiful inner world and let it help them shine with courage in the real one.




The Women with Silver Wings


Book Description

The thrilling true story of the daring female aviators who helped the United States win World War II--only to be forgotten by the country they served. When Japanese planes executed a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Cornelia Fort was already in the air. At twenty-two, Cornelia had escaped Nashville's debutante scene for a fresh start as a flight instructor in Hawaii. She and her student were in the middle of their lesson when the bombs began to fall, and they barely made it back to ground that morning. Still, when the U.S. Army Air Forces put out a call for women pilots to aid the war effort, Cornelia was one of the first to respond. She became one of just over 1,100 women from across the nation to make it through the Army's rigorous selection process and earn her silver wings. In The Women with Silver Wings, historian Katherine Sharp Landdeck introduces us to these young women as they meet even-tempered, methodical Nancy Love and demanding visionary Jacqueline Cochran, the trailblazing pilots who first envisioned sending American women into the air, and whose rivalry would define the Women Airforce Service Pilots. For women like Cornelia, it was a chance to serve their country--and to prove that women aviators were just as skilled and able as men. While not authorized to serve in combat, the WASP helped train male pilots for service abroad and ferried bombers and pursuits across the country. Thirty-eight of them would not survive the war. But even taking into account these tragic losses, Love and Cochran's social experiment seemed to be a resounding success--until, with the tides of war turning and fewer male pilots needed in Europe, Congress clipped the women's wings. The program was disbanded, the women sent home. But the bonds they'd forged never failed, and over the next few decades, they came together to fight for recognition as the military veterans they were--and for their place in history.




When Stone Wings Fly


Book Description

"Pitch-perfect research and incomparable heart paint every corner of the brilliantly colored canvas of When Stone Wings Fly. Readers, get ready: your newest split-time fiction experience rests in the hands of a master."--Rachel McMillan, author of The Mozart Code Kieran Lucas's grandmother is slipping into dementia, and when her memory is gone, Kieran's last tie to the family she barely knows will be lost forever. Worse, flashbacks of her mother's death torment Granny Mac and there's precious little Kieran can do to help. In 1931, the creation of the new Great Smoky Mountains National Park threatens Rosie McCauley's home. Rosie vows the only way the commission will get her land is if they haul her off in a pine box. When a compromise offers her and her disabled sister the opportunity to stay for Rosie's lifetime, her acceptance sets her apart from the other mountain folk. And the bond she's forming with ornithologist and outsider Benton Fuller only broadens the rift. Eighty-five years later, Kieran heads back to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to find answers to her great-grandmother's mysterious death and bring peace to Granny Mac before it's too late. Park Historian Zach Jensen may be the key to locating both the answers. But what Kieran needs clashes with the government regulations Zach is sworn to uphold. Can she trust God for a solution to heal this generations-old wound? "Barnett's tale set in the Great t Smoky Mountains flows as smooth as wildwood honey. The two timelines are stitched together like alternating blocks of a quilt passed down through the decades, keeping family connected and rooted." --Sarah Loudin Thomas, award-winning author of The Right Kind of Fool




Flying Without Wings


Book Description

“Give yourself a gift and read Flying Without Wings. You will be kinder, wiser, and more compassionate for having read it. I am.”—Abigail (Dear Abby) Van Buren At twenty-four, Arnold Beisser was a recent medical school graduate and a nationally ranked tennis player. But overnight a devastating bout of polio left him permanently paralyzed from the neck down and dependent on an iron lung to draw his next breath. Polio robbed Arnold Beisser of his strength, his athletic ability, and almost his life. Yet he discovered in this unthinkable trap not only the expected sadness and despair, but wonder, delight, and the pleasure of everyday living. This is the wise, deeply moving, and warmly humorous account of Arnold Beisser’s search for a new life and meaning as he comes to terms with his disability and then transcends it . . . to practice psychiatry, to fall in love, truly to soar without wings. His spirit and determination to fight for happiness will inspire any reader faced with unbearable loss. Dr. Beisser shows us why the contrast between winner and loser, athlete and cripple, is in our minds much more than in our bodies. And he shares with us the experiences that taught him life’s greatest truth: Nothing can keep you from love, laughter, meaningful work, or enlightenment—except yourself. “A book of blazing honesty and openness. It goes right to the heart of the reader.”—Norman Cousins, author of Anatomy of an Illness




A Court of Wings and Ruin


Book Description

Sarah J. Maas hit the New York Times SERIES list at #1 with A Court of Wings and Ruin!




Grow Your Wings, Fly Away and Build Your Nest


Book Description

Grenadian Experience Shines Like a Caribbean Jewel in this Book of Personal History John Jakasal poetically presents the soul of Grenada and how it can survive and prosper as world renowned "Isle of Spice" with his life as an example. USA, The Caribbean & Globally Grenadian writer and author John Jakasal weaves "the cobweb that hides two paths in life" in the eminently readable memoir Grow Your Wings, Fly Away And Build Your Nest. Sharing his family background and life story, he spins illuminating connections to Grenadian history through the colonial phase and compares it to the modern, complex fruit of that history to rekindle the island's spicy reputation and agricultural foundation that has seemingly lost its colors diminished by the annual hurricanes. He discusses what it means to be a Grenadian American as chief Technologist, Professor in the school of Radiology Technology and Clinical Instructor. His kind finds itself readily accepted in New York City, a place known for its homogenous international culture. His story may be unusual to many, but it is given serious consideration in this eye-opening memoir of a young man from humble beginnings who worked hard, left his parents' home, never forgetting from where he came, became independent, owes not a single man, and now comfortably retired. Author John Jakasal's textual path dances on the light of his spider's web, and the dance of the spider as he weaves a vision of home, of a place to live and make a living in an agricultural safety net. Yet the delicate nature of Grenada's present is also present in the proceedings. The spider's web is a delicate, gossamer beauty and it is Jakasal's brilliant poetic view of his mother island; little Grenada swamped by waves modernism and highwood. In Jakasal, as well as in the strong moral heart of his book, lie all things Grenadian: The island beauty and its blessed clime, the physical points of national identity that are still remarkably untouched despite the onslaught of modernity. This is further refined into an appreciation of how America is a place of opportunity for anyone willing. A place where a Grenadian's native qualities can shine. Jakasal gives readers the taste of native Grenadian stew in this work, and it is an experience both filling and a taste everyone of his readers will remember with an appreciation of the nation and the people that made it.