Show Me a Sign (Show Me a Sign, Book 1)


Book Description

Don't miss the companion book, Set Me Free Winner of the 2021 Schneider Family Book Award ∙NPR Best Books of 2020 ∙Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2020 ∙School Library Journal Best Books of 2020 ∙New York Public Library Best Books of 2020 ∙Chicago Public Library Best Books of 2020 ∙2020 Jane Addams Children's Book Award Finalist ∙2020 New England Independent Booksellers Award Finalist Deaf author Ann Clare LeZotte weaves a riveting story inspired by the true history of a thriving deaf community on Martha's Vineyard in the early 19th century. This piercing exploration of ableism, racism, and colonialism will inspire readers to examine core beliefs and question what is considered normal. * "A must-read." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review "More than just a page-turner. Well researched and spare... sensitive... relevant." -- Newbery Medalist, Meg Medina for the New York Times "A triumph." -- Brian Selznick, creator of Wonderstruck and the Caldecott Award winner, The Invention of Hugo Cabret * "Will enthrall readers, but her internal journey...profound." -- The Horn Book, starred review * "Expertly crafted...exceptionally written." -- School Library Journal, starred review * "Engrossing." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review "This book blew me away." -- Alex Gino, Stonewall Award-winning author of George "Spend time in Mary's world. You'll be better for it." -- Erin Entrada Kelly, author of the Newbery Award Winner, Hello, Universe Mary Lambert has always felt safe and protected on her beloved island of Martha's Vineyard. Her great-great-grandfather was an early English settler and the first deaf islander. Now, over a hundred years later, many people there -- including Mary -- are deaf, and nearly everyone can communicate in sign language. Mary has never felt isolated. She is proud of her lineage. But recent events have delivered winds of change. Mary's brother died, leaving her family shattered. Tensions over land disputes are mounting between English settlers and the Wampanoag people. And a cunning young scientist has arrived, hoping to discover the origin of the island's prevalent deafness. His maniacal drive to find answers soon renders Mary a "live specimen" in a cruel experiment. Her struggle to save herself is at the core of this penetrating and poignant novel that probes our perceptions of ability and disability.




Selling Women's History


Book Description

Only in recent decades has the American academic profession taken women’s history seriously. But the very concept of women’s history has a much longer past, one that’s intimately entwined with the development of American advertising and consumer culture. Selling Women’s History reveals how, from the 1900s to the 1970s, popular culture helped teach Americans about the accomplishments of their foremothers, promoting an awareness of women’s wide-ranging capabilities. On one hand, Emily Westkaemper examines how this was a marketing ploy, as Madison Avenue co-opted women’s history to sell everything from Betsy Ross Red lipstick to Virginia Slims cigarettes. But she also shows how pioneering adwomen and female historians used consumer culture to publicize histories that were ignored elsewhere. Their feminist work challenged sexist assumptions about women’s subordinate roles. Assessing a dazzling array of media, including soap operas, advertisements, films, magazines, calendars, and greeting cards, Selling Women’s History offers a new perspective on how early- and mid-twentieth-century women saw themselves. Rather than presuming a drought of female agency between the first and second waves of American feminism, it reveals the subtle messages about women’s empowerment that flooded the marketplace.




The Urban Library


Book Description

This book examines the role, history and function of public libraries in contemporary societies as motors that drive development. It analyses through case studies, how contemporary libraries have been redesigned to offer a new kind of public space while also reshaping neglected areas in cities. Broadly understood the book seeks to comprehend contemporary library design, urban development and the revitalization of specific urban areas. Important and world famous architects – star-architects – have designed signature architecture in the contemporary libraries selected for this volume. The examples to be showcased in the book include the main Seattle Public Library, Salt Lake City Public Library, New York Public Library, Spain Library Medellin, Colombia, Halifax Central Library Nova Scotia, Canada and Library of Alexandria in Egypt to offer examples of what constitute the approach to libraries and urban development in many cities around the world nowadays. Data in the form of interviews to library directors, librarians and users, tours of libraries, visual documentation and archival research have been collected for most public libraries included as case studies for the book. The impulse to archive has been framed and understood in the literature as a modern desire to control fleeting reality. Libraries as such respond to this desire by collecting, storing and circulating resources (books and other kinds of media). But more recently there has been an emphasis on the public character of library spaces in which people gather not only to obtain information and read by themselves but also to experience the very urban quality of proximity to others in more informal and less structured environments as public space. Community events characterize the programming of all the libraries included in the book. The design of these new libraries fit into urban development initiatives where libraries – like other iconic cultural spaces of cities – become central components to market cities for the consumption of culture. Libraries become sites to be visited and explored by tourists while providing services for residents. They are also machines to accelerate urban development especially in areas previously neglected by development.




Books on Fire


Book Description

Almost as old as the idea of the library is the urge to destroy it. Author Lucien X. Polastron traces the history of this destruction, examining the causes for these disasters, the treasures that have been lost, and where the surviving books, if any, have ended up. Books on Fire received the 2004 Societe des Gens de Lettres Prize for Nonfiction/History in Paris.




Legendborn


Book Description

An Instant New York Times Bestseller! Winner of the Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe for New Talent Author Award Filled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system, Tracy Deonn’s YA contemporary fantasy reinvents the King Arthur legend and “braids together Southern folk traditions and Black Girl Magic into a searing modern tale of grief, power, and self-discovery” (Dhonielle Clayton, New York Times bestselling author of The Belles). After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus. A flying demon feeding on human energies. A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down. And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw. The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates. She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.




Capital Views


Book Description

"Metropolitan areas change over the time. These changes come together and create a city's character and personality. Renowned Washington, DC, historian James Goode has assembled an incredible collection of images that look back at a Washington before it developed into the international metropolitan city it is today. The impactful historic photography exposes the elements of the DC metro area that have disappeared- the dairy farms of Loudoun County, the railroad round house in Alexandria, and model boats on the Rainbow Pool on the National Mall, as well as provide startling different views of areas and neighborhoods that still exist. The majority of these images have never been published, and under the curatorial eye of James Goode have been put together in a way that give readers a better understanding of the city Washington DC was, and the city it was to become."




Historic Alexandria, Virginia, Street by Street


Book Description

Historic Alexandria Foundation. This record of a famous port's architectural life includes 375 photographs of more than 500 buildings dating from 1749 to the mid-19th century.




The Library of Alexandria


Book Description

The Library of Alexandria was the largest library of its time and a major center for learning and scholarly research, particularly in the fields of astronomy, geography, mathematics, and medicine. Caesar and Cleopatra, Erastosthenes and Euclid, Archimedes and Alexander the Great are just a few of the famous people connected to its story. Today, historians still argue about how the library was destroyed, and no one knows exactly what it looked like, yet there is no question that the library continues to fascinate and intrigue us. This extensively researched look at what we do know about the Library of Alexandria features Kelly Trumble’s short, accessible chapters, and richly detailed full-color paintings by Robina MacIntyre Marshall. Together, they tell the story of one of the wonders of the ancient world, and show how its influence as continued long after its destruction. Glossary, suggested reading, selected bibliography, index.




The Lost Library of Alexandria


Book Description

When the trail of clues summons the IAF to the Middle East, Martin Culver faces his most crucial challenge: To stand down as his colleagues are picked off one by one, or to fan the flames of world tensions.While the secrets of the Library of Alexandria threaten to revive Ancient Babylon, a vengeful tyrant has built a sinister army, seeking retribution on all who oppose him. Will the evil conjured by the wisdom of the remote past bring about a hellish vision for the future? Or will Culver rally the remnants of his team to end this nightmare before it's too late?




Historic Photos of Alexandria


Book Description

Alexandria, Virginia, has been witness to events which helped create America. Many of the nation's founding fathers and well-known historical figures, including George Washington and Robert E. Lee, lived in, worked in, and were a part of the city. Though it started out as a modest tobacco trading town and seaport, Alexandria has truly been at the crossroads of American history. Its citizens are proud of Alexandria's place in history and its importance as a city steeped in the narrative of the founding of the United States. Historic Photos of Alexandria depicts this colorful and varied history through still photos selected from the Library of Congress and the Local History Special Collections branch of the Alexandria Library. From the occupation of Alexandria by Union troops during the Civil War to the thriving downtown shopping and dining district of the 1940s and 1950s, Historic Photos of Alexandria follows life and events throughout the city's history.