Bella: An American Tall Tale


Book Description

When Bella boards a train west to reunite with her Buffalo soldier sweetheart, she encounters the most colorful and lively characters ever to roam the Western plains. Bullets and fists will fly, heads and hearts will break, but—blessed with a big heart, and a voluptuous figure—Bella will breeze on through it all.




The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin


Book Description

What's a black girl from sunny Southern California to do? White people are blowing up black girls in Birmingham churches. Black people are shouting "Black is beautiful" while straightening their hair and coveting light skin. Viveca Stanton's answer: Slap on a bubbly smile and be as white as you can be! In a humorous and pointed coming-of-age story spanning the sixties through the nineties, Viveca blithely sails through the confusing worlds of racism, sexism and Broadway showbiz until she's forced to face the devastating effect self-denial has had on her life.




Bella Broomstick #1: Magic Mistakes


Book Description

Sometimes being true to yourself is the most bewitching magic of all! This young middle-grade series is hilarious, enchanting, and filled with mischief! Perfect for fans of The Worst Witch! Bella Broomstick is a terrible witch. She doesn't have nose hair or warts. Her magic wand never does what she wants it to do. And she's obsessed with things no good witch would ever need...like toothbrushes, fluffy slippers, and a pink flamingo pen. So it's really not a surprise when Bella fails the Creepy Castle School entrance exam. Aunt Hemlock sends her to live with a nice family and warns her that magic is forbidden! It turns out that living with non-magical parents means all kinds of fun new things--like eating ice cream instead of frog spawn porridge and taking hot bubble baths instead of washing in a swamp. Bella can totally give up magic to live here . . . unless there's a really good reason to try a spell. This hilarious series starter features a reluctant witch, a lost kitten, and a fun look at our world through the eyes of an outsider. When Bella follows her heart, making magic is easy!




My Greenhouse


Book Description

A debut collection exploring the experience of first love and heartbreak through poetry, from actress and artist Bella Mayo. My Greenhouse is a collection of poems inspired by the author's first romance, beginning with the seeds of infatuation, blooming for a time into real love, and then eventually dying back, making room for new growth. The pieces evoke the feelings of enchantment, uncertainty, pain, and ultimately healing that come with your first love and heartbreak.




Fools Rush in


Book Description

Bella, an Italian from New Jersey whose family moved to Texas, must battle her feelings for a deejay and learn how to run the family's wedding planning business after she books a country and western theme wedding.




Uprising


Book Description

Newly arrived in New York City in 1910, Bella is desperate to send money home to her family in Italy, and becomes one of the hundreds of workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. But one fateful March night, a spark ignites some cloth in the factory, resulting in a fire that will become one of the worst workplace disasters in history.




Bella Figura


Book Description

“My ideal type of armchair travel: immersive, insightful, seductive. In Bella Figura, Kamin Mohammadi takes us to the year in Florence that changed her life, and gives us the tools to bring the grace of the Italian lifestyle to our own lives.” —National Bestselling Author Stephanie Danler “She walks down the street with a swing in her step and a lift to her head. She radiates allure as if followed by a personal spotlight. She may be tall or short, slim or pneumatically curvaceous, dressed discreetly or ostentatiously—it matters not. Her gait, her composure, the very tilt of her head is an ode to grace and self-possession that makes her beautiful whatever her actual features reveal.” This is the bella figura, the Italian concept of making every aspect of life as beautiful as it can be, that Kamin Mohammadi discovered when she escaped the London corporate media world for a year in Italy. Following the lead of her new neighbors, she soon found a happier, healthier, and more beautiful way of living. The bella figura knows: • That the food that you eat should give you pleasure while eating it. Pause for meals, and set a place, even if you are eating alone. • To seize any opportunity to get moving—be it taking the stairs, doing a coffee run at work, or dancing with abandon. • To drink a spoonful of excellent-quality extra-virgin olive oil four times a day. • To seek out nature, be it a city park, a tree on your street, or some wild place. • And to love yourself. The bella figura—occupies her space, emotionally and physically, with style and entitlement.




Big Fish


Book Description

When his attempts to get to know his dying father fail, William Bloom makes up stories that recreate his father's life in heroic proportions.




Trollbella Throws a Party


Book Description

Celebrate Queen Trollbella's birthday in this companion picture book to Chris Colfer's #1 New York Times bestselling Land of Stories series. It's Queen Trollbella's birthday and she's throwing herself an epic celebration. She has everything a troll girl would want: musicians, magical creatures, carnival rides, a gigantic cake, and more. So why isn't she having any fun? Trollbella knows something is missing. When she meets a goblin boy sneaking into her party, Trollbella decides to share her party, and she discovers that a happy kingdom and learning to give back is the best gift she could've ever received. This enchanted tale about the importance and the joy of sharing will be a must-have for Land of Stories fans, younger siblings, and new readers alike.




Swapping Stories


Book Description

Here are more than two hundred oral tales from some of Louisiana's finest storytellers. In this comprehensive volume of great range are transcriptions of narratives in many genres, from diverse voices, and from all regions of the state. Told in settings ranging from the front porch to the festival stage, these tales proclaim the great vitality and variety of Louisiana's oral narrative traditions. Given special focus are Harold Talbert, Lonnie Gray, Bel Abbey, Ben Guiné, and Enola Matthews—whose wealth of imagination, memory, and artistry demonstrates the depth as well as the breadth of the storyteller's craft. For tales told in Cajun and Creole French, Koasati, and Spanish, the editors have supplied both the original language and English translation. To the volume Maida Owens has contributed an overview of Louisiana's folk culture and a survey of folklife studies of various regions of the state. Car Lindahl's introduction and notes discuss the various genres and styles of storytelling common in Louisiana and link them with the worldwide are of the folktale.