Popular blogger and foodie queen Lavender Wills reigns over Lavender Honey Farms, a serene slice of organic heaven nestled in Oregon wine country. Lavender is determined to keep her legacy from falling into the profit-driven hands of uncaring relatives, and she wants an heir to sustain her life's work after she's gone. So she invites her three closest online friends--fellow food bloggers, women of varied ages and backgrounds--out to her farm. She hopes to choose one of them to inherit it--but who?
Adult nonfiction book, large print edition, e-book, audiobook on CD, and e-audiobook. In her memoir Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. She describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it in her own words and on her own terms. Age: Adult
Adult Nonfiction:
In her memoir Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. She describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms.
Adult nonfiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father--a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man--has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey₇first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father's life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance. Age: 14+
Hudson Avery gave up a promising competitive ice skating career after her parents divorced when she was fourteen years old and now spends her time baking cupcakes and helping out in her mother's upstate New York diner, but when she gets a chance at a scholarship and starts coaching the boys' hockey team, she realizes that she is not through with ice skating after all.
This book describes Rock and Roll from its beginning to several changes in the following decades. Several important musicians who influenced the "new" style of music are featured. Includes timelines.
Child fiction book, and e-book. Auma loves to run. In her small Kenyan village, she's a track star with big dreams. A track scholarship could allow her to attend high school and maybe even become a doctor. But a strange new sickness called AIDS is ravaging the village, and when her father becomes ill, Auma's family needs her help at home. Grade: 5+
A young girl describes how her two daddies help her through her day, including her poppa cooking eggs and toast, her daddy fixing her knee when she is hurt, and both fathers being there for her when she needs love. Ages 4-8
Child Nonfiction:
Equality is having the same rights, opportunities, and status as everyone else. Diversity is about recognizing the importance of different cultures in society, while still protecting their equality. This timely book discusses why the acceptance of diversity is important in society to prevent discrimination based on race, religion, and sex. Case studies of real-world events help readers understand the consequences of inequality.
Child fiction book, and e-book. In southeastern Nigeria, twelve-year-old Mnamdi is determined to avenge his police chief father, who was murdered while tryng to rid the town of criminals, but Nnamdi feels powerless until he receives a magical object which gives him superpowers. Grade: 4+
"Welcome to Flood City, the last inhabitable place left above the waters that cover Earth. It's also the last battleground between the Chemical Barons, who once ruled the planet and now circle overhead in spaceships, desperate to return, and the Star Guard, who have controlled the city for decades. Born and raised in Flood City, Max doesn't care about being part of either group. All he wants is to play his music with the city band, keep his sister from joining the Star Guard, and be noticed by his crush, the awesome drummer Djinna. Meanwhile, Ato, a young Chemical Baron, has joined his crew for what was supposed to be a routine surveillance mission, only things go from bad to worse between unexplained iguanagull attacks and the discovery of deadly schemes. Ato's just trying to stay safe, keep his twin brother alive, and not hurt anyone. So when his commander prepares to wipe out Flood City completely, Ato must decide how far he'll go. As Max's and Ato's paths collide, it changes everything. Because they might be able to stop a coming war. But can two enemies work together to save Earth?"
"The murals painted on the walls of her Brooklyn neighborhood start to change and fade in front of her, Sierra Santiago realizes that something strange is going on--then she discovers her Puerto Rican family are shadowshapers and finds herself in a battle with an evil anthropologist for the lives of her family and friends."
Everyone thinks Mia and Brynn killed their best friend after becoming obsessed and delusional over a novel, but on the anniversary of their friend's death a discovery pulls them back together to find out what actually happened that night.
Ten-year-old Tiger and his new friend, Luna, are drawn into a copy of Henri Rousseau's painting, Surprised!, through a magical golden frame by which their neighbor's son disappeared fifty years earlier.
Book 1, Fantastic Frame series
A guide to mastering essential skills for life.
Teen fiction book, and e-book. Luka Kane has spent 736 days wrongfully imprisoned inside the Loop awaiting his execution. Each day is the same. Each day is torturous. But things are starting to change. Whispers of war are circulating. Strange things are happening to the prisoners. And the warden delivers a message: Luka, you have to get out. Now Luka must decide whether breaking out of the Loop is his only way to survive, especially if there's any chance of saving the ones he loves. But the population on the outside may be far more terrifying than anything he could have imaged. And in order to save his family, he'll have to discover who is responsible for the chaos that has been inflicted upon the world.
What happens to a country that tells generation after generation of white men that they deserve power? What happens when success is defined by status over women and people of color, instead of by actual accomplishments?Through the last 150 years of American history-from the post-Reconstruction South and the mythic stories of cowboys in the West, to the present-day controversy over NFL protests and the backlash against the rise of women in politics-Ijeoma Oluo exposes the devastating consequences of white male supremacy on women, people of color, and white men themselves. Mediocre investigates the real costs of this phenomenon in order to imagine a new white male identity, one free from racism and sexism.
Adult Nonfiction:
"A current, constructive, and actionable exploration of today's racial landscape, offering straightforward clarity that readers of all races need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide. Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the "N" word. Perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions readers don't dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans. Oluo is an exceptional writer with a rare ability to be straightforward, funny, and effective in her coverage of sensitive, hyper-charged issues in America. Her messages are passionate but finely tuned, and crystalize ideas that would otherwise be vague by empowering them with aha-moment clarity." --publisher.
In So You Want to Talk about Race, editor-at-large of the Establishment Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the "N" word. Perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions listeners don't dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans. Oluo is an exceptional writer with a rare ability to be straightforward, funny, and effective in her coverage of sensitive, hyper-charged issues in America. Her messages are passionate but finely tuned, and crystallize ideas that would otherwise be vague by empowering them with aha-moment clarity. Her writing brings to mind voices like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay, and Jessica Valenti in Full Frontal Feminism, and a young Gloria Naylor, particularly in Naylor's seminal essay "The Meaning of a Word."
Adult nonfiction book, e-book, and e-audiobook. “A current, constructive, and actionable exploration of today's racial landscape, offering straightforward clarity that readers of all races need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide.“ —Provided by publisher. Age: Adult.
In this wordless picture book, Sheep goes to great lengths to surprise Giraffe with a lovely red sweater.
Adult science fiction book. “Rooted in foundational loss and the hope that can live in anger, Riot Baby is both a global dystopian narrative and an intimate family story with quietly devastating things to say about love, fury, and the black American experience. Ella and Kev are brother and sister, both gifted with extraordinary power. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by structural racism and brutality. Their futures might alter the world. When Kev is incarcerated for the crime of being a young black man in America, Ella-through visits both mundane and supernatural-tries to show him the way to a revolution that could burn it all down"-- Provided by publisher. Age: 15+
Twelve Native Americans came to the Big Oakland Powwow for different reasons. Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame. Dene Oxedrene is pulling his life together after his uncle's death and has come to work the powwow and to honor his uncle's memory. Edwin Frank has come to find his true father. Bobby Big Medicine has come to drum the Grand Entry. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil Red Feather; Orvil has taught himself Indian dance through YouTube videos, and he has come to the powwow to dance in public for the very first time. Tony Loneman is a young Native American boy whose future seems destined to be as bleak as his past, and he has come to the Powwow with darker intentions--intentions that will destroy the lives of everyone in his path. Tommy Orange delivers a wondrous and shattering portrait of an America few of us have ever seen. A multi-generational, relentlessly paced story about violence and recovery, hope and loss, identity and power, dislocation and communion, and the beauty and despair woven into the history of a nation and its people.
Child fiction book. It is the summer of 1775. The British occupy Boston and its busy harbor, holding residents captive and keeping a strong military foothold. The threat of smallpox looms, and the town is cut off, even from food supplies. Following the battles of Lexington and Concord, Congress unanimously elects George Washington commander in chief of the American armed forces, and he is sent to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to transform the ragtag collection of volunteer militiamen into America's first army. The war has so far been little more than a series of intermittent skirmishes, but Washington is in constant fear of attack--until he takes the offensive with results that surprise everyone, the British most of all. Grade: 6+
As her parents attempt to help a child fall asleep at bedtime, they themselves become more and more sleepy.
- Have you seen "Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens"? She is the heroic desert girl dragging scrap metal across an alien planet. Have you ever wondered about the actress behind the scavenger? Meet Daisy Ridley. Before she flew in cinematic spaceships and fought off foes with her staff, she was just an ordinary girl with a big dream. Come along for Ridley's journey as she goes from performing arts student to desert scavenger and star. - back cover.
- This biography describes the life and career of the successful technology innovator, Elon Musk, covering his work with PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX.
- Beacon Biography, Grades 4 - 6
- Whether she is being an Israeli soldier, a law school student, a beauty queen or an Amazonian superhero, Gal Gadot is fascinating. From her early days as a tomboy playing in the backyard through her time wielding her Lasso of Truth on the movie theatre screen, Gadot has had an amazing life. Read about how she almost became a Bond girl and how she does her own stunts. Meet Gal Gadot, actor, wife, mother, and a modern day Wonder Woman.
- Beacon Biography Grades 3 - 7
- Describes the life and film career of the "Star Wars" star, from his childhood in London to his future film roles.
- Ever since she became famous for her role in the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, audiences have been wondering about the actor Millie Bobby Brown. Up until being cast into the creepy TV show, almost no one had heard Brown's name before. This wasn't because she had other dreams besides acting. In fact, there was very little Brown wanted to do more than act. She put all of her tears into it. Her family put all of their money into it. In the end, it paid off. Millie Bobby Brown became a star.
- Ages 8 - 12
"An intersectional history of the shared struggle for African American and Latinx civil rights. Spanning more than two hundred years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged narrative history, arguing that the "Global South" was crucial to the development of America as we know it. Scholar and activist Paul Ortiz challenges the notion of westward progress as exalted by widely taught formulations like "manifest destiny" and "Jacksonian democracy," and shows how placing African American, Latinx, and Indigenous voices unapologetically front and center transforms US history into one of the working class organizing against imperialism. Drawing on rich narratives and primary source documents, Ortiz links racial segregation in the Southwest and the rise and violent fall of a powerful tradition of Mexican labor organizing in the twentieth century, to May 1, 2006, known as International Workers' Day, when migrant laborers--Chicana/os, Afrocubanos, and immigrants from every continent on earth--united in resistance on the first "Day Without Immigrants." As African American civil rights activists fought Jim Crow laws and Mexican labor organizers warred against the suffocating grip of capitalism, Black and Spanish-language newspapers, abolitionists, and Latin American revolutionaries coalesced around movements built between people from the United States and people from Central America and the Caribbean. In stark contrast to the resurgence of "America First" rhetoric, Black and Latinx intellectuals and organizers today have historically urged the United States to build bridges of solidarity with the nations of the Americas. Incisive and timely, this bottom-up history, told from the interconnected vantage points of Latinx and African Americans, reveals the radically different ways that people of the diaspora have addressed issues still plaguing the United States today, and it offers a way forward in the continued struggle for universal civil rights."
Where did the tree house come from? Before Jack and Annie can find out, the mysterious tree house whisks them back to the prehistoric past. Now they have to figure out how to get home. Can they do it before dark, or will they become a dinosaur's dinner?
Jack and Annie travel in their Magic Tree House back to a Hawaiian island of long ago where they make friends, learn how to surf, and encounter a tsunami.
The Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War have brought an official end to slavery, yet some Southern slave owners are refusing to comply. The road to freedom is still long and hard for many African-Americans, but you're not giving up. Will you: * Overcome obstacles as you make your way north from Texas, looking to begin a new life of freedom? * Seek out your family, from whom you were separated as a child, after emancipation? * Fight back when you take work as an apprentice but find that you're still treated as a slave? When YOU CHOOSE, history gets real.
Interactive History Adventure series
Child fiction book. Eleven-year-old Carolina moves with her family from Puerto Rico to upstate New York, where she attends Silver Meadows camp with her cousin, finds an abandoned cottage, and reclaims parts of the life she left in Puerto Rico. Age: 8-12.
A powerful and poignant picture book about forgiveness from Kathryn Otoshi, author of the bestselling book One.
Adult drama - not rated. The timeworn Dickens' story about the old merchant Scrooge and how his own disappointments in life shape his view that both life and men are not worthy of his notice or concern. This version stars: Reginald Owen, Kathleen Owen, Gene Lockhart, Terry Kilburn, and Barry MacKay.
As Tsh Oxenreider, author of Notes From a Blue Bike, chronicles her family's adventure around the world--seeing, smelling, and tasting the widely varying cultures along the way--she discovers what it truly means to be at home.
Adult drama - not rated. The holiday season is in full swing when a cultured gentleman with twinkling eyes, an ample belly, and a snowy beard is hired as the Macy's department store Santa. He claims his name is Kris Kringle, and soon fills everyone with the Christmas spirit. Everyone that is, except Doris Walker, his boss, who is raising her daughter not to believe in Santa. But when Kringle is declared insane, and put on trial, everyone's faith is put to the test as young and old alike face the age-old question of believing in Santa Claus. This version stars: Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn, Gene Lockhart, Natalie Wood, Porter Hall, William Frawley, Jerome Cowan and Philip Tonge.
Moving from Earth to the futuristic planet Nebulon in 2120, eight-year-old Zack is nervous about starting school and meeting people.
Adult comedy - PG13. A beloved patriarch asks his family for one gift this holiday season: to get along. If they can honor that wish and spend five days under the same roof without killing one another, it will be a Christmas miracle.
"Family isn't something you're born into -- it's something you build. One young woman's journey to find her place in the world as the carefully separated strands of her life -- family, money, school, and love -- begin to overlap and tangle. All sixteen-year-old Izzy Crawford wants is to feel like she really belongs somewhere. Her father, a marine, died in Iraq six years ago, and Izzy's moved to a new town nearly every year since, far from the help of her extended family in North Carolina and Puerto Rico. When Izzy's hardworking mom moves their small family to Virginia, all her dreams start clicking into place. She likes her new school--even if Izzy is careful to keep her scholarship-student status hidden from her well-to-do classmates and her new athletic and popular boyfriend. And best of all: Izzy's family has been selected by Habitat for Humanity to build and move into a brand-new house. Izzy is this close to the community and permanence she's been searching for, until all the secret pieces of her life begin to collide. How to Build a Heart is the story of Izzy's journey to find her place in the world and her discovery that the choices we make and the people we love ultimately define us and bring us home."
Performing community service for pulling a stupid prank against a rival high school, soccer star Tom tutors a Somali refugee with soccer dreams of his own.
Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student. For ages 10+
"These stories are an extra peek at Auggie, a boy born with extreme facial abnormalities, before he started at Beecher Prep and during his first year there. Readers get to see him through the eyes of Julian, the bully; Christopher, Auggie's oldest friend; and Charlotte, Auggie's new friend at school"--publisher.
This book is a follow-up to Wonder by Palacio.