Search:

Results 111 to 120 of 129 | « previous |

Finding Harmony [electronic resource] : by Walters, Eric.aut; cloudLibrary;
So what if Harmony has to be the grown-up? After months living in a foster home (again), Harmony convinces a judge that she can move back in with her mother. Her mom even finds an apartment that the social worker, Gloria, can't find fault with. But now Harmony has an even bigger battle ahead—trying to keep her mom on the straight and narrow, or at least keep Gloria from finding out when she slips. Which she does. A lot. Often left to fend for herself, Harmony finds an ally in Mr. Khaled, the owner of the convenience store across the street. He helps Harmony out with food in exchange for some part-time work. And at school, her principal seems to be on her side. Even so, it feels like Harmony’s life is always one step from falling apart, and she can't really trust anyone. Harmony knows the question is less about whether she'll return to foster care and more about when she's ready to do it. Finding Harmony is the prequel to the Governor General's award-winning The King of Jam Sandwiches. ★ “Tug at the heartstrings and tickle the funny bone…This warm tale is definitely one for the keeper shelves. Highly recommended.” —School Library Journal (SLJ), starred review for The King of Jam SandwichesKey Selling Points Harmony's finally allowed to leave foster care and go home to her mother, who struggles with drug addiction and alcoholism, but Harmony feels like the only one trying to make it work. The book's wise-beyond-her-years narrator, Harmony, shows us a child's experience of the foster care system and of living with a parent struggling so hard with their own mental health issues and addictions that the child essentially raises herself. Yet, the book also demonstrates how kids can resist and persevere in even the direst circumstances. Harmony finds helpers throughout her story—including her supportive friends at her new school, her principal (who also grew up in foster care) and the owner of the corner store, Mr. Khaled, who is a Syrian refugee—giving readers a sense of hope and faith in community. The multigenerational friendship between Harmony and Mr. Khaled shows two people who have survived difficult circumstances finding common ground and sheds light on the immigrant experience. This book is a prequel to the Governor General's award-winning The King of Jam Sandwiches, focusing on Robbie's friend Harmony.Children/juvenile.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Homelessness & Poverty; Orphans & Foster Homes; Drugs, Alcohol, Substance Abuse;
© 2025., Orca Book Publishers,
unAPI

It must be beautiful to be finished : a memoir of my body / by Gies, Kate,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."When Kate Gies was four years old, a plastic surgeon pressed a synthetic ear to the right side of her head and pulled out a mirror. He told her he could make her "whole" -- could make her "right" -- and she believed him. From the age of four to thirteen, she underwent fourteen surgeries, including skin and bone grafts, to craft the appearance of an outer ear. Many of the surgeries failed, leaving permanent damage to her body. In short, lyrical vignettes, Kate writes about how her "disfigured" body was scrutinized, pathologized, and even weaponized. She describes the physical and psychic trauma of medical intervention, and its effects on her sense of self, first as a child needing to be fixed, and later, as a teenager and adult, navigating the complex expectations and dangers of being a woman. It Must Be Beautiful to Be Finished is the story of a girl desperately trying to have a body that makes her acceptable and of a woman learning to own a body she never felt was hers to define. In an age of speaking out about the abuse of marginalized bodies, this memoir takes a hard look at the medical system's role in body oppression and trauma"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Gies, Kate.; Gies, Kate; Gies, Kate; Aesthetics; Body image; Ear, External; Body image;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Glassworks / by Wolfgang-Smith, Olivia,author.;
"Glassworks is a fractured generational saga that follows the Novak family through four generations, examining the traumas and consequences we share with our family and the truths of our lives we don't pass forward. In 1910, volatile Czech naturalist and glassblower Ignace Novak moves to Boston to make scientific glassworks for wealthy patroness Agnes, who is rapidly losing money and sanity at the hands of her abusive husband. In 1938, their son Edward-not the brightest bulb-struggles with his relationship to the family glassblowing tradition and, as he tries to prove himself capable, accidentally ends up entangled with the mob. In 1986, Edward's nonbinary child Novak is a window cleaner for Manhattan's skyscrapers, caught up in the plight of Cecily, a small-town girl remade as a gender-bending Broadway ingenue. In 2019, Cecily's daughter Flip-a gay stoner who works at a company that fires cremains into keepsake glass ornaments-finally breaks the cycle of family secrets"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Families; Family secrets; Glassworkers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The foghorn echoes / by Ramadan, Ahmad Danny,author.;
"A deeply moving novel about a forbidden love between two boys in war-torn Syria and the fallout that ripples through their adult lives. Syria, 2003. A blooming romance leads to a tragic accident when Hussam's father catches him acting on his feelings for his best friend, Wassim. In an instant, the course of their lives is changed forever. Ten years later, Hussam and Wassim are still struggling to find peace and belonging. Sponsored as a refugee by a controlling older man, Hussam is living an openly gay life in Vancouver, where he attempts to quiet his demons with sex, drugs, and alcohol. Wassim is living on the streets of Damascus, having abandoned a wife and child and a charade he could no longer keep up. Taking shelter in a deserted villa, he unearths the previous owner's buried secrets while reckoning with his own. The past continues to reverberate through the present as Hussam and Wassim come face to face with heartache, history, drag queens, border guards, and ghosts both literal and figurative. Masterfully crafted and richly detailed, The Foghorn Echoes is a gripping novel about how to carve out home in the midst of war, and how to move forward when the war is within yourself."--
Subjects: Gay fiction.; Novels.; Best friends; Drug abuse; Gay men; Gays; Refugees; Refugees; Secrecy;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Demon Copperhead : a novel / by Kingsolver, Barbara,author.;
Demon Copperhead is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. It's the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities. Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.
Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Novels.; Opioid abuse; Orphans; Teenage boys;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Demon Copperhead [text (large print)] : a novel / by Kingsolver, Barbara,author.;
Demon Copperhead is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. It's the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities. Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.
Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Large type books.; Novels.; Opioid abuse; Orphans; Teenage boys;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Hollywood Park : a memoir / by Jollett, Mikel,author.;
"Hollywood Park is a remarkable memoir of a tumultuous life. Mikel Jollett was born into one of the country's most infamous cults, and subjected to a childhood filled with poverty, addiction, and emotional abuse. Yet, ultimately, his is a story of fierce love and family loyalty told in a raw, poetic voice that signals the emergence of a uniquely gifted writer. We were never young. We were just too afraid of ourselves. No one told us who we were or what we were or where all our parents went. They would arrive like ghosts, visiting us for a morning, an afternoon. They would sit with us or walk around the grounds, to laugh or cry or toss us in the air while we screamed. Then they'd disappear again, for weeks, for months, for years, leaving us alone with our memories and dreams, our questions and confusion. So begins Hollywood Park, Mikel Jollett's remarkable memoir. His story opens in an experimental commune in California, which later morphed into the Church of Synanon, one of the country's most infamous and dangerous cults. Per the leader's mandate, all children, including Jollett and his older brother, were separated from their parents when they were six months old, and handed over to the cult's "School." After spending years in what was essentially an orphanage, Mikel escaped the cult one morning with his mother and older brother. But in many ways, life outside Synanon was even harder and more erratic. In his raw, poetic and powerful voice, Jollett portrays a childhood filled with abject poverty, trauma, emotional abuse, delinquency and the lure of drugs and alcohol. Raised by a clinically depressed mother, tormented by his angry older brother, subjected to the unpredictability of troubled step-fathers and longing for contact with his father, a former heroin addict and ex-con, Jollett slowly, often painfully, builds a life that leads him to Stanford University and, eventually, to finding his voice as a writer and musician. Hollywood Park is told at first through the limited perspective of a child, and then broadens as Jollett begins to understand the world around him. Although Mikel Jollett's story is filled with heartbreak, it is ultimately an unforgettable portrayal of love at its fiercest and most loyal"--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Jollett, Mikel; Synanon (Foundation); Rock musicians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Cobalt red : how the blood of the Congo powers our lives / by Kara, Siddharth,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."An unflinching investigation reveals the human rights abuses behind the Congo's cobalt mining operation-and the moral implications that affect us all. Cobalt Red is the searing, first-ever exposé of the immense toll taken on the people and environment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by cobalt mining, as told through the testimonies of the Congolese people themselves. Activist and researcher Siddharth Kara has traveled deep into cobalt territory to document the testimonies of the people living, working, and dying for cobalt. To uncover the truth about brutal mining practices, Kara investigated militia-controlled mining areas, traced the supply chain of child-mined cobalt from toxic pit to consumer-facing tech giants, and gathered shocking testimonies of people who endure immense suffering and even die mining cobalt. Cobalt is an essential component to every lithium-ion rechargeable battery made today, the batteries that power our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles. More than 70 percent of the world's supply of cobalt is mined in the Congo, often by peasants and children in sub-human conditions. Billions of people in the world cannot conduct their daily lives without participating in a human rights and environmental catastrophe in the Congo. In this stark and crucial book, Kara argues that we must all care about what is happening in the Congo-because we are all implicated"--
Subjects: Cobalt industry; Cobalt mines and mining; Human rights; Miners;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Made in China : a memoir of love and labor / by Qu, Anna,author.;
"As a teen, Anna Qu is sent by her mother to work in a garment factory in Queens. At home, she works as a maid and babysitter for her step-siblings, and suffers punishment for doing her homework at night. Her mother wants to teach her a lesson: she is Chinese, not American, and such is their tough path in their new country. But instead of surrendering, Qu alerts the Office of Family and Child Services, an act with consequences for the rest of her life. Nearly 20 years later, estranged from her mother and working at a Manhattan startup, Qu requests her OFCS report. When it arrives, key details are wrong, revealing the indifference of the system. Faced with this false narrative, and on the brink of losing her job as the once-shiny startup collapses, Qu looks once more at her life's truths, from abandonment to an abusive family to seeking dignity and meaning in work. Traveling from Wenzhou to Xi'An to New York, from the cutting table at a sweatshop to a startup's conference room, MADE IN CHINA is a fierce memoir unafraid to ask thorny questions about labor, dysfunctional families, and the costs of immigration"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Qu, Anna.; Chinese Americans; Immigrants;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Unbound : my story of liberation and the birth of the Me Too movement / by Burke, Tarana,author.;
"From the founder and activist behind one of the largest movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the "me too" movement, Tarana Burke debuts a powerful memoir about her own journey to saying those two simple yet infinitely powerful words-me too-and how she brought empathy back to an entire generation in one of the largest cultural events in American history. Tarana didn't always have the courage to say "me too." As a child, she reeled from her sexual assault, believing she was responsible. Unable to confess what she thought of as her own sins for fear of shattering her family, her soul split in two. One side was the bright, intellectually curious third generation Bronxite steeped in Black literature and power, and the other was the bad, shame ridden girl who thought of herself as a vile rule breaker, not of a victim. She tucked one away, hidden behind a wall of pain and anger, which seemed to work ... until it didn't. Tarana fought to reunite her fractured soul, through organizing, pursuing justice, and finding community. In her debut memoir she shares her extensive work supporting and empowering Black and brown girls, and the devastating realization that to truly help these girls she needed to help that scared, ashamed child still in her soul. She needed to stop running and confront what had happened to her, for Heaven and Diamond and the countless other young Black women for whom she cared. They gave her the courage to embrace her power. A power which in turn she shared with the entire world. Through these young Black and brown women, Tarana found that we can only offer empathy to others if we first offer it to ourselves. Unbound is the story of an inimitable woman's inner strength and perseverance, all in pursuit of bringing healing to her community and the world around her, but it is also a story of possibility, of empathy, of power, and of the leader we all have inside ourselves. In sharing her path toward healing and saying "me too," Tarana reaches out a hand to help us all on our own journeys"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Burke, Tarana.; African American women; MeToo movement.; Sexual abuse victims; Sexual harassment of women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Results 111 to 120 of 129 | « previous |