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Indestructible : one man's rescue mission that changed the course of WWII / by Bruning, John R.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."This little-known WWII story introduces a renegade pilot whose personal mission to rescue his family from a POW camp changed modern air warfare forever. December 1941: Manila is invaded, and US citizen and Philippine Airlines manager, Pappy Gunn, is ordered to fly key military command out of the country, leaving his family at home. So Gunn was miles away when the Japanese captured his wife and children, placing them in an internment camp where they faced disease, abuse, and starvation. Gunn spent three years trying to rescue them. His exploits became legend as he revolutionized the art of air warfare, devising his own weaponry, missions, and combat strategies. By the end of the war, Pappy's ingenuity and flair for innovation helped transform MacArthur's air force into the scourge of the Pacific"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Gunn, Paul Irvin, 1899-1957.; Gunn, Paul Irvin, 1899-1957; Philippine Airlines; Air pilots; Americans; Prisoners of war; World War, 1939-1945; Aeronautics, Military; Rescues; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The oracle of Maracoor : a novel / by Maguire, Gregory,author.;
"The Oracle of Maracoor, the second in the trilogy called Another Day, continues the story of Elphaba's green-skinned granddaughter, Rain. That strange land, Maracoor--across the ocean from Oz--is beset by an invading army. In the mayhem, Rain and Cossy, a child felon, break out of prison. Helped by a few flying monkeys, they struggle to escape the city before it falls under siege. Their arresting officer, Lucikles, also retreats with his family to a highland redoubt. But safety eludes them all. Chaos thunders upon them in the form of warriors, refugees, and brigands. The very fabric of reality loosens, liberating creatures of myth and legend--huge blue wolves, harpies, and giants made of the very landscape. Cued in by secrets known only to the most highly placed members of the royal court, Rain and her companions hunt the fabled Oracle of Maracoor for guidance and soothsaying. Rain has to recover her forgotten past if she is to consider returning home. Cossy, the ten-year-old convicted of murder, must become invisible to avoid being taken into custody again. Meanwhile, the Fist of Mara, an arcane artifact that renders all around it barren, hammers against human lives. If the reclusive Oracle should spin a prophecy, might the desperate wicked years promise another day, one less perilous?"--
Subjects: Fantasy fiction.; Novels.; Animals, Mythical; Children; Imaginary places; Imaginary wars and battles; Mythology; Oracles; Oz (Imaginary place); Quests (Expeditions); Witches;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Dead reckoning : how I came to meet the man who murdered my father / by Cragg, Carys,author.;
Includes bibliographical references.In this gripping and emotional memoir, a woman confronts the man who murdered her father twenty years earlier. When Carys Cragg was eleven, her father, a respected doctor, was brutally murdered in his own home by an intruder. Twenty years later, and despite the reservations of her family and friends, she decides to contact his murderer in prison, and the two correspond for a period of two years. She learns of his horrific childhood, and the reasons he lied about the murder; in turn, he learns about the man he killed. She mines his letters for clues about the past before agreeing to meet him in person, when she learns startling new information about the crime. With gripping suspense and raw honesty, Dead Reckoning follows one woman's determination to confront the man who murdered her father, revealing her need for understanding and the murderer's reluctance to tell -- an uneasy negotiation between two people from different worlds both undone by tragedy. This is a powerful and emotional memoir about how reconciling with the past doesn't necessarily provide comfort, but it can reveal the truth.
Subjects: Cragg, Carys.; Cragg, Geoffrey.; Klatt, Sheldon.; Children of murder victims; Murder;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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How the word is passed : a reckoning with the history of slavery across America / by Smith, Clint,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Clint Smith's revealing, contemporary portrait of America as a slave owning nation. Beginning in his own hometown of New Orleans, Smith leads the reader through an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks - those that are honest about the past and those that are not - that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nations collective history, and ourselves. It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving more than four hundred people. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. It is the story of Angola, a former plantation-turned-maximum-security prison in Louisiana that is filled with Black men who work across the 18,000-acre land for virtually no pay. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers. A deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, this book illustrates how some of our country's most essential stories are hidden in plain view-whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth, or entire neighborhoods like downtown Manhattan, where the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women, and children has been deeply imprinted. Informed by scholarship and brought to life by the story of people living today, here is a landmark of reflection and insight that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country and how it has come to be.
Subjects: African Americans.; History.; Discrimination.; Ethnology; Minorities; African Americans;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Children of the state : stories of survival and hope in the juvenile justice system / by Hobbs, Jeff,1980-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Very little has been written about juvenile justice. In the greater consciousness, the word "justice" in this context has been leeched of meaning; it just signifies prison for kids. But to those living and working in various capacities within that system, the word "justice" holds a sepulchral gravity. In Children of the State, bestselling author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace Jeff Hobbs presents three different true stories that show the day-to-day life and the existential challenges faced by those living and working in juvenile programs: educators, counselors, administrators, and--most importantly--children. While serving a year-long detention in Wilmington, DE--perennially one of the violent crime capitols of America--a bright but stunted young man considers the benefits and also the immense costs of striving for college acceptance while imprisoned. A career juvenile hall English Language Arts teacher struggles to align the small moments of wonder in her work alongside its overall statistical futility, all while the city government presumes to design a new juvenile system without cinderblocks--and possibly without those teaching in the current system. A territorial fistfight in Paterson, NJ is characterized by the media as a hate crime, and the boy held accountable for that crime seeks redemption and friendship in a rigorous Life & Professional Skills class in lower Manhattan. These stories are followed to their knotty conclusions in triptych form. In chronicling the work of this constellation of people trying to accomplish good work in abjectly horrible systems and circumstances, Children of the State asks: What should society do with young people who have made terrible decisions? For many kids, a woeful mistake made at age thirteen or fourteen--often as a result of external factors bearing upon a biologically immature brain--will resonate through the rest of their lives, making high school difficult, college nearly impossible, and a middle class life a foolish fantasy. To observe these missteps and raw challenges and small triumphs from shoulder height, through the experiences of thinking, feeling, poignant young people, is to be moved to consider altering the fixed narrative currently laid out of them. As Hobbs demonstrates in piercing, vivid prose: No one so young should ever be considered irredeemable"--
Subjects: Juvenile delinquents; Juvenile delinquents; Juvenile justice, Administration of;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Child of light / by Brooks, Terry,author.;
"From the brilliant mind behind the Shannara saga comes an electrifying new fantasy series about a human girl struggling to find her place in a magical world she's never known. At nineteen, Auris Afton Grieg has led an ... unusual life. Since the age of fifteen, she has been trapped in a sinister prison. Why? She does not know. She has no memories of her past beyond the vaguest of impressions. All she knows is that she is about to age out of the children's prison, and rumors say that the adult version is far, far worse. So she and some friends stage a desperate escape into the surrounding wastelands. And it is here that Auris's journey of discovery begins, for she is rescued by a handsome yet alien stranger. Harrow claims to be Fae--a member of a magical race that Auris had thought to be no more than legend. Odder still, he seems to think that she is one as well, although the two look nothing alike. But strangest of all, when he brings her to his wondrous homeland, she begins to suspect that he is right. Yet how could a woman who looks entirely human be a magical being herself? Told with a fresh, energetic voice, this fantasy puzzle box is Terry Brooks as you have never seen him before, as one young woman slowly unlocks truths about herself and her world--and, in doing so, begins to heal both"--
Subjects: Fantasy fiction.; Fairies; Goblins; Magic;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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All the children are home : a novel / by Francis, Patry,author.;
"When Dahlia decided to become a foster mother, she had a few caveats: no howling newborns, no delinquents, and above all, no girls. A harrowing incident years before left her a virtual prisoner in her own home, forever wary of the heartbreak and limitation of a girl's life. Eleven years after they began fostering, the Moscatellis are raising three children as their own and Dahlia and Louie consider their family complete, but when the social worker begs them to take a young girl who has been horrifically abused and neglected, they can't say no. Six-year-old Agnes Juniper arrives with no knowledge of her Native American heritage or herself beyond a box of trinkets given to her by her mother and dreamlike memories of her sister"--Front cover flap.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Foster parents; Foster children; Families; Indigenous foster children;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Preacher's inferno / by Johnstone, William W.; Johnstone, J. A.;
It starts as a happy reunion between Preacher and his fellow trappers in a peaceful Indian village. But it ends swiftly in death and destruction when a rival tribe attacks the village, slaughters some of Preacher's Crow and mountain man friends, and carries off the women and children as prisoners. Preacher was off hunting when it happened. Now he is teaming up with old friend Lorenzo and half-breed Tall Dog, to get the prisoners back--and get revenge. But the road to justice is paved with some very dark omens. And the trail leads to the baddest place on God's good earth: the bubbling quicksand pits, hot springs, and geysers of the Wyoming wild country known as Colter's Hell...
Subjects: Western fiction.; Frontier and pioneer life; Indigenous peoples; Trappers; Revenge; Mountain life;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Down a dark road / by Castillo, Linda,author.;
"Eight years ago Joseph King was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to life in prison. He was a "fallen" Amish man and, according to local law enforcement, a known drug user with a violent temper. Now King has escaped, and he's headed for Painters Mill. News of a murderer on the loose travels like wildfire and putting Chief of Police Kate Burkholder and her team of officers on edge. A nightmare scenario becomes reality when King shows up with a gun and kidnaps his five children from their Amish uncle's house. He's armed and desperate with nothing left to lose. Fearing for the safety of the children, Kate leaps into action, but her frantic search for a killer leads her into an ambush. When King releases her unharmed, asking her to prove his innocence, she begins to wonder whether the police are hiding something, and she embarks on her own investigation to discover the truth"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Amish; Burkholder, Kate (Fictitious character); Murder;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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For the glory : Olympic legend Eric Liddell's journey of faith and survival / by Hamilton, Duncan(Sportswriter),author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The untold and inspiring story of Eric Liddell, hero of Chariots of Fire, from his Olympic victory to his missionary work in China to his last, brave days in a Japanese work camp during WWII. Most people will know Eric Liddell as an Olympic gold medalist and a focal character in Chariots of Fire. Famously, the Scot would not run on Sunday, leading to ridicule and, some might say, his teammate winning the 100 metres in the 1924 Paris Olympics. But for Liddell, running was always second to his true calling, his faith. After surprisingly winning the 400-metre gold in Paris, he dedicated himself to missionary work. He and his family settled in one of the poorest provinces in China. When he saw war with Japan on the horizon, Liddell put his children and pregnant wife on a boat to Canada, while he stayed behind, his conscience compelling him to remain amongst the desperate Chinese. Liddell was eventually interned at a Japanese work camp, where he became the moral centre of an unbearable world. He was the hardest worker, he counselled many of the other prisoners, he often gave up his own meagre portion of meals, and he organized games for the children. He even raced again. But for his ailing, malnourished body, it soon proved too much. In the spirit of The Boys in the Boat and Unbroken, For the Glory is both a compelling narrative of athletic heroism and a gripping story of faith in the darkest circumstances."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Liddell, Eric, 1902-1945.; Runners (Sports); Missionaries; Missionaries;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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