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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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Maybe he just likes you / by Dee, Barbara.;
When boys in her class start touching seventh-grader Mila and making her feel uncomfortable, she does not want to tell her friends or mother until she reaches her breaking point.Ages 9-13.LSC
Subjects: Sexual harassment; Middle schools; Schools; Best friends; Friendship; Single-parent families;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Brave / by Chmakova, Svetlana,1979-; McCommon, Melissa.; Lee, JuYoun.;
Middle school hasn't been easy for Jensen--math is hard, getting along with friends is hard, even finding a partner for a class project is a hard when you're always picked last. And it's about to get even tougher when the school newspaper's dynamic duo, Jenny and Akilah, draw Jensen into the world of school news, social experiment projects, and behind-the-scenes club drama. Will Jensen be able to find a solution to any of his problems?A, all ages.LSC
Subjects: Graphic novels.; Middle school students; Courage; Friendship; Student newspapers and periodicals; Middle schools;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 2
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Saving Sam : the true story of an American's disappearance in Syria and his family's extraordinary fight to bring him home / by Goodwin, Sam,1989-author.;
"What would you do if your son suddenly disappeared in Syria, and you had no idea what had happened to him? Would you contact the FBI? The State Department? Pray? Would you Google "What to do if your son disappears in Syria"? When the unthinkable happened, the answer, in the case of Ann Goodwin and her husband Tag, was: all of the above. Their 30-year-old son Sam, who was attempting to become one of the few people in history to travel to every single country on the planet, vanished in a supposed safe-zone run by the Kurds on the Turkish border. At first, they didn't even realize he had been abducted: maybe the phone reception had gone down, they told themselves, as had happened plenty of times before when Sam was in an off-the-beaten-path place. Just wait, he'll call back soon. But Sam never did call back, and over the coming days, the horror of their situation quickly bore down on the Goodwins, a devout Catholic family of seven living a middle-class suburban lifestyle in St. Louis, Missouri. Frustrated and increasingly terrified, the Goodwins came to realize that they couldn't rely on their government to save Sam. They were going to have to do it themselves. This is the extraordinary story of Sam's abduction by the Syrian regime, who threatened to hand him over to ISIS for beheading if he did not confess to being a CIA spy. It's also the story of a Midwestern American family who transformed themselves into their own detective agency, building up a network of journalists, hostage negotiators, Middle East experts, Russian diplomats, Vatican envoys, and shady mercenaries, until eventually -- by nothing short of a miracle -- they found a secret backdoor into the heart of the Syrian intelligence service itself. Through multiple first-person narrators, Saving Sam recounts an inspiring and unforgettable saga that includes a travel journey to every country in the world, famous celebrities, heads of state, high-stakes diplomacy and critical life lessons around curiosity, uncertainty, prayer and what it ultimately means to be free. In a genuine, straightforward and sometimes humorous style, Sam draws on his experience as a hostage to demonstrate how we can all turn our own adversities into assets, whether it be in our personal, professional or spiritual lives"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Goodwin, Sam, 1989-; Goodwin, Sam, 1989-; Prisoners; Prisoners; Travelers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Worst love spell ever! / by Coven, Wanda.; Abramskaya, Anna.;
"Heidi is settling in at Broomsfield Academy. She and Melanie are trying to get along and Heidi is getting used to her classes, all her new friends, and her very first crush, Hunter! The problem is: Hunter is really popular. How will Heidi get him to notice her? Her friends tell her to just be herself, but that sounds so boring! After all, Heidi is a witch-in-training. What good is having magic if you can't use it? She knows she can find the perfect love spell to make Hunter fall in love with her. What could possibly go wrong?"--Ages 8-12.
Subjects: Witches; Boarding schools; Middle schools; Schools; Interpersonal relations;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Molly's game [videorecording] / by Chastain, Jessica,1977-actor.; Costner, Kevin,actor.; Elba, Idris,actor.; Sorkin, Aaron,screenwriter,film director.; Entertainment One (Firm : Canada),film distributor.;
Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner.Molly's game is based on the true story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested in the middle of the night by 17 FBI agents wielding automatic weapons. Her only ally was her criminal defense lawyer Charlie Jaffey, who learned that there was much more to Molly than the tabloids led us to believe.Canadian Home Video Rating: 14A.DVD ; widescreen presentation ; Dolby Digital 5.1.
Subjects: Biographical films.; Crime films.; Feature films.; Bloom, Molly; Poker players; Poker; Women poker players;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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How to be a wallflower / by James, Eloisa.;
"Miss Cleopatra Lewis is about to be launched in society by her aristocratic grandfather. But since she has no intention of marrying, she visits a costume emporium specifically to order unflattering dresses guaranteed to put off any prospective suitors. Powerful and charismatic Jacob Astor Addison is in London... He's furious when a she-devil masquerading as an English lady steals Quimby's Costume Emporium from under his nose. Jake strikes a devil's bargain, offering to design her 'wallflower wardrobe' and giving Cleo the chance to design his... And somehow in the middle of their lively competition, Jake becomes her closest friend."--
Subjects: Romance fiction.; Historical fiction.; Aristocracy (Social class); Americans; Rich people; Man-woman relationships;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Emmie & friends. by Libenson, Terri.;
These days, Emmie doesn't feel so invisible. At least not around her best friends and her crush, Tyler. Class-clown Joe's jokes aren't landing the way they used to. Who doesn't love a good prank? Apparently not his so-called friends, who don't even seem to care if he's around. When their class goes on an end-of-year camping trip, Emmie and Joe find themselves stuck together--and expect the worst. But what happens instead turns out to be entirely unexpected.Ages 8-12.
Subjects: Graphic novels.; Comics (Graphic works); School comics.; Humorous comics.; Friendship; Interpersonal relations; Middle schools; Schools; Cartoons and comics.;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Future me saves the world (and ruins my life) / by Cypess, Leah.; Molebash, Wes.;
Ethan Koslov wants to be an ordinary kid, but his future adult self has shown up, demanding that he save the world by preventing his fourth-grade class from making their substitute teacher so miserable that her future self becomes an evil dictator and starts a war.Ages 8-12.
Subjects: Time-travel fiction.; School fiction.; Science fiction.; Humorous fiction.; Time travel; Substitute teachers; Middle schools; Friendship;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Alone in Berlin [videorecording] / by Brühl, Daniel,1978-actor.; Gleeson, Brendan,actor.; Perez, Vincent,1962-film director.; Persbrandt, Mikael,1963-actor.; Thompson, Emma,actor.; motion picture adaptation of (work):Fallada, Hans,1893-1947.Jeder stirbt für sich allein.English.; IFC Films,film distributor.;
Emma Thompson, Daniel Brühl, Brendan Gleeson, Mikael Persbrandt, Louis Hofmann, Katharina Schuttler, Godehard Giese.How did an ordinary, middle-aged couple become a symbol of defiance against Nazi brutality? This tale of courage unfolds against the tumultuous backdrop of Berlin in 1940. Otto and Anna Quangel are a working class husband and wife doing their best to ride out the war. Their son is killed fighting on the frontlines. They begin pouring their rage and grief into postcards emblazoned with anti-Nazi slogans, risking everything to disseminate their messages of protest across the city.Canadian Home Video Rating: PG.DVD ; widescreen presentation ; Dolby Digital 5.1.
Subjects: Feature films.; Fiction films.; Historical films.; Anti-Nazi movement; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Nazis;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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