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Melissa / by Gino, Alex.;
This book is part of our Book Sanctuary collection. A Book Sanctuary is a physical or digital space that actively protects the freedom to read. It provides shelter and access to endangered books. Launched by Chicago Public Library in 2022, The Book Sanctuary initiative brings attention to challenged titles, and commits to making these books accessible. Innisfil ideaLAB & Library's Book Sanctuary Collection represents books that have been challenged, censored or removed from a public library or school in North America. More than 50 adult, teen, and children's books are in our collection and are available for browsing and borrowing in our branches and online. Explore the collection to learn more about why these books were challenged.When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl. George thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part ... because she's a boy. With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte -- but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all.
Subjects: Banned book sanctuary.; Gender identity; Transgender youth; Transgender children; Gender nonconformity; Middle school students; Bullying; Friendship;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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I felt the end before it came : memoirs of a queer ex-Jehovah's Witness / by Cox, Daniel Allen,author.;
Includes bibliographical references.""I spent eighteen years in a group that taught me to hate myself. You cannot be queer and a Jehovah's Witness--it's one or the other." Daniel Allen Cox grew up with firm lines around what his religion considered unacceptable: celebrating birthdays and holidays; voting in elections, pursuing higher education, and other forays into independent thought. Their opposition to blood transfusions would have consequences for his mother, just as their stance on homosexuality would for him. But even years after whispers of his sexual orientation reached his congregation's presiding elder, catalyzing his disassociation, the distinction between "in" and "out" isn't always clear. Still in the midst of a lifelong disentanglement, Cox grapples with the group's cultish tactics--from gaslighting to shunning--and their resulting harms--from simmering anger to substance abuse--all while redefining its concepts through a queer lens. Can Paradise be a bathhouse, a concert hall, or a room full of books? With great candour and disarming self-awareness, Cox takes readers on a journey from his early days as a solicitous door-to-door preacher in Montreal to a stint in New York City, where he's swept up in a scene of photographers and hustlers blurring the line between art and pornography. The culmination of years spent both processing and avoiding a complicated past, I Felt the End Before It Came reckons with memory and language just as it provides a blueprint to surviving a litany of Armageddons."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Creative nonfiction.; Cox, Daniel Allen; Cox, Daniel Allen.; Ex-church members; Ex-church members; Gay men; Authors, Canadian (English);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The girls in the wild fig tree : how I fought to save myself, my sister, and thousands of girls worldwide / by Leng'ete, Nice,author.; Butler-Witter, Elizabeth,author.;
"Nice Leng`ete was raised in a Maasai village in Kenya by relatively progressive parents. Her father established a wildlife sanctuary, which was managed by the Maasai themselves rather than outside interests, and watching how he created a consensus by meeting people where they are gave Nice a lesson for the rest of her life. In 1998, when Nice was six, her parents both fell sick and died - it took years for her to understand that they had died of AIDS. Nice and Soila were taken in by their father's brother, who had little interest in whether the girls stayed in school. He expected that the sisters would undergo the ritual referred to as "the cut" (female genital mutilation), which would make them acceptable Maasai women and signal their readiness to be married. Fearing the ritual cut, which Nice had witnessed as a painful, bloody, and sometimes deadly procedure, Nice and Soila climbed a tree to hide. Nice hoped they could eventually run away, and delay the cut forever, but Soila knew that their uncle would not let both girls defy the rules. But maybe one of them could escape it, if the other submitted. After Soila chose to undergo the surgery, sparing Nice, who was still only nine, their lives diverged in the ways Nice had predicted. While Soila married, dropped out of school, and had children - all in her teenage years - Nice continued with her education, postponing receiving the cut at each school break, and became the first in her family to attend college. While at boarding school, at around age 16, Nice began training with Amref, an organization working for healthcare advances in Africa, after they had heard that she had been successfully talking to girls in her village about FGM. Even after she departed for Nairobi for college, she continued her outreach and made inroads in improving sexual education and feminine hygiene by conversing with the young girls, using herself as an example for what was possible. Changing the minds of the men was the biggest obstacle - as a rule in Maasai culture, women do not lead discussions with men - but again she started at the base, with the young unmarried men, before bringing her ideas about new, alternative ceremonial rites for girls to the tribe's elders. One by one, families agreed to end FGM. Girls were allowed to forgo the cut and stay in school. Men began marrying women who were whole. Nice's town has since ended FGM entirely, and her goal is to end the practice worldwide. Nice's journey from "heartbroken child and community outcast, to leader of the Maasai" is an inspiration and a reminder that one person can change the world - and every girl is worth saving"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Leng'ete, Nice; Amref Health Africa.; Female circumcision; Maasai (African people); Maasai (African people); Women, Maasai;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Where beauty survived : an Africadian memoir / by Clarke, George Elliott,author.;
'Where Beauty Survived' is a vibrant, revealing memoir about the cultural and familial pressures that shaped George Elliott Clarke's early life in the Black Canadian community that he calls Africadia, centered in Halifax, NS.
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Clarke, George Elliott; Authors, Canadian; Authors, Black; Authors, Canadian (English); Black Canadian authors;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Sex cult nun : breaking away from the Children of God, a wild, radical religious cult / by Jones, Faith,author.;
'Educated' meets 'The Vow' in this story of liberation and self-empowerment - an inspiring and crazier-than-fiction memoir of growing up in and breaking free from the Children of God, an oppressive, extremist religious cult.
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Jones, Faith; Jones, Faith; Family International (Organization); Children of God (Movement); Communal living.; Cult members; Ex-cultists; Sexually abused girls;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Not my girl / by Jordan-Fenton, Christy.; Grimard, Gabrielle.; Pokiak-Fenton, Margaret-Olemaun,1936-;
When Olemaun returns to her Arctic home, she must relearn her people's ways and find her place once more.LSC
Subjects: Pokiak-Fenton, Margaret-Olemaun, 1936-; Inuit; Inuit; Inuit women; Residential schools;
© c2014., Annick Press,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Young Elizabeth : Elizabeth I and her perilous path to the crown / by Tallis, Nicola,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Queen Elizabeth I is renowned for her hugely successful reign that makes her, perhaps, the most celebrated monarch in English history. But what of the trials she faced in her challenging early life? Her status as a princess didn't last long-when she was less than three years old, her mother-the infamous Anne Boleyn-was brutally beheaded and Elizabeth was relegated to the title of bastard. After losing several stepmothers, she then faced predatory attentions and illicit flirtations from her stepfather, Thomas Seymour, which ultimately forced Elizabeth to leave her home. But these were only the beginning of Elizabeth's problems. Later, she became implicated in a plot to overthrow her half-sister, Mary, and faced interrogation and imprisonment in the very tower in which her mother died. Adamantly protesting her innocence, Elizabeth endured the interrogation and was eventually released. Her popularity as a royal increased from that point on, and she finally became queen at the age of twenty-five. Expert historian Nicola Tallis draws on a variety of primary sources-from the queen herself as well as those closest to her-to provide an extensive and thorough study of the Virgin Queen's perilous journey to the crown. Looking at Elizabeth as a human being rather than a political chess piece, her narrative explores the dangers and tragedies that plagued Elizabeth's early life, revealing the queen to be a young women who drew strength from her various plights as she navigated one of the most thrilling paths to the throne in the history of the monarchy.
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533-1603.; Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533-1603; Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533-1603; Queens;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Illegal [videorecording] : one immigrant's life or death journey to the American dream / by Alexander, Nick,film director.; Ayala, Lazaro,screenwriter,film producer.; Freestyle Digital Media,publisher.; Yes We Can (Firm),presenter.;
A feature-length documentary about the miraculous journey of Salvadoran immigrant Laz Ayala's life or death path to U.S. citizenship, the challenges of present-day immigration, and his mission to humanize immigrants and reform immigration for the benefit of all.E.Closed-captioned for the hearing impaired.DVD ; full screen presentation ; Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0.
Subjects: Biographical films.; Documentary films.; Nonfiction films.; Video recordings for the hearing impaired.; Ayala, Lazaro.; Ayala, Lazaro; Emigration and immigration law; Emigration and immigration; Immigrant youth; Salvadorans;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Northranger [graphic novel] / by Terciero, Rey,author.; Indigo, Bre,illustrator.;
In this swoony and spooky teen summer romance graphic novel set on a Texas ranch, sixteen-year-old Cade Muñoz finds himself falling for the ranch owner's mysterious and handsome son, only to discover that he may be harboring a dangerous secret.
Subjects: Romance comics.; Queer comics.; Graphic novels.; Sexual minorities; Sexual minority youth; Teenagers; Ranch life; Ranches;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Six Days in August. by Goodman, Mark,film director.; Bagley Fox, Camrey,actor.; Donovan Wilson, John,actor.; Carlson, Joseph,actor.; Wuthrich, Paul,actor.; Wilson, Twyla,actor.; Samuel Goldwyn Films (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Camrey Bagley Fox, John Donovan Wilson, Joseph Carlson, Paul Wuthrich, Twyla WilsonOriginally produced by Samuel Goldwyn Films in 2024.SIX DAYS IN AUGUST is the dramatic true story of a youthful Brigham Young and the leadership succession crisis of 1844 following the martyrdom of Joseph Smith.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Feature films.; Motion pictures.; Drama.; Historical films.; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.;
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