Rosa’s mother is singing again, for the first time since Papa died in an accident in the mills. But instead of filling their cramped tenement apartment with Italian lullabies, Mamma is out on the streets singing union songs. Rosa is terrified that her mother and older sister, Anna, are endangering their lives by marching against the corrupt mill owners. After all, didn’t Miss Finch tell the class that the strikers are nothing but rabble-rousers–an uneducated, violent mob? Suppose Mamma and Anna are jailed or, worse, killed? What will happen to Rosa and little Ricci?
When Rosa is sent to Vermont with other children to live with strangers until the strike is over, she fears she will never see her family again. Then, on the train, a boy begs her to pretend that he’s her brother. Alone and far from home, she agrees to protect him . . . even though she suspects that he is hiding some terrible secret.
From a beloved, award-winning author, here is a moving story based on real events surrounding an infamous 1912 strike.
Tess McAlister truly believes in magic, and is convinced that this is the year she will finally meet Santa Claus. Tess has many Christmas wishes, but her most fervent wish is not for herself, but for a friend. Her faith in the season results in a Christmas Eve so wondrous, so sparkling, that listeners won’t be able to help but feel transformed.
Like white Christmases and crackling fires in the hearth, On Christmas Eve portrays the magic and the spirit of hope that make the holidays merry.
Brooklyn, 1875: Bird Mallon lives on Water Street where you can see the huge towers of the bridge to Manhattan being built. Bird wants nothing more in life than to be brave enough to be a healer, like her mother, Nory, to help her sister Annie find love, and to convince her brother, Hughie, to stop fighting for money with his street gang. And of course, she wishes that a girl would move into the empty apartment upstairs so that she can have a new friend close by.
But Thomas Neary and his Pop move in upstairs. Thomas who writes about his life in his journal--his father who spends each night at the Tavern down the street, the mother he wishes he had, and the Mallon family downstairs that he desperately wants to be a part of. Thomas, who has a secret that only Bird suspects, and who turns out to be the best friend Bird could ever have.
Random House presents the audiobook edition of Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman.
No one could begin to guess at the depth of the hatred I held for Sephy Hadley. Everything began with her and my brother. And that's how it would end.
Where there has been love, now there is hate.
Two families have been shattered by the divided and violent society they live in.
Sephy Hadley - a Cross, supposedly powerful and privileged - has bound herself forever to her nought lover Callum McGregor's family.
But Jude McGregor blames Sephy for all the tragedies his family has suffered. And he is determined to force her to take sides, and destroy her life . . . just like she destroyed his. . .
Voted as one of the UK's best-loved books, Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses series is a seminal piece of YA fiction; a true modern classic.
'Moving and thought-provoking' Observer
'Devastatingly powerful' Guardian
Random House presents the audiobook edition of Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman.
'Stop it! You're all behaving like animals! Worse than animals - like blankers!'
Sephy is a Cross: dark-skinned and beautiful, she lives a life of privilege and power. But she's lonely, and burns with injustice at the world she sees around her.
Callum is a nought: pale-skinned and poor, he's considered to be less than nothing - a blanker, there to serve Crosses - but he dreams of a better life.
They've been friends since they were children, and they both know that's as far as it can ever go. Noughts and Crosses are fated to be bitter enemies - love is out of the question.
Then - in spite of a world that is fiercely against them - these star-crossed lovers choose each other.
But this is love story that will lead both of them into terrible danger . . . and which will have shocking repercussions for generations to come.
Voted as one of the UK's best-loved books, Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses is a seminal piece of YA fiction; a true modern classic.
'The Noughts & Crosses series are still my favourite books of all time and showed me just how amazing story-telling could be' - Stormzy
'Unforgettable' Guardian
'The most original book I've ever read' Benjamin Zephaniah
For seven years, bad luck has followed Ivy around like a dog on a leash. And now her mother has dragged her to live in a creepy old house on Gumm Street, where the weather may be perfect but the neighbors are worse than unfriendly.
Then a pair of mysterious ruby-red slippers leads Ivy on an unforgettable adventure with those very same neighbors—bookish Pru, stuck-up Cat, and wannable adventurer Franny. Together, they travel to the jaw-droppingly strange lands of Spoz, and Spudz, and Ooze, and battle the fashionably mad Cha-Cha Staccato, who bears a frightening resemblance to a certain wicked witch . . .
As hilarious as it is original, as inventive as it is true-to-life, The Secret Order of the Gumm Street Girls is an unforgettable take on girlhood, piano recitals, The Wizard of Oz, and the dependable everyday magic of family and friendship.
Performed by Colleen Delany
Francine lives down the street from a Hollywood film studio, adores screen dreamboat Montgomery Clift, and sometimes sees her home life as a scene from a movie: Dinner at the Greens. She wishes she were a movie star, brave and glamorous and always ready to say the right thing. In reality, she’s a “pink and freckled” thirteen-year-old, and she doesn’t speak up because she’s afraid she’ll get in trouble. She’s comfortable following her father’s advice: “Don’t get involved.”
That is, until Sophie Bowman transfers into her class at All Saints School for Girls. Fearless, articulate, and passionate, Sophie questions authority and protests injustice. She not only doesn’t care about getting in trouble, she actually seems to be looking for it. And she’s happy to be Francine’s best friend.
The nuns think Sophie is a bad influence on Francine. Francine thinks just the opposite. Because of Sophie, Francine finds herself worrying about things that never bothered her before–the atom bomb, free speech, Communists, the blacklist . . . and deciding, for the first time, that she wants to be heard.
A few things to know about Dylan
He is the only boy in his entire town, so forget about playing games of football.
His best friends are two pet chickens, Michaelangelo and Donatello, named after (who else?) the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
His family owns the town's only gas station/copy shop/coffee house, their Picasso Pies are to die for, but profits are still in the hole.
Criminal instincts run in his family, his sister is a mastermind-in-training, and the tax men are after his newly-absent father for "questioning."
And, one more small thing about nine-year-old Dylan, he's now the man of the house.
Then an enormous secret rolls into town, one that could bring back Dylan's father, rescue the family business, and involve Dylan in what very well could be the crime of the century. With the same easy mix of wit, warmth, and wonder that made his debut novel Millions an award-winning international bestseller, Frank Cottrell Boyce tells the story of a boy who reminds an entire town of the power of art.
Winner of the Newbery Honor, The Planet of Junior Brown is an extraordinary story of heroism, and survival, that will appeal to young and older readers alike. The only thing Junior Brown and Buddy Clark really have is the small solar system they had built in the hidden cellar room of the school. Ostracized from his classmates Junior, a 300 pound musical and artistic prodigy, depends on his imagination for companionship. Buddy is used to depending on no one but himself. Homeless, he uses his wits to survive the streets. With the help of Mr. Poole, the school custodian, the two boys discover a world, a sheltered universe of their own in the basement room. When their hiding place is discovered, and Junior loses the only place he feels safe, his imagination takes over. It will take all of Buddy's resource to protect his friend as the realities of Junior's world come crashing in around them both. Award-winning author Virginia Hamilton is best known for her ability to create stories that teach with an element of fantasy. Heralded among the top black women writers, Hamilton brings the lessons of black urban experience to life for young adults from a variety of background and ethic origins.
Eleven-year-old David is about to meet his new stepsister, Amanda, who is only one year older than he is. Amanda arrives at their big old house wearing a huge tattered shawl and carrying a sharp-eyed crow in a cage. She is hardly what David expects.
Before long, she introduces David to a strange world of witchcraft and the occult. At first, spells and potions are fun. He enjoys the spooky chants and smoky seances. Even his younger brother and sisters join in, making sure their parents suspect nothing. But when rocks of all sizes start flying around the house and strange things go crash in the night, David begins to fear the strange forces at work.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder has written several popular children's books. A former teacher, she lives in an old house similar to the one in The Headless Cupid. She thinks it, too, may have a resident ghost. Whether you believe in spirits or not, this Newbery Honor Book is sure to captivate your imagination
Paul Acampora makes his exciting debut in young adult fiction with this poignant tale of a girl coping with the recent death of her father. When her mother moves the family to California, Dulcie decides to drive her father's pickup truck back to Connecticut on her own.
Tiny Lambert is excited! It is 1956, and today is her first day at Black Gap High School in Virginia. Maybe she will finally make some friends. And a high school with band practice and football games may be just the thing she needs to keep her away from her house-and her stepfather Vern. Tiny feels uncomfortable whenever Vern drinks. He looks at her in a strange, new way. No one else seems to understand why she complains or tries to avoid him-not even Mom. What will Tiny do if she can't tell anyone? Noted author Ruth White won a Newbery Honor for her book, Bell Prater's Boy. In Weeping Willow, she approaches a sensitive issue with warmth and insight. Her moving tale wins the hearts of listeners everywhere with its gentle wisdom and entertaining, true-to-life characters.
