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The Glass Castle : A Memoir |
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| Author: |
Jeannette Walls |
 Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback
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| ISBN: |
074324754X |
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Book Review
Jeannette Walls's father always called her "Mountain Goat" and there's perhaps no more apt nickname for a girl who navigated a sheer and towering cliff of childhood both daily and stoically. In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls's childrearing style laissez faire would be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed... |
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Night |
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| Author: |
Elie Wiesel |
Book Review
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Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0374500010 |
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Amazon.com
In Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, a scholarly, pious teenager is wracked with guilt at having survived the horror of the Holocaust and the genocidal campaign that consumed his family. His memories of the nightmare world of the death camps present him with an intolerable question: how can the God he once so fervently believed in have allowed these monstrous events to occur? There are no easy answers in this harrowing book, which probes life's essential riddles with the lucid anguish only great literature achieves. It marks the crucial first step in Wiesel's lifelong project to bear witness for those who died.
The New York Times
"A slim volume of terrifying power"
See all Editorial Reviews
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Guide to Collective Biographies for Children and Young Adults |
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| Author: |
Sue Barancik |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0810850338 |
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Ships within 2-3 days. |
From School Library Journal
A comprehensive guide to over 5,760 people currently listed in collective biographies, this work is a vast undertaking. There are three reasons why a current guide such as this one is essential: the frequency with which young people discover too late that all single monographs about a particular person are gone from the library shelf; the need for students to locate print sources other than encyclopedias for assignments; and, finally, the fact that some individuals are still relatively unknown, even on the Internet. A search on Miriam Pulwer, a Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor, will result in little information, but she is a subject in Elaine Landau's Holocaust Memories: Speaking the Truth. The book has three main sections: an alphabetical listing of all of the titles indexed and their codes; the... |
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Well-Dressed Role Models |
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| Author: |
Gale Eaton |
Book Review
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Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0810851946 |
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Your order will ship upon release. |
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My Life in France |
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| Author: |
Julia Child |
Book Review
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Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
1400043468 |
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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. With Julia Child's death in 2004 at age 91, her grandnephew Prud'homme (The Cell Game) completed this playful memoir of the famous chef's first, formative sojourn in France with her new husband, Paul Child, in 1949. The couple met during WWII in Ceylon, working for the OSS, and soon after moved to Paris, where Paul worked for the U.S. Information Service. Child describes herself as a "rather loud and unserious Californian," 36, six-foot-two and without a word of French, while Paul was 10 years older, an urbane, well-traveled Bostonian. Startled to find the French amenable and the food delicious, Child enrolled at the Cordon Bleu and toiled with increasing zeal under the rigorous tutelage of éminence grise Chef Bugnard. "Jackdaw Julie," as Paul called her, collected every manner of... |
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A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive |
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| Author: |
Dave Pelzer |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback
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| ISBN: |
1558743669 |
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Usually ships in 24 hours |
Book Review
David J. Pelzer's mother, Catherine Roerva, was, he writes in this ghastly, fascinating memoir, a devoted den mother to the Cub Scouts in her care, and somewhat nurturant to her children--but not to David, whom she referred to as "an It." This book is a brief, horrifying account of the bizarre tortures she inflicted on him, told from the point of view of the author as a young boy being starved, stabbed, smashed face-first into mirrors, forced to eat the contents of his sibling's diapers and a spoonful of ammonia, and burned over a gas stove by a maniacal, alcoholic mom. Sometimes she claimed he had violated some rule--no walking on the grass at school!--but mostly it was pure sadism. Inexplicably, his father didn't protect him; only an alert schoolteacher saved David. One wants to learn more about his ordeal and its... |
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The Notebook Girls |
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| Author: |
Julia Baskin |
Book Review
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Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0446578622 |
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From Booklist
The creators of The Notebook Girls are four contemporary Manhattan teens, who started the notebook as a way to stay connected with each other. The power here is in the raw honesty, and the format--handwritten pages and pasted-in photos--gives even more immediacy. These are girls who speak in bawdy, vulgar language; tease and tell fart jokes; worry about their bodies, their futures, and their friendships; and experiment with drinking, drugs, and sex. These girls share sharp observations and a strong sense of identity. "Who the fuck are these guys?" asks one girl. "Who gave them the right to comment on girls' bodies like that?" The communal format creates more jockeying and joking and less personal revelation than a diary might. But this title offers a fascinating view of what it means, then and now, to grow up... |
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Works for Children and Young Adults |
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| Author: |
Steven C. Tracy |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0826213723 |
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Ships within 2-3 days. |
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Enrique's Journey |
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| Author: |
Sonia Nazario |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover
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| ISBN: |
1400062055 |
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Usually ships in 24 hours |
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Soon to be turned into an HBO dramatic series, Nazario's account of a 17-year-old boy's harrowing attempt to find his mother in America won two Pulitzer Prizes when it first came out in the Los Angeles Times. Greatly expanded with fresh research, the story also makes a gripping book, one that viscerally conveys the experience of illegal immigration from Central America. Enrique's mother, Lourdes, left him in Honduras when he was five years old because she could barely afford to feed him and his sister, much less send them to school. Her plan was to sneak into the United States for a few years, work hard, send and save money, then move back to Honduras to be with her children. But 12 years later, she was still living in the U.S. and wiring money home. That's when Enrique became one of the... |
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History Comes Alive! |
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| Author: |
Shari Steelsmith |
Book Review
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Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0943990467 |
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Ships within 2-3 days. |
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (Barnes & Noble Classics) |
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| Author: |
Lewis Carroll |
Book Review
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Paperback |
| ISBN: |
1593080158 |
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Book Description
When Alice tumbles down, down, down a rabbit-hole one hot summer's afternoon in pursuit of a White Rabbit she finds herself in Wonderland. And there begin the fantastical adventures that will see her experiencing extraordinary changes in size, swimming in a pool of her own tears and attending the very maddest of tea parties. For Wonderland is no ordinary place and the characters that populate it are quite unlike anybody young Alice has ever met before. In this imaginary land she encounters the savagely violent Queen, the Lachrymose Mock Turtle, the laconic Cheshire Cat and the hookah-smoking Caterpillar, each as surprising and outlandish as the next. Alice's adventures have made her the stuff of legend, the child heroine par excellence, and ensured that Carroll's book is the best loved and most widely read in... |
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The Lost Boy: A Foster Child's Search for the Love of a Family |
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| Author: |
Dave Pelzer |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback
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| ISBN: |
1558745157 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
From Library Journal
Following A Child Called It (Health Communications, 1995), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and appears frequently on high school reading lists, this is the second in a planned trilogy from motivational author and speaker Pelzer. Here he tells his story from the time he left his abusive mother and alcoholic father, through his experiences in five foster homes and juvenile detention, and how he eventually made it into the Air Force. He was a defiant, rebellious boy who, despite his background and personality, managed to endear himself to many guardians, social workers, and teachers. Pelzer writes in an honest, sometimes rambling, style; he is never bitter, and his story will find many sympathetic readers. However, he leaves many questions unanswered (which may appear in the third book), dealing with his... |
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The House That Karen Built |
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| Author: |
Karen McConnell |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
1569802831 |
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| Availability: |
Ships within 2-3 days. |
Book Description
Teaches victims of abuse, parents, teachers, and social workers how victims can harness their own strength to over come any situation.
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Maus : A Survivor's Tale : My Father Bleeds History/Here My Troubles Began/Boxed [BOX SET] |
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| Author: |
Art Spiegelman |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback
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| ISBN: |
0679748407 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
Book Description
Volumes I & II in paperback of this 1992 Pulitzer Prize-winning illustrated narrative of Holocaust survival.
Inside Flap Copy
Volumes I & II in paperback of this 1992 Pulitzer Prize-winning illustrated narrative of Holocaust survival.
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Just Listen |
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| Author: |
Sarah Dessen |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0670061050 |
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From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up Annabel Greene seemingly had everything: cool friends, close family, good grades, and a part-time modeling career in town. But it all came crashing down, and Annabel has spent the summer in shaky, self-imposed exile. She finds herself dreading the new school term and facing, well, everyone again. The last thing she wants to do is revisit old friendships while the losses are painful, the secrets behind the rifts are almost unbearable. Her solid family seems fragile, too. What happened to cause the stiff silences and palpable resentments between her two older sisters? Why is no one in her loving but determinedly cheerful family talking about her middle sister's eating disorder? Annabel's devastating secret is revealed in bits and snatches, as readers see her go to amazing lengths to avoid... |
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A Man Named Dave: A Story of Triumph and Forgiveness |
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| Author: |
Dave Pelzer |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback
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| ISBN: |
0452281903 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
Book Review
The third tale in David Pelzer's autobiographical trilogy, A Man Named Dave is an inspiring story of terror, recovery, and hope experienced by the author throughout his life. Known for his work as a child abuse advocate, Pelzer has been commended by several U.S. presidents and international agencies, and his previous memoirs of growing up as an abused child (A Child Called "It" and The Lost Boy) have touched thousands of lives. He provides living proof that we can "stop the cycle" and lead fulfilling, rewarding lives full of healthy relationships. Ultimately triumphant, this book will have you living through the eyes of a terrified child, a struggling young man, and an adult finally forgiving his dying father--reading with tissues nearby is recommended. Ending with a touching conversation between the author and his own son,... |
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Appetite for Life |
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| Author: |
Noel Riley Fitch |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0385493835 |
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| Availability: |
Ships within 2-3 days. |
Book Review
Noel Riley Fitch's savory new biography, Appetite for Life, reveals a woman as appealing as the good food and serious cooking she popularized. As a California girl and Smith College undergraduate, Fitch writes, Julia McWilliams was notable for her high spirits and voracious appetite. Performing intelligence work in Asia during World War II, she met Paul Child, and their marriage of mutual devotion and affection endured until his death in 1994. His postwar assignment took them to France, where she discovered her true calling. Fitch reminds us that Child championed fresh ingredients at a time when frozen foods and TV dinners dominated American supermarket shelves, and that she demystified haute cuisine with her earthy humor and casual attitude toward mistakes. This affectionate portrait of the remarkable Julia Child... |
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Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography |
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| Author: |
William T. Anderson |
Book Review
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Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0064461033 |
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From Publishers Weekly
According to PW, this straightforward chronology "simply shadows and underscores" Wilder's tuniversally acclaimed writings. Ages 8-12. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7-- This biography of the quintessential pioneer girl who lived the ``Little House'' stories and later captured them for posterity in her books is substantial in length and content. Like the subject's enduring series, it not only chronicles growing up on the frontier, but also pictures a way of life that has long since vanished. Many more people and events from Wilder's childhood and mature years appear here than in other juvenile accounts. Quotations from her works are woven into the text. Anderson brings credentials to the work, yet falters when discussing... |
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The World's Greatest Elephant |
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| Author: |
Ralph Helfer, Ted Lewin (Illustrator) |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover
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| ISBN: |
0399241906 |
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Usually ships in 24 hours |
From School Library Journal
Grade 3-5–From her early days in Germany to a starring role in Americas Ringling Brothers Circus by way of shipwreck and months of teak hauling in India, Modocs story matches her larger-than-life size. The elephants life is intertwined with that of a boy with whom she was raised from infancy and who became her longtime circus partner. According to the book jacket, the author owned Modoc for the last 20 years of her life. The story is adapted from his adult book, Modoc. The large picture-book format is the typical choice for Lewins fine watercolors, boldly portraying the dramatic episodes of the elephants life and the story of friendship, separation, and reunion. This bold and heartwarming adventure tale should have wide appeal.–Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston Copyright © Reed Business... |
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Up We Grew |
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| Author: |
Pamela Bone |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0522851185 |
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| Availability: |
This title is not currently available. |
Book Description
Award-winning journalist Pamela Bone explores how individuals are tempered and transformed by the process of growing up through her own experience as a daughter, sister, and mother. This inspirational look at childhood explores such issues as why some children in difficult circumstances seem blessed with resilience while others struggle to cope with life and whether Australian children are less resilient than they used to be. The author's perspective is augmented by contributions from such prominent Australians as Natasha Stott Despoja, Max Gillies, Mark Latham, Michael Leunig, and Johanna Murray-Smith.
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Wisdom of Our Fathers : Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons |
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| Author: |
Tim Russert |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover
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| ISBN: |
1400064805 |
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| Availability: |
Not yet published |
From Booklist
Surprised by the overwhelming and heartfelt reception to Big Russ and Me(2004), Russert follows that memoir of his relationship with his father with a collection of letters he received recounting relationships between fathers and their sons and daughters. Russert, host of NBC's Meet the Press, received 60,000 letters and e-mails from readers with their own touching memories of filial love. Interspersed throughout, Russert recollects moments as a son and as a father, as well as conversations with famous figures, including Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and news reporter Maria Shriver, about their fathers. But the contributors are decidedly ordinary Americans, many with recollections that highlight generational differences of a time when fathers were less than demonstrative. Many recall taciturn fathers... |
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I Too Was a Child... |
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| Author: |
Misty Marie |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0595317537 |
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| Availability: |
Ships within 2-3 days. |
Book Description
Welcome a biography of oppression told through the eyes of a lesbian...a "HOMO-cide" survivor. I could easily relay some heart wrenching narrative about what you'll find here, but that's not only typical...it's not my style. I will, however, tell you this...I am honest, observant, and passionate about the subject of oppression and the desperate need for change. I will ask you to remember that yesterday I may have been born the happy infant loved by all, and today I may be the adult lesbian that society gets to meet and discuss. But one day, not long ago...I too was a child...a child of oppression. And that child was damned to exist in a dark realm...the closet, if you will. She was murdered by society before she could even tie her shoes. It is that child that I have journeyed to discover...that gay and forsaken child... |
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Alex and the Amazing Lemonade Stand |
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| Author: |
Alex Scott, et al |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover
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| ISBN: |
0975320009 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
Bob Spear- Heartland Reviews, June 2004
This is a touching picture book story about Alex Scott. We rated this a solid four hearts.
Book Description
Using rhymes and bright whimsical pictures Alex and The Amazing Lemonade Stand tells the inspirational true story of a little girl named Alexandra Alex Scott. Faced with a problem, Alex came up with a plan to sell lemonade from a lemonade stand! This story shows how the small act of one person can impact many people; an important lesson for children of all ages.
See all Editorial Reviews
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Very Hungry Caterpillar |
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| Author: |
Eric Carle |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Board Book |
| ISBN: |
0399226907 |
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Book Review Reviews
"In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf." So begins Eric Carle's modern classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. More than 12 million copies of this book have been sold in its original, full-sized edition, and the beloved tale of science and gluttony has been translated into 20 languages. This five-by-four-inch miniature edition is truly tiny, with tiny type, but it is a nice size for small hands to hold and flip through the pictures. Despite its diminished state, the book is complete in every detail, following the ravenous caterpillar's path as he eats his way through one apple (and the pages of the book itself) on Monday, two pears on Tuesday, three plums on Wednesday, and so on, through cherry pie and sausage--until he is really fat and has a stomachache. And no doubt you know what happens next! Kids... |
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I Too Was a Child... |
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| Author: |
Misty Marie |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0595765904 |
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| Availability: |
Print-on-demand title. Ships within 5-15 days. |
Book Description
Welcome a biography of oppression told through the eyes of a lesbian...a "HOMO-cide" survivor. I could easily relay some heart wrenching narrative about what you'll find here, but that's not only typical...it's not my style. I will, however, tell you this...I am honest, observant, and passionate about the subject of oppression and the desperate need for change. I will ask you to remember that yesterday I may have been born the happy infant loved by all, and today I may be the adult lesbian that society gets to meet and discuss. But one day, not long ago...I too was a child...a child of oppression. And that child was damned to exist in a dark realm...the closet, if you will. She was murdered by society before she could even tie her shoes. It is that child that I have journeyed to discover...that gay and forsaken child... |
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A Brother's Journey : Surviving a Childhood of Abuse |
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| Author: |
Richard B. Pelzer |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover
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| ISBN: |
0446533688 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
From Publishers Weekly
In this gripping, deeply troubling memoir, a follow-up to his brother David's bestselling A Child Called It, Pelzer reveals the unyielding suffering he says he experienced at the hands of his depraved mother growing up in the 1970s. Once David, the elder of the two, was removed from the household, the author, by this account, became the target of their mother's alcohol-induced rage. As Pelzer details his outward struggle to survive—learning to fall asleep with his eyes open, for example—and his internal efforts to understand and rise above his circumstances, he assaults readers with the graphic facts, told in surprisingly matter-of-fact language, about being beaten bloody for falling asleep when he was supposed to be awake, and being forbidden to bathe and forced to eat scraps from a dog bowl. Family... |
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Dictionary of Literary Biography 22 American Writers for Children 1900-60 |
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| Author: |
John Cech |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0810311461 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships within 3-5 weeks. We cannot guarantee availability of special order titles because publishers may run out of stock. We will notify you in 3-4 weeks if we are unable to get this title for you. |
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Possible Side Effects |
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| Author: |
Augusten Burroughs |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0312315961 |
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From Publishers Weekly
These often hilarious, sometimes contrived essays put the "me" in "confessional memoir" front and center. Burroughs recounts scenes from the floridly dysfunctional childhood chronicled in his bestselling Running with Scissors, along with vignettes from various bad jobs, including his travails at an ad agency, and his life as a famous writer. His theme is himself: his struggles with alcoholism, a voracious Nicorette habit, compulsive Web surfing, slovenliness, social isolation, unfitness for employment, gross bodily emissions and general embarrassment at being alive. The thin story lines—a visit from the tooth fairy, a trip to the doctor, house-training a puppy—suggest that Burroughs's well-mined vein of life experience may be played out. He fattens up the material—a (Frey-inspired?) disclaimer... |
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