Rebecca is troubled when her teacher assigns her class to make Christmas decorations. Rebecca's family is Jewish and doesn't celebrate Christmas, but her teacher says Christmas is a national holiday, for all Americans to celebrate. Yet Rebecca knows she's as American as anyone else, even without celebrating Christmas! She wants to please her teacher, but she's sure her family will be upset. Then, on the first night of Hanukkah, Rebecca finds kindness in an unexpected place, and learns the real meaning of the holiday season. Includes an illustrated historical "Looking Back" essay.
Rebecca thinks it's a grand idea to make a movie with her cousin Ana, but when gentle Ana plays the role of a cruel factory boss, the fun turns sour. Later Rebecca goes to the factory where Ana's brother and father work, and she's horrified at the terrible conditions - but she knows the workers desperately need their jobs. There's got to be a way to make things better at the factory, and Rebecca is determined to do her part - even if it means marching straight into danger. Includes an illustrated historical "Looking Back" essay.
Rebecca is troubled when her teacher assigns her class to make Christmas decorations. Rebecca's family is Jewish and doesn't celebrate Christmas, but her teacher says Christmas is a national holiday, for all Americans to celebrate. Yet Rebecca knows she's as American as anyone else, even without celebrating Christmas! She wants to please her teacher, but she's sure her family will be upset. Then, on the first night of Hanukkah, Rebecca finds kindness in an unexpected place, and learns the real meaning of the holiday season. Includes an illustrated historical "Looking Back" essay.
At last, Rebecca's cousin, Ana, has made the long journey from Russia to Ellis Island. It's crowded with two families living in one small apartment, but Rebecca is happy to share everything with Ana. At school, she is determined to help Ana learn English. But when the teacher tells her to include Ana in a special performance, Rebecca panics - Ana's broken English will ruin the show! As the big day draws near, Rebecca learns an important lesson about what matters most. Includes an illustrated historical - Looking Back - essay.
While Rebecca Rubin helps her building's ailing superintendent take care of his homing pigeons, she puzzles over what to do with the Christmas centerpiece her teacher insisted she make but which has no place in her Jewish home.
Rebecca Rubin is growing up in New York City in 1914. She dreams of being a star on the silver screen, but starts on the stage at her school. She has to share the spotlight with her cousin Ana, and Rebecca fears the audience will laugh instead of applaud. Will Ana hurt or help the show? Illustrations.
Rebecca is thrilled to spend a day at the Coney Island amusement park with her cousins. If only Papa hadn't put her bossy brother Victor in charge of all the games and rides! Fuming, Rebecca resolves to show Victor that girls can do anything boys can do. When the boys tease and laugh at her, she and Ana decide to leave their brothers and have fun on their own. Then the Ferris wheel gets stuck and Ana disappears--and the girls get more excitement than they bargained for. Includes an illustrated historical ?Looking Back? essay.
From Rebecca Ross, acclaimed author of The Queen’s Rising duology, comes a story about magic, vengeance, and the captivating power of dreams. A must-read for fans of The Hazel Wood and The Night Circus. The realm of Azenor has spent years plagued by a curse. Every new moon, magic flows from the nearby mountain and brings nightmares to life. Only magicians—who serve as territory wardens—stand between people and their worst dreams. Clementine Madigan is ready to take over as the warden of her small town, but when two magicians arrive to challenge her, she is unknowingly drawn into a century-old conflict. She seeks revenge, but as she gets closer to Phelan, one of the handsome young magicians, secrets—as well as romance—begins to rise. To fight the realm’s curse, which seems to be haunting her every turn, Clementine must unite with her rival. But will their efforts be enough to save Azenor from the nightmares that lurk around every corner?
London, 1926: Henry Twist's heavily pregnant wife leaves home to meet a friend. On the way, she is hit by a bus and killed, though miraculously the baby survives. Henry is left with nothing but his new daughter - a single father in a world without single fathers. He hurries the baby home, terrified that she'll be taken from him. Racked with guilt and fear, he stays away from prying eyes, walking her through the streets at night, under cover of darkness. But one evening, a strange man steps out of the shadows and addresses Henry by name. The man says that he has lost his memory, but that his name is Jack. Henry is both afraid of and drawn to Jack, and the more time they spend together, the more Henry sees that this man has echoes of his dead wife. His mannerisms, some things he says ... And so Henry wonders, has his wife returned to him? Has he conjured Jack himself from thin air? Or is he in the grip of a sophisticated con man? Who really sent him? Set in a postwar London where the Bright Young Things dance into dawn at garden parties hosted by generous old Monty, The Haunting of Henry Twist is a novel about the limits and potential of love and of grief. It is about the lengths we will go to hold on to what is precious to us, what we will forgive of those we love, and what we will sacrifice for the sake of our own happiness.
When cultural critics with such wildly divergent views as Jacques Barzun, Christopher Hitchens, Joseph Epstein, Dana Gioia, and Morris Dickstein all agree about the merits of one contemporary essayist, shouldn't you find out why? "I never think except when I sit down to write." -- Attributed to Montaigne by Edgar Allan Poe From Montaigne in the sixteenth century to Orwell, Eliot, and Trilling in the twentieth, the best literary essayists combine a gift for observation with an abiding commitment to books. Although it may seem that books are becoming less essential and that a revolution in sensibility is taking place, the essays of Arthur Krystal suggest otherwise. Companionable without being chummy, engaged without being didactic, erudite without being stuffy, he demonstrates that literature, even in the digital age, remains the truest expression of the human condition. Covering subjects as diverse as aphorisms, dueling, the night, and the 1960s, the essays gathered here offer the common reader uncommon pleasure. In prose that is both vibrant and elegant, Krystal negotiates among myriad subjects-from historical writing as exemplified by Jacques Barzun to the art of screenwriting as not so happily represented by F. Scott Fitzgerald. His cardinal rule as a writer? William Hazlitt's "Confound it, man, don't be insipid." No fear of that. Except When I Write is thoughtful in the most joyful sense-brimming with ideas in order to give us the flow and cadence of someone actually thinking. Keenly observant and death on pretension, Krystal examines the world of books without ever losing sight of the world beyond them. Literature may be the bedrock on which these essays rest, but as F. R. Leavis aptly noted, "One cannot seriously be interested in literature and remain purely literary in interests." Except When I Write is a reminder of both the pleasure and the power of a well-tuned essay.
