In this colorfully illustrated book, Cora Lynn, a beautiful butterfly, takes very young readers through the magical adventure of her life: from egg, to caterpillar, to chrysalis, to butterfly. Through verse and charming images, children discover the stages of complex metamorphosis—a basic concept in the science curriculum for elementary students. In the telling, Cora Lynn shows how small things can turn into better, more beautiful things for all the world to see.
In Dahomey, West Africa—home of the Panther People—powerful warriors battle each other for slaves to offer the gods in sacrifice or sell to slave traders. In the aftermath of a brutal tribal war, little Ehizokie is orphaned. After a mother panther raises her along with her cubs, fate decides Ehizokie’s future as she transforms into an Ahosi warrior—a group of special guards that are all women and all wives of the king. More than anything else, Ehizokie wants to please the king of her African nation. As she matures and is eventually brought to America on a slave ship, Ehizokie soon reveals to everyone around her, including her slave friend, Izogie, that she is a terror to anyone who threatens her life, the king, or those under her protection. After she finally lands at a Mississippi plantation and begins a new chapter, Ehizokie births five generations of descendants, one of whom is Cora Mae Jones. As Cora rises from the depths of poverty in Panther Burn, Mississippi, she creates a future no one could have ever imagined. The Trail of the Panther is the story of an African Ahosi warrior as her life’s journey leads her to America and to birth descendants who blaze a trail to the citadels of power around the world.
Constrained by traditions restricting their movements and speech, the Maithil women of Nepal and India have long explored individual and collective life experiences by sharing stories with one another. Sometimes fantastical, sometimes including a kind of magical realism, these tales allow women to build community through a deeply personal and always evolving storytelling form. In Maithil Women’s Tales, Coralynn V. Davis examines how these storytellers weave together their own life experiences--the hardships and the pleasures--with age-old themes. In so doing, Davis demonstrates, they harness folk traditions to grapple personally as well as collectively with social values, behavioral mores, relationships, and cosmological questions. Each chapter includes stories and excerpts that reveal Maithil women’s gift for rich language, layered plots, and stunning allegory. In addition, Davis provides ethnographic and personal information that reveal the complexity of women’s own lives, and includes works painted by Maithil storytellers to illustrate their tales. The result is a fascinating study of being and becoming that will resonate for readers in women’s and Hindu studies, folklore, and anthropology.
When a mermaid attempts to lure her into the sea, fourteen-year-old Adrianne, who lives in a superstitious island community, must choose between the promise of an underwater paradise and those she loves.
The Gentrification of Rural Texas The Gillespie County Fair, the oldest fair in Texas, looms insistently over the shoulder of Marc Hess’s new novel. As rampant land development and tourist money begin to transform the old German farming community of Fredericksburg, two intermarried pioneer families lock in a life-and-death struggle over the sale of their homestead. Their vicious feud—in an otherwise harmonious and bucolic community—leads to the demise of two pioneer families and culminates in the triumph of one hard-headed, young girl. This book delves into the clash of new wealth and ingrained poverty as rural Texas grapples with a changing world. In a short period of time, the town of Fredericksburg has morphed from a rock-rimmed farming community into the chic tourist destination that it is today. While the town itself has blossomed, this is the story about a family that destroys itself.
