Vernon Deyre spends his childhood in fear of the grand piano, which seems to him a great and terrible Beast with ivory teeth. In consequence, he grows up regarding music with distaste and distrust. Then, years later, he attends an orchestral concert as a favour to a friend, and is enraptured by the performance. Vernon becomes a sensitive and brilliant composer - quite possibly a genius. But there is a high price to be paid for his talent, especially by his family and the two women in his life...
2013 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award 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, and 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 is 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.
Ken Follett’s magnificent historical epic begins as five interrelated families move through the momentous dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women’s suffrage. A thirteen-year-old Welsh boy enters a man’s world in the mining pits. . . . An American law student rejected in love finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson’s White House. . . . A housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when she falls in love with a German spy. . . . And two orphaned Russian brothers embark on radically different paths when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription, and revolution. From the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty, Fall of Giants takes us into the inextricably entangled fates of five families—and into a century that we thought we knew, but that now will never seem the same again. . . .
A group of guests gather in a large country house, owned by the dying Lord Warbeck, who wants what is left of his family around him to celebrate what he assumes will be his last Christmas. The guests are a motley bunch, including Sir Julius Warbeck, Chancellor of the Exchequer, the wife of one of his underlings, the fascist son of the present Lord Warbeck, and the Chancellor's bodyguard. Also present is foreign historian Dr Bottwink, and the traditional faithful butler. When the first murder occurs, the house is cut off from the rest of the world by a heavy snowfall, and it is left to Sir Julius's bodyguard to initiate a preliminary investigation before contact can be made with the local police force.
In this funny and zany picture book, villagers make a giant jam sandwich to trap the wasps that have invaded their town. It's a dark day for Itching Down. Four million wasps have just descended on the town, and the pests are relentless! What can be done? Bap the Baker has a crazy idea that just might work. Young readers will love this lyrical, rhyming text as they watch the industrious citizens of Itching Down knead, bake, and slather the biggest wasp trap there ever was! Don't miss this classic funny read-aloud picture book!
The giant statue that has always stood in front of the Church of San Sepolcro in Barletta is called upon to save the town from an army of a thousand men that is destroying all the towns and cities along the lower Adriatic coast.
“More local color than a steamed lobster wearing wild blueberry bracelets, along with a mess of wistful nostalgia for any reader raised in Maine or New England.” —Portland Press Herald Nearly 70 renowned New England writers gather round the table to talk food and how it sustains us—mind, body, and soul An award-winning collection of essays by internationally recognized and beloved foodies, Breaking Bread celebrates local foods, family, and community, while exploring how what’s on our plates engages with what’s off: grief, pleasure, love, ethics, race, and class. Here, you’ll find reflections from top literary talents and food writers like Award-winning novelist Lily King on connecting with her children over a tweaked chocolate chip cookie recipe Pulitzer Prize recipient Richard Russo on the Italian soup his mother snubbed that he came to enjoy Coauthor of Mad Honey Jennifer Finney Boylan on how cheese pizza holds her family together through the good and the bad Coauthor of About Grief Brian Shuff on how greasy takeout can be life-giving food for the grieving soul Award-winning writer Ron Currie on the childhood shame—and adult pride—of your mother being a “lunch lady” Author and homesteader Margaret Hathaway on building a community cookbook to bring food and family together in the early days of COVID-19 Other essays address a beloved childhood food from Iran, the horror of starving in a prison camp, and the urge to bake pot brownies for an ill friend. Rich and flavorful, Breaking Bread brings together some of the most influential voices in the literary and food worlds to show how we experience life through the foods we eat. Proceeds from this collection will benefit Blue Angel, a Maine-based nonprofit founded by writer and Breaking Bread coeditor Deborah Joy Corey to combat hunger. The organization purchases food from local farmers and delivers it directly to families in need.
An ALA Notable Children’s Book Fin’s wife saves him from the most feared giant in Ireland. This fixed-layout ebook, which preserves the design and layout of the original print book, features read-along narration by the author.
He wakes from his afternoon siesta, / flapping legs and hands, / a bluebird perched on the birch/ branch of mother's arm/ ready to raid/ cornfields/ in his father's heart/ THE ESAI POEMS is the first of four books under the series title of BREAKING BREAD WITH THE DARKNESS by American Book Award recipient Jimmy Santiago Baca. The Esai poems are a poignant blend of Baca's wonder of his and his partner's newborn son, and the thoughts and observations of the world he will be inheriting, includlding, including war, racism, indifference and greed. Through Esai the wonder-struck new father explores the idealic world of his family through Esai's new eyes, "He studies his hands as if they are newly discovered planets . . ." but realizing the harsh realities of our times adds perspective with juxtapositions: "I'll wait to tell him how in some places armies cut off the hands of rebels..." Written as a series of thematically connected and dated poems, moving back and forth between ideas, The Esai Poems are some of Baca's strongest poetic work. Already father of two grown sons, Baca explors the implications of beginning another family with another woman. Subsiquent volumes will include explorations of self and family with Essays and Stories, The Lucia Poems (to his young daugher), and to his son, Tones and Gabe Poems and Essays.
