Newbery Medal winner Beverly Cleary brings her classic warm humor to this funny and touching story about a girl who lacks self-confidence, and a boy who has too much. Fifteen-year-old Jean is astonished when handsome Johnny whirls her around the dance floor. She's never given much thought to boys before; now Johnny is all that's on her mind. Finally she finds the courage to invite him to a dance. But the excitement of a new dress and a scheme to take Johnny's photograph cannot stop Jean's growing uneasiness that she likes Johnny a lot more than he likes her . . .
The New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places—soon to be a Netflix film starring Elle Fanning—presents a coming-of-age debut about ill-fated love during the Great Depression—and what it means to be a woman with ambition. Velva Jean’s mother urged her to “live out there in the great wide world,” and growing up in Appalachia in the years before World War II, Velva Jean dreams of becoming a big-time singer in Nashville. Then she falls in love with Harley Bright, a handsome juvenile delinquent turned revival preacher. As their tumultuous love story unfolds, Velva Jean must choose between keeping her hard-won home and pursuing her dream of singing in the Grand Ole Opry. Like All the Bright Places, hailed as a “charming love story about [an] unlikely and endearing pair” (New York Times Book Review), Jennifer Niven’s debut novel is a big-hearted story about the struggle to find happiness.
An encounter with a pheasant (which may or may not be sleeping) takes a surprising turn in this sweetly serious and funny story of a Native American boy and his grandma "Pull over, Grandma! Hurry!” Johnny says. Grandma does, and Johnny runs to show her what he spotted near the ditch: a sleeping pheasant. What Grandma sees is a small feathery hump. When Johnny wants to take it home, Grandma tries to tell him that the pheasant might have been hit by a car. But maybe she could use the feathers for her craftwork? So home with Grandma and Johnny the pheasant goes . . . It’s hard to say who is most surprised by what happens next—Grandma, Johnny, or the pheasant. But no one will be more delighted than the reader at this lesson about patience and kindness and respect for nature, imparted by Grandma’s gentle humor, Johnny’s happy hooting, and all the quiet wisdom found in Cheryl Minnema’s stories of Native life and Julie Flett’s remarkably evocative and beautiful illustrations.
The artist, writer, and director of such films as "Johnny Belinda" and "How to Marry a Millionaire" recalls his artist's life in the Paris of the twenties, his Hollywood years and the celebrities he encountered, and his long, productive life in the arts
At the community feast, observing the bounty of festive foods and counting the numerous elders yet to be seated, Johnny learns to be patient and respectful despite his growling tummy.
From the window of the small floatplane, fifteen-year-old Gabe Rogers is getting his first look at Canada's magnificent Northwest Territories with Raymond Providence, his roommate from boarding school. Below is the spectacular Nahanni River -- wall-to-wall whitewater racing between sheer cliffs and plunging over Virginia Falls. The pilot sets the plane down on the lake-like surface of the upper river for a closer look at the thundering falls. Suddenly the engine quits. The only sound is a dull roar downstream, as the Cessna drifts helplessly toward the falls . . . With the brutal subarctic winter fast approaching, Gabe and Raymond soon find themselves stranded in Deadmen Valley. Trapped in a frozen world of moose, wolves, and bears, two boys from vastly different cultures come to depend on each other for their very survival.
A fresh as a daisy coming-of-age story for the pre-teen set, one of Newbery Medal-winning author Beverly Cleary’s beloved classics. Barbara can hardly believe her older sister is getting married. With all the excitement of wedding plans going on, Barbara can't help dreaming of the day she will be the bride. She can't wait to fall in love. But as the big day gets closer, wedding planning often turns into family arguments. Even the bride and groom are bickering over details, and Barbara's fun-loving sister is turning into a very practical, grown-up person. Weddings are fun, but all this serious stuff is scary enough to make Barbara think she's not going to be rushing into a serious romance any time soon.
Falling in Love . . . Shelly fells as if she's living in a fantasyland. She's spending the school year in southern California, where flowers bloom in November, oranges grow on trees, and lawns are mowed in winter. When the star of the basketball team smiles at her, Shelly feels as if she's been touch by magic. Now she's about to discover the magic of falling in love! A bittersweet story of first love from one of America's most beloved children's authors.
If Elvis Presley was a white man who sang in a predominantly black style, Johnny Ace was a black man who sang in a predominantly white one. This title presents a treatment of this influential performer taking the reader to Beale Street in Memphis and to Houston's Fourth Ward, both vibrant black communities where the music never stopped.
Johnny is the concluding book of the Johnson Family saga. Like the first two books in the series, Booker and Leroy, it deals with the life of the Johnson family, an African American family that lives in France. The novel begins after Johnnys prostate gland has been surgically removed because of cancer. The prospect that he will eventually die of the ailment does not bother him as much as the possible permanent loss of sexual potency. However, the experience does remind him that he is mortal which causes him to review his life. He concluded that the greatest threat to his serenity during the time that he has left is the imminent lost of love and respect of his grand children. Johnnys goal becomes to transform himself from ghetto to mainstream. The first part of the book deals with Johnnys early life. He is born in a small town on the Chattahoochee River in Alabama. His scholastically and religious education are described as well as his ambitions and frustrations. He is saved from a impending mediocre life by enlisting in the Marines. In Korea, he becomes a war hero that later enables him to find decent employment in his hometown. He marries Louise, a local girl and yields to pressure from her for a honeymoon in Paris. The couple like Paris so much that they decide to remain there. After two children, Leroy and Booker, the couple falls apart. The social pressures leading to the rupture are described. In Paris, the couple is acutely aware of their relative poverty and low cultural level. Johnny feels that they should concentrate on accumulating wealth whereas Louise desires to improve their social status. Johnny becomes a dealer in stolen merchandise, mostly items stolen from the US army by soldiers. He and a French partner later open a cabaret for African American soldiers in Paris, which expanded into a series of bars, and other small businesses in the Paris area. Louise becomes increasingly cosmopolitan while serving as an international civil servant with UNESCO. Their different situation and prospective gradually makes life together untenable. Louise abandoned him and their children to follow her lover to Miami. Years after Louise leaves, the couple now has grand children in France and Johnny has a second wife, Fabienne a woman from Guadeloupe. The improvement in the quality of life for African Americans in the United States, especially increasing jobs opportunities causes Johnny to question whether it would not be better for the grandchildren for the family to return to the United States. Parallel to Johnnys story is that of one of his grand children, Aurlien. Aurliens parents and grand parents arranged for him to grow up in an upper class white neighborhood. Aurlien only becomes aware of the black community as a teenager. He then notices that he is treated him differently from his white school friends. His first awakening comes when he realized that some of his friends have a problem with him and white girls. A second wake up came when some of his friends join a secret racist group, Fofew, that one of his teachers organizes. Finally, he was the unintentional victim of a racist attack directed toward Obafemi, a Nigerian street drug dealer. The contrast between the perception and treatment of Africans and African Americans in Paris is examined in detail. The ramifications of Africans trying to migrate to Europe in order to find a better life are also treated. Obafemi unsuccessfully attempts to find work in France and finally settles on dealing in illegal drugs after refusing pandering is one of the subplots. A distance relative of Obafemi, Ogunlana, moving from drug dealing to the establishment of an African prostitution rings because it was safer is also related. The stories of many other colorful African American characters that haunted Paris in the later half of the 20th century are also reveled. A recurrent theme in the novel is Johnn
