In 1941, Theo Coster was a student at the Amsterdam Jewish Lyceum, 1 in a class of 28 Jewish children that the Nazis had segregated from the rest of the Dutch population. Among Theo's fellow students was a young Anne Frank, whose diary would later become one of the most important documents of the Holocaust. In this remarkable group portrait, Coster and five of his fellow classmates gather their personal stories and memories of Anne. The accounts collected here do not just help us to rediscover Anne Frank. They also stand on their own as remarkable stories of ingenuity and survival during the Holocaust—from Albert Gomes de Mesquita, who hid in ten different towns across Europe—to Hannah Goslar, who experienced the horrors of Bergen-Belsen but also made a miraculous reconnection with Anne days before her death.
In Nazi-occupied Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen is called upon for a selfless act of bravery to help save her best friend from a terrible fate. Winner of the Newbery Medal, newly reissued in the Essential Modern Classics range. "They plan to arrest all the Danish Jews. They plan to take them away. And we have been told that they may come tonight." It is 1943 and life in Copenhagen is becoming complicated for Annemarie. There are food shortages and curfews, and soldiers on every corner. But it is even worse for her Jewish best friend, Ellen, as the Nazis continue their brutal campaign. With Ellen's life in danger, Annemarie must summon all her courage to help stage a daring escape. Inspired by true events of the Second World War, this gripping novel brings the past vividly to life for today's readers.
“Fans of Jojo Moyes will love We Are All Made of Stars” (Good Housekeeping). “A beautiful web of a book” (Jodi Picoult), this life-affirming novel tells an unforgettable story about second chances, the power of words, and the resilience of the heart. A dedicated nurse, Stella finds comfort at the hospice where she works the late shift, especially since her husband returned from Afghanistan—cold, distant, and shattered by painful memories he refuses to share. The hospice at night is another world, where the dying receive closure by creating the letters that Stella helps them write. The pages are filled with love and humor, sometimes regret, and, occasionally, even instructions for a perplexed husband on how to run appliances. There’s one rule: The letters are mailed only after the patient has passed. Suddenly Stella is faced with a dilemma: A woman under her care, Grace, has written a confession to the son she abandoned many years before. The letter clearly needs to be read before Grace dies. But if Stella mails it now, she breaks the rule—and risks tampering not only with Grace’s wishes but also with fate. Navigating passion and grief, loyalty and loss, and a marriage threatened by silence and secrets, Stella discovers that letters hold a special power: granting solace, saving memories, nurturing relationships. As the words endure, love redeems. Praise for We Are All Made of Stars “A beautiful web of a book that reminds us of how we are all connected, and how to die—and live—without regrets. Is that a tear in my eye? No, that’s a tear in your eye.”—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Leaving Time and The Storyteller “We Are All Made of Stars will break your heart and put the pieces back together—fans of Jojo Moyes’s Me Before You, this one is right up your alley.”—Refinery29 “Coleman uses several voices and perspectives to turn a potentially dark story into one filled with light. Fans of Jojo Moyes will love this beautifully written, deeply engaging novel that understands death and celebrates life.” —Booklist (starred review) “A powerful, emotional read.”—RT Reviews “Fans of Jojo Moyes will love We Are All Made of Stars.”—Good Housekeeping “Coleman has written a poignant story that examines the value of life, love, and forgiveness. . . . A tear-jerking but ultimately uplifting story.”—Kirkus Reviews
I was knocked down by a shell. As I found myself laying on my back, the half-full flamethrower tank pinning me to the ground, a North Korean soldier came at me with his bayonet. In his quilted suit, he seemed to come out of nowhere. I can still see his face and smell the garlic on his breath. As he lunged at me, I was able to turn, but he stabbed my upper left arm with his bayonet. I had a double-barrel shotgun taped on the arm of my flamethrower and gave him both barrels. I think I blew him in half. The battle kept going on around me. Weapons fire was all around me, and I heard other boys being hit and falling. I laid there feeling weak as blood from my deep wound seeped out on the Korean dirt. I must have been ready to blackout when I heard a familiar voice say, “Joe, if I don’t close up that wound, you’ll die.” (Paragraph italicized.) From growing up in a small Pennsylvania town, through Marine Corps boot camp and training, and finally, remembering and coping with buried memories decades later, Korean War combat veteran Joseph Barna recounts his life events that will put a tear in your eye and a smile on your face.
From the Publisher: Many know the tragic story of Anne Frank, the teen whose life ended at Auschwitz during the Holocaust. But most people don't know about Eva Schloss, Anne's playmate and posthumous stepsister. Though Eva, like Anne, was imprisoned in Auschwitz at the age of 15, her story did not end there. Together with her mother, Eva endured daily degradation at the hands of the Nazis. She survived the prison camps, but it would be decades before Eva was able to tell her survivor's tale. Concluding with a revealing new interview with Eva, this moving memoir recounts without bitterness or hatred the horrors of war, the love between mother and daughter, and the strength and determination that helped a family overcome danger and tragedy.
A racially diverse youth soccer team comprised largely of immigrant players from a myriad of different countries and religions come together to achieve the unthinkable in this entertaining true account of inclusion, acceptance and brotherhood on the tattered road to victory. A truly inspirational story for our country and world and a unifying message for these turbulent times.
The “provocative and entertaining follow-up” to The Forge of God: Exiled from their planet, humans unite with one alien race in the fight against another (Publishers Weekly). The Ship of the Law travels the infinite enormity of space, carrying eighty-two young people: fighters, strategists, scientists—and children. After one alien culture destroyed their home, another offered the opportunity for revenge in the form of a starship built from fragments of the Earth’s corpse, a ship they now use to scour the universe in search of their enemy. Working with sophisticated nonhuman technologies that need new thinking to comprehend them, they’re cut off forever from the people they left behind. Denied information, they live within a complex system that is both obedient and beyond their control. They’re frightened. And they’re waging war against entities whose technologies are unimaginably advanced and vast, and whose psychology is ultimately, unknowably alien. In Anvil of Stars, the multimillion-selling, Nebula Award–winning author of Eon and other science fiction masterpieces “fashions an action-packed and often thrilling plot; by using each of the well-depicted alien races to mirror human behavior, he defines what it means to be Homo sapiens. . . . A gripping story” (Publishers Weekly).
