Tears of an Orphan Girl is a young woman’s story of survival. Her mother is heinously murdered, her father jailed and disappeared, and she is left alone with her little brother in a war-torn village. Her lover is an artist whose art proves to be a token of threat, liberation, and love. Adversity follows them like a shadow, and the way they handle their problems remains to be a riddle this novel will unravel. The story is a blend of miracle, love, anguish, and death. Wonders will never cease. Out of destruction and anguish, a tree of love burgeons and works wonders.
When Cissy Ryan's real mother comes to claim her from the workhouse, it's not how she imagined. Her family's tumbledown cottage has ice on the inside of its windows and is in an isolated, poverty-stricken village in the muddy Irish countryside. But when Cissy is allowed to help neighbour Colm Doyle and his horse named Blue on their milk round one morning, Cissy starts to feel as though friendship could get her through anything. It's Colm who looks in on Cissy's grandfather when she starts at the village school, and Colm who tells her to hold her chin high when she interviews for a position at the grand Bretton House. But in the vast mansion with its shining floors and sweeping staircase, it's Master Peter Bretton who captures Cissy's heart with his dark curls and easy laugh.
The author shares the story of her four years as a volunteer at an orphanage in rural China, the one-child policy that created hundreds of abandoned infants, and the children she came to know, love, and care for.
The historical adult debut novel by # 1 New York Times bestselling author Lauren Kate, The Orphan's Song is a breathtaking story of passion, heartbreak, and betrayal, and a celebration of the enduring nature and transformative power of love. "A tangled knot of betrayal and love, lies and redemption. Marvelous." --Fiona Davis, author of The Address A song brought them together. A secret will tear them apart. When Violetta and Mino meet, one finds true love and the other denies it. Both orphans at the Hospital of the Incurables in Venice, an orphanage and music conservatory, they meet and make music together clandestinely until Violetta is selected for the Incurables' renowned chorus. In order to join she signs an oath never to sing beyond the church doors, effectively sequestering herself for life. Mino flees, heartbroken. Too late, Violetta realizes what she has lost. In rebellion she begins a dangerous and forbidden nightlife, unknowingly drawing closer to Mino as he searches Venice for his long-lost mother. Mino and Violetta must each journey through passion, heartache, and betrayal before a dangerous secret reunites them, leading to a shocking and final confrontation.
A National Book Award Longlist title! "A wondrous book, wise and wild and deeply true." —Kelly Barnhill, Newbery Medal-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon "This is one of those books that haunts you long after you read it. Thought-provoking and magical." —Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series In the tradition of modern-day classics like Sara Pennypacker's Pax and Lois Lowry's The Giver comes a deep, compelling, heartbreaking, and completely one-of-a-kind novel about nine children who live on a mysterious island. On the island, everything is perfect. The sun rises in a sky filled with dancing shapes; the wind, water, and trees shelter and protect those who live there; when the nine children go to sleep in their cabins, it is with full stomachs and joy in their hearts. And only one thing ever changes: on that day, each year, when a boat appears from the mist upon the ocean carrying one young child to join them—and taking the eldest one away, never to be seen again. Today’s Changing is no different. The boat arrives, taking away Jinny’s best friend, Deen, replacing him with a new little girl named Ess, and leaving Jinny as the new Elder. Jinny knows her responsibility now—to teach Ess everything she needs to know about the island, to keep things as they’ve always been. But will she be ready for the inevitable day when the boat will come back—and take her away forever from the only home she’s known? "A unique and compelling story about nine children who live with no adults on a mysterious island. Anyone who has ever been scared of leaving their family will love this book" (from the Brightly.com review, which named Orphan Island a best book of 2017).
An eleven-year-old orphan is reconnected to her mother's family, but her courage and strength are tested as she is put to work in a textile mill. Flora is a young, imaginative girl who has dreamt of having a family to call her own since her parents died from pleurisy when she was three. She dreams of family dinners. She dreams of friends. But mostly she dreams of leaving the orphanage. As the diary begins, Flora is still in an orphanage in Kingston, but her Auntie Janet has just married, and she and her husband James send for Flora to come and live with them in Almonte, Ontario. Once she arrives at her aunt's, Flora begins work in the Almonte Mill, even though she is underage -- typical for many children of the era. She works from dawn to dusk, near huge and noisy machines, and she sees the effects of the mill on workers who have lost an arm or their hearing. Still, this life is better than going back to the orphanage. But when Uncle James loses several fingers at the weaving machine and can't work anymore, money is really tight, and it's up to Flora and her aunt to find a way out of the predicament. Through all her trials, Flora writes down her feelings in a journal, one she addresses to "Dear Papa and Mama", because it makes her feel close to the parents she lost when she was young. Days of Toil and Tears includes historical background giving readers the social context of young mill workers, and a map of the textile industry of Canada, as well as fascinating photographs from this era.
It is June first and twelve-year-old Mary does not really understand what is happening: she does not understand the hatred and greed of the white men who are forcing her Cherokee family out of their home in New Echota, Georgia, capital of the Cherokee Nation, and trying to steal what few things they are allowed to take with them, she does not understand why a soldier killed her grandfather--and she certainly does not understand how she, her sister, and her mother, are going to survive the 1000 mile trip to the lands west of the Mississippi.
Hadassah's eyes widened, as she fought back the tears. "Do you have in mind a name for me then?" She loved this man dearly. "Esther." "Why Esther?" "Is it not obvious? I want you to shine above the whole lot. I want you to stay up where the stars are--high above." Mordecai placed his hands on his young niece's shoulders. "I must, however, warn you to remain humble and hold firmly to the God of our fathers. If this thing is the will of God, He will perfect it. His ways are above our understanding, for He does what seems pleasant in His eyes." A deep silence engulfed them as they walked on, then a warm assurance wrapped Hadassah in its embrace. "Even as I bear the name Esther, I will always carry the name Hadassah in my heart, to keep the memory of my mother alive." If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?---Esther 4:14 The name Esther means star. Through the lens of history, she'll forever be revered as beautiful Queen Esther, the beloved female heroine of the Old Testament, whose courage and obedience saved the Jewish nation from annihilation. But... before she was Queen Esther, she was just Hadassah, a lowly orphan girl, growing up against a backdrop of turbulent political times. In From an Orphan to a Queen, novelist Titi Horsfall laces historical and biblical events with fiction, weaving a tender and vivid recreation of Esther's journey. The biblical account of Esther is a story of deliverance and of prophecy fulfilled, through an amazing interplay of characters and divinely staged events. In this book, our heroine's story comes to life as a tale of hope and personal discovery... a tale of a girl whose hopes and fears were not all that different from young women today. Chosen by the king, young Esther was forced to replace another wife, mother and queen. With the encouragement of her uncle Mordecai, Esther risked her life, revealing her identity as a Jew to influence the king to reverse an execution order against her people. Her brave actions forever changed the course of history. None of us get to choose the circumstances we are born into. Yet, as Esther's timeless and inspiring story reveals, God takes pleasure in fulfilling His purposes through ordinary people with willing hearts.
