The Cowkeeper's Wish

The Cowkeeper's Wish
Author: Tracy Kasaboski
Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre
Total Pages: 463
Release: 2018-09-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1771622032

In the 1840s, a young cowkeeper and his wife arrive in London, England, having walked from coastal Wales with their cattle. They hope to escape poverty, but instead they plunge deeper into it, and the family, ensconced in one of London’s “black holes,” remains mired there for generations. The Cowkeeper’s Wish follows the couple’s descendants in and out of slum housing, bleak workhouses and insane asylums, through tragic deaths, marital strife and war. Nearly a hundred years later, their great-granddaughter finds herself in an altogether different London, in southern Ontario. In The Cowkeeper’s Wish, Kristen den Hartog and Tracy Kasaboski trace their ancestors’ path to Canada, using a single family’s saga to give meaningful context to a fascinating period in history—Victorian and then Edwardian England, the First World War and the Depression. Beginning with little more than enthusiasm, a collection of yellowed photographs and a family tree, the sisters scoured archives and old newspapers, tracked down streets, pubs and factories that no longer exist, and searched out secrets buried in crumbling ledgers, building on the fragments that remained of family tales. While this family story is distinct, it is also typical, and so all the more worth telling. As a working-class chronicle stitched into history, The Cowkeeper’s Wish offers a vibrant, absorbing look at the past that will captivate genealogy enthusiasts and readers of history alike.

Jacob's New Dress

Jacob's New Dress
Author: Sarah Hoffman
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
Total Pages: 34
Release: 2014-03-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0807563749

One of 10 Best Indie Picture Books of 2014, ForeWord Reviews Runner-Up, 2014 New England Book Festival: Children's Books 2014 Distinguished List of the Association of Children's Librarians of Northern California CCBC Choices 2015 An affirming story about gender nonconformity. Jacob loves playing dress-up, when he can be anything he wants to be. Some kids at school say he can't wear "girl" clothes, but Jacob wants to wear a dress to school. Can he convince his parents to let him wear what he wants? This heartwarming story speaks to the unique challenges faced by children who don't identify with traditional gender roles.

I Had a Favorite Dress

I Had a Favorite Dress
Author: Boni Ashburn
Publisher: Abrams
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2011-10-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1613122020

Open up a fresh and stylish story about growing up and keeping hold of your favorite memories. As the year passes, the narrator’s favorite dress goes through a series of creative changes, from dress to shirt to tank top to scarf and so on, until all that’s left of it is a good memory. Assisted by her patient and crafty mama, the narrator finds that when disaster strikes her favorite things, she doesn’t need to make mountains out of molehills—she “makes molehills out of mountains” instead! Structured around the days of the week, the story is also illustrated to show the passing of the seasons, a perfect complement to the themes of growing older and keeping hold (and letting go) of special mementos. Praise for I Had a Favorite Dress "A spunky story about adjusting to change with creativity and style. Tailor-made, so to speak, for the Etsy generation of DIY enthusiasts.” –Publishers Weekly “Everyone is smiling in the buoyant confections created by illustrator Julia Denos—including, it’s fair to say, young readers looking at them. Endearing picture book.” –Wall Street Journal “What could have been yet another example of kindergarten consumerism instead becomes one of resourcefulness and resilience.” –New York Times “Denos’s multimedia illustrations reinforce the narrator’s vibrant personality and the amazing transformations of the dress while capturing the action and emotion of the story. This book is sure to capture the imaginations of would-be seamstresses; children who can’t bear to part with a favorite item; and those who want to reduce, reuse, recycle.” –School Library Journal “Breezy in style, they smartly stitch each scene of alteration as the not-so-little girl sashays through the days of the week and the seasons. A charming interpretation of an old story that will speak to young fashionistas.” –Kirkus Reviews

A Fire Story

A Fire Story
Author: Brian Fies
Publisher: Abrams
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2019-03-05
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 1683354516

The award-winning author and illustrator presents a personal account of the Northern California wildfires of 2017 in this moving graphic memoir. On October 9th, 2017, wildfires burned through Northern California, resulting in forty-four fatalities and the destruction of thousands of homes. In A Fire Story, Brian Fies shares an unflinching account of this tragedy as he and his wife experienced it—including losing their house and every possession that didn’t fit in their car. As the fires continued to burn through the area, Brian pulled together A Fire Story and posted it online. It immediately went viral. He later expanded the webcomic to include environmental insight and the fire stories of his neighbors. A Fire Story is a candid testimony of the wildfires that left homes destroyed, families broken, and a community determined to rebuild. This updated and expanded edition includes thirty-two pages of all-new material, extending the story past the events of the hardcover edition to include updates on the rebuilding, wrestling with insurance, wrangling with contractors, the management of sometimes volatile emotions, and the threats of yet another wildfire.

I'm So Not Wearing a Dress!

I'm So Not Wearing a Dress!
Author: Julie Merberg
Publisher: Downtown Bookworks
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010-09-07
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9781935703051

A fun (inexpensive!) picture book for the un-fancy Nancy’s. Shelby likes to play sports in her favorite red sneakers. She likes to dig for worms with her best friend, Nate. She does not want to have tea parties with her next door neighbor, Sophie. And when she is asked to be a flower girl in her aunt’s wedding, she knows one thing for sure: SHE IS SO NOT WEARING A DRESS! A spunky heroine, adorable illos, and a totally charming story will appeal to the many, many girls who prefer baseball caps to tiaras.

The 57 Bus

The 57 Bus
Author: Dashka Slater
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2017-10-17
Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction
ISBN: 0374303258

The riveting New York Times bestseller and Stonewall Book Award winner that will make you rethink all you know about race, class, gender, crime, and punishment. Artfully, compassionately, and expertly told, Dashka Slater's The 57 Bus is a must-read nonfiction book for teens that chronicles the true story of an agender teen who was set on fire by another teen while riding a bus in Oakland, California. Two ends of the same line. Two sides of the same crime. If it weren’t for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a Black teen, lived in the economically challenged flatlands and attended a large public one. Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere eight minutes. But one afternoon on the bus ride home from school, a single reckless act left Sasha severely burned, and Richard charged with two hate crimes and facing life imprisonment. The case garnered international attention, thrusting both teenagers into the spotlight. But in The 57 Bus, award-winning journalist Dashka Slater shows that what might at first seem like a simple matter of right and wrong, justice and injustice, victim and criminal, is something more complicated—and far more heartbreaking. Awards and Accolades for The 57 Bus: A New York Times Bestseller Stonewall Book Award Winner YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist A Boston Globe-Horn Book Nonfiction Honor Book Winner A TIME Magazine Best YA Book of All Time A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist Don’t miss Dashka Slater’s newest propulsive and thought-provoking nonfiction book, Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed, which National Book Award winner Ibram X. Kendi hails as “powerful, timely, and delicately written.”