Beatrice and Croc Harry

Beatrice and Croc Harry
Author: Lawrence Hill
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2022-01-11
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 144346337X

One of Canada’s most celebrated author’s debut novel for young readers Beatrice, a young girl of uncertain age, wakes up all alone in a tree house in the forest. How did she arrive in this cozy dwelling, stocked carefully with bookshelves and oatmeal accoutrements? And who has been leaving a trail of clues, composed in delicate purple handwriting? So begins the adventure of a brave and resilient Black girl’s search for identity and healing in bestselling author Lawrence Hill’s middle-grade debut. Though Beatrice cannot recall how or why she arrived in the magical forest of Argilia—where every conceivable fish, bird, mammal and reptile coexist, and any creature with a beating heart can communicate with any other—something within tells her that beyond this forest is a family that is waiting anxiously for her return. Just outside her tree-house door lives Beatrice’s most unlikely ally, the enormous and mercurial King Crocodile Croc Harry, who just may have a secret of his own. As they form an unusual truce and work toward their common goal, Beatrice and Croc Harry will learn more about their forest home than they ever could have imagined. And what they learn about themselves may destroy Beatrice’s chances of returning home forever.

The Illegal: A Novel

The Illegal: A Novel
Author: Lawrence Hill
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2016-01-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0393285464

“A gripping political thriller readers may find hard to put down.”—Dallas Morning News Keita Ali is an elite runner living in Zantoroland, a poor, fictional island that is erupting in political violence. When his father, a journalist, is murdered, Keita escapes to the wealthy nation of Freedom State—an imagined country much like our own. A stateless refugee without documentation, Keita must hide from the authorities even as he races marathons to support himself and ransom his sister who has been kidnapped. This tension-filled novel by the best-selling author of Someone Knows My Name is an astute exploration of dislocation, starting all over again, and the desperate need for home and community.

Dear Sir, I Intend to Burn Your Book

Dear Sir, I Intend to Burn Your Book
Author: Lawrence Hill
Publisher: University of Alberta
Total Pages: 56
Release: 2013-03-20
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 0888648200

Censorship and book burning are still present in our lives. Lawrence Hill shares his experiences of how ignorance and the fear of ideas led a group in the Netherlands to burn the cover of his widely successful novel, The Book of Negroes, in 2011. Why do books continue to ignite such strong reactions in people in the age of the Internet? Is banning, censoring, or controlling book distribution ever justified? Hill illustrates his ideas with anecdotes and lists names of Canadian writers who faced censorship challenges in the twenty-first century, inviting conversation between those on opposite sides of these contentious issues. All who are interested in literature, freedom of expression, and human rights will enjoy reading Hill's provocative essay.

Some Great Thing

Some Great Thing
Author: Lawrence Hill
Publisher:
Total Pages: 268
Release: 1992
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

Disillusioned and apathetic after four years of college, fledgling reporter Mahatma Grafton returns to his hometown to begin work at a local newspaper. The eccentric commitment of an unlikely welfare crusader, an exchange student from Cameroon and a French language rights activist begins to consume him. When a peaceful demonstration escalates into a full-scale riot and police cover-up, Mahatma discovers the principles that have always eluded him. Intelligent and comic, Some Great Thing exposes the internal realities of a newspaper's editorial desk, and treats social issues such as race, gender, language and the rights of the poor with sensitivity and courage.

Do This for Me

Do This for Me
Author: Eliza Kennedy
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2018-05-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1101907223

A high-powered attorney dives into the politics of sex, the perils of desire, and why men and women treat each other the way they do. Raney Moore has it all figured out. An ambitious young partner at a prestigious Manhattan law firm, she’s got a dream job, a loving (and famous) husband, and amazing twin daughters. Her world is full, busy, perfectly scripted. Or so she thinks. One sunny fall day, a bombshell phone call throws Raney’s well-ordered existence into chaos, and in a fit of rage, she diabolically, hilariously burns everything down. Once the flames subside, she finds herself asking some difficult questions: Who am I? What just happened? Am I ever going to find my way back to normal? Assisted by enterprising paralegals, flirtatious clientele, one dear friend and an unforgettable therapist, Raney thinks the answers are close at hand, only to find life spiraling utterly out of control. Uproarious, incisive and poignant, Do This For Me introduces a brilliant, off-kilter heroine on a quest to understand sex, fight workplace inequality, and solve the mystery of herself.

The Deserter's Tale

The Deserter's Tale
Author: Joshua Key
Publisher: House of Anansi
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2007-02-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1770890726

Joshua Key's critically acclaimed memoir, The Deserter's Tale, is the first account from a soldier who deserted from the war in Iraq, and a vivid and damning indictment of how the war is being waged. In spring 2003, young Oklahoman Joshua Key was sent to Ramadi as part of a combat engineer company with the U.S. military. The war he found himself participating in was not the campaign against terrorists and evildoers he had expected. Key saw Iraqi civilians beaten, shot, and killed for little or no provocation. After six months in Iraq, Key was home on leave and knew he could not return. So he took his family and went underground in the United States, finally seeking asylum in Canada. In clear-eyed, compelling prose crafted with the help of award-winning Canadian novelist and journalist Lawrence Hill, The Deserter's Tale tells the story of a man who went into the war believing unquestioningly in his government and who was transformed into a person who ethically, morally, and physically could no longer serve his country.

Blood

Blood
Author: Lawrence Hill
Publisher: House of Anansi
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2013-09-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1770893245

Selected for The Globe 100 Books in 2013. With the 2013 CBC Massey Lectures, bestselling author Lawrence Hill offers a provocative examination of the scientific and social history of blood, and on the ways that it unites and divides us today. Blood runs red through every person’s arteries and fulfills the same functions in every human being. The study of blood has advanced our understanding of biology and improved medical treatments, but its cultural and social representations have divided us perennially. Blood pulses through religion, literature, and the visual arts. Every time it pools or spills, we learn a little more about what brings human beings together and what pulls us apart. For centuries, perceptions of difference in our blood have separated people on the basis of gender, race, class, and nation. Ideas about blood purity have spawned rules about who gets to belong to a family or cultural group, who enjoys the rights of citizenship and nationality, what privileges one can expect to be granted or denied, whether you inherit poverty or the right to rule over the masses, what constitutes fair play in sport, and what defines a person’s identity. Blood: The Stuff of Life is a bold meditation on blood as an historical and contemporary marker of identity, belonging, gender, race, class, citizenship, athletic superiority, and nationhood.

Any Known Blood

Any Known Blood
Author: Lawrence Hill
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Total Pages: 656
Release: 2016-05-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781443450430

Langston Cane V is thirty-eight, divorced and working as a government speechwriter, until he’s fired for sabotaging the minister’s speech. It seems the perfect time for Langston, the son of a white mother and prominent black father, to embark on a quest for his family’s past--and his own sense of self. Any Known Blood follows five generations of an African-Canadian-American family in a compelling story that slips effortlessly from the slave trade of 19th-century Virginia to the modern, predominantly white suburbs of Oakville, Ontario--once a final stop on the Underground Railroad. By turns elegant and sensuous, wry and witty, Any Known Blood is an engrossing tale about one man’s attempt to find himself through unearthing and giving voice to those who came before him.

Someone Knows My Name: A Novel

Someone Knows My Name: A Novel
Author: Lawrence Hill
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 501
Release: 2008-11-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0393067149

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. "Wonderfully written...populated by vivid characters and rendered in fascinating detail." —Nancy Kline, New York Times Book Review Kidnapped from Africa as a child, Aminata Diallo is enslaved in South Carolina but escapes during the chaos of the Revolutionary War. In Manhattan she becomes a scribe for the British, recording the names of blacks who have served the King and earned their freedom in Nova Scotia. But the hardship and prejudice of the new colony prompt her to follow her heart back to Africa, then on to London, where she bears witness to the injustices of slavery and its toll on her life and a whole people. It is a story that no listener, and no reader, will ever forget. Published in Canada as The Book of Negroes and the basis for the award-winning BET miniseries of the same name.

Malaika’s Surprise

Malaika’s Surprise
Author: Nadia L. Hohn
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2021-03-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1773062654

When Malaika finds out she is going to have a new baby brother or sister, she worries that her mother will forget about her. But a surprise arrives on Malaika’s birthday that gives her more reason to celebrate her family’s love. It’s summertime, and Malaika and Adèle are enjoying playing carnival in their bright costumes, dancing and laughing in the sunshine. But when Mummy announces that they will soon have a new baby brother or sister, Malaika is unsure how to feel about another change in her family. Will Mummy forget about me? Back at school, Malaika is excited to see her teacher and classmates, and makes friends with a new girl who has recently arrived from a faraway country, just like Malaika. Then on her birthday, a surprise arrives to remind Malaika of the importance of family, and the story ends with a celebration of her family’s love. Malaika’s Surprise is filled with the same warmth and charm as the first two books in the series, with Nadia L. Hohn’s enchanting prose, written in a blend of standard English and Caribbean patois, and Irene Luxbacher’s colorful collage illustrations. Key Text Features glossary key text features Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.4 Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.3 Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.