Bridge of Clay

Bridge of Clay
Author: Markus Zusak
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 546
Release: 2018-10-09
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 0375896996

The unforgettable, New York Times bestselling family saga from Markus Zusak, the storyteller who gave us the extraordinary bestseller THE BOOK THIEF, lauded by the New York Times as "the kind of book that can be life-changing." NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY • THE WALL STREET JOURNAL "One of those monumental books that can draw you across space and time into another family’s experience in the most profound way." —The Washington Post "Mystical and loaded with heart, it's another gorgeous tearjerker from a rising master of them." —Entertainment Weekly “Devastating, demanding and deeply moving.” —Wall Street Journal The breathtaking story of five brothers who bring each other up in a world run by their own rules. As the Dunbar boys love and fight and learn to reckon with the adult world, they discover the moving secret behind their father’s disappearance. At the center of the Dunbar family is Clay, a boy who will build a bridge—for his family, for his past, for greatness, for his sins, for a miracle. The question is, how far is Clay willing to go? And how much can he overcome? Written in powerfully inventive language and bursting with heart, BRIDGE OF CLAY is signature Zusak.

Play with Clay!

Play with Clay!
Author: Jenny Pinkerton
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 12
Release: 2020-03-03
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0593094425

Follow a colorful blob of modeling dough as it forms a ball, rolls into a snake, coils into a pot, and more in this adorable board book! In this charming story, children can learn the simple lesson that change is a constant--and they can learn it through art and play! The straightforward narrative paired with quirky visual humor makes this the perfect board book for budding creative kids.

Clay

Clay
Author: Suzanne Staubach
Publisher: UPNE
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2013-09-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1611685044

More than a third of the houses in the world are made of clay. Clay vessels were instrumental in the invention of cooking, wine and beer making, and international trade. Our toilets are made of clay. The first spark plugs were thrown on the potter’s wheel. Clay has played a vital role in the health and beauty fields. Indeed, this humble material was key to many advances in civilization, including the development of agriculture and the invention of baking, architecture, religion, and even the space program. In Clay, Suzanne Staubach takes a lively look at the startling history of the mud beneath our feet. Told with verve and erudition, this story will ensure you won’t see the world around you in quite the same way after reading the book.

Fire and Clay

Fire and Clay
Author: Kaaronica Evans-Ware
Publisher:
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2013-05-06
Genre:
ISBN: 9780615813882

Banished from her clan for being a Muslim, a 400 year-old jinn named Zamar is hiding from her past. But an ancient evil is about to surface, unearthing her secrets and carrying painful reminders of the life she once lived. Ages ago, Zamar had lived in solitary exile along the banks of the Senegal River. Then a lone man entered her world, altering it forever. Spanning several centuries, book one of Fire & Clay, pulls you into the unseen world of mankind's distant cousins, the jinn. Like humans, these beings were given the gift of free will. And like us there are a few that choose the way of good, some that choose the way of evil, and many that live their lives torn between the two. But what happens when the lives of creatures cast from smokeless fire, and those shaped from the clay of the Earth become intertwined? The story told here takes readers on a journey of mystery, imagination, and magic to search for the answers. It plunges into the depths of jealousy, fear, and greed-as well as violence, sorrow, and loss. But it also scales the heights of love and faith, hope and deliverance. This story may be fictional, but it is true. Its truths are about what it means to be human, what it means to have the power to choose. Fire & Clay is no mere fairytale. What we can see, touch, and taste is only a narrow sliver of reality. There is a war being fought all around us, even within us. And sooner than we might think, our final battle is coming.

Lone Stars

Lone Stars
Author: Mike Lupica
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2017-09-12
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0399172807

An uplifting story about role models, football, and tackling fear set in the heart of Friday Night Lights country—from the bestselling author of Heat, Travel Team, and Fantasy League. Clay is a quarterback's dream. When he zips across the field, arms outstretched, waiting for the ball to sail into his hands, there's no denying him the catch. Like most Texans, Clay is never more at home than when playing football. And his coach, a former star player for the Dallas Cowboys, is just like a second father. But as the football season kicks off, Clay begins to notice some odd behavior from his coach--lapses in his memory and strange mood swings. The conclusion is painful, but obvious: Coach Cooper is showing side effects of the many concussions he sustained during his playing days. As Clay's season wears on, it becomes clear that the real victory will be to help his coach walk onto that famous star logo in the middle of Cowboys Field one last time--during a Thanksgiving day ceremony honoring him and his former Super Bowl-winning teammates. In Lone Stars, #1 New York Times bestseller Mike Lupica demonstrates once again that there is no children's sports novelist today who can match his ability to weave a story of vivid sports action and heartfelt emotion. A touching story that proves life is bigger than a game. Praise for Lone Stars "Lupica has crafted another fine sports story for the middle school reader."—VOYA "Young readers, no matter their level of interest in the game, will be drawn in by this touching, timely story."—Booklist "There is plenty of great football action to keep the sports enthusiasts engaged, and the information about concussive injury is easily understood and applied. This is an entertaining read that also imparts an important message."—School Library Connection

The Incredible Clay Book

The Incredible Clay Book
Author: Sherri Haab
Publisher: Klutz
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1994
Genre: Clay
ISBN: 9781878257734

A million-selling title all about the wonderful beads, buttons and beasties you can make (and then bake to permanence) with polymer clay. More than 150 projects are described and illustrated in lavish detail.

Amber and Clay

Amber and Clay
Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2021-03-09
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1536211737

The Newbery Medal–winning author of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! gives readers a virtuoso performance in verse in this profoundly original epic pitched just right for fans of poetry, history, mythology, and fantasy. Welcome to ancient Greece as only genius storyteller Laura Amy Schlitz can conjure it. In a warlike land of wind and sunlight, “ringed by a restless sea,” live Rhaskos and Melisto, spiritual twins with little in common beyond the violent and mysterious forces that dictate their lives. A Thracian slave in a Greek household, Rhaskos is as common as clay, a stable boy worth less than a donkey, much less a horse. Wrenched from his mother at a tender age, he nurtures in secret, aided by Socrates, his passions for art and philosophy. Melisto is a spoiled aristocrat, a girl as precious as amber but willful and wild. She’ll marry and be tamed—the curse of all highborn girls—but risk her life for a season first to serve Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Bound by destiny, Melisto and Rhaskos—Amber and Clay—never meet in the flesh. By the time they do, one of them is a ghost. But the thin line between life and death is just one boundary their unlikely friendship crosses. It takes an army of snarky gods and fearsome goddesses, slaves and masters, mothers and philosophers to help shape their story into a gorgeously distilled, symphonic tour de force. Blending verse, prose, and illustrated archeological “artifacts,” this is a tale that vividly transcends time, an indelible reminder of the power of language to illuminate the over- and underworlds of human history.

Broken

Broken
Author: Daniel Clay
Publisher: Emblem Editions
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2009-08-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1551993015

An edgy, affecting, and darkly funny debut novel — narrated by Skunk, an eleven-year-old girl in a coma — that explores innocence and its betrayal as powerfully and unforgettably as do Lullabies for Little Criminals and The Lovely Bones Skunk Cunningham’s world is a small one, populated by her family; her teachers and schoolmates; and her neighbours, the quiet Buckley family and the five terrifying Oswald girls and their thug of a father, Bob. When Saskia Oswald, with her stilettos and tight pants, asks shy Rick Buckley for a ride in his new car, he can’t believe his luck. But after a quick fumble, Saskia broadcasts Rick’s deficiencies to anyone who will listen, including her younger sisters. This act of thoughtless cruelty will see Rick dragged off by the police, humiliated, and “broken,” — and, in a tragic chain of events, will leave Skunk hanging on to her young life by a thread. From her hospital bed, Skunk shows us her hapless father finding love, and her idealistic favourite teacher losing it; “Broken” Buckley spiralling into madness; and the Oswald clan coming apart at the seams. As we inch ever closer to the mystery behind her coma, Skunk’s innocence becomes a beacon by which we navigate a world as comic as it is tragic, and as engaging as it is finally uplifting. Broken introduces Daniel Clay as a brilliant and utterly original voice in international fiction.

Many Shapes of Clay

Many Shapes of Clay
Author: Kenesha Sneed
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2021-05-04
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 3791374680

In this modern-day fable about grief, diversity, and family connections, a young girl discovers the joys--and pain--of the creative process. Winner of the Bookstagang Best of 2021: Best Conversation Starter Picture Books of 2021. Longlisted for the Klaus Flugge Prize. Ezra Jack Keats Award Honoree. Eisha lives with her mother, a ceramic artist, who helps her make a special shape out of a piece of clay. The shape reminds Eisha of her father, of the ocean, of a lemon. As Eisha goes through her neighborhood doing errands with her mother, the piece of clay hardens and then shatters into pieces when Eisha taps it. In poignant and powerful words and pictures, Kenesha Sneed shows how Eisha learns to live with the sense of loss and of the joyful power of making something new out of what is left behind. Illustrated with Sneed's bold colors, graphic lines, and gestural textures, the book celebrates diversity and shares a gentle message that we all have the ability to heal and create.