Salma the Syrian Chef

Salma the Syrian Chef
Author: Danny Ramadan
Publisher: Annick Press
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2020-03-10
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1773213768

Newcomer Salma and friends cook up a heartwarming dish to cheer up Mama. All Salma wants is to make her mama smile again. Between English classes, job interviews, and missing Papa back in Syria, Mama always seems busy or sad. A homemade Syrian meal might cheer her up, but Salma doesn’t know the recipe, or what to call the vegetables in English, or where to find the right spices! Luckily, the staff and other newcomers at the Welcome Center are happy to lend a hand—and a sprinkle of sumac. With creativity, determination, and charm, Salma brings her new friends together to show Mama that even though things aren’t perfect, there is cause for hope and celebration. Syrian culture is beautifully represented through the meal Salma prepares and Anna Bron’s vibrant illustrations, while the diverse cast of characters speaks to the power of cultivating community in challenging circumstances.

Clothesline Clues to Sports People Play

Clothesline Clues to Sports People Play
Author: Kathryn Heling
Publisher: Triangle Interactive, Inc.
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2018-03-29
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1684446465

Read Along or Enhanced eBook: Get in the game and use clues on the clotheslines to identify a slew of sports. Catchy rhymes and visual cues introduce young readers to sports in this companion to Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do. The clues in each lively verse can be spotted hanging from the clotheslines. What athlete wears those items? Turn the page to discover the sport at hand—and the athlete in full gear! From baseball and soccer, to fencing and archery, there's something for everyone—including a surprise ending. A perfect choice for reading aloud and encouraging kids to join in the guessing and reveal. Andy Robert Davies's quirky illustrations build a separate story from the text. Close attention to the details will help young readers build their own storytelling skills and help them make visual connections.

The Foghorn Echoes

The Foghorn Echoes
Author: Danny Ramadan
Publisher: Canongate Books
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2022-09-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1838854673

WINNER OF THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FOR GAY FICTION Hussam and Wassim are teenage boys living in Syria during America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. When a surprise discovery results in tragedy, their lives, and those of their families, are shattered. Wassim promises Hussam his protection, but ten years into the future, he has failed to keep his promise. Wassim is on the streets, seeking shelter from both the city and the civil war storming his country. Meanwhile Hussam, now on the other side of the world, remains haunted by his own ghosts, doing his utmost to drown them out with every vice imaginable. Split between war-torn Damascus and unforgiving Vancouver, The Foghorn Echoes is a tragic love story about coping with shared traumatic experience and devastating separation. As Hussam and Wassim come to terms with the past, they begin to realise the secret that haunts them is not the only secret that formed them.

Just Annoying!

Just Annoying!
Author: Andy Griffiths
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2011-05-27
Genre:
ISBN: 1459622588

Is this the right book for you? Take the ANNOYING TEST and find out. 1) Do you ask `Are we there yet?' over and over on long car trips? 2) Do you like to drive people mad by copying everything they say and do? 3) Do you hog the shower and use up all the hot water? 4) Do you enjoy asking silly questions that have no real answers? 5) Do you swing on the clothesline whenever you get the chance? SCORE: One point for each 'yes' answer. 3-5 You are obviously a very annoying person. You will love this book. 1-2 You are a fairly annoying person. You will love this book. 0 You don't realise how much fun being annoying can be. You will love this book.

Hugging the Shore

Hugging the Shore
Author: John Updike
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 897
Release: 2013-01-15
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 0679645845

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD “Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea,” writes John Updike in his Foreword to this collection of literary considerations. But the sailor doth protest too much: This collection begins somewhere near deep water, with a flotilla of short fiction, humor pieces, and personal essays, and even the least of the reviews here—those that “come about and draw even closer to the land with another nine-point quotation”—are distinguished by a novelist’s style, insight, and accuracy, not just surface sparkle. Indeed, as James Atlas commented, the most substantial critical articles, on Melville, Hawthorne, and Whitman, go out as far as Updike’s fiction: They are “the sort of ambitious scholarly reappraisal not seen in this country since the death of Edmund Wilson.” With Hugging the Shore, Michiko Kakutani wrote, Updike established himself “as a major and enduring critical voice; indeed, as the pre-eminent critic of his generation.”

Our Tree Named Steve

Our Tree Named Steve
Author: Alan Zweibel
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 34
Release: 2007-02-15
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0142407437

Dear Kids, A long time ago, when you were little, Mom and I took you to where we wanted to build a house. . . . I remember there was one tree, however, that the three of you couldn’t stop staring at. . . . After the family spares him from the builders, Steve the tree quickly works his way into their lives. He holds their underwear when the dryer breaks down, he’s there when Adam and Lindsay get their first crushes, and he’s the centerpiece at their outdoor family parties. With a surprising lack of anthropomorphizing, this is a uniquely poignant celebration of fatherhood, families, love, and change.

Bangalore

Bangalore
Author: Kerry James Evans
Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
Total Pages: 106
Release: 2013-10-14
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1556594054

Evans's gritty, hard-hitting debut combines war poems, elegies, and high Southern lyrics to create a new understanding of American identity.

Ogadinma

Ogadinma
Author: Ukamaka Olisakwe
Publisher: Black Spot Books
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2020-09-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1911648179

Ogadinma Or, Everything Will be All Right is a tale of departure, loss and adaptation; of mothers whose experience at the hands of controlling men leave them with burdens they find too much to bear. After an unwanted pregnancy leaves her exiled from her family in Kano, thwarting her plans to go to university, seventeen-year-old Ogadinma is sent to her aunt's in Lagos. When a whirlwind romance with an older man descends into indignity, she is forced to channel her strength and resourcefulness to escape a fate that appears all but inevitable. A feminist classic in the making, Ukamaka Olisakwe's sophomore novel introduces a heroine for whom it is impossible not to root and announces the author as a gifted chronicler of the patriarchal experience. Illuminates a fascinating time in Nigeria's recent past, as the novel's heroine struggles against the shackles of a Church-dominated patriarchal society amid rising political turmoil · Written by a rising star of Nigeria's vibrant literature scene, a finalist for the 2019 Brittle Paper Award for Creative Nonfiction and established screenwriter · An exquisitely written bildungsroman that will appeal equally to readers of literary fiction and a new adult audience

O Me of Little Faith

O Me of Little Faith
Author: Jason Boyett
Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2010-03-26
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0310563348

In this O Me of Little Faith Ebook, author Jason Boyett brings you a transparent and personal account of his own of struggles with doubts and unbelief in living out his faith. With humor and frankness, Boyett uses personal anecdotes and a fresh look at Scripture to explore the realities of pursuing Christ through a field of doubt.After three decades of knowing God, understanding Christianity, and living a Christian life, Boyett has come to the place where he can voice the tough questions and travel the road of uncertainty with blinders off, candor on. The message along the way is one of encouragement: Relax. Rely on the grace of a merciful God, a kind father who realizes that his finite creatures must have doubts, should have questions, and will have trouble making sense of an infinite Creator. Ultimately, Boyett concludes that doubt and faith are not polar opposites, but actually work together, existing side-by-side. Uplifting, entertaining, hopeful, O Me of Little Faith will strike a chord with you and any Christian who's dealing with the uncertainties of living life in pursuit of a God who occasionally seems to disappear.

Chasing Augustus

Chasing Augustus
Author: Kimberly Newton Fusco
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2017-09-19
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0385754035

A sweetly satisfying novel about a girl and her lost dog, perfect for fans of Jennifer E. Holm and Kirby Larson. Rosie’s led a charmed life with her loving dad, who runs the town donut shop. It’s true her mother abandoned them when Rosie was just a baby, but her dad’s all she’s ever needed. But now that her father’s had a stroke, Rosie lives with her tough-as-nails grandfather. And her beloved dog, Gloaty Gus, has just gone missing. Rosie’s determined to find him. With the help of a new friend and her own determination, she’ll follow the trail anywhere . . . no matter where it leads. If she doesn’t drive the whole world crazy in the meantime. Kimberly Newton Fusco’s tender story brings to life a feisty, unsinkable, unstoppable, unforgettable girl who knows she’s a fighter . . . if she can only figure out who’s already on her side. Praise for Kimberly Newton Fusco’s Beholding Bee: “Fans of Kate DiCamillo, Jennifer Holm, and Polly Horvath will find this an enjoyable and engrossing read.” —School Library Journal “[A] really terrific, hopeful story. . . . This could be my favorite middle-grade novel of [the year].” —The Christian Science Monitor “A modern twist on fairy godmothers [with] strong, supportive women who don’t need to provide a Prince Charming to make dreams come true.” —The Horn Book