Showing results by narrator "Robin Miles" in All Categories

Based on the research that race, gender, justice, and other important topics should be discussed with toddlers on up, the First Conversations series offers adults the opportunity to begin important conversations with young children in an informed, safe, and supported way. Developed by experts in...

Author and artist Nava Atlas presents a treasury of intimate glimpses into the unfolding creative writing process across fifteen brilliant careers in women’s literature and relates their stories to women writers of today. Through their journals, letters, and diaries, we get to know the struggles and triumphs of Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Gwendolyn Brooks, Octavia E. Butler, Willa Cather, Madeleine LEngle, Edna Ferber, Zora Neale Hurston, L.M. Montgomery, Anais Nin, George Sand, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edith Wharton, and Virginia Woolf.

Pinduli's mama has always told her that she's the most beautiful hyena ever. But Dog, Lion, and Zebra don't think so. Why else would they make her feel so rotten about her big ears, her fuzzy mane, and her wiggly stripes? Poor Pinduli just wants to disappear. But then a case of mistaken identity lets her show the creatures of the African savanna how a few tiny words can create something enormous.

Kate Doyle has spent her life making lists. But her pleasure in planning comes to an abrupt end in the wake of a family tragedy. For the first time in two decades, she is living back in Brooklyn Heights, a neighborhood she discovers has not changed nearly as much as reports of hipster Brooklyn had led her to believe. Her discovery of a family heirloom teaches her that the Heights and its surrounding neighborhoods have been sustaining Doyles for well over a century.

Winner of the Giller Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize for his novel The Polished Hoe, Austin Clarke is among Canada’s most celebrated authors. More follows Barbados native and Toronto resident Idora Morrison, who cannot muster the desire to rise one morning. Her husband has left her, her son has chosen gang life, and societal prejudices have slowly chipped away at her resolve.

When Bella learns of the murder of her beloved half-brother by political extremists in Mogadiscio, she’s in Rome. The two had different fathers but shared a Somali mother, from whom Bella’s inherited her freewheeling ways. An internationally known fashion photographer, dazzling but aloof, she comes and goes as she pleases, juggling three lovers. But with her teenage niece and nephew effectively orphaned - their mother abandoned them years ago - she feels an unfamiliar surge of protective feeling.

Critics and audiences alike have hailed Heather A. Clark’s Chai Tea Sunday as a rich and powerful debut novel. Here, 30-something Nicky Fowler tries to pick up the pieces of her shattered marriage after it is destroyed in the wake of an unspeakable tragedy. Traveling to Kenya to volunteer at an orphanage, Nicky hopes that her fragile spirit can be repaired. Aided by chai-fueled conversations with her host mother, she develops the strength to put her life back on track.

Ifi and Job, a Nigerian couple in an arranged marriage, begin their lives together in Nebraska with a single, outrageous lie: that Job is a doctor, not a college dropout. Unwittingly, Ifi becomes his co-conspirator - that is until his first wife, Cheryl, whom he married for a green card years ago, reenters the picture and upsets Job's tenuous balancing act.

In this mesmerizing fantasy rooted in Urhobo and West African folklore, sixteen-year-old Naborhi longs for a life away from her small, traditional clan in Kokori. But as her rite of passage approaches and she is betrothed to an arrogant young man, Naborhi feels her dreams slipping away from her. Then Naborhi becomes bonded to a mysterious animal and begins having harrowing visions of a kidnapped boy. She soon meets Atai, the son of an Oracle from a rival queendom, and learns that she is being guided by the gods.

Hearing impaired and way too smart for her West Bronx high school, Tamika Mik Sykes copes by reading lips and selling homework answers. She's a tough girl who never gets close to anyone, until she meets Fatima, a teenage refugee who sells newspapers on Mik's block.

Yasmin is graduating from the eighth grade and headed to high school. With the help of the LIGHT club, she ends the school year on a positive note, as she learns about self-esteem and true joy. What Yasmin learns will be put to the test over the summer and at the beginning of her first year in high school as she encounters new drama with family and friends. Through it all, and in less than perfect circumstances, Yasmin manages to hold on to her hope, keep her head up, and experience joy.

A strong, self-reliant woman who was born in Somalia but brought up in North America, Cambara returns to Mogadiscio to escape a failed marriage and an overweening mother. Her journey back to her native home is a desperate attempt to find herself on her own terms-however ironically, in a country where women are expected to wear veils.

Twenty-something Ceseli Larson is mourning the recent death of her cherished father. His passing comes as she prepares to undertake a planned but harrowing expedition to the lost ruins of Axum. Axum, capital of an ancient kingdom and the possible resting place of the Ark of the Covenant, was also once the famous home of the Queen of Sheba. Ceseli hopes to uncover its long-forgotten archaeological mysteries.

When Francine's a little girl, she'll do just about anything for her papa. But as Francine grows older, she and Papa start fighting about everything - school, fiddling, and boys. Then the others come calling, fairies from no tale Francine has ever read. They ask her to come fiddle at their court, promising magic and all the music she wants. Francine gladly goes with them. When war starts between the two Creole fairy courts, the Seelie and the Unseelie, Francine finds she's fighting her papa again.

Reclaiming Venus: The Many Lives of Alvenia Bridges chronicles the remarkable journey of Alvenia Bridges from segregated Kansas to the heights of fashion and rock 'n' roll, breaking barriers and rubbing shoulders with legends. It is a powerful testament to resilience and the pursuit of dreams against all odds.

Life is wonderful on a pretty island in the Antilles - until the seven-headed Bird of Darkness comes from behind the horizon to turn noon into midnight with its terrible black wings! The Bird of Darkness only leaves the kingdom in peace when the beautiful Princess Marie lets it take her away as its prisoner. Brave, clever Soliday decides to rescue the princess. But Salacota, his mean-spirited, cowardly twin brother, has some greedy plans of his own.

Natalie Bakopoulos presents her debut novel, The Green Shore, which chronicles the lives of four family members trying to survive under Greece’s military dictatorship in the late 1960s. Deep in the night on April 21, 1967, a group of colonels engineer a coup d’état, overthrowing the Greek government. In the midst of this chaotic upheaval, student Sophie, her mother Eleni, her uncle Mihalis, and her younger sister Anna struggle with changes to their own family dynamic as well as the fraying fabric of their country.

Everyone has had that moment--we see a need in our church, our school, our neighborhood, our family, or our world and we think, Someone really should get to work on that, never imagining that we might be the answer to that need. We don't have the time, the expertise, the money. We've got careers to manage, bills to pay, meals to prepare, and families to attend to. Besides, who are we to think we can change the world?

In a world where it's easy to punch back, Badger's friends choose to patch things up. Perfect for kids navigating big emotions! When Badger bullies his friends Frog, Moose, Elephant, and Bear, they teach him an unforgettable lesson about empathy, kindness, and forgiveness in this funny and...

A wide-ranging collection, including two novellas and ten stories exploring complex identities, from the acclaimed author of Corregidora, The Healing, and Palmares “Gayl Jones’s work represents a watershed in American literature. From a literary standpoint, her form is impeccable . . . and...