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An Unremarkable Body: Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2018
by Elisa LodatoWhen Katharine is found dead at the foot of her stairs, it is the mystery of her life which consumes daughter, Laura.The medical examiner's report, in which precious parts of Katharine's body are weighed and categorized, motivates Laura to write her own version of events. To bear witness to the unbearable blank space between each itemized entry.What emerges is a picture of life lived in the shadows, as well as an attempt to discover how and why her mother died. To make sense of her own grief Laura must piece her mother's body back together and in doing so, she is forced to confront a woman silenced by her own mother and wronged by her husband. A woman who felt shackled by motherhood and unable to love freely.With the heart of a memoir and the pace of a thriller, An Unremarkable Body reveals the overwhelming desire of those who mourn to protest that an unremarkable body does not mean an unremarkable life.Read by Emma Powell(p) 2017 Orion Publishing Group
Unrequited: The Thinking Woman's Guide to Romantic Obsession
by Lisa A. PhillipsThe summer Lisa A. Phillips turned thirty, she fell in love with someone who didn’t return her feelings. She became obsessed, following him around, calling him compulsively, and talking about him endlessly. One desperate morning, after she snuck into his apartment building, he picked up a baseball bat to protect himself and threatened to dial 911. Her unrequited love had changed her from a sane, conscientious college teacher and radio reporter into someone she barely recognized—someone who had taken her yearning much too far.In Unrequited, Phillips explores the tremendous force of obsessive love in women’s lives. She argues that it needs to be understood, respected, and channeled for personal growth—yet it also has the potential to go terribly awry. Interweaving her own story with frank interviews and in-depth research in science, psychology, cultural history, and literature, Phillips describes how romantic obsession takes root, grows, and strongly influences our thoughts and behaviors.Going beyond images of creepy, fatally attracted psychos, male fantasies of unbridled female desire, and the platitudes of self-help books, Phillips offers compelling insights to help any woman who has experienced unrequited obsessive love and been mystified and troubled by its grip.“An ingenious hybrid of memoir, case study, scientific inquiry, and intellectual history not only of unrequited love but of Love, full stop, with a capital L.”—Washington Post“There is no cure for the pain of rejection, although researchers are working on it. Until then, Phillips suggests we ‘honor passion by confining and using it instead of letting it diminish us.’”—Chicago Tribune
Unrest
by Gwen TuinmanBrash, duplicitous women, murder and mayhem, and illicit love abound in this wild adventure for fans of Outlander and The Home for Unwanted Girls, announcing a major new talent in historical fiction.Bytown, 1836: The lawless cesspool that will become the city of Ottawa is beginning to reek of more than just swamp water. Rife with squalor, corruption, and organized crime, class injustice divides the town more starkly than the canal that bisects it, cutting off its Irish poor—who are ready to fight back.On a homestead in the woods near Bytown, a domestic drama is also reaching a fever pitch. Quiet, ungainly Mariah, her face scarred in a dog attack back home in Ireland, has been living on sufferance in her sister Biddy&’s home since they sailed for a new life. She&’s treated as the spinster aunt, a farmhand working alongside Biddy&’s husband, Seamus. But the three of them are keeping a bitter secret: Mariah, in love with Seamus, is the mother of Thomas, the family&’s oldest child. And she&’s about to burst under the strain of making herself small.While Mariah plots to claim her rightful place in the world, Thomas keeps secrets of his own. Eager to escape the roiling tensions at home, he&’s apprenticed himself to a blacksmith in Bytown, but soon falls into trouble too big for him to handle. To save himself, he&’s made a deal with the one man colder than the devil—Peter Aylen, leader of a powerful Irish rebel gang. As danger mounts, both for Thomas and for the town, there&’s only one way for Mariah to save her son: by becoming the hero of her own story, facing her deepest fears with a determination she never knew she had.
Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom
by Kerry McDonald Peter GrayEducation has become synonymous with schooling, but it doesn't have to be. As schooling becomes increasingly standardized and test driven, occupying more of childhood than ever before, parents and educators are questioning the role of schooling in society. Many are now exploring and creating alternatives. In a compelling narrative that introduces historical and contemporary research on self-directed education, Unschooled also spotlights how a diverse group of individuals and organizations are evolving an old schooling model of education. These innovators challenge the myth that children need to be taught in order to learn. They are parents who saw firsthand how schooling can dull children's natural curiosity and exuberance and others who decided early on to enable their children to learn without school. Educators who left public school classrooms discuss launching self-directed learning centers to allow young people's innate learning instincts to flourish, and entrepreneurs explore their disillusionment with the teach-and-test approach of traditional schooling.
The Unschooler's Educational Dictionary: A Lighthearted Introduction to the World of Education and Curriculum-Free Alternatives
by Jonas KoblinHarness the Power of Active Learning A deep dive into the complex world of education that will forever change how you think about your child’s school, from the creator of the popular educational YouTube channel, Sprouts.“A fantastic guide for one of the most important decisions we can make: choosing the right school for a child.” — Barbara Oakley, PhD, author of A Mind for Numbers.Revolutionize your understanding of education.The Unschooler’s Educational Dictionary uncovers the myths and misconceptions of traditional schooling, exposing its unintended consequences, outdated methods. It introduces you to the essential concepts related to child development, learning, and psychology and simplifies the complexities of education into plain truths and practical insights. An indispensable survival guide, the book offers sarcastic yet insightful commentary on the importance of autonomy, active learning and child-led discovery. Empower your approach to parenting and teaching.The Unschooler’s Educational Dictionary helps parents and educators navigate modern education, providing an overview of innovative schools and proven alternative philosophies, including: Montessori, Microschools, IB schools, Unschooling, Waldorf, and more.It reveals how traditional schooling may fail your child and presents alternatives for fostering a love for learning.Inside, you'll find:Essential concepts every parent must consider.Profound insights into the unintended consequences of traditional education.A detailed guide to 16 alternative educational models.Practical applications of renowned theories such as Active Learning, Project-Based Learning, and the Feynman Technique, alongside big ideas from thinkers like Bowlby, Erikson, Piaget, Dewey, and Montessori.A short history of alternative education.A checklist of essential questions to help you choose the right school for your child.Plenty of illustrations, graphs, and QR codes.The Unschooler’s Educational Dictionary will reshape how you think about education, blending humor with intellectual depth to make your journey both fun and enlightening.If you enjoyed How Children Learn, Learning How to Learn, Cribsheet, and Raising Good Humans, you’ll love The Unschooler’s Educational Dictionary.
Unseelie (The Unseelie duology #1)
by Ivelisse HousmanThe start of a swoony, high-energy duology that Emily Lloyd-Jones, author of The Bone Houses, calls &“reminiscent of classic fairytales yet brimming with a charm all its own.&”&“A world of glimmering fae that sparkles with mystery, adventure, and enchantment.&” —Andrew Joseph White, New York Times bestselling author of Hell Followed with Us Iselia &“Seelie&” Graygrove looks just like her twin, Isolde…but as an autistic changeling left in the human world by the fae as an infant, she has always known she is different. Seelie&’s unpredictable magic makes it hard for her to fit in—and draws her and Isolde into the hunt for a fabled treasure. In a heist gone wrong, the sisters make some unexpected allies and find themselves unraveling a mystery that has its roots in the history of humans and fae alike.Both sisters soon discover that the secrets of the faeries may be more valuable than any pile of gold and jewels. But can Seelie harness her magic in time to protect her sister and herself?&“Housman&’s stunning debut is the sort of love letter only an autistic author could write. Fae canon has been waiting for this one.&” —H.E. Edgmon, author of The Witch King
The Unseen: SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2017
by Roy JacobsenShortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize and the Dublin Literary Award"An absolute masterpiece. Packed with understated emotion, stunning from beginning to end" Courttia Newland, author of A River Called Time"A masterful and moving work of literature" Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies"Easily among the best books I have ever read" Eileen Battersby, Irish Times"A beautifully crafted novel . . . Quite simply a brilliant piece of work" Charlie Connolly, New European"A blunt, brilliant book" Tom Graham, Financial TimesNobody can leave an island. An island is a cosmos in a nutshell, where the stars slumber in the grass beneath the snow. But occasionally someone tries . . . Ingrid Barrøy is born on an island that bears her name - a holdfast for a single family, their livestock, their crops, their hopes and dreams.Her father dreams of building a quay that will connect them to the mainland, but closer ties to the wider world come at a price. Her mother has her own dreams - more children, a smaller island, a different life - and there is one question Ingrid must never ask her.Island life is hard, a living scratched from the dirt or trawled from the sea, so when Ingrid comes of age, she is sent to the mainland to work for one of the wealthy families on the coast.But Norway too is waking up to a wider world, a modern world that is capricious and can be cruel. Tragedy strikes, and Ingrid must fight to protect the home she thought she had left behind.Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw
The Unseen: SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2017
by Roy JacobsenBarrøy Island off the North-western coast of Norway - a holdfast for a single family, their livestock, their crops, their hopes and dreams. And their fears. There is a taint passed down the Barrøy line, and Hans and Maria Barrøy fear their daughter Ingrid may be affected. The early years of the twentieth century prove that Norway cannot stand apart from the wider world - no more than Barrøy island can remain at a remove from the rest of Norway. Hans Barrøy decides to build a quay so that his family can be properly connected to the mainland and with neighbouring islands. In time, Ingrid is sent to serve with one of the rich families on the coast, caring for their two children. But when tragedy strikes - twice in quick succession - she finds herself responsible not only for two newly orphaned children, but for Barrøy Island itself. If they are to survive, she and the other young must learn how to tame this remote earthly paradise for themselves.(P)2016 W F Howes Ltd
The Unseen
by Zilpha Keatley SnyderTwelve-year-old Alexandra stumbles upon the key to a hidden world—but is it a gift, or a nightmare?Twelve-year-old Alexandra Hobson feels ignored and unloved in her family of annoying, self-absorbed overachievers. One day in the woods she hears a shot, and is horrified to see a large, beautiful bird fall to the ground. She takes the injured egret home, hiding it in the basement behind the furnace, where it joins the other wounded creatures Xandra cares for unbeknownst to her parents.The next morning, the bird is gone. But it has left something behind: a quivering white feather. Convinced the feather is enchanted, Xandra brings it to school, where a weird, uncool seventh-grader named Belinda tells her it&’s a key to an unseen world. As Xandra enters a strange and scary realm, she confronts a magic that&’s all too real. Can she figure out how to stop the key from becoming a curse?This ebook features an extended biography of Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
The Unseen Companion: God With the Single Mother
by Michelle Lynn SentersSingle moms, you are not alone.You may feel lonely, abandoned, overwhelmed, and ill-equipped in your life as a single mother, but you are not alone on this journey. God is WITH you, and if you are willing, He will help you build a strong home and legacy for your family.As a former single mother, Michelle Lynn Senters understands you could use a little soul nourishment. In the Unseen Companion, she explores the ten needs every single mother has and asks, &“God, where are you in this?&”Avoiding clichés and hurtful platitudes, Michelle offers true hope from God&’s Word. Her reflections, seasoned with personal experience, will help you:Trust that God sees your needs and can satisfy themDevelop a vibrant relationship with God&’s WordAvoid temptation and counterfeit solutionsStrengthen your resolve and confidence to raise children of faithRead The Unseen Companion and receive the encouragement your heart longs to hear: &“You can do this, God is with you, and He will lead your family in strength and love.&”Includes questions at the end of each chapter for reflection, journaling, or group discussion.
The Unseen Companion: God With the Single Mother
by Michelle Lynn SentersSingle moms, you are not alone.You may feel lonely, abandoned, overwhelmed, and ill-equipped in your life as a single mother, but you are not alone on this journey. God is WITH you, and if you are willing, He will help you build a strong home and legacy for your family.As a former single mother, Michelle Lynn Senters understands you could use a little soul nourishment. In the Unseen Companion, she explores the ten needs every single mother has and asks, &“God, where are you in this?&”Avoiding clichés and hurtful platitudes, Michelle offers true hope from God&’s Word. Her reflections, seasoned with personal experience, will help you:Trust that God sees your needs and can satisfy themDevelop a vibrant relationship with God&’s WordAvoid temptation and counterfeit solutionsStrengthen your resolve and confidence to raise children of faithRead The Unseen Companion and receive the encouragement your heart longs to hear: &“You can do this, God is with you, and He will lead your family in strength and love.&”Includes questions at the end of each chapter for reflection, journaling, or group discussion.
The Unseen Part 1: It Begins
by Richie Tankersley CusikWhat is happening to Lucy? Overwhelmed with grief over the death of her mother, Lucy spends her days sleeping, her nights out walking aimlessly. One rainy night, she becomes convinced that someone is following her, and frantically ducks into a cemetery to try to lose the stalker. Panicking she slips and stumbles into an open grave, only to discover she is not alone in there..... Almost immediately, Lucy begins having terrifying visions and dreams--as though someone, somewhere, were trying to tell her something-and she can't shake the feeling of an unseen presence, always watching, waiting to make its move...
The Unseen World: A Novel
by Liz MooreFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Long Bright River: The moving story of a daughter’s quest to discover the truth about her beloved father’s hidden past.Ada Sibelius is raised by David, her brilliant, eccentric, socially inept single father, who directs a computer science lab in 1980s-era Boston. Home-schooled, Ada accompanies David to work every day; by twelve, she is a painfully shy prodigy. The lab begins to gain acclaim at the same time that David’s mysterious history comes into question. When his mind begins to falter, leaving Ada virtually an orphan, she is taken in by one of David’s colleagues. Soon she embarks on a mission to uncover her father’s secrets: a process that carries her from childhood to adulthood. What Ada discovers on her journey into a virtual universe will keep the reader riveted until The Unseen World’s heart-stopping, fascinating conclusion.
The Unseen World of Poppy Malone: A Gaggle of Goblins
by Suzanne HarperEvidence 1. A snicker. Soft but clear. 2. The mess 3. White teeth gleaming in the shadows Possibilities 1. Vampires 2. Ghosts 3. Goblins 4. Werewolves 5. Fairies To do 1. Record evidence in logbook 2. Do not tell Mom and Dad! 3. Read (again!) The Little People: A Comprehensive History of Hobgoblins, Pixies, Brownies,and Sprites 4. Set a trap 5. Set up motion-sensor camera 6. Ask Will and Franny for help?
The Unseen World of Poppy Malone #2: A Gust of Ghosts
by Suzanne HarperEvidence 1. The mournful, eerie sound 2. A cool, silvery glow 3. Unexplained voices Possibilities 1. Vampires 2. Ghosts 3. Mermaids 4. Werewolves 5. Fairies To do 1. Visit the graveyard 2. Record evidence in logbook 3. Save Mom and Dad's job 4. Reset the camera trap 5. Come up with the plan of a lifetime-and make it a super-tricky one! 6. Ask Henry to help
The Unseen World of Poppy Malone #3: A Mischief of Mermaids
by Suzanne HarperEvidence1. A giggle2. A splash3. Green lights dancing on the distant shorePossibilities1. Vampires2. A UFO3. Mermaids4. Fairies5. A mutant from the deepTo do1. Explore the lake2. Record evidence3. Save big sister from embarrassment4. Rescue family (again)5. Confirm observations6. Trust yourself--even when everyone else thinks you are seeing things
UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World
by Michele BorbaBestselling author Michele Borba offers a 9-step program to help parents cultivate empathy in children, from birth to young adulthood--and explains why developing a healthy sense of empathy is a key predictor of which kids will thrive and succeed in the future.Is the Selfie Syndrome Undermining Our Kids' Future? Teens today are 40 percent less empathetic than they were thirty years ago. Why is a lack of empathy--which goes hand-in-hand with the self-absorption epidemic Dr. Michele Borba calls the Selfie Syndrome--so dangerous? First, it hurts kids' academic performance and leads to bullying behaviors. Also, it correlates with more cheating and less resilience. And once children grow up, a lack of empathy hampers their ability to collaborate, innovate, and problem-solve--all must-have skills for the global economy. In UnSelfie Dr. Borba pinpoints the forces causing the empathy crisis and shares a revolutionary, researched-based, 9-step plan for reversing it. Readers will learn: -Why discipline approaches like spanking, yelling, and even time-out can squelch empathy -How lavish praise inflates kids' egos and keeps them locked in "selfie" mode -Why reading makes kids smarter and kinder -How to help kids be Upstanders--not bystanders--in the face of bullying -Why self-control is a better predictor of wealth, health, and happiness than grades or IQ -Why the right mix of structured extracurricular activities and free play is key for teaching collaboration -How to ignite a Kindness Revolution in your kids and community The good news? Empathy is a trait that can be taught and nurtured. Dr. Borba offers a framework for parenting that yields the results we all want: successful, happy kids who also are kind, moral, courageous, and resilient. UnSelfie is a blueprint for parents and educators who want to kids shift their focus from I, me, and mine...to we, us, and ours.
Unsettled
by Reem FaruqiA Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year · Kid's Indie Next List · Featured in Today Show’s AAPI Heritage Month list · A Kirkus Children's Best Book of 2021 · A National Council of Teachers of English Notable Verse Novel · Jane Addams 2022 Children’s Book Award Finalist · 2021 Nerdy Award Winner · Muslim Bookstagram Award Winner for Best Middle School BookFor fans of Other Words for Home and Front Desk, this powerful, charming immigration story follows a girl who moves from Karachi, Pakistan, to Peachtree City, Georgia, and must find her footing in a new world. Reem Faruqi is the ALA Notable author of award-winning Lailah's Lunchbox."A lyrical coming of age story exploring family, immigration, and most of all belonging.” —Aisha Saeed, New York Times bestselling author of Amal Unbound“This empowering story will resonate with people who have struggled to both fit in and stay true to themselves.” —Veera Hiranandani, Newbery Honor author of The Night Diary“A gorgeously written story, filled with warmth and depth." —Hena Khan, author of Amina’s VoiceWhen her family moves from Pakistan to Peachtree City, all Nurah wants is to blend in, yet she stands out for all the wrong reasons. Nurah’s accent, floral-print kurtas, and tea-colored skin make her feel excluded, until she meets Stahr at swimming tryouts.And in the water Nurah doesn’t want to blend in. She wants to win medals like her star athlete brother, Owais—who is going through struggles of his own in the U.S. Yet when sibling rivalry gets in the way, she makes a split-second decision of betrayal that changes their fates.Ultimately Nurah slowly gains confidence in the form of strong swimming arms, and also gains the courage to stand up to bullies, fight for what she believes in, and find her place.
The Unsettled: A novel
by Ayana MathisFrom the best-selling author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, a searing multi-generational novel—set in the 1980s in racially and politically turbulent Philadelphia and in the tiny town of Bonaparte, Alabama—about a mother fighting for her sanity and survival"[A] powerful book.&” —Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of GileadFrom the moment Ava Carson and her ten-year-old son, Toussaint, arrive at the Glenn Avenue family shelter in Philadelphia 1985, Ava is already plotting a way out. She is repulsed by the shelter's squalid conditions: their cockroach-infested room, the barely edible food, and the shifty night security guard. She is determined to rescue her son from the perils and indignities of that place, and to save herself from the complicated past that led them there.Ava has been estranged from her own mother, Dutchess, since she left her Alabama home as a young woman barely out of her teens. Despite their estrangement and the thousand miles between them, mother and daughter are deeply entwined, but Ava can't forgive her sharp-tounged, larger than life mother whose intractability and bouts of debilitating despair brought young Ava to the outer reaches of neglect and hunger.Ava wants to love her son differently, better. But when Toussaint&’s father, Cass, reappears, she is swept off course by his charisma, and the intoxicating power of his radical vision to destroy systems of racial injustice and bring about a bold new way of communal living. Meanwhile, in Alabama, Dutchess struggles to keep Bonaparte, once a beacon of Black freedom and self-determination, in the hands of its last five Black residents—families whose lives have been rooted in this stretch of land for generations—and away from rapidly encroaching white developers. She fights against the erasure of Bonaparte's venerable history and the loss of the land itself, which she has so arduously preserved as Ava's inheritance.As Ava becomes more enmeshed with Cass, Toussaint senses the danger simmering all around him—his well-intentioned but erratic mother; the intense, volatile figure of his father who drives his fledgling Philadelphia community toward ever increasing violence and instability. He begins to dream of Dutchess and Bonaparte, his home and birthright, if only he can find his way there. Brilliant, explosive, vitally important new work from one of America&’s most fiercely talented storytellers.
Unsettled Ground
by Claire FullerFrom bestselling author Claire Fuller comes a portrait of life on the fringes of society, a heart-stopping novel of betrayal and resilience, love and survival. What if the life you have always known is taken from you in an instant? What would you do to get it back? Twins Jeanie and Julius have always been different from other people. At fifty-one years old, they still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation and poverty. But when Dot dies suddenly, threats start raining down. Jeanie and Julius would do anything to preserve their small sanctuary against the perils of the outside world, even as their mother’s secrets begin to unravel, putting everything they thought they knew about their lives at stake.
Unsettled Ground
by Claire FullerFinalist for the Women's Prize for Fiction Named a Best Book of the Month by Entertainment Weekly, PopSugar, Bustle, Chicago Review of Books, PureWow, and one of Good Housekeeping's 30 Best Books of 2021. “So sharply, so utterly brilliant that I found myself holding my breath while reading, dazzled by Fuller’s mastery and precision.” —Lauren Groff At fifty-one years old, twins Jeanie and Julius still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation in the English countryside. The cottage they have shared their entire lives is their only protection against the modernizing world around them. Inside its walls, they make music, and in its garden, they grow everything they need to survive. To an outsider, it looks like poverty; to them, it is home. But when Dot dies unexpectedly, the world they’ve so carefully created begins to fall apart. The cottage they love, and the security it offered, is taken back by their landlord, exposing the twins to harsh truths and even harsher realities. Seeing a new future, Julius becomes torn between the loyalty he feels towards his sister and his desire for independence, while Jeanie struggles to find work and a home for them both. And just when it seems there might be a way forward, a series of startling secrets from their mother’s past come to the surface, forcing the twins to question who they are, and everything they know of their family’s history. In Unsettled Ground, award-winning author Claire Fuller masterfully builds a tale of sacrifice and hope, of homelessness and hardship, of love and survival, in which two marginalized and remarkable people uncover long-held family secrets and, in their own way, repair, recover, and begin again.
Unsexed: Memoirs of a Prostitute's Daughter
by Marina DelVecchioUnsexed examines the role that sex plays in the life of one woman with two mothers who introduce her to polarized frameworks of female sexuality.Born in Greece to a violent prostitute and then adopted by a cold and unloving virgin from New York, Marina inherits a sexual identity steeped in fear and shame—one that, as she grows older and becomes a wife and mother, trickles into her marriage and the parenting of her children. Without the tools needed to understand her complex mothers or to unpack the lessons they taught her, Marina relies on self-erasure to survive relationships that silence and define her—until she finally becomes fed up with those old patterns and begins to stand in her own power.A memoir that unearths the layered emotional and sexual lives of women and exemplifies the satisfaction that comes when they assert their voices and power, Unsexed speaks to millions of women who have different narratives but face similar struggles in reclaiming their voices, bodies, and sexuality.
Unsinkable: From Russian Orphan to Paralympic Swimming World Champion
by Jessica LongThe top Paralympic swimmer in the world, Jessica Long delivers an inspirational photographic memoir. Born in Siberia with fibular hemimelia, Jessica Long was adopted from a Russian orphanage at thirteen months old and has since become the second most decorated U.S. Paralympic athlete of all time. Now, Jessica shares all the moments in her life—big and small, heartbreaking and uplifting—that led to her domination in the Paralympic swimming world. This photographic memoir, filled with photographs, sidebars, quotes, and more, will thrill her fans and inspire those who are hearing her story for the first time.
Unsinkable: A Young Woman's Courageous Battle on the High Seas
by Abby Sunderland Lynn VincentA teen girl who attempted to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone recounts her adventure in this memoir of faith and courage.Abby Sutherland grew up sailing. Her father, Laurence, a shipwright, and her mother, Marianne, wanted their kids to develop responsibility, to see other cultures, to experience the world instead of watching it on TV. So they took them sailing down the coast of Mexico . . . for three years.When Abby was thirteen, she began helping her father deliver boats and soon was sailing solo. She loved being on the open ocean, the spray in her face, the wind in her hair. She began to dream of sailing the world. On January 23, 2010, sixteen-year-old Abby Sunderland set sail from Marina del Rey, California, in an attempt to become the youngest person to sail solo, nonstop, and unassisted around the world. Immediately, her trip sparked controversy. What was a girl her age doing undertaking such a voyage? What were her parents thinking?Abby’s critics predicted she’d make it a few weeks at most. But sailing south, she proved them wrong and became the youngest person to solo around Cape Horn, the “Mt. Everest of sailing.” Crossing the Southern and Atlantic oceans, she battled vicious storms and equipment breakdowns—making one critical repair literally with a nail file and some line. Abby bested the wicked waters at the southern tip of Africa and then entered the Indian Ocean—all twenty-seven million square miles of it. It was here that Abby Sutherland encountered the violent storms that would test her mettle and her will to survive—and change her life forever.
Unsinkable Cayenne
by Jessica Vitalis“Intensely readable.” —School Library Journal (starred review)When her unconventional parents finally agree to settle down in one place, twelve-year-old Cayenne’s dreams come true—but the reality of fitting in is much harder than she imagined. Acclaimed author Jessica Vitalis crafts an unforgettable historical novel-in-verse about belonging, family, and social class, for fans of Lisa Fipps’s Starfish and Jasmine Warga’s Other Words for Home.As Cayenne enters seventh grade, her parents decide it's time to stop living in their van, roaming from place to place. Cayenne hopes that this means she will finally belong somewhere and make some friends. But it turns out that staying in one place isn’t easy at all.When her social studies class studies the Titanic tragedy (the wreckage has just been discovered and her teacher is obsessed), Cayenne sees more and more parallels between the social strata of the infamous ship and her own life. Will she ever squeeze her way into the popular girls’ clique, even though they live in fancy houses on the hill and she lives in a tiny, rundown home with chickens in the front yard? Is it possible that the boy she likes actually likes her back? Can she find a way to make room for herself in this town? Does she really want to? Maybe being “normal” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.Set in the mid-1980s, this literary novel is for readers of Megan E. Freeman’s Alone and Erin Entrada Kelly’s We Dream of Space.