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White Pumpkin Seed by Annie Wang
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A New Chapter
Susan Coventry - 2016
Five years later, they meet again, both newly divorced, and in the process of rebuilding their lives. Emma finds comfort in the bookstore that she owns, while Zack is busy caring for his four-year-old daughter Gracie.Despite their attraction, Emma and Zack decide to be “just friends,” but soon discover that staying in the friend zone is easier said than done! Sometimes love comes along when you least expect it, but when will Emma be ready to trust her heart again? How will she know when the time is right to begin…A New Chapter?
Early Daze
Jennifer Gilby Roberts - 2014
And now her baby has "fallen out" before she's even started ante-natal classes.Suddenly, she's sucked into the bubble of the Neonatal Unit, where tensions run high and the real world feels very far away. She has a new home, new routines, new friends and even a new crush, just when she feels most distant from her old life and fiancé. Add in sleep deprivation, hormones, worry and the fact that she has more contact with her breast pump than her baby, and her neat little world is in grave danger of falling apart.The third trimester is never easy, but it's a whole lot harder when your baby's no longer inside you...
Horses of the Sun
Leanne Owens - 2011
Also suitable for adults who like an inspiring story about the outback, horses and children achieving their dreams. Beautifully written by an English teacher/ journalist who lived in the outback for many years. Sunhaven Downs, a drought ravaged cattle station in outback Australia, is the home to Dane, Lani and Matthew Winter, three young outback riders whose lives centre around their horses. When their city cousin, Amy King, is left there for a year and declares that she hates horses, they know their lives are ruined. What they don't know is that Amy has a secret - a secret she is desperate to keep from her outback family, something that will ultimately save their lives – but not all of them - on the night the drought breaks. This is the first book in The Outback Riders series which follows the lives of these four children and their friends as they grow up in the outback with their horses and, ultimately, represent their country in their chosen horse sports (eventing, polocrosse, jumping, reining, cutting). It is approximately 36,000 words or just under 100 print pages and, as the introduction to the series, is the shortest of the books. Book Two, "Horses Of The Light" is now available and is 70,000 words and filled with excitement, adventure, some sadness and the start of a life-long romance.Author, Leanne Owens, is an English teacher with a Masters in Education and she been writing for horse magazines on and off for over thirty years. She lived in the outback for many years and currently owns and operates the Horses Of Gold Stud in Queensland with the famous Quarter Horse stallions, Days Of Gold and Nights Of Gold.
Dragonfly Dreams
Jennifer J. Chow - 2015
Chow, author of the award-winning THE 228 LEGACY, comes a young adult novel about immigrant struggles and family conflict.It’s 1880 in Fresno, California when 17-year-old Topaz Woo dies after giving birth. She can get an extension in a non-physical body—if she uses The Ten Commandments to influence her newborn. Over the course of ten years, she finds herself stymied in parenting by intergenerational drama and spiritual battle. Will she adjust to an otherworldly existence and give her daughter a solid foundation? Or will she become mired in family disputes and forfeit her soul to evil?
The Piano Teacher
Janice Y.K. Lee - 2009
It's a city teeming with people, sights, sounds, and smells, and it's home to a group of foreign nationals who enjoy the good life among the local moneyed set, in a tight-knit social enclave distanced from the culture at large. Comfortable, clever, and even a bit dazzling, they revel in their fancy dinners and fun parties. But their sheltered lives take an abrupt turn after the Japanese occupation, and though their reactions are varied -- denial, resistance, submission -- the toll it takes on all is soon laid bare. Enter Claire Pendleton from London. Months after her husband is transferred to Hong Kong in 1951, she accepts a position as a piano teacher to the daughter of a wealthy couple, the Chens. Claire begins to see the appeal of the sweltering city and is soon taken in by the Chen's driver, the curiously underutilized Will Truesdale. A handsome charmer with a mysterious limp, Will appears to be the perfect companion for Claire, who's often left to her own devices. But a further examination leaves her with more questions than answers.An intricately woven tale of lives changed by historical events, Lee's debut brings this hothouse flower of a city alive with passion, and imagines characters both unforgettable and tragic.
Love for Sail
C.L.R. Dougherty - 2014
Experience her anxiety; feel her fear. Watch her survive by her wits. Connie has recruited her friend, Paul Russo, to serve as cook and first mate. Paul can't join her on her maiden voyage, so Connie is forced to rely on pick-up crew for her first two weeks at sea. Trouble erupts aboard Diamantista as soon as she leaves shore. Anticipating that Paul will join her in the Virgin Islands before their first guests arrive, Connie stays in touch with him during her voyage. As they converse, neither one will acknowledge that their growing attraction is deeper than friendship. Love for Sail is the first book in the Connie Barrera Thrillers, a romantic thriller series from the author of the best-selling Bluewater Thrillers. The next Connie Barrera Thriller will be published in the fourth quarter of 2014. If you enjoyed the Bluewater Thrillers, you'll see a different side of some of your favorite characters when they appear in the Connie Barrera Thrillers. Connie Barrera first appeared in C.L.R. Dougherty's Deception in Savannah. She discovered her Love for Sail in Bluewater Ice and Bluewater Betrayal. Now she has her own stories to tell. Welcome aboard!
eBully
Dave Conifer - 2009
Just like last year, an internet bully is terrorizing one of his students at Lakeland Middle School. Last time it ended badly when the victim was found with two slashed wrists after an attempted suicide. This year, after a series of nasty computer messages and an indiscreet photograph of Carly Gillette spread through the student body Lukather knows it's happening again. This time he's determined to stop the bully in his tracks before Gillette ends up reaching for a razor blade. Thirteen-year-old Scott Halifax has a juvy rap sheet that could peel wallpaper but he's just what Lukather needs -- a street-smart, tech-savvy kid with no roots. Lukather makes a deal with Halifax: go undercover as a student at Lakeland and nail the bully in return for a ticket out of the County Detention Center and a clean slate. Once he's in at Lakeland Halifax teams up with Tom Seidel, the nerdy kid that everyone loves to hate. It isn't long before Scott, Tom and Carly's best friend Lisa are working together. It takes a lot of hard work, some sly computer sleuthing and a little dumb luck before they expose the bully. And it's the last person that anybody would have suspected. eBully draws on recent headlines about cyber-bullying, including the need to update harassment and stalking laws to reflect new technologies.
When the Black Girl Sings
Bil Wright - 2008
She's also the adopted child of two loving, but white, parents who are on the road to divorce. Struggling to comfort her mother and angry with her dad, Lahni feels more and more alone. But when Lahni and her mother attend a local church one Sunday, Lahni hears the amazing gospel choir, and her life takes an unexpected turn.It so happens that one of Lahni's teachers, Mr. Faringhelli, has nominated her for a talent competition, and she is expected to perform a song in front of the whole school. Lahni decides to join the church choir to help her become a better singer. But what starts out as a way to practice singing becomes a place of belonging and a means for Lahni to discover her own identity. In this moving book, acclaimed author Bil Wright, tells the story of one girl's search to find a home where she truly belongs.
Home for Christmas: A Collection of Sweet Christmas Shorts
Daphne James Huff - 2017
Special presents are wrapped beneath the tree, mistletoe is hung, the smell of cookies is in the air, but what if you don't have someone special to share it all with?Will the magic of Christmas reach these characters? Or will they end up being a bunch of lonely grinches?Three up-and-coming young adult authors share their Christmas stories about hope and joy during the holiday season.Contents:Dirty Santa, by Kayla Tirrell.The Christ Redeemer Christmas Spectacular, by Daphne James Huff.The Night Sale, by M.F. Lorson.
Daughter of the Regiment
Jackie French - 1998
It was bright and strangely piercing, like a bit of sun had wandered in by mistake. Who is the girl through the hole in the chook-house? Is it a hole in time? And how can you help someone who lived more than 150 years ago. Harry dreads leaving the farm to go to boarding school next year. Cissie is an orphaned girl living with the soldiers at the garrison 150 years ago. Something more powerful than time has drawn them both together.
Never Fall Down
Patricia McCormick - 2012
It includes an author's note and acknowledgments from Arn Chorn-Pond himself.When soldiers arrive in his hometown, Arn is just a normal little boy. But after the soldiers march the entire population into the countryside, his life is changed forever.Arn is separated from his family and assigned to a labor camp: working in the rice paddies under a blazing sun, he sees the other children dying before his eyes. One day, the soldiers ask if any of the kids can play an instrument. Arn's never played a note in his life, but he volunteers.This decision will save his life, but it will pull him into the very center of what we know today as the Killing Fields. And just as the country is about to be liberated, Arn is handed a gun and forced to become a soldier.
Wenjack
Joseph Boyden - 2016
Along the way he's followed by Manitous, spirits of the forest who comment on his plight, cajoling, taunting, and ultimately offering him a type of comfort on his difficult journey back to the place he was so brutally removed from.Written by Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning author Joseph Boyden and beautifully illustrated by acclaimed artist Kent Monkman, Wenjack is a powerful and poignant look into the world of a residential school runaway trying to find his way home.
Girl at War
Sara Nović - 2015
Ten-year-old Ana Jurić is a carefree tomboy who runs the streets of Croatia's capital with her best friend, Luka, takes care of her baby sister, Rahela, and idolizes her father. But as civil war breaks out across Yugoslavia, soccer games and school lessons are supplanted by sniper fire and air raid drills. When tragedy suddenly strikes, Ana is lost to a world of guerilla warfare and child soldiers; a daring escape plan to America becomes her only chance for survival.Ten years later Ana is a college student in New York. She's been hiding her past from her boyfriend, her friends, and most especially herself. Haunted by the events that forever changed her family, she returns alone to Croatia, where she must rediscover the place that was once her home and search for the ghosts of those she's lost.
Ganymede
Jason Taylor - 2019
Manipulation of the human genome has been perfected, spurring a global arms race to produce the first human clone. When Jill finds the key to unlock this secret, the Ganymede Project shatters everything she thought was real.After confronting the unintended consequences of her discovery, Jill is cast into a bewildering maze of intrigue and deceit. The unexpected results of her research plunges the world into chaos, forcing her to face a future where humans may lose all that remains of their humanity. Haunted by her creations, she will do whatever it takes to contain the turmoil that she has unleashed. As the fate of the world hangs in the balance, Jill uncovers a shocking truth that threatens to destroy everything she has ever loved.