Except this mouse is a hamster. And not just any hamster. He is a golden hamster of the highest order - and destined for great things.Freddy is not happy with his boring treadmill life at the pet store. He continaully embarrasses himself in an attempt to get adopted. Freddy believes he will have a more civilized and exciting life as soon as he has a home. After a series of funny misadventures (including encounters with a fierce tomcat and two guinea pigs who speak in Shakespearean couplets) he teaches himself to read and write. He then pens his witty and heartwarming autobiography that tells of his journey to self discovery. A hamster has never been smarter or funnier in telling the tale of his exceptional life.

    Muses are real. Writers are the channels of these spirits & if that sounds like witchcraft that's because it is. These stories gave me chills. Sylvia Plath & Lana Del Rey course through the veins of these dark, sexy, mind-bending, fantastical, romantic, & haunting tales. Authors from different genres came together in their love & passion for these muses. The Blacklist: Kathryn Louise Crazy Mary: Patricia Grisafi Pipedreams: Devora Gray And All the World Drops Dead: Max Booth III Without Him (and Him, and Him) There is No Me: Laura Diaz de Arce Going About 99: Christine Stoddard The Lazarus Wife: Tiffany Morris Stag Loop: Brendan Vidito SP World: Lorraine Schein A Ghost of My Own Making: Ashley Inguanta Loose Ends: A Movie: Tiffany Scandal Girls in the Garden of Holy Suffering: Lisa Marie Basile The Gods in the Blood: Gabino Iglesias The Land of Other: Farah Rose Smith Sad Girl: Monique Quintana Corinne: JC Drake Sphinx Tears: Cara DiGirolamo Rituals of Gorgons: Larissa Glasser The Wife: Victoria Dalpe Dayglo Reflection: Manuel Chavarria Catman's Heart: Laura Lee Bahr Panic Bird: Selene MacLeod Because of Their Different Deaths: Stephanie Wytovich

    With groupies threatening her basketball wife status and Josiah's dreams of the NBA blowing up his ego, Seven finds herself in a tailspin. . .should she stay or leave? In steps the unbelievably fine sophomore heartthrob, Zaire St. James, who's been watching Seven and waiting for his chance. With Josiah doing his own thing, Seven finds herself falling for Zaire. But just when she decides to give Zaire her everything, Josiah becomes determined to win Seven back by any means necessary. . . Praise for Ni-Ni Simone "Ni-Ni Simone's fast-paced writing keeps me coming back for more." --L. Divine, author of the Drama High series "Simone tells authentic stories of teen life in the 'hood better than any other author currently writing contemporary YA street lit. Spiced with plenty of Simone's trademark humor." --"Library Journal" on "Teenage Love Affair" "Urban teen readers may recognize their friends and themselves in the language, music and feel of this fluffy-but-fun read." --"Kirkus Reviews" on "If I Was Your Girl"

    Widely known for his incredible lyrics and powerful music, he is regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time. In Promise That You Will Sing About Me, pop culture critic and music journalist Miles Marshall Lewis explores Kendrick Lamar’s life, his roots, his music, his lyrics, and how he has shaped the musical landscape. With incredible graphic design, quotes, lyrics and commentary from Ta-Nehisi Coates, Alicia Garza and more, this book provides an in-depth look at how Kendrick came to be the powerhouse he is today and how he has revolutionized the industry from the inside.

    . . extraordinarily far-reaching. . . . highly accessible."-Notes"No one has written this way about music in a long, long time. Lucid, insightful, with real spiritual, political, intellectual, and emotional grasp of the whole picture. A book about why music matters, and how, and to whom."-Dave Marsh, author of Louie, Louie and Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story"This book is urgently needed: a comprehensive look at the various forms of black popular music, both as music and as seen in a larger social context. No one can do this better than Craig Werner."-Henry Louis Gates, Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University"[Werner has] mastered the extremely difficult art of writing about music as both an aesthetic and social force that conveys, implies, symbolizes, and represents ideas as well as emotion, but without reducing its complexities and ambiguities to merely didactic categories."-African American ReviewA Change Is Gonna Come is the story of more than four decades of enormously influential black music, from the hopeful, angry refrains of the Freedom movement, to the slick pop of Motown; from the disco inferno to the Million Man March; from Woodstock's "Summer of Love" to the war in Vietnam and the race riots that inspired Marvin Gaye to write "What's Going On."Originally published in 1998, A Change Is Gonna Come drew the attention of scholars and general readers alike. This new edition, featuring four new and updated chapters, will reintroduce Werner's seminal study of black music to a new generation of readers.Craig Werner is Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin, and author of many books, including Playing the Changes: From Afro-Modernism to the Jazz Impulse and Up Around the Bend: An Oral History of Creedence Clearwater Revival. His most recent book is Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soul.

    The Volokh Conspiracy calls Butler’s account of his trial “the most riveting first chapter I have ever read.”In a book Harvard Law professor Charles Ogletree calls “a must read,” Butler looks at places where ordinary citizens meet the justice system—as jurors, witnesses, and in encounters with the police—and explores what “doing the right thing” means in a corrupt system.Since Let’s Get Free’s publication in spring 2009, Butler has become the go-to person for commentary on criminal justice and race relations: he appeared on ABC News, Good Morning America, and Fox News, published op-eds in the New York Times and other national papers, and is in demand to speak across the country. The paperback edition brings Butler’s groundbreaking and highly controversial arguments—jury nullification (voting “not guilty” in drug cases as a form of protest), just saying “no” when the police request your permission to search, and refusing to work inside the system as a snitch or a prosecutor—to a whole new audience.

      Solomon Northup awoke in the middle of the night with his body trembling. Slowly, he realized that he was handcuffed in a dark room and his feet were chained to the floor. He managed to slip his hand into his pocket to look for his free papers that proved he was one of 400,000 free blacks in a nation where 2.5 million other African Americans were slaves. They were gone.   This remarkable story follows Northup through his 12 years of bondage as a man kidnapped into slavery, enduring the hardships of slave life in Louisiana. But the tale also has a remarkable ending. Northup is rescued from his master's cotton plantation in the deep South by friends in New York. This is a compelling tale that looks into a little known slice of history, sure to rivet young readers and adults alike.National Geographic supports K-12 educators with ELA Common Core Resources.Visit www.natgeoed.org/commoncore for more information.

    Goodfellow, the man responsible for his family's misfortunes. But the fog-filled London streets are teeming with sinister characters. Tom encounters a blind man who scavenges the riverbed for treasure and wants what Tom digs up; Worms, a body snatcher who reveals a shocking surprise; and a nasty gang of young pickpockets who mistake Tom for someone ominously known as the Smasher. And ultimately, Tom comes up against the cruel hand of the law. Accused of murder, Tom is given a seven-year sentence. He is to be transported to Van Diemen's Land with other juvenile convicts. But Tom can't abide life on the Hulk, the old ship where the boys are temporarily held. He decides to escape. But if he's to succeed, his luck needs to turn. . . .

    Never again will she walk, dance, run, or even leave the convalescent home where she lies in a bed, surrounded by the elderly and dying. Or will she? When the elderly Elva asks her new roommate to read to her from the 1910 edition of Baedeker's Italy, Courtney reluctantly agrees. Each afternoon, for a short time, the two escape back in time from the darkness of winter in North Dakota. Where there seemed none, together they will find adventure, poetry, beauty, love, and most of all, hope.

    For Missy, blueberry picking quickly becomes about more than just money—it's the perfect distraction from the fact that her two best friends have gone off to summer camp without her and her dad is getting remarried. Why can't everything go back to the way it used to be? Back to normal? Soon, though, Missy discovers that the summer is full of secrets: the secrets to making her family feel whole again; the secrets to keeping her two best friends from changing and leaving her behind; the secrets of a local farm's blood feud; and most importantly, the secrets of blueberries.Author Sara Nickerson infuses warmth and humor into this tender coming-of-age story about finding something special within yourself and a place to call your own, in even the most tumultuous of times.

    Fifteen-year-old Callum Roe and his younger brother, James, were captured and forced to convert six years ago. Cal has been working in the Path's dog kennels, and is very close to becoming one of the Path's deadliest secret agents. Then Cal befriends a stray dog named Bear and kills a commander who wants to train him to be a vicious attack dog. This sends Cal and Bear on the run, and sets in motion a series of incredible events that will test Cal's loyalties and end in a fierce battle that the fate of the entire country rests on.

    As unexpected and complex as the album itself, Chamber Music ranges from provocative essays to semi-comic skits, from deep scholarly analysis to satirical celebration, seeking to contextualize, reveal and honor this singular work of art. Chamber Music is an explosive and revelatory new way of writing about music and culture.

    Sarah and her beloved horse Arizona Pie had set their sights on victory in the Olympic Games...but falling in love took Sarah by surprise...

    Seriously. The upper classmen used to call me Squirrel Nut, because I was little and jumpy. Then, during sophomore year, I got tall and huge and so fast the gym teachers in their tight shorts fell all over themselves. During summer, three things happened all at once. First, the pee-smelling jocks in my grade got me to work out for football, even though I had no intention of playing. Second, on my paper route the most beautiful girl I have ever seen moved in and played piano at 6 a.m. Third, my mom, who never drinks, had some wine, slept in her car, stopped weeding the garden, then took my TV and put it in her room and decided she wouldn’t get out of bed. Listen, I have not had much success in my life. But suddenly I’m riding around in a jock’s pick-up truck? Suddenly I’m invited to go on walks with beautiful girls? So, it’s understandable that when my little brother stopped playing piano and began to dress like a pirate I didn’t pay much attention. That I didn’t want to deal with my mom coming apart.

    Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella caused a seismic shift in hip-hop when they decided to form N.W.A in 1986. Suddenly rap became gangsta and relevant on the West Coast. With their hard-core image, bombastic sound, and lyrics that were equal parts poetic, lascivious, conscious, and downright in-your-face, N.W.A spoke the truth about life on the streets of Compton, California—then a hotbed of poverty, drugs, gangs, and unemployment.Their ’hood tales offered a sharp contrast from the cozy, comfortable images of thriving middle-class life emanating from television screens across America. For the group, making music was not about being nice or projecting a false reality. It was all about expressing themselves.Going beyond the story portrayed in the 2015 blockbuster movie Straight Outta Compton, through firsthand interviews, extensive research, and top-notch storytelling, Los Angeles Times music reporter Gerrick Kennedy transports you back in time and offers a front-row seat to N.W.A’s early days and the drama and controversy that followed the incendiary group as they rose to become multiplatinum artists.A riveting and illuminating work of music journalism, Parental Discretion Is Advised captures a special moment in rap music, when N.W.A made it altogether social, freaky, enterprising, and gangsta. They forced us all to take notice. For that alone, their story must be told.