Rose of Sharon had cried out to the man on the boat, tried to warn him the night he was shot for fishing where he wasn't welcome. Then she retreated into silence--and guilt. Rose might have kept quiet if it hadn't been for Lily, the outsider whose infidelities titillated Prince George County. Brassy, blonde Lily saw straight through Rose, the dutiful wife of an abusive man. Lily pushed her over the edge, exacting friendship where Rose had none to give, demanding that she break the code of silence that imprisoned them all. For both women knew that a man was killed in Prince George County for the color of his skin--and the time for change had come.
Caught in a tunnel collapse, Liam and Imogen have to use all their wits to survive in this gripping novel for readers eight years and up. When you stood deep inside the tunnel, you could hear the mountain groaning overhead. That's what Liam Geary's father had told him, anyway. It sounded stupid, till you stood inside a big tunnel; felt those billions of tonnes pressing in from above and the sides; heard water dripping from ceilings, or even trickling like something's blood behind the concrete walls; sensed the blackness that lay beyond the TBM's blazing lights as it ground its slow way through the stone ahead. Then you knew that a major tunnel like the Puketapu was a place of power, somehow; that darkness and danger lurked all around. When Liam dares his classmate Imogen to come on a forbidden tour of the railway tunnel being drilled through a nearby mountain, he hopes she’ll quit protesting about it damaging the environment — his dad is an engineer working on the tunnel, after all. Just as they reach the huge tunnelling machine everything goes horribly wrong. When the rocks stop falling and the dust settles, they are trapped, kilometres below ground, in the dark. Water is trickling in and beginning to rise. And nobody knows where they are. Can they stop arguing and start working together to escape before time runs out?
WINNER OF THE JUNIOR FICTION AWARD AND CHILDREN'S CHOICE JUNIOR FICTION AWARD New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2013 WINNER OF THE LIANZA LIBRARIANS' CHOICE AWARD 2013 STORYLINES NOTABLE BOOK AWARD 2013 IBBY HONOUR LIST 2014 '...there are stories that need to be told over and over again, to introduce a new generation of readers to important ideas and to critical times in their country's history...Hill's descriptions of trench warfare are unforgettable.' from the Judges' Report of the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2013 '...this is an important and highly readable book.' NZ Listener My Dear Mother, Well, I've gone and done it. I've joined the Army! Don't be angry at me, Mother dear. I know you were glad when I wasn't chosen in the ballot. But some of my friends were, and since they will be fighting for King and Country, I want to do the same. It's New Zealand, 1914, and the biggest war the world has known has just broken out in Europe. William eagerly enlists for the army but his younger brother, Edmund, is a conscientious objector and refuses to fight. While William trains to be a soldier, Edmund is arrested. Both brothers will end up on the bloody battlefields of France, but their journeys there are very different. And what they experience at the front line will challenge the beliefs that led them there. A compelling novel about the First World War for 9-12 year olds.
A 2020 New York Times notable book | One of the Chicago Tribune's best nonfiction books of 2020 "Complex, turbulent, as haunting as a pedal steel solo" —Jonathan Miles, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) "One of 21 books we can't wait to read in 2020" —Thrillist | A New York Times Book Review summer reading pick | A GQ best book of 2020 | Named one of the 10 best July books by The Washington Post and The Christian Science Monitor | A Kirkus Reviews hottest summer read | A Publishers Weekly summer reads staff pick The incredible true story of America's original—and forgotten—capital of vice Back in the days before Vegas was big, when the Mob was at its peak and neon lights were but a glimmer on the horizon, a little Southern town styled itself as a premier destination for the American leisure class. Hot Springs, Arkansas was home to healing waters, Art Deco splendor, and America’s original national park—as well as horse racing, nearly a dozen illegal casinos, countless backrooms and brothels, and some of the country’s most bald-faced criminals. Gangsters, gamblers, and gamines: all once flocked to America’s forgotten capital of vice, a place where small-town hustlers and bigtime high-rollers could make their fortunes, and hide from the law. The Vapors is the extraordinary story of three individuals—spanning the golden decades of Hot Springs, from the 1930s through the 1960s—and the lavish casino whose spectacular rise and fall would bring them together before blowing them apart. Hazel Hill was still a young girl when legendary mobster Owney Madden rolled into town in his convertible, fresh off a crime spree in New York. He quickly established himself as the gentleman Godfather of Hot Springs, cutting barroom deals and buying stakes in the clubs at which Hazel made her living—and drank away her sorrows. Owney’s protégé was Dane Harris, the son of a Cherokee bootlegger who rose through the town’s ranks to become Boss Gambler. It was his idea to build The Vapors, a pleasure palace more spectacular than any the town had ever seen, and an establishment to rival anything on the Vegas Strip or Broadway in sophistication and supercharged glamour. In this riveting work of forgotten history, native Arkansan David Hill plots the trajectory of everything from organized crime to America’s fraught racial past, examining how a town synonymous with white gangsters supported a burgeoning black middle class. He reveals how the louche underbelly of the South was also home to veterans hospitals and baseball’s spring training grounds, giving rise to everyone from Babe Ruth to President Bill Clinton. Infused with the sights and sounds of America’s entertainment heyday—jazz orchestras and auctioneers, slot machines and suited comedians—The Vapors is an arresting glimpse into a bygone era of American vice.
When of hundreds of Japanese captives arrive at Featherston POW camp, the tiny town is divided. Tensions run high and then, on 25 February 1943, disaster strikes. Three boys witness it all. A compelling new novel by an award-winning author. 'We knew straightaway that something was happening. Extra men in khaki uniforms stood at the main gates. Behind the wire, figures in blue sat on the ground. None of the usual moving around, washing up, wrestling, anything like that. Just rows of prisoners, sitting silently.' It's 1942, and the tiny farming town of Featherston is about to receive hundreds of Japanese soldiers into its prisoner-of-war camp. Ewen, whose dad is a guard there, can't stop wondering about the enemy just down the road. Some say the captives are evil and cruel and should be treated harshly – or shot. But when Ewen and his friends ride out to the camp to peep through the barbed wire, the POWs just seem like . . . well, people. Then a new group from a captured warship arrives and the mood in the camp darkens. Guards and inmates begin to clash. As tension builds the boys are told to stay away. But on 25 February 1943, Ewen and his friends are there at the moment the storm breaks – and terrible, unforgettable events unfold before their eyes. A compelling novel by a master storyteller.
PRAYING BEFORE I go to sleep at night has been a habit since childhood. The night I thought of writing this book I prayed, God help me have good dreams and good thoughts as I sleep tonight. That is a prayer I have prayed ever since I was a child growing up. During the night I started thinking of ways we should raise our children, and how they need to be prepared for life. I told myself, I should write a book about this: ways to raise a successful child. I was afraid I would forget this idea by morning, so I arose at 3:00 AM and went to the kitchen to start writing down my ideas. I began to consider just what would be my definition of a successful child or adult. I realized that it depends on whose point of view we are coming from. The world defines success quite differently from God. The world would say it is to be rich and famous. However, since we are made in the image of God, it seems only logical that we should be a reflection of Him in our daily lives.
Steve doesn't have much time to write a Valentine's message for Lara. His stepbrother, Nat, suggests that he writes Lara a poem - but Steve discovers he's an extremely bad poet! Suggested level: intermediate.
It's New Year's Day in 1967 and Chris has made a resolution to stop his cousin Roger from bullying him. A bit of a problem as Roger is a champion wrestler and Chris is puny and bookish. But Chris finds there's more to his cousin than meets the eye. Rural NZ setting. 12+.
David Hill had to die so that Anand Chintan could be born. My story is like the caterpillar spinning a cocoon, entering into death, and then being reborn as a winged creature. For me, meditation and the various therapy groups provided the cocoon. I entered as a world-weary intellectual, an alcoholic, deluded, manic-depressive atheist, and I emerged as a bright-eyed explorer of new worlds." Travel with David Hill as he moves from depression and despair to health and happiness, by mastering his "madness." David's journey into, and out of, so-called mental illness offers rousing, valuable insights into this falsely labeled condition and its expensive, debilitating, drug-centered "treatments." In this poignant, sometimes terrifying, and often humorous journey, David exposes modern myths about mental health diagnosis and treatment that do more harm than good. "Mental illness," he asserts, "is a fabricated label designed to pathologize human emotions, human spirituality, and human growth. It provides inflated profits for such parasitical institutions as Big Pharma." David's story is a landscape of mental illness, with stops at mania, depression, chemical straitjackets, suicide, and interactions with other madmen. It guides us from the world of pathology, into the natural world of joy and health.
When eight year old Emma has a lot of questions to which she wants answers, her brother and sister help her solve her problem by introducing her to the encyclopedia. Suggested level: primary.
Jim, a soldier on the Western Front in World War 1, is wounded while charging through No Man's Land. He stumbles into a shell crater for shelter and finds a badly wounded German soldier. The two men try to help each other, but it's Nipper, the messenger dog, whose gallantry gives them a chance for survival.
Jonno Austin has won a trip to South America to watch a total eclipse of the sun and it is an incredible experience. Yet he notices more about the country he is visiting than celestial bodies. A group of local people is protesting against the government and there are armed soldiers on every street corner. When it is time for Jonno to fly home he is almost relieved. But on the flight something happens that embroils him and his travelling companions deeper in the conflict than they could have thought possible. This fast-paced young adult novel by award-winning David Hill is a thrilling account of a terrifying situation.
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