1910. Pownal, Vermont. At 12, Grace and her best friend Arthur must leave school and go to work as a “doffers” on their mothers’ looms in the mill. Grace’s mother is the best worker, fast and powerful, and Grace desperately wants to help her. But she’s left handed and doffing is a right-handed job. Grace’s every mistake costs her mother, and the family. She only feels capable on Sundays, when she and Arthur receive special lessons from their teacher. Together they write a secret letter to the Child Labor Board about underage children working in Pownal. A few weeks later a man with a camera shows up. It is the famous reformer Lewis Hine, undercover, collecting evidence for the Child Labor Board. Grace’s brief acquaintance with Hine and the photos he takes of her are a gift that changes her sense of herself, her future, and her family’s future.
The classic children's story about a young boy, his toy castle, and a magical adventure that reveals the true meaning of courage When his beloved caretaker Mrs. Phillips tells him she's leaving, William is devastated. Not even her farewell gift of a model medieval castle helps him feel better—though he has to admit it's fascinating. From the working drawbridge and portcullis to the fully-furnished rooms, it's perfect in every detail. It almost seems magical. And when William looks at the silver knight, the tiny figure comes to life in his hand—and tells him a tale of a wicked sorcerer, a vicious dragon, and a kingdom in need of a hero. Hoping the castle's magic will help him find a way to make his friend stay, William embarks on a daring quest with Sir Simon, the Silver Knight—but he will have to face his own doubts and regrets if he's going to succeed. William's story continues in The Battle for the Castle, available as a redesigned companion edition. An IRA-CBC Children's Choice A California Young Reader Medal Winner A Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Winner Nominated for 23 State Book Awards
Here are ‘shoes to skate in, shoes to skip in, shoes to turn a double flip in ’ . . . all worn by four tousle-headed active young children. ‘Illustrations keep all the action with the skippers, divers, and doers. Story hour groups will be checking out each other’s footwear after hearing this rollicking rhyming paean to shoes.’ —SLJ. A Reading Rainbow Selection Children's Books of 1986 (Library of Congress)
Centered on a young girl who inexplicably stops speaking, December is a riveting and insightful portrait of a family in crisis.Nine months after eleven-year-old Isabelle suddenly fell silent, her parents, Wilson and Ruth, are at their wits' end. And what began as self-protection has spiraled beyond Isabelle's control; she has become trapped in her silence, horrified by the pain she is causing and terrified of losing her old self to this cold young girl she barely recognizes. Isabelle must confront her overwhelming anger and love for her family, a cast of charming yet dangerous characters, and her own fears, before finally finding her voice.
Arriving in their summer home less than a year after the suicide of a teenage daughter, Joan and her family stumble on the death of a local young man and bond with his grieving mother before learning that the victim's death was not accidental.
The acclaimed novel by the author of The Why of Things tackles “the Deep South during the Gothic worst of Jim Crow times . . . truly a bravura performance” (Geoffrey Wolff). “One of the finest writers of her generation,” and author of three previously acclaimed novels, Elizabeth H. Winthrop delivers a brave new book that will launch her distinguished career anew (Brad Watson). On the eve of his execution, eighteen-year-old Willie Jones sits in his cell in New Iberia awaiting his end. Across the state, a truck driven by a convict and his keeper carries the executioner’s chair closer. On a nearby highway, Willie’s father Frank lugs a gravestone on the back of his fading, old mule. In his office the DA who prosecuted Willie reckons with his sentencing, while at their gas station at the crossroads outside of town, married couple Ora and Dale grapple with their grief and their secrets. As various members of the township consider and reflect on what Willie’s execution means, an intricately layered and complex portrait of a Jim Crow era Southern community emerges. Moving from voice to voice, Winthrop elegantly brings to stark light the story of a town, its people, and its injustices. The Mercy Seat is a brutally incisive and tender novel from one of our most acute literary observers. “Artful and succinctly poetic . . . A worthy novel that gathers great power as it rolls on propelled by its many voices.”—The New York Times Book Review “A miracle of a novel, with rapid-fire sentences that grab you and propel you to the next page . . . It’s a breakout. It’s a wonder.”—Dallas Morning News
Harvey is so excited when the mayor appoints him Parade Chairman for a big celebration that he forgets something very important but, fortunately, his dog, Fred, remembers.
Hollis Clayton is in trouble. His wife has decamped for the summer, leaving him to pursue his increasingly overwhelming compulsions: drinking; spying on neighbors; worrying about the fate of an abducted local girl; avoiding his editor, who is on the verge of rejecting his new collection of stories; and confronting as obliquely as possible the recent death of his young son. Meanwhile, he is spending more time with Jack Daniels and a stubbornly persistent stray dog than with anyone else, including his girlfriend Marissa, who has either abandoned him or been abandoned by him, he’s not sure which. A tender and comic portrait of suburban despair, Fireworks details the events of one strange summer in which a man’s troubled soul hangs in the balance. In her perceptive exploration of Hollis’s disintegrating life, Elizabeth Winthrop gives us an unforgettably powerful portrait of an anguished man, one who is both endearingly flawed and vividly real.
A beautifully observed novel in the tradition of Anne Tyler and Alice Hoffman, Island Justice sets an independent woman's struggle to trust the pull of her heart against the backdrop of a community that must come to terms with its own conscience and the true meaning of justice.
Hollis Clayton is in trouble. His wife has decamped to her sister's house for the summer, leaving him to pursue without interruption his increasingly overwhelming compulsions: drinking; spying on the neighbours; following with rising anxiety the fate of a recently abducted local girl; confronting, as obliquely as possible, the loss of his young son; and avoiding his editor at New York's pre-eminent publishing house, who is on the verge of rejecting his new collection of stories. In the meantime, he has more immediate difficulties: a stray dog with whom he is forced to share his Mexican takeout; a back injury resulting from a midnight adventure on his neighbour's trampoline; and his girlfriend, Marissa, who has either abandoned him or been abandoned by him, he's not sure which. Here, in the daily rhythms of Hollis's disintegrating life, is an eviscerating comic portrait of suburban despair, and a deeply affecting tale of grief and renewal. Hollis Clayton - caught in a hilarious, paralyzing struggle between the world's dizzying randomness and its suffocating overdetermination - is a marvellous creation.
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