New Books, Films, Databases, and other Resources: April 2013

Presenting her breathtaking photographs alongside interviews with those who knew her best, this volume is the first attempt to put Vivian Maier’s work in context and create a moving portrait of her as an artist. Though she created more than 10,000 negatives during her lifetime, only a few of them were ever seen by others. Shortly after her death in 2009, the first group of her unseen photographs—gritty with humanity and filled with empathy and beauty—were shown online. What followed was a firestorm of attention, catapulting Maier from previous obscurity to being labeled as one of the masters of street photography. Her work has appeared in numerous museum exhibits and a feature-length documentary on her life and art has already been planned.

For over 300 years, from the era of Christopher Columbus to the struggles for independence around 1820, Latin America witnessed an artistic flowering of enormous creativity and originality. In a unique way, the art and architecture of Aztec, Inca and Guaraní civilizations blended with those of Europe, North Africa and the Far East.In particular, the Spanish and Portuguese empires in Central and South America created the climate for a flourishing, diverse and distinct version of Renaissance and Baroque culture, produced under utterly different social and geographic conditions from those found in Europe. The products of this unique culture include some of the most lavish and visually arresting works of art and architecture in the world.In this lively overview of the tremendously rich and varied artistic output of the region, from southern Chile to northern California, Gauvin Alexander Bailey discusses viceregal and missionary as well as civic and rural architecture, alongside religious and secular painting, sculpture, metalwork, textiles and ceramics. He also looks back to pre-colonial influences and concludes with an examination of how twentieth-century artists such as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo interpreted their artistic heritage.Even today, the art of the colonial period remains at the centre of Latin American society, culture and identity. This concise and impactful book provides a new and comprehensive understanding of all the influences that led to one of the most cosmopolitan artistic outpourings in the whole history of art.

The greats of photography are aware of recent Artists against. In this way, differences occur and unexpected relationships clearly. With this judicious mixture Photography Calling! opened a dispute about the documentary in photography across different periods and styles.

We evolved to eat berries rather than bagels, to live in mud huts rather than condos, to sprint barefoot rather than play football-or did we? Are our bodies and brains truly at odds with modern life? Although it may seem as though we have barely had time to shed our hunter-gatherer legacy, biologist Marlene Zuk reveals that the story is not so simple. Popular theories about how our ancestors lived-and why we should emulate them-are often based on speculation, not scientific evidence. Armed with a razor-sharp wit and brilliant, eye-opening research, Zuk takes us to the cutting edge of biology to show that evolution can work much faster than was previously realized, meaning that we are not biologically the same as our caveman ancestors. Contrary to what the glossy magazines would have us believe, we do not enjoy potato chips because they crunch just like the insects our forebears snacked on. And women don't go into shoe-shopping frenzies because their prehistoric foremothers gathered resources for their clans. As Zuk compellingly argues, such beliefs incorrectly assume that we're stuck-finished evolving-and have been for tens of thousands of years. She draws on fascinating evidence that examines everything from adults' ability to drink milk to the texture of our ear wax to show that we've actually never stopped evolving. Our nostalgic visions of an ideal evolutionary past in which we ate, lived, and reproduced as we were "meant to" fail to recognize that we were never perfectly suited to our environment. Evolution is about change, and every organism is full of trade-offs. From debunking the caveman diet to unraveling gender stereotypes, Zuk delivers an engrossing analysis of widespread paleofantasies and the scientific evidence that undermines them, all the while broadening our understanding of our origins and what they can really tell us about our present and our future.

Analyzed by scholars, deployed by Mexican nationalists, beloved by the public, and reproduced in every medium and scale since its rediscovery in 1790, the Aztec Calendar Stone, or Piedra del Sol, has become the most recognizable Pre-Columbian monument. Commissioned by the Mexican emperor Motecuhzoma I in the last decades before the Spanish invasion of the New World and buried by the conquerors not long afterward, the Aztec Calendar Stone has had a far-reaching afterlife in the modern world. The Aztec Calendar Stone includes an extended scholarly introduction and a selection of twenty-one key sources dating from 1581 to the present on this massive and puzzling sculpture--including works by Antonio de Leon y Gama, Alfredo Chavero, Eduard Seler, Hermann Beyer, Carlos Navarrete and Doris Heyden, Cecelia Klein, H. B. Nicholson, Felipe Solis, Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, and others--many published here for the first time in English.

After the conquest of Mexico, colonial authorities attempted to enforce Christian beliefs among indigenous peoples--a project they envisioned as spiritual warfare. "The Invisible War" assesses this immense but dislocated project by examining all known efforts in Central Mexico to obliterate native devotions of Mesoamerican origin between the 1530s and the late eighteenth century.

This volume examines the history of the Iberian colonies in the New World from their preconquest background to the wars of independence in the early nineteenth century. Updated and expanded, the eighth edition offers a history of the cultures, the people, and the struggles that have played a part in shaping Latin America. In addition it is more comprehensive throughout, with new coverage of the Bourbon reforms and independence. It contains revised and expanded discussions of Spanish and Portuguese imperial reforms, eighteenth-century rebellions and conspiracies in Spanish America and Brazil, and the early national period.

Newbery honor winner, New York Times bestseller, Edgar Award Finalist, and E.B. White Read-Aloud Honor book. A hilarious Southern debut with the kind of characters you meet once in a lifetime Rising sixth grader Miss Moses LoBeau lives in the small town of Tupelo Landing, NC, where everyone's business is fair game and no secret is sacred. She washed ashore in a hurricane eleven years ago, and she's been making waves ever since. Although Mo hopes someday to find her "upstream mother," she's found a home with the Colonel--a café owner with a forgotten past of his own--and Miss Lana, the fabulous café hostess. She will protect those she loves with every bit of her strong will and tough attitude. So when a lawman comes to town asking about a murder, Mo and her best friend, Dale Earnhardt Johnson III, set out to uncover the truth in hopes of saving the only family Mo has ever known. Full of wisdom, humor, and grit, this timeless yarn will melt the heart of even the sternest Yankee.

Winner of the Mildred L. Batchelder medal for most oustanding children's book in translation. Escaping Nazi Germany on the kindertransport changes one girl's life forever At the start of World War II, ten-year-old Franziska Mangold is torn from her family when she boards the kindertransport in Berlin, the train that secretly took nearly 10,000 children out of Nazi territory to safety in England. Taken in by strangers who soon become more like family than her real parents, Frances (as she is now known) courageously pieces together a new life for herself because she doesn't know when or if she'll see her true family again. Against the backdrop of war-torn London, Frances struggles with questions of identity, family, and love, and these experiences shape her into a dauntless, charming young woman. Originally published in Germany, Anne Voorhoeve's award-winning novel is filled with humor, danger, and romance.

When Cally Fisher says she sees her dead mother, no one believes her. The only other living soul who sees Cally's mom is a mysterious wolfhound who always seems to be there when her mom appears. And when Cally stops talkingâ#128;#148;what's the point if no one is listening?â#128;#148;how will she convince anyone that her mom is still with them or persuade her dad that the huge silver-gray dog is their last link with her? A Dog Called Homeless is the gentle and touching story of how one girl's friendship with a homeless dog can mend a family's heart.

On a momentous visit to the aquarium, Elliot discovers his dream pet: a penguin. It's just proper enough for a straight-laced boy like him. And when he asks his father if he may have one (please and thank you), his father says yes. Elliot should have realized that Dad probably thought he meant a stuffed penguin and not a real one . . . Clever illustrations and a wild surprise ending make this sly, silly tale of friendship and wish fulfillment a kid-pleaser from start to finish.

WINNER OF A CORETTA SCOTT KING HONOR! Each kindness makes the world a little better This unforgettable book is written and illustrated by the award-winning team that created The Other Side and the Caldecott Honor winner Coming On Home Soon. With its powerful anti-bullying message and striking art, it will resonate with readers long after they've put it down. Chloe and her friends won't play with the new girl, Maya. Every time Maya tries to join Chloe and her friends, they reject her. Eventually Maya stops coming to school. When Chloe's teacher gives a lesson about how even small acts of kindness can change the world, Chloe is stung by the lost opportunity for friendship, and thinks about how much better it could have been if she'd shown a little kindness toward Maya. nbsp;

"Hand in Hand" presents the stories of 10 men from different eras in American history, organized chronologically to provide a scope from slavery to the modern day. Men profiled include Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Barack H. Obama II. Illustrations.

Die cut pages bring surprise after surprise in this magical new book from the "Queen of the concept book"—an intricate and satisfying homage to green, the color of all creation.   How many kinds of green are there? There's the lush green of a forest on a late spring day, the fresh, juicy green of a just-cut lime, the incandescent green of a firefly, and the vivid aquamarine of a tropical sea. In her newest book, Caldecott and Geisel Honor Book author Laura Vaccaro Seeger fashions an homage to a single color and, in doing so, creates a book that will delight and, quite possibly astonish you.   Green is a Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book of 2012   Green is a 2013 Caldecott Honor Book

photographs by Richard Ross of juveniles in detention, commitment and treatment across the US.

One of twelve siblings growing up in Depression-era Baltimore, Edith isn’t quite sure of who she is. Between working at her father’s diner, taking care of her younger siblings, and living in the shadow of her more mature sisters, she feels lost in a sea of siblings. When a kind teacher encourages Edith to be a teacher herself one day, Edith sees prospects for a future all her own. Full of joy, pain, humor, and sadness, this novel in verse is an enduring portrait of one family’s pursuit of the American dream.

Winner of the 2013 Michael L. Printz Award   This is the story of "Shorty"-a 15-year-old boy trapped in a collapsed hospital during the earthquake in Haiti. Surrounded by the bodies of the dead, increasingly weak from lack of food and water, Shorty begins to hallucinate. As he waits in darkness for a rescue that may never come, a mystical bridge seems to emerge between him and Haitian leader Toussaint L'Ouverture, uniting the two in their darkest suffering-and their hope. A modern teen and a black slave, separated by hundreds of years. Yet in some strange way, the boy in the ruins of Port au Prince and the man who led the struggle for Haiti's independence might well be one and the same . . .

A soldier returns home from Iraq forever changed in this poignant and pivotal novel from award-winning authors–one a veteran. Ben lives a charmed life—effortlessly landing the lead in the high school musical, dating the prettiest girl in school. When he decides to enlist in the army, no one thinks he’ll be in real danger. But his decision has devastating consequences: His convoy gets caught in an explosion, and Ben ends up in a coma for two months. When he wakes up, he doesn’t know where he is—or remember anything about his old life. His family and friends mourn what they see as a loss, but Ben perseveres. And as he triumphs, readers will relate to this timely novel that pairs the action and adventure of the best war stories with the emotional elements of struggle and transformation. As an underage soldier in WWII, Henry Mazer has firsthand experience of what it means to be a young man in the military.

In the wake of the post-9/11 sniper shootings, fragile love finds a stronghold in this intense, romantic novel from the author of Break and Invincible Summer. It's a year after 9/11. Sniper shootings throughout the D.C. area have everyone on edge and trying to make sense of these random acts of violence. Meanwhile, Craig and Lio are just trying to make sense of their lives. Craig’s crushing on quiet, distant Lio, and preoccupied with what it meant when Lio kissed him...and if he’ll do it again...and if kissing Lio will help him finally get over his ex-boyfriend, Cody. Lio feels most alive when he's with Craig. He forgets about his broken family, his dead brother, and the messed up world. But being with Craig means being vulnerable...and Lio will have to decide whether love is worth the risk. This intense, romantic novel from the author of Break and Invincible Summer is a poignant look at what it is to feel needed, connected, and alive.

A documentary novel of the life and work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem bookseller"You can't walk straight on a crooked line. You do you'll break your leg. How can you walk straight in a crooked system?"Lewis Michaux was born to do things his own way. When a white banker told him to sell fried chicken, not books, because "Negroes don't read," Lewis took five books and one-hundred dollars and built a bookstore. It soon became the intellectual center of Harlem, a refuge for everyone from Muhammad Ali to Malcolm X.In No Crystal Stair, Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson combines meticulous research with a storyteller's flair to document the life and times of her great uncle Lewis Michaux, an extraordinary literacy pioneer of the Civil Rights era."My life was no crystal stair, far from it. But I'm taking my leave with some pride. It tickles me to know that those folks who said I could never sell books to black people are eating crow. I'd say my seeds grew pretty damn well. And not just the book business. It's the more important business of moving our people forward that has real meaning."

A lyrical novel about family and friendship from critically acclaimed author Benjamin Alire SÁenz. Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.

Oct. 11th, 1943-A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before its barely begun. When "Verity" is arrested by the Gestapo, shes sure she doesnt stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, shes living a spys worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution. As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy? A Michael L. Printz Award Honor book that was called "a fiendishly-plotted mind game of a novel" in The New York Times, Code Name Verity is a visceral read of danger, resolve, and survival that shows just how far true friends will go to save each other.

A gleeful and exhilarating tale of global conspiracy, complex code-breaking, high-tech data visualization, young love, rollicking adventure, and the secret to eternal life--mostly set in a hole-in-the-wall San Francisco bookstore.

Iconoclast. Inventor. Visionary. Genius. Adopted. Dropout. Rejected. Steve Jobs was the founder of Apple, and he was all these things. "Your time is limited. . . . have the courage to follow your heart and intuition." - Steve Jobs   From the start, his path was never predictable. Steve Jobs was given up for adoption at birth, dropped out of college after one semester, and at the age of twenty, created Apple in his parents' garage with his friend Steve Wozniack. Then came the core and hallmark of his genius - his exacting moderation for perfection, his counterculture life approach, and his level of taste and style that pushed all boundaries. A devoted husband, father, and Buddhist, he battled cancer for over a decade, became the ultimate CEO, and made the world want every product he touched.          Critically acclaimed author Karen Blumenthal takes us to the core of this complicated and legendary man while simultaneously exploring the evolution of computers. Framed by Jobs' inspirational Stanford commencement speech and illustrated throughout with black and white photos, this is the story of the man who changed our world.      

In this striking literary debut, Carol Rifka Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal as two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don’t know you’ve lost someone until you’ve found them.   1987. There’s only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that’s her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn’s company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June’s world is turned upside down. But Finn’s death brings a surprise acquaintance into June’s life—someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.   At Finn’s funeral, June notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd. A few days later, she receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn’s apartment, and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet. As the two begin to spend time together, June realizes she’s not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he just might be the one she needs the most.   An emotionally charged coming-of-age novel, Tell the Wolves I’m Home is a tender story of love lost and found, an unforgettable portrait of the way compassion can make us whole again. From the Hardcover edition.

Finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award ""Smart, honest and full of achingly real characters. And it made me laugh. What else would you want in a book?" --Melina Marchetta, Printz Award-winning author" Love is awkward, Amelia should know. From the moment she sets eyes on Chris, she is a goner. Lost. Sunk. Head over heels infatuated with him. Its problematic, since Chris, 21, is a sophisticated university student, while Amelia, 15, is 15. Amelia isnt stupid. She knows its not gonna happen. So she plays it cool around Chris--at least, as cool as she can. Working checkout together at the local supermarket, they strike up a friendship: swapping life stories, bantering about everything from classic books to B movies, and cataloging the many injustices of growing up. As time goes on, Amelias crush doesnt seem so one-sided anymore. But if Chris likes her back, what then? Can two people in such different places in life really be together? Through a year of befuddling firsts--first love, first job, first party, and first hangover--debut author Laura Buzo shows how the things that break your heart can still crack you up. "From the Hardcover edition."

A new Ice Age has descended on Earth. And a new talent has joined our list! Chilling. The oceans stopped working before Willo was born, so the world of ice and snow is all he's ever known. He lives with his family deep in the wilderness, far from the government's controlling grasp. Willo's survival skills are put to the test when he arrives home one day to find his family gone. It could be the government; it could be scavengers - all Willo knows is he has to find refuge and his family. It is a journey that will take him into the city he's always avoided, with a girl who needshis help more than he knows. S.D. Crockett on narrative voice and an especially cold winter: What was your inspiration for After the Snow ? Well, apart from the unbelievably cold winter during which I was writing-in an unheated house, chopping logs and digging my car out of the snow; I think much of the inspiration for the settings in After the Snow came from my various travels.In my twenties I worked as a timber buyer in the Caucasus Mountains of southern Russia, and that work led to travels in Eastern Europe and Armenia. As soon as I step off the plane in those places it smells like home.It may sound strange to say, when After the Snow is set in Wales, but really the practical dilemmas in the book come directly from places I've been, people I've lived with, and the hardships I've seen endured with grace and capability. I was in Russia not long after the Soviet Union collapsed and I've seen society in freefall. Without realizing it at the time I think those experiences led me to dive into After the Snow with real passion.What would western civilization look like with a few tumbles under its belt? What would happen if the things we took for granted disappeared? I wanted to write a gripping story about that scenario, but hardly felt that I was straying into fantasy in the detail. What do you want readers to most remember about After the Snow ? We all have the capacity to survive, but in what manner? What do we turn to in those times of trouble? Those are the questions I would like people to contemplate after reading After the Snow. How did Willo's unique voice come to you? Willo's voice appeared in those crucial first few paragraphs. After that it just grew along with his world and the terrible situations that arise. I think his voice is in all of us. We don't understand, we try to make good-maybe we find ourselves. How did you stay warm while writing this novel? I banked up the fire-and was warmed by hopes of spring.

In the early 1990s, when gay teenager Cameron Post rebels against her conservative Montana ranch town and her family decides she needs to change her ways, she is sent to a gay conversion therapy center.

Mirka is back, and this time she takes on a misguided meteor who's been set in motion by the troll and turned into Mirka's twin by the witch. Doppelganger Mirka is out to best the real girl. Our heroine will have to beat her own other self in a three-part challenge ... or be banished from Hereville!

National Book Award Winner One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joes life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared. While his father, who is a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the official investigation and sets out with his trusted friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to get some answers of his own. Their quest takes them first to the Round House, a sacred space and place of worship for the Ojibwe. And this is only the beginning. Written with undeniable urgency, and illuminating the harsh realities of contemporary life in a community where Ojibwe and white live uneasily together, The Round House is a brilliant and entertaining novel, a masterpiece of literary fiction. Louise Erdrich embraces tragedy, the comic, a spirit world very much present in the lives of her all-too-human characters, and a tale of injustice that is, unfortunately, an authentic reflection of what happens in our own world today.

The heartwrenching sequel to Once and Then Set in the current day, this is the final book in the series that began with Once, continued with Then and is . . . Now.   Felix is a grandfather. He has achieved much in his life and is widely admired in the community. He has mostly buried the painful memories of his childhood, but they resurface when his granddaughter Zelda comes to stay with him. Together they face a cataclysmic event armed only with their with gusto and love-an event that helps them achieve salvation from the past, but also brings the possibility of destruction.   Now is one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Children's Books of 2012

One of America’s most influential Hispanics -- 'Maria' on Sesame Street -- presents a powerful novel set in New York's El Barrio in 1969 There are two secrets Evelyn Serrano is keeping from her Mami and stepfather. Her true feelings about growing up in her Spanish Harlem neighborhood, and her attitude about Abuela, her sassy grandmother who's come from Puerto Rico to live with them. Then, like an urgent ticking clock, events erupt that change everything. The Young Lords, a Puerto Rican activist group, dump garbage in the street and set it on fire, igniting a powerful protest. When Abuela steps in to take charge, Evelyn is thrust into the action. Tempers flare, loyalties are tested. Through it all, Evelyn learns important truths about her Latino heritage and the history makers who shaped a nation. Infused with actual news accounts from the time period, Sonia Manzano has crafted a gripping work of fiction based on her own life growing up during a fiery, unforgettable time in America, when young Latinos took control of their destinies.

When Ivan, a gorilla who has lived for years in a down-and-out circus-themed mall, meets Ruby, a baby elephant that has been added to the mall, he decides that he must find her a better life.

Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet, she thinks about what is lost--how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, step inside Mosco’s Traveling Wonder Show, a menagerie of human curiosities and misfits guaranteed to astound and amaze! But perhaps the strangest act of Mosco’s display is Portia Remini, a normal among the freaks, on the run from McGreavy’s Home for Wayward Girls, where Mister watches and waits. He said he would always find Portia, that she could never leave. Free at last, Portia begins a new life on the bally, seeking answers about her father’s disappearance. Will she find him before Mister finds her? It’s a story for the ages, and like everyone who enters the Wonder Show, Portia will never be the same.   Includes an interview with the author

A fiery, thrilling debut novel about a young girl's life in a trailer parkRory Hendrix is the least likely of Girl Scouts. She hasn't got a troop or even a badge to call her own. But she's checked the Handbook out from the elementary school library so many times that her name fills all the lines on the card, and she pores over its surreal advice (Uniforms, disposing of outgrown; The Right Use of Your Body; Finding Your Way When Lost) for tips to get off the Calle: that is, the Calle de las Flores, the Reno trailer park where she lives with her mother, Jo, the sweet-faced, hard-luck bartender at the Truck Stop.Rory's been told that she is one of the "third-generation bastards surely on the road to whoredom." But she's determined to prove the county and her own family wrong. Brash, sassy, vulnerable, wise, and terrified, she struggles with her mother's habit of trusting the wrong men, and the mixed blessing of being too smart for her own good. From diary entries, social workers' reports, half-recalled memories, arrest records, family lore, Supreme Court opinions,and her grandmother's letters, Rory crafts a devastating collage that shows us her world even as she searches for the way out of it.Tupelo Hassman's Girlchild is a heart-stopping and original debut.

2013 Pura Belpre Award for Illustration As the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a former slave, Martin de Porres was born into extreme poverty. Even so, his mother begged the church fathers to allow him into the priesthood. Instead, Martin was accepted as a servant boy. But soon, the young man was performing miracles. Rumors began to fly around the city of a strange mulatto boy with healing hands, who gave first to the people of the barrios. Martin continued to serve in the church, until he was finally received by the Dominican Order, no longer called the worthless son of a slave, but rather a saint and the rose in the desert.

Winner of the Coretta Scott King illustrator award, I, Too, Am America blends the poetic wisdom of Langston Hughes with visionary illustrations from Bryan Collier in this inspirational picture book that carries the promise of equality. I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Langston Hughes was a courageous voice of his time, and his authentic call for equality still rings true today. Beautiful paintings from Barack Obama illustrator Bryan Collier accompany and reinvent the celebrated lines of the poem "I, Too," creating a breathtaking reminder to all Americans that we are united despite our differences. This picture book of Langston Hughes’s celebrated poem, "I, Too, Am America," is also a Common Core Text Exemplar for Poetry.

Miriam learns the meaning of Passover when her grandfather makes a special matzah dish. Includes recipe for matzah brei (similar to French toast, but with unleavened bread), and a glossary of Hebrew and Yiddish words used in the text.

Disguised in servant’s clothes, an Afghani shah slips out of his palace to learn more about his people. When he encounters a poor Jewish shoemaker full of faith that everything will turn out just as it should, the shah grows curious. Vowing that no harm will befall the poor man, he decides to test that faith, only to find that the shoemaker’s cheerful optimism cannot be shaken. But the biggest challenge of the poor man’s life is yet to come!

The carrots that grow in Crackenhopper Field are the fattest and crispiest around and Jasper Rabbit cannot resist pulling some to eat each time he passes by, until he begins hearing and seeing creepy carrots wherever he goes.

An amazing and inspirational World War II story about how one man saved the lives of many

Pete the cat loves the buttons on his shirt so much that he makes up a song about them, and even as the buttons pop off, one by one, he still finds a reason to sing.

2013 Randolph Caldecott Honor Award In this magical bedtime story, the lyrical narrative echoes a Runaway Bunny – like cadence: Does everything in the world go to sleep? the little girl asks. In sincere and imaginative dialogue between a not-at-all sleepy child and understanding parents, the little girl decides in a cocoon of sheets, a nest of blankets, she is ready to sleep, warm and strong, just like a tiger. The Caldecott Honor artist Pamela Zagarenski’s rich, luminous mixed-media paintings effervesce with odd, charming details that nonsleepy children could examine for hours. A rare gem.

In this lively celebration of Jewish traditions, a family must balance giving their children the freedom to make a mess and having a tidy home for Shabbos. A glossary defines Yiddish words and an author's note explains Shabbos traditions.

For years the Galinskys and the Lippas have shared Seder, the special Passover dinner, together. But no more! Mama Lippa shuts her windows tight against Galinsky voices. Papa Galinsky cuts a new side door into the house to avoid seeing the Lippas. But David Lippa and Rachel Galinsky love each other, and fortunately, they have a trick up their sleeves. This charming folktale, stunningly illustrated with hand-painted woodcuts, celebrates the joys of love, freedom, and family.

Tommy, who recently moved to America from Israel, is teased because he does not know English well and so does not speak loudly, but when a police officer visits Tommy's class with a police dog that only understands Hebrew, friendship blooms.

Extra Yarn, winner of a Caldecott Honor and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, as well as a New York Times bestseller, is the story of how a young girl and her box of magical yarn transform a community. This much-loved picture book is written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen, who also won the Caldecott Medal for This Is Not My Hat.

When her preschool plans a Shavuot hike just like Moses took up Mt. Sinai, Sadie is afraid she is too little to make it to the top, and tries to think of ways to be absent. But when the day comes, she learns that anyone can climb high enough to reach God.

Gerald is careful. Piggie is not. Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can. Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to. Gerald and Piggie are best friends. In Let's Go for a Drive! Gerald and Piggie want to hit the road. But the best-laid plans of pigs and elephants often go awry.

After she's hit by lightning at a wedding, twelve-year-old Lilah Bloom develops a new talent: she can hear dead people. Among them, there's her overopinionated Bubby Dora; a prissy fashion designer; and an approval-seeking clown who livens up a séance. With Bubby Dora leading the way, these and other sweetly imperfect ghosts haunt Lilah through seventh grade, and help her face her one big fear: talking to-and possibly going to the seventh-grade dance with-her crush, Andrew Finkel.

Living in the midst of civil war in Beirut, Lebanon, Zeina and her brother face an evening of apprehension when their parents do not return from a visit to the other side of the city.

Do you feel lost? Confused? Alone? (Circle one): Yes or No. The Church of Blue can help. We are not a cult. $5 for a holy quest is a good deal. Since sixth grade, Debbie Woodlawn has nursed a secret, heart-searing crush on her best friend, Lisa. But all those years of pretending to enjoy Full House reruns and abstinence rallies with Lisa go down the drain when her friend hooks up with Norman, the most boring guy at school. This earth-shattering event makes Debbie decide to do the unthinkable: confess her love to Lisa. And she has to do it tonight-before Lisa and Norman go past “the point of no return.” So Debbie embarks on a quest to find Lisa. Guiding the quest are fellow students/detention hall crashers Emma and Tim, the founding (and only) members of the wacky Church of Blue. Three chases, three declarations of love, two heartbreaks, a break-in, and five dollars worth of gas later, Debbie has been fully initiated into Bluedaism-but is there time left to stop Lisa and Norman from going too far? Click here to view the book trailer for Sparks.

Eight-year-old Liberian Lucky, his ten-year-old sister Nopi, and their schoolmates are kidnapped and forced to become child soldiers, but even after they escape along with some other children and are reunited with their parents, their lives will never be the same. Includes chapter about Liberia.

Is Sami ready for summer camp . . . and is camp ready for her? Samantha "Sami" Bloom is going to sleepaway camp for the first time. Sami's big sister, Maya, has always loved her summers at Camp Cedar Lake, but Sami isn't so sure she'll feel the same way. She's nervous about being away from home, trying new food, and doing the super-scary ropes course. Worst of all, Sami's annoying cousin, Daniel, is attending the same camp. It's sure to be a disaster! But Sami never counted on delicious Shabbat dinners, funny new friends, and more than a handful of surprises -- one including Daniel himself. No matter what, this will be a summer to remember!

Fifteen-year-old Lynn suspects that her mother's pill-popping boyfriend has enlisted her in his petty criminal enterprises placing her in squarely in the cross-hairs of violent threats.

The inspiring story of one of the greatest moments in civil rights history as seen through the eyes of four young people who were at the center of the action. The 1963 Birmingham Children's March was a turning point in American history. In the streets of Birmingham, Alabama, the fight for civil rights lay in the hands of children like Audrey Hendricks, Wash Booker, James Stewart, and Arnetta Streeter. Through the eyes of these four protesters and others who participated, We've Got a Job tells the little-known story of the 4,000 black elementary, middle, and high school students who voluntarily went to jail between May 2 and May 11, 1963. The children succeeded - where adults had failed - in desegregating one of the most racially violent cities in America. By combining in-depth, one-on-one interviews and extensive research, author Cynthia Levinson recreates the events of the Birmingham Children's March from a new and very personal perspective.

In this sensitive portrait of a young girl and her grandfather, author Sinykin approaches the issue of death from a distinctly Jewish perspective while demonstrating respect for all beliefs. Swarner's lush illustrations add layers of depth and wonder to the story. Full color.

This useful book is the compilation of bibliographical information accumulated over eleven years (1986-1996) in the annual publication of the New Chaucer Society, Studies in the Age of Chaucer. Features of this comprehensive work include an extensive subject index and a descriptive annotation for each entry that identifies the nature of the study and clarifies its utility or argument. These annotations are the work of a large number of scholars and have been carefully updated, corrected, and supplemented. An important component of the Annotated Chaucer Bibliography is its single-codex format, which enables users to peruse eleven years of Chaucer bibliography comprehensively. This is especially valuable for recognizing patterns or trends in individual works or topics. The majority of the entries and their annotations are also available in the electronic format of the Chaucer Online Bibliography, making possible title, author, and keyword searches of the data included in this volume.

Re-examining key passages in Dante’s oeuvre in the light of the crucial issue of moral choice, this book provides a new thematic framework for interpreting theDivine Comedy. Olivia Holmes shows how Dante articulated the relationship between the human and the divine as an erotic choice between two attractive women—Beatrice and the “other woman.”  Investigating the traditions and archetypes that contributed to the formation of Dante’s two beloveds, Holmes shows how Dante brilliantly overlaid and combined these paradigms in his poem.  In doing so he re-imagined the two women as not merely oppositional condensations of apparently conflicting cultural traditions but also complementary versions of the same. This visionary insight sheds new light on Dante’s corpus and on the essential paradox at the poem’s heart: the unabashed eroticism of Dante’s turn away from the earthly in favor of the divine.

Starting with a new understanding of what Romantic-era literature is-and who wrote it-the essays here reassess British Romanticism in light of Dante, Ariosto, Tasso, Alfieri, and contemporary Italian figures such as Paganini and the improvvisatore Tommaso Sgricci. The British absorption of Italian literature and culture was mediated by authors residing in Florence, Naples, Pisa, and Rome, including Wordsworth, Coleridge, Hunt, Byron, the Shelleys, and Hemans. Providing insight on topics from the artistic practice of improvisation to the politics of nationalism, this learned volume breaks new ground and significantly extends our understanding of the relations between British and Italian culture.

Dante and the Blessed Virginis distinguished philosopher Ralph McInerny's eloquent reading of one of western literature's most famous works by a Catholic writer. The book provides Catholic readers new to Dante'sThe Divine Comedy(orCommedia) with a concise companion volume. McInerny argues that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the key to Dante. She is behind the scenes at the very beginning of theCommedia, and she is found at the end in the magnificent closing cantos of theParadiso. McInerny also discusses Dante'sVita Nuova, where Mary is present as the object of the young Beatrice's devotion. McInerny draws from a diverse group of writers throughout this book, including Plato, Aristotle, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas, and George Santayana, among others. It is St. Thomas, however, to whom McInerny most often turns, and this book also provides an accessible introduction to Thomistic moral philosophy focusing on the appetites, the ordering of goods, the distinction between the natural and the supernatural orders, the classification of capital vices and virtues, and the nature of the theological virtues. This engagingly written book will serve as a source of inspiration and devotion for anyone approaching Dante's work for the first time as well as those who value the work of Ralph McInerny. "Dante was a literary genius with a profound understanding of St. Thomas Aquinas and thephilosophia perennisthat structured and permeated theDivina Commedia. Who better to help us get beyond the (brilliant) surface to the depths of Dante than the most literarily genial of Thomas' twentieth (and twenty-first) century disciples, the indefatigable Ralph McInerny? Dante needed guides, from Vergil to Beatrice, to reach the summit ofParadiso. Fortunately, we have Ralph McInerny to accompany us on the same journey." --Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., Founder and Editor, Ignatius Press "Weaving together poetry, philosophy and theology, Ralph McInerny shows that 'the Blessed Virgin Mary is the key to Dante.' Starting with theVita Nuovaand the beginning of theDivine Comedy, this becomes ever more explicit throughout the great poem, till the magnificent closing cantos of theParadiso. The book is beautifully written, making sense of every step, however complex at times, of the great journey to the gate of heaven described by Dante in theCommedia, drawing on Scripture, on Aquinas, on philosophers like Aristotle, on a medley of modern and contemporary writers, with immense learning, always worn lightly and made easily accessible. Dominant are themes that concern everyone, such as love or happiness, are treated with freshness and clarity so the reader is made to feel he or she is discovering them anew. The total effect is joy induced by the incredible wealth of content of this little book and by the light it sheds on so many vital issues." --Thomas De Koninck, Laval University  

"For high school and college-level students, teachers, libraries, and the general public, Critical Companion to Dante provides a reliable, up-to-date, and encyclopedic source of information on Dante's life and work." "This new title covers Dante's entire canon, including his love poems in La Vita Nuova, his philosophical works, and much more. With a strong emphasis on The Divine Comedy - one of the finest literary works ever produced - this comprehensive resource also includes detailed entries on important references, influences, historical events, places, and much more, all providing essential background for the study of this master poet."--BOOK JACKET.

Medievalists have long been interested in the "abandoned woman," a figure historically used to examine the value of traditional male heroism. Moving beyond previous studies which have focused primarily on Virgil's Dido, Suzanne Hagedorn focuses on the vernacular works of Dante, Bocaccio, and Chaucer, arguing that revisiting the classical tradition of the abandoned woman enables one to reconsider ancient epics and myths from a female perspective and question assumptions about gender roles in medieval literature. Suzanne Hagedorn is Associate Professor of English at the College of William and Mary.

This volume series aims to provide readers with a convenient source of reliable, scholarly, and accessible information on Chaucer's work, life, and times. It consists mainly of alphabetical entries, ranging in length from 10 to 3,000 words. These cover topics and issues including: Chaucer's works; major fictional characters; historical, social, and political contexts; writers who influenced Chaucer or were influenced by him; people and places of significance in Chaucer's life; genres and traditions; manuscripts, editions, scholars, and editors.

This 2007 second edition of The Cambridge Companion to Dante is designed to provide an accessible introduction to Dante for students, teachers and general readers. The volume was fully updated and includes three new essays on Dante's works. The suggestions for further reading now include secondary works and translations as well as online resources. The essays cover Dante's early works and their relation to the Commedia, his literary antecedents, both vernacular and classical, biblical and theological influences, the historical and political dimensions of Dante's works, and their reception. In addition there are introductory essays to each of the three canticles of the Commedia that analyse their themes and style. This edition will ensure that the Companion continues to be the most useful single volume for new generations of students of Dante.

The vast literature on Our Lady of Guadalupe dominates the study of shrines and religious practices in Mexico. But there is much more to the story of shrines and images in Mexico's religious history than Guadalupe and Marian devotion. In this book, a distinguished historian brings together his new and recent essays on previously unstudied or reconsidered places, themes, patterns, and episodes in Mexican religious history during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. William Taylor explores the use of local and regional shrines, and devotion to images of Christ and Mary, including Our Lady of Guadalupe, to get to the heart of the politics and practices of faith in Mexico before the Reforma. Each of these essays touches on methodological and conceptual matters that open out to processes and paradoxes of change and continuity, exposing the symbolic complexity behind the material representations.

Miracles, signs of divine presence and intervention, have been esteemed by Christians, especially Catholic Christians, as central to religious belief. During the second half of the eighteenth century Spain's Bourbon dynasty sought to tighten its control over New World colonies, reform imperial institutions, and change the role of the church and religion in colonial life. As a result, miracles were recognized and publicized sparingly by the church hierarchy and colonial courts were increasingly reluctant to recognize the events. Despite this lack of official encouragement, stories of amazing healings, rescues, and acts of divine retribution abounded throughout Mexico. Consisting of three rare documents about miracles from this period, each accompanied by an introductory essay, this study serves as a source book and complement to the author'sShrines and Miraculous Images: Religious Life in Mexico Before the Reforma.