Family Culture

Young Cedric Errol lives in poverty in New York with his mother. When his father, who was disinherited for marrying an American, dies, Cedric is summoned to his grandfather's English estate. While the crotchety old Earl planned to transform the boy into a docile, traditional lording, it is Little Lord Fauntleroy who does the converting.

This audiobook, inspired by God, has two parts. Part One: The author was to tell how God chooses certain people to follow a plan or a set of paths laid out for him/her. Part one tells how God trains them, guides them, and even protects them from harm. Part Two: God wants all people to know how our culture is going down the wrong paths. The paths we are taking are diametrically opposed to what God has instructed us to do in the Holy Bible.

Thirteen-year-old Uwohali has not seen his father, Sequoyah, for many years. So when Sequoyah returns to the village, Uwohali is eager to reconnect. But Sequoyah's new obsession with making strange markings causes friends and neighbors in their tribe to wonder whether he is crazy - or, worse, practicing witchcraft. What they don't know, and what Uwohali discovers, is that Sequoyah is a genius, and his strange markings are actually an alphabet representing the sounds of the Cherokee language.

We medicate, discipline, suspend, and expel our boys from school at quadruple the rate of girls. We let double the number of boys drop out of high school than girls, and of those boys who do graduate, they are far more likely than their sisters to be illiterate, to fail to go to college, or to drop out of college if they do go. Swagger is a wakeup call for parents about the real world our boys inhabit right now, but it offers solutions as well. This audiobook is packed with research-proven, parent-tested, practical solutions.

Bobby Burns knows he's a lucky lad. Growing up in sleepy Keely Bay, Bobby is exposed to all manner of wondrous things: stars reflecting off the icy sea, a friend that can heal injured fawns with her dreams, a man who can eat fire. But darkness seems to be approaching Bobby's life from all sides.

Khabaar is a food memoir and personal narrative that braids the global journeys of South Asian food through immigration, migration, and indenture. Focusing on chefs, home cooks, and food stall owners, the book questions: What does it mean to belong, and what does belonging in a new place look like in the foods carried over from the old country?

All 15-year-old Kelly McAllister wants to do after high school graduation is attend art school. Academic work isn't important to her. When she studies at the library with her friends, she sometimes talks so much the librarian kicks her out. After her teacher pressures her to start working on her current events paper, Kelly decides she has to take the assignment seriously. The only trouble is she can't think of a topic - until she discovers Mr. Weems, a homeless Vietnam vet who spends his days in the library.

When a mysterious man arrives one day on Orange Street, the children who live on the block try to find out who he is and why he’s there. Little do they know that his story - and the story of a very old orange tree - connects to each of their personal worries in ways they never could have imagined. From impressing friends to dealing with an expanding family to understanding a younger sibling’s illness, the characters’ storylines come together around that orange tree. Taking place over the course of a day and a half, Joanne Rocklin’s masterful novel deftly builds a story about family....

You would think Petronellas 16th birthday would be cause for celebration. After all, fashionable friends are arriving at her country estate near London, teas are being served, and her coming out party promises to be a resplendent affair. Everything is falling nicely into place, until, suddenly, it isnt. For Petronella discovers that her guardian, Uncle Augustus T. Percival, has developed a most unVictorian compulsion: He must eat bugs.

At the age of 14, Francisco Jiménez, together with his older brother Roberto and his mother, are caught by la migra. Forced to leave their home, the entire family travels all night for 20 hours by bus, arriving at the U.S. and Mexican border in Nogales, Arizona. In the months and years that follow, Francisco, his mother and father, and his seven brothers and sister not only struggle to keep their family together, but also face crushing poverty, long hours of labor, and blatant prejudice.

Galveston, Texas, may be the booming city of the brand-new twentieth century, filled with opportunities for all, but to Seth it is the end of a dream. He longs to be a carpenter like his father, yet Papa has moved the family to Galveston so that Seth can become a doctor. Still, the last few weeks of summer might not be so bad. Things seem to be looking up - until a storm warning is raised one sweltering afternoon.

Fourteen-year-old Elvira Witsil lives in a remote area of Wisconsin with her mother, Connie, who acknowledges Elvira only when chores need doing; her grandma, a cantankerous woman who can't hold her tongue; and her baby sister, Jessie - who, the family discovers, is a seer. Along with the burdens of a difficult family, Elvira also bears a daunting secret - she encouraged her father to enlist in World War II. Ever since he was declared missing in action, Elvira has felt responsible for his presumed death.

The story of a beautiful thoroughbred horse abused by its owners is also a story of courage and love. It is one of the greatest children's classics.

Orasmyn lives a peaceful life of quiet duty and thoughtful obedience. But a single wrong decision sets in motion an ancient curse that changes Orasmyn's fate forever. Told he will be killed by his own father, he is transformed into a lion on the day of a great hunt. The prince has no choice but to flee beloved Persia and his precious family. Balancing his fading human memories with his new beastly impulses, he makes his way to Europe - where his destiny awaits in the person of a French beauty.

Cris Burks won widespread acclaim for her engaging first novel, SilkyDreamGirl. Burks' second offering follows the life of a determined girl struggling toward adulthood in 1950s Chicago. The devastating discovery that "Daddy" is not her real father opens a great chasm in Neecey's world and leads to Neecey's abusive mother bringing a succession of no-good men into the home. Nevertheless, as she grows into a woman, the resilient Neecey strives to overcome despair and forge a new life for herself.

The Beech Bank Girls are back! Teenage friends Chloe, Willow, Annie, Rachel, Holly, and Amber become absorbed in a diary from the First World War, and discover that the choices they make have consequences, just as they did for 14-year-old Grace 100 years ago...the girls continue to live, love, and laugh together through all the trials and joys of life. And discover that even when things seem to be going wrong, God is still at work.

She was little and quick and pretty. Her mother nicknamed her Colibri, Spanish for "Hummingbird". At age four she was kidnapped, torn from her parents on a crowded bus in Guatemala City. Since then she's traveled with "Uncle", the ex-soldier and wandering beggar who has renamed her Rosa. Uncle has always told Rosa that he searched for her parents but had no success. There's almost no chance Rosa will ever find them, but Rosa still remembers and longs for them.

Though everyone in the village of  Tres Montes thinks Sonia Ocampo is blessed, she knows she is nothing but a fraud. She’s spent her life listening to the hopes and wishes of her neighbors and family, but when a classmate dies despite her prayers, she is forced to realize that she has no special powers - no way to prevent bad things from happening.

In order for Suzette's papa to stay with his Ojibwe family year round, he must win the fur-trapping competition at Fort LaPointe Island in Lake Superior. But a troublemaker is sabotaging the competition-and making it seem like her papa's fault! To keep her family together, Suzette must use both her French and Ojibwe heritage to solve a dangerous mystery in this thrilling mix of historical fact and fiction.

No longer did the Michtom's gather family and friends around the kitchen table to talk. No longer was Joseph at leisure to play stickball with the guys. No longer were Joseph and his book-loving sister free from watching their pesky two-year-old brother. Now - when it was summer vacation and more than anything Joseph wanted to experience the thrill, the grandeur, the electricity of Coney Island - Joseph worked.