Young Adult Biography

A raw and bold memoir about abuse and addiction, and the power of expression and community that helped Stephanie Kuehnert, the author of Ballads of Suburbia and regular Rookie contributor, survive and thrive. Told in varied narrative styles, including journal entries and pages torn from her actual diaries and zines, this is the memoir of Stephanie's life as a struggling outsider who survived substance and relationship abuse to become a strong young woman after years and years trapped in a cycle that sometimes seemed to have no escape.

A dubious distinction belongs to Mary Surratt: On July 7, 1865, she became the first woman to be executed by the United States government, accused of conspiring in the plot to assassinate not only President Abraham Lincoln, but also the vice president, the secretary of state, and General Grant.

Quando è molto piccolo, e non cammina, Riccardo è definito da tutti "un bambino pigro". Solo a tre anni, grazie alle insistenze di due genitori amorevoli e testardi, gli viene diagnosticata la Pci, la Paralisi cerebrale infantile. Da quel momento, tutto cambia. Riccardo ha un nemico da odiare: la sua malattia. Un nemico che non lo lascia libero un attimo, e lo schiaccia a colpi di fatica, solitudine, tristezza. Un nemico che però, con gli anni, si trasforma in qualcosa di diverso.

Moody and restless, teenage Louisa longed for freedom. Faced with the expectations of her loving but hapless family, the Alcotts, and of 19th-century New England society, she struggled to find her place. On long meandering runs through the woods behind Orchard House, she thought about a future where she could write and think and dream. Undaunted by periods of abject poverty and enriched by friendships with some of the greatest minds of her time and place, she was determined to have this future, no matter the cost.

Paul Robeson’s bass-baritone voice captivated audiences, especially when singing the spirituals he had heard at church and folk songs he had gathered from many countries. But Robeson was more than an interpreter of song. He was passionate about the injustices found in the United States and throughout the world and refused to keep quiet. As a stage and film actor, he fought against stereotypical roles and racism. Labeled a communist during the height of the Cold War, Robeson was stripped of his U.S. passport and found himself unable to earn a living. But Robeson never gave up or gave in.

Obamas Erinnerungen aus der Kindheit und als junger Mann - erzählt für die neue Generation. Die fesselnde Auseinandersetzung Barack Obamas mit seiner Herkunft und zugleich das beeindruckende Porträt eines jungen Schwarzen Mannes, der sich und der Welt Fragen nach Selbstfindung, Menschlichkeit und Zugehörigkeit stellt. Obama wächst in bescheidenen Verhältnissen auf, doch er ist entschlossen, ein Leben voller Sinn und Wahrhaftigkeit zu führen. Als er in der Schule wegen seiner Hautfarbe diskriminiert wird, weckt das seinen Ehrgeiz.

Three college, star football players and friends. One dream. Upon graduating from the University of Alabama, they vow that whoever gets the first head coach job will bring the other two along with them. Thus began their quest to be the winningest partnership of coaches the sport had ever seen. Only one lived to see their dream realized. Their story remained untold. Until now.

Sixteen-year-old Jeremiah Thomas, all-star football player and MVP, had helped lead the Parkview Pacers to their first state title in twenty-one years. Now a new season of football is about to start, and his training has made him the strongest guy at Parkview. Jeremiah's life revolves around faith, family, and football. He's handsome, strong, witty, a captain of the football team, and owner of a state championship ring.

There was a time when running the mile in four minutes was believed to be beyond the limits of human foot speed. In 1952, after suffering defeat at the Helsinki Olympics, three world-class runners each set out to break this barrier: Roger Bannister was a young English medical student who epitomized the ideal of the amateur; John Landy the privileged son of a genteel Australian family; and Wes Santee the swaggering American, a Kansas farm boy and natural athlete.

Julie knows it’s unusual that a professional wrestler runs a constant commentary on her life that only she can hear. But grief can be awfully funny sometimes. National Book Award nominee Bryan Bliss delivers a thought-provoking, one-of-a-kind novel about how to tread the line between moving on and holding on. Dispatches from Parts Unknown is for fans of David Arnold, Nina LaCour, and You’ve Reached Sam.

In the years between World War I and World War II, aviation fever was everywhere, including among Black Americans. But what hope did a Black person have of learning to fly in a country constricted by prejudice and Jim Crow laws, where some previous Black aviators like Bessie Coleman had to move to France to earn their wings?

Growing up impoverished and shuttled between different households, it seemed life was bound to take a certain path for Eddie Chuculate. Despite the challenges he faced, his upbringing was rich with love and bountiful lessons from his Creek and Cherokee heritage, deep-rooted traditions he embraced even as he learned to live within the culture of white, small-town America that dominated his migratory childhood.

A coming-of-age story set against the rise of fascism, the collapse of democracy in Slovakia and Hungary, the attempted genocide of the Jewish people, and the eventual conquest of the Allied Forces over Nazi Germany, Escape to the Tatras tells the story of one child’s remarkable journey encompassing the essence of life before and throughout World War II.

With no word for “gay” in Arabic, Luma may not have known what to call the feelings she had growing up in Jordan during the 1980’s, but she knew well enough to keep them secret. It was clear that not only would her family have trouble accepting who she was, but trapped in a religious society, she could also be killed if anyone discovered she was gay. Luma spent her teenage years increasingly desperate to find a way out. After two suicide attempts, she finally realizes that to survive, she must leave the Middle East for good.

In giorno di agosto del 2005 un tir si ferma in un autogrill vicino a Bressanone. Da sotto sbuca un ragazzino. È tramortito, sporco. Si era legato di nascosto all’asse delle ruote posteriori prima che il tir si imbarcasse su una nave in partenza dalla Grecia. Poi Venezia, l’autostrada, quattro ore in¬finite. Molti altri erano morti così. Quel ragazzino si chiama Alidad Shiri e ha solo quattordici anni. È arrivato dall’Afghanistan, dove i genitori, una sorella e la nonna erano stati uccisi. Si era rifugiato in Pakistan con il fratello, l’altra sorella e gli zii.

As the civil rights movement and the fight for voter rights unfold in Selma, Alabama, many things happen inside and outside the Brown family’s home that do not have anything to do with the landmark 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Yet the famous outrages which unfold on that span form an inescapable backdrop in this collection of stories. In one, Willie Mae takes it upon herself to offer summer babysitting services to a glamorous single white mother—a secret she keeps from her parents that unravels with shocking results.

From the history of fandom to the current obsessive landscape, this zeitgeisty guide explores everything from stalkers to super fans. Looking at how and when fandom began, to fan hierarchy, social media culture and and much much more, this companion is a love letter to anyone who has followed, admired or supported something.

High school sucks for a lot of people. High school extra sucks when you believe, deep in your soul, that every kid in the school is out to get you. I wasn't popular before I got locked up in Straight Inc., the notorious "tough love" program for troubled teens. So it's not like I was walking around thinking everyone liked me. But when you're psychologically beaten for 16 months, you start to absorb the lessons. The lessons in Straight were: You are evil. Your peers are evil. Everything is evil except Straight, Inc. Before long, you're a true believer.

Everyone has the right to question the world around us. How is faith formed without first asking questions? Why did a member of the Iraqi parliament say, "The Americans and the British came to teach you manners and respect, O sons of Muhammad?" How my journey began. Questioning everyone and myself. Learning explaining the contradictions and consequences of many known and unknown events.

One hot summer afternoon, Rex Ogle’s sexuality is found out and his father gives him an ultimatum: you can be gay, or you can live here, but not both—and you have twenty-four hours to decide. Rex desperately hopes for a reprieve that doesn’t come, and the following day, he leaves. With no place to go, he drives to New Orleans, where he has the phone number of a man he met briefly and kissed once.