My Lost Childhood is a memoir describing immeasurable suffering the author went through in his early childhood. In the late 1980s, the Islamic government began to systematically torture and kill Southern Sudanese families, burn their villages, and enslave young boys and girls. As a result, an approximately, as numbers are largely unknown and only an estimate, 27,000 plus boys from Southern tribes were forced to flee from their homes. Traveling naked and barefoot, they sought refuge in neighboring Fugnido, Ethiopia, where a few years later they were forced to flee yet another civil war. Returning to Sudan, the Islamic government forced them to travel for another five months, ultimately arriving in Kakuma, Kenya, after four years of unthinkable hardship and walking over thousands of miles naked, barefoot, and ailing from starvation, dehydration, and diseases. Many boys perished along the way and their numbers shrank into few thousands. Abraham Deng Ater, separated from his family in 1987, is one of approximately 3,800 boys now known as the Lost Boys of Sudan. He left Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya after several years of massive suffering and was granted refuge in the U.S. in 2001. Many Lost Boys including Abraham have since become U.S. citizens and have continued to pursue their education. Thousands more have also been granted refuge elsewhere and are scattered around the globe.

Twelve-year-old Josephine Russing lives alone with her father. Mr. Russing is a distant, cold man best known for his insistence that every member of their town wear gloves at all times, just as he does--even at home--and just as he forces his daughter to do as well. Then one day Josephine meets a boy named Fargus. But when she tries to follow him, he mysteriously disappears and Josephine finds herself in another world called Gulm. Gulm is ruled by the "Master," a terrifying villain who has taken all the children of Gulm. With Fargus by her side, and joined by Fargus's friend Ida, Josephine must try to find her way home. As the trio attempt to evade the Master, they encounter numerous adventures and discover the surprising truth about the land of Gulm, and Josephine's own life back home.

The magic they created in their dance was the truest cleansing power mixed with the protection magic of what is still inside him. What is left of the natural magic wanted this place to be destroyed without hurting the people here, who have done no wrong.

“This impressive . . . study charts the history of [post WWII] humanitarian relief . . . demonstrating how the institutions of the family became politicized.” (Library Journal) During the Second World War, an unprecedented number of families were torn apart. As the Nazi empire crumbled, millions roamed the continent in search of their loved ones. The Lost Children tells the story of these families. We see how the reconstruction of families quickly became synonymous with the survival of European civilization itself. Based on original research in German, French, Czech, Polish, and American archives, The Lost Children is a heartbreaking and mesmerizing story. It brings together the histories of eastern and western Europe, and traces the efforts of everyone―from Jewish Holocaust survivors to German refugees, from Communist officials to American social workers―to rebuild the lives of displaced children. It reveals that many seemingly timeless ideals of the family were actually conceived in the concentration camps, orphanages, and refugee camps of the Second World War, and shows how the process of reconstruction shaped Cold War ideologies and ideas about childhood and national identity. This riveting tale of families destroyed by war reverberates in the lost children of today’s wars and in the compelling issues of international adoption, human rights and humanitarianism, and refugee policies. “Fascinating.” ―New Republic “[A] superb book . . . [A] wide-ranging, exceptionally well-researched study.” ―Tablet Magazine “Zahra’s work is insightful in considering what treatment of lost children can tell us about broader developments in the post-war period, both in terms of how nations interacted with each other and how psychologists understood the impact of war on children.” —Times Higher Education

In 1973 Marcia Lowry, a young civil liberties attorney, filed a controversial class-action suit that would come to be known as Wilder, which challenged New York City’s operation of its foster-care system. Lowry’s contention was that the system failed the children it was meant to help because it placed them according to creed and convenience, not according to need. The plaintiff was thirteen-year-old Shirley Wilder, an abused runaway whose childhood had been shaped by the system’s inequities. Within a year Shirley would give birth to a son and relinquish him to the same failing system. Seventeen years later, with Wilder still controversial and still in court, Nina Bernstein tried to find out what had happened to Shirley and her baby. She was told by child-welfare officials that Shirley had disappeared and that her son was one of thousands of anonymous children whose circumstances are concealed by the veil of confidentiality that hides foster care from public scrutiny. But Bernstein persevered. The Lost Children of Wilder gives us, in galvanizing and compulsively readable detail, the full history of a case that reveals the racial, religious, and political fault lines in our child-welfare system, and lays bare the fundamental contradiction at the heart of our well-intended efforts to sever the destiny of needy children from the fate of their parents. Bernstein takes us behind the scenes of far-reaching legal and legislative battles, at the same time as she traces, in heartbreaking counterpoint, the consequences as they are played out in the life of Shirley’s son, Lamont. His terrifying journey through the system has produced a man with deep emotional wounds, a stifled yearning for family, and a son growing up in the system’s shadow. In recounting the failure of the promise of benevolence, The Lost Children of Wilder makes clear how welfare reform can also damage its intended beneficiaries. A landmark achievement of investigative reporting and a tour de force of social observation, this book will haunt every reader who cares about the needs of children.

Pip and his friends Toad and Frankie are holed up in Hangman's Hollow in the dead of winter, and Pip has made a thrilling discovery. He longs to race out into the snow to act on it, but he knows there is great danger outside with the sinister warden Jarvis and the wicked woodsfolk of the forest on the prowl. And so begins a new and final adventure for our heroic friends as they join forces to rise up against the creatures of Spindlewood forest and reclaim the city for their own - and Pip might just find something very dear to his own heart ...

★★★★★ FROM AWARD WINNING USA TODAY & MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR J. ROBERT KENNEDY ★★★★★ IT IS ONE OF THE KINGDOM’S GREATEST SHAMES. BUT CAN ONE LONE TEMPLAR KNIGHT BRING IT TO AN END? A desperate husband and father commits a heinous crime to protect his family’s future, then compounds it with an even more atrocious act to preserve his secret, forever condemning his soul to fiery damnation. But the secret he thinks he has successfully protected is known to others, innocent and guilty alike. And they are determined to take advantage, one to bring justice, the others to profit. When Thomas Durant is told of the unspeakable horrors taking place on the streets of Paris, he asks his guests, Templar Knight Sir Marcus de Rancourt, and his trusted companion, Sergeant Simon Chastain, to help put an end to it. They agree, and together, they vow to seek the truth and bring justice to those involved in both the King’s Court and the slums of Paris. From award winning USA Today and million copy bestselling author J. Robert Kennedy comes another thrilling mystery in the hit Templar Detective series, packed with action, intrigue, heartache, and humor, guaranteed to keep fans of historical thrillers finding an excuse to read just one more chapter before turning out the lights. Get your copy today, and discover the terrible secret kept by the Kingdom of France’s noble families… USA Today bestselling author J. Robert Kennedy’s novels are ideal for fans of Dan Brown, Clive Cussler, James Rollins, Tom Clancy, and James Patterson, and those who enjoy intense action and intrigue with a healthy dose of humor and a touch of romance. Readers interested in action adventure, archaeological mysteries, historical fiction, men’s adventure, conspiracies and ancient mysteries, will love the James Acton Thrillers. If spies and espionage is your thing, then check out the CIA Special Agent Dylan Kane Thrillers for riveting tradecraft action. And for those who prefer the team approach and Special Forces, check out the Delta Force Unleashed series for exciting military thrills. Or maybe you just feel like a mystery? Check out the Detective Shakespeare Mysteries for dark, intense psychological thrillers. Into the Templars? Then the Templar Detective Thrillers are for you!