The Only Girl in the Car Bookworm and dreamer, Kathy was a young girl with a tender heart, an adventurer’s spirit, and a child’s terrible confusion about her proper place in the world. As the oldest daughter in a family of six children, she seemed trapped in her role as Big Sister and Mommy’s Helper. Then, one day, teetering on the brink of adolescence, hormones surging, she heard someone call her “cheesecake,” and suddenly saw her path. “Cheesecake, jailbait, sex kitten”--the very words seemed to be “doors opening” to a splendid new self. But from the moment she decides to lose her virginity and reels in her prey, a “full-grown man,” fourteen-year-old Kathy is headed for trouble. One cold, raw March night some months later, parked in a car with four boys on the outskirts of her small suburban town, she finds it. Though she could never have foreseen the outcome of that night, the “boys in the car could just as well have been Gypsies foretelling my future,” she writes. Girls who break the rules in small towns like the one she lived in are expected to pay a very high price for their transgressions--and she did. And yet...this young girl, as scrappy a protagonist as any in our literature, manages to transform her fate. The story of how she came to be in that car, and how she stepped out of it forever altered, to be sure, yet not forever damaged, is the theme of this extraordinary coming-of-age tale.

Adoptee Ed Li is on a mission to find his missing sister. An elaborate plan is devised that involves him teaching in a rural Chinese village, which Ed soon discovers it isn't his idea of a good time. In fact, when he sees a chance to quit, he takes it. But just before he can get out of Dodge, a local girl is murdered. Suspect? That Chinese teacher from America: Ed. With the help of his female colleague, Ed sets out to clear his name, uncovering a web of deceit in a village that's on the verge of becoming a lucrative jade mine. The deeper he digs, the more horrors he unearths. With memories of his sister drawing uncanny parallels to the victim's life, possibility of redemption and revenge looms.

Race Cars is a children’s book about white privilege created to help parents and educators facilitate tough conversations about race, privilege, and oppression. Written by a clinical social worker and child therapist with experience in anti-bias training and edited by a diversity expert, Race Cars tells the story of 2 best friends, a white car and a black car, that have different experiences and face different rules while entering the same race. Filled with bright, attention-grabbing illustrations, a notes and activities section at the back helps parents, guardians, and teachers further discuss these issues with children. Why is this book important? As early as 6 months old, a baby’s brain can notice race-based differences; children ages 2 to 4 can internalize racial bias and start assigning meaning to race; and 5- to 8-year-olds begin to place value judgments on similarities and differences. By age 12, children have a complete set of stereotypes about every racial, ethnic, and religious group in society. Our guidance is especially crucial during this impressionable time. Race Cars offers a simple, yet powerful, way to introduce these complicated themes to our children and is a valuable addition to classroom and home libraries.

n the opening pages of OneThreeThirteen - A Presidential Agent Novel Series Book 1, the unthinkable has happened. The town of Wilmette, a middle class suburb north of Chicago, has been reduced to a rumbling cloud of dust by an atomic bomb blast. Who could possibly be behind such a catastrophic act of terrorism? And what country has just declared war on the United States during its most vulnerable transition – the swearing in of a new President? At the same time, hundreds of miles away, on Joint Base Andrews, in Virginia, Colonel Jim Madison, 161st Airborne, awakens to find a group of Black Ops soldiers stealthily making their way through his home. Immediately, he knows something has gone terribly wrong. Madison must do everything in his power to escape because he has a startling and dangerous secret. One that has the power to destroy the United States and its allies. At the heart of OneThreeThirteen is political mystery that entails an international conspiracy reaching as far back as The Battle of Mogadishu, The invasion of Afghanistan, and 911. All of which are connected to one man – Youssef bin Caneer, a radical religious Muslim Imam bent on the destruction of the United States. He is assisted, in his diabolical efforts, by his trained assassin, General Muhammad Nasser. General Nasser is a man seeking revenge for the killing of his wife and son in the Jenin refugee camp. But fate has someone else in store for General Nasser, in the form of Staff Sergeant Lucinda Olmae Washington. She will change everything. OneThreeThirteen is an international political thriller and suspense novel that asks the question, "How far would you go to stay alive?" WARNING: Book contains some scenes of graphic violence and adult sexual situations

Twenty-two-year-old University of Orono law student Jimmy Bentley is pleasantly surprised when he receives a summons to attend the reading of his uncle's will. Jimmy wasn't aware that Orland Forster Gray had died a year earlier since he hadn't seen his uncle in many years. He's anxious to learn what old Orland has left him. Jimmy's parents caution him not to accept anything from his uncle, as he had a reputation for shady dealings. A fortune teller has also warned Jimmy to stay away from anything related to Orland Gray. Jimmy is determined to accept the offering, which turns out to be a dilapidated cabin and its surrounding ten acres on Black Lake in northern Maine. When Jimmy and his friends arrive at the cabin, they discover that it is already inhabited. The residents are ready to fight for the property, and they are willing to kill for it.

For readers of Damaged and Running with Scissors, a chilling exploration of psychological control that ends with a glorious escape. Maude still remembers the sound of the gate being locked behind her. She was three years old when they moved into the secluded manor and in the coming years, she would only be allowed out a handful of times. Her parents belonged to a fanatical Masonic order. She followed a strict schedule of study, hard labour and endless drills designed to ‘eliminate weakness’, such as holding an electric fence without flinching and sitting in a rat-infested cellar. But despite their chilling psychological control, her parents could not control her inner life. Befriending animals on the lonely estate and characters in the books she read, Maude nurtured in herself the compassion and love her parents forbade.

Biographical sketches of the most famous Grand Prix and sports car racing builders: Sydney Allard, W. O. Bentley, A. C. Bertelli, Marc Birkigt, Ettore Bugatti, Colin Chapman, Louis Coatalen, Briggs Cunningham, Albert De Dion, Fred And August Duesenberg, Enzo Ferrari, Amédée Gordini, J. A. Grégoire, Donald Healey, Ernest Henry, Antoine Lago, Vincenzo Lancia, Albert Lory, The Maserati Brothers, Wilhelm Maybach, Laurence H. Pomeroy, Ferdinand Porsche, Georges Roesch, Harry C. Stutz, Rudolf Uhlenhaut, Gabriel Voisin. ... and of the most famous drivers: The Bentley Boys, The Bugatti Drivers, The Women ( Camille Du Gast, Gwenda Hawkes, Elisabeth Juneck, Dorothy Levitt, Denise Mccluggage Evelyn Mull, Kay Petre, Dorothy Turner, Sheila Van Damm, Elsie Wisdom) Ascari, Behra, Biondetti, Bira, Boillot, Bonetto, Bracco, Von Brauchitsch, Brilli-Peri, Caracciola, Castellotti, Chiron, Collins, Dreyfus, Jarrott, Eyston, Fagioli, Fangio, Farina, Fitch, Gonzales, Gregory, Von Hanstein, Hawthorn, Hill, Lang, Lautenschlager, Marimon, Moss, Musso, Nazzaro, Neubauer, Nuvolari, Parnell, De Portago, Resta, Rosemeyer, Schell, Seaman, Sommer, Taruffi, Trintignant, Varzi,Villoresi.

The book describes the recollections of the author, Harold Riechers, starting in the mid 1930s and extending through the end of the year 2002. The authors early years were spent on a family farm in north-central Kansas. He describes family life on the farm during those difficult depression years, including both fun times and sad times. The author recalls interesting and unusual incidents that happened during his grade school and high school years in a rural Kansas community. After high school he attended college on a football scholarship. He recalls a number of amusing incidents that happened while he lived in a football dormitory. Later, he married his high school sweetheart and they began a promising future together. The author describes his devastation when his young wife suddenly becomes ill with cancer and dies, leaving him to raise three young children by himself. After raising his children to adulthood, he married again and began a new phase of his life. The book will be interesting to both youth and adults. Youth will be intrigued by the authors childhood activities on a family farm and adults will enjoy reminiscing about the "good old days" of their own youth.

“An eerily beautiful and lyrical story of loss, grief, and how quickly relationships can change, while also changing us.” —Robin Benway, National Book Award winner and bestselling author of Far From The Tree and A Year to the Day “Fast-paced, unputdownable, and full of heart and complicated emotions. An unforgettable story.” —Yamile Saied Méndez, Pura Belpré Award–winning author of Furia, a Reese’s Book Club selection What would you do if everyone you love disappeared? What if it was your fault? For July Fielding, nothing has been the same since that summer before senior year. Once, she had Alex, her loyal best friend, the one who always had her back. She had Sydney, who pushed her during every cross-country run, and who sometimes seemed to know July better than she knew herself. And she had Sam. Sam, who told her she was everything and left her breathless with his touch. Now, July is alone. Every single person in her small town of Lithia has disappeared. No family. No Alex or Sydney. No Sam. July’s only chance at unraveling the mystery of their disappearance is a series of objects, each a reminder of the people she loved most. And a mysterious message: GET TH3M BACK. From the #1 bestselling author of the Matched series, The Only Girl in Town is a searingly candid reckoning with both love and loneliness that perfectly distills the messy, beautiful realities of growing up, growing apart, and the courageous act of self-discovery.

Born in a farmhouse built by their father in Michigan, Blanche Brown and Janet Rodda are the children of Swedish parents. Over the years their lives sometimes crisscrossed, often separated by many miles, but their values never varied from their teaching of their early childhood.