"Murder by poison alarmed, enthralled, and in many ways encapsulated the Victorian age. Linda Stratmann's dark and splendid social history reveals the nineteenth century as a gruesome battleground where poisoners went head-to-head with authorities who strove to detect poisons, control their availability, and bring the guilty to justice. She corrects many misconceptions about particular poisons and documents how the evolution of issues such as marital rights and the legal protection of children impacted poisonings. Combining archival research with a novelist's eye, Stratmann charts the era's inexorable rise of poison cases both shocking and sad"--

A boy sent by an African god to tend the spirits of the dead struggles to fulfill his duty from within the bonds of slavery in Time's Memory , by National Book Award finalist Julius Lester . Amma is the creator god, the master of life and death, and he is worried. His people have always known how to take care of the spirits of the dead – the nyama – so that they don't become destructive forces among the living. But amid the chaos of the African slave trade and the brutality of American slavery, too many of his people are dying and their souls are being ignored in this new land. Amma sends a young man, Ekundayo, to a plantation in Virginia where he becomes a slave on the eve of the Civil War. Amma hopes that Ekundayo will be able to find a way to bring peace to the nyama before it is too late. But Ekundayo can see only sorrow in this land – sorrow in the ownership of people, in the slaves who have been separated from their children and spouses, in the restless spirits of the dead, and in his own forbidden relationship with his master's daughter. How Ekundayo finds a way to bring peace to both the dead and the living makes this an unforgettable journey into the slave experience and Newbury Honor author Julius Lester's most powerful work to date. Time's Memory is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Lost traces the reckless expedition undertaken by two adult couples, imagining they are refreshing themselves and their marriages with a bracing adventure in mountain camping. They cart along their four kids, just to share the fun. Conditions, both outside and inside these adults, force on them sacrifices they were never prepared to make, sacrifices that reach beyond their own lives and into those of their children and, very likely, all of us.

From WATER STREET PRESS A children's story for grown-ups. ..".amongst their own kind, children are the world's most thoroughgoing skeptics." But not eleven-year-old Jeff Greenaway. When his parents suddenly come into possession of hard-to-get tickets to the smash musical How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, but can't find a babysitter, Jeff ventures out in the Manhattan night to meet his hero, Count Zackuloff, the mad, moldy host of Channel 5's Midnight Mystery Theater, a horror movie program. Amazingly, the Count takes Jeff along on a publicity stunt in costume to the Horn and Hardart Automat, drawing crowds of curious fans. Next, the Count takes Jeff to a double feature horror matinee at the 58th Street Translux. An unusual friendship develops between the boy and the ghoul. Through it all, Jeff nutures dreams of becoming the Count's on-screen sidekick. But the Count has his own dreams-and they do not include a lifetime of introducing old horror movies on a third-rate New York TV station. James Howard Kunstler's charming tale takes us back to an age when New York City was a natural playground for a little boy and his own, personal vampire hero-a time when it seemed possible that all of our dreams could come true.

Abigail Goodman is the forty-one-year-old married mother of two grown children who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant. After much soul-searching, she opts to terminate the pregnancy. One month later, Abigail is arrested under a law that makes abortion a capital offense. Now she is fighting - not for her right to choose, but for her life.

A unique novel of parents and children - and the spaces between them Dr. Niels Berners - a Swiss plastic surgeon living in New York - is struggling to recover from his dysfunctional son's abandonment of him. He joins a group of four other parents, all with absent children either in jail or in jeopardy, to discuss their feelings and seek a sense of community, comfort, and closure. Hortense Calisher artfully strings together tales of healing, brilliantly tracing the shadow of the generational gap. With compassion and precision, she paints the bruised egos of concerned parents confronting very empty nests.

Growing up in Soviet Russia, Kat Knopman worships her parents, Jewish intellectuals who teach literature at a Moscow school, run a drama club, and dabble in political radicalism. When Kat is diagnosed with rapidly-progressing scoliosis, the trajectory of her life changes and she finds herself at a different institution-- a school-sanatorium for children with spinal ailments. Confined to a brace, surrounded by unsympathetic peers, Kat embarks on a quest to prove that she can be as exceptional as her parents despite her physical limitations, her Jewishness, and her suspicion that her beloved parents are in fact flawed.

A tender work of mourning, this poetry collection—owing to the remembered words of a much-loved husband—recalls the author’s life before marriage and considers a future after her husband’s death. Imagining that future, she confronts the myths of an afterlife, a belief in God, her debts to other poets, and her dependence on friends and children. At the center of these beautiful lyrics—written with complete control of rhythm and tone—it is a man, rather than grief, that appears clearly.

"In Foreign Cities deals with an American woman who, after fifteen years of marriage to an Austrian businessman, begins an affair with a young American singer, leaves her husband and two children, and returns to her homeland in search of her lost identity as a poet and the personal artistic fulfillment that she feels has been denied to her in the foreign environment. Lillian's journey leads her through a series of internal and external confrontations with a past ideal that is not compatible with the present reality, on her way to a final resolution of the conflicts with herself and with family members who haunt her memories: a well-adjusted sister who is her social opposite; a grandmother who envisioned for her the literary success she has not realized; a father who rejected her; the husband and children whom she has left behind. The ending brings the tragic insight that she has been victimized by a false perception of her life and talent. Her problem is not the world around her but lies within herself." --Book Jacket.

Harold has always been in charge on the farm. That is just the way it has been. But when an egg hatches and a bossy and domineering duck is born, life changes. Suddnely nothing is the same and Harold looks set to lose everything, until help comes from a very unexpected source. A wonderful and witty picture book with lots of text - great for sharing.

After the death of his beloved grandmother - his only family - Daniel feels lost and alone. People move into his house, rubbing salt into the wound. But then he meets Laura, whose loneliness matches his. Might she become his surrogate grandmother? And that family in his old home: the bright, beautiful Jade and her little brother, Finn. Could they too spell a new beginning? It seems too much to hope for. There is something strange about Jade and Finn's relationship. And someone is after the little boy - a figure from the past. He holds the key to a secret that threatens Finn's future - and that will turn Jade and Daniel's lives upside-down.

A collection of stories celebrating the Jewish tradition in many different places and different times, some reconstructed from actual events, some based on tradition, and some fictional in form.

In charming and poignant vignettes, Nina Kossman tells of her childhood in 1960s Moscow. Nina wants to become a heroine by awakening Grandfather Lenin during a class trip to his tomb, or by painting Red Square really red. But she also finds herself fascinated with life in the forbidden world "behind the border." B&W photos.

"Strong, vivid characters combined with humor and poignancy create an unforgettable love story, to be read and re-read." —Publishers Weekly

A cane toad's hilarious quest to discover the true meaning of Christmas! Limpy has a dream. A dream in which cane toads and humans live happily together. Surely this time Limpy will be able to show humans how nice cane toads can be? After all, it is Christmas. And isn't Christmas a time of peace and goodwill to all men? And cane toads?

Cane toads are Public Enemy Number One to most Australians. Limpy the cane toad is on a quest to improve their image - and save his family from imminent destruction! When one of his relatives features on a TV cooking show, destined to star as the main ingredient, Limpy sets out to rescue him and ends up on camera himself. Can Limpy use his 15 minutes of fame to get humans to lay off the cane-toad squashing? Or will that be a recipe for disaster? A stirring story of bravery, sacrifice and prime-time warts-and-all adventure. Morris Gleitzman is the bestselling author of Two Weeks with the Queen, Bumface and Once, Now, Then and Soon.

It's not easy being part of Ginger's family when you1re allergic to cats - three of them love cats and five of them are cats. Ginger tries to be good, but it's not easy when your new best friend is a fierce looking stray dog. It gets even harder when the school principal starts trying to kill your best friend. But Ginger manages to save the dog and expose Mr Napier for the phoney he is.

From as little as the snail to as big as the giraffe, from the thundering mastodon of long ago to the ordinary backyard squirrel of today, the animals in this book inspire our imagination. Here is a fascinating cornucopia that exudes a whimsical affection and respect for the creatures with whom we share our kingdom.