"As child, Meryl Frank was the chosen inheritor of family remembrance. Her aunt Mollie, a formidable and cultured woman, insisted that Meryl never forget who they were, where they came from, and the hate that nearly destroyed them. Over long afternoons, Mollie told her about the city, the theater, and, above all else, Meryl's cousin, the radiant Franya Winter. Franya was the leading light of Vilna's Yiddish theater, a remarkable and precocious woman who cast off the restrictions of her Hasidic family and community to play roles as prostitutes and bellhops, lovers and nuns. Yet there was one thing her aunt Mollie would never tell Meryl: how Franya died. Before Mollie passed away, she gave Meryl a Yiddish book containing the terrible answer, but forbade her to read it. And for years, Meryl obeyed. Unearthed is the story of Meryl's search for Franya and a timely history of hatred and resistance. Through archives across four continents, by way of chance encounters and miraculous discoveries, and eventually, guided by the shocking truth recorded in the pages of the forbidden book, Meryl conjures the rogue spirit of her cousin-her beauty and her tragedy. Meryl's search reveals a lost world destroyed by hatred, illuminating the cultural haven of Vilna and its resistance during World War II. As she seeks to find her lost family legacy, Meryl looks for answers to the questions that have defined her life: what is our duty to the past? How do we honor such memories while keeping them from consuming us? And what do we teach our children about tragedy?"--

"Phoning Home is a collection of entertaining and thought-provoking essays featuring the author's quirky family, his Jewish heritage, and his New York City upbringing. Jacob M. Appel's recollections and insights, informed and filtered by his advanced degrees in medicine, law, and ethics, not only inspire nostalgic feelings but also offer insight into contemporary medical and ethical issues. At times sardonic and at others self-deprecating, Appel lays bare the most private aspects of his emotional life. "We'd just visited my grandaunt in Miami Beach, the last time we would ever see her. I had my two travel companions, Fat and Thin, securely buckled into the backseat of my mother's foul-tempered Dodge Dart," writes Appel of his family vacation with his two favorite rubber cat toys. Shortly thereafter Fat and Thin were lost forever--beginning, when Appel was just six years old, what he calls his "private apocalypse." Both erudite and full-hearted, Appel recounts storylines ranging from a bout of unrequited love gone awry to the poignant romance of his grandparents. We learn of the crank phone calls he made to his own family, the conspicuous absence of Jell-O at his grandaunt's house, and family secrets long believed buried. The stories capture the author's distinctive voice--a blend of a physician's compassion and an ethicist's constant questioning. "--

"Through poems, prose, and photos, Douglas candidly shares it all as he chaperones us through the stages of his life, including the untimely death of his youngest son and the stroke that left him unable to speak"--Page 4 of cover.

On a midnight visit to a Scottish cemetery, Peter and Jennifer get caught up in a drama three hundred years dead --a tale of two star-crossed lovers and the man who betrayed them. Their bitter ghosts still haunt the graveyard, too angry to leave the world of the living . . . but all too willing to drag Peter and Jennifer into the world of the dead.

Born into slavery, adopted as an infant by a princess, and raised in the palace of mighty Pharaoh, Moses struggles to define himself. And so do the three women who love him: his own embittered mother, forced to give him up by Pharaoh's decree; the Egyptian princess who defies her father and raises Moses as her own child; and his headstrong sister Almah, who discovers a greater kinship with the Egyptian deities than with her own God of the Hebrews. Told by Moses and his sister Almah from alternating points of view, this stunning novel by Newbery Honor-author Julius Lester probes questions of identity, faith, and destiny.

The Camel-Keeper's Son Maxmillian (also known as Bo) Stubbs's mother has just married a very rich man. Bo is looking forward to moving into his stepfather's big house and attending the snooty Fortnum School in the fall. Everything about Bo's new life will be first class, just like his new navy blazer with the Fortnum crest. While his mother is on her honeymoon, Bo spends a month with his father, Woody, an itinerant camel-keeper who entertains at shopping malls and conventions around the country. Woody is decidedly not first class, and neither is the eccentric cast of characters Bo meets on their travels. But Bo learns a lot from them that isn't taught at Fortnum...about love, loyalty, and the art of pretending -- and that class and first class are not necessarily the same thing.

Edward Cooper was a hard man to know. Dour and exuberant by turns, his moods dictated the always-uncertain climate of the Cooper household. Now - balding, octogenarian - he makes an unlikely literary muse. But to his now middle-aged son, he looms larger than life, an overwhelming, baffling presence. Edward Cooper made his name as a divorce attorney in LA whose cases were devoured by the tabloids. Now, he is slowly succumbing to dementia. As Bernard attempts to forge a coherent picture of his family history, he uncovers Edward's lawsuits against other family members, and recalls the itemized invoice his father once sent him for the total cost of his upbringing, for the sum of two million dollars. 'Bernard Cooper's The Bill from My Fathe r is a glorious cornucopia of love and pain. Not only is Cooper an exemplary writer but he can parse an emotion down to its most resonant note. This memoir amazes' Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones 'Cooper is a beautiful writer . . . his book is in a class of its own . . . Somehow, this is a story about all parents and their grown-up children and how they manage to keep going through all the insults and mixed messages and botched attempts to express love' Observer 'Cooper's wry, rueful memoir of a lifetime's wrangling with the old guy is memorably moving, emotionally disciplined, devilish in the detail and smartly funny. Read it now' The Times

Longlisted - Australian Book Industry Awards 2018 Shortlisted - Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards 2018 Shortlisted - WAYBRA Children's Choice Awards 2019 Shortlisted - REAL Children's Choice Awards 2019 'Haunting... dangerous and desperate, but also full of courage and hope.' The Guardian 1946. Europe is in ruins. Millions of people dream of finding happiness somewhere else. Fourteen-year-old Felix is one of them. When he's offered a journey to somewhere far away, he seizes the opportunity. So does someone very dear to him, even though she wasn't actually invited. They have high hopes for their new land, and their dramatic arrival there makes them want to stay. But before Felix and Anya can embrace the love and friendship of their new world, they must confront the murderous urge for revenge still alive in the old. Felix knows he hasn't faced anything like this before. He may not survive, but he's hoping he will. Maybe. Blending humour and heart, Maybe is a coming-of-age story about identity, family, and the search for truth and explores the devastating and long-lasting impact of loss and trauma. 'Morris Gleitzman has discovered the difficult trick of changing reality so that poignancy and laughter are never far apart.' The Australian 'Painfully truthful.' The Sunday Times 'Funny and shocking at the same time.' Jewish Chronicle Other books in the series- Once Then Now After Soon Maybe Always

SHORLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2018 NEW STATESMAN AND EVENING STANDARD BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2017 'Brilliant ... a staggering story' Robert Fox, Evening Standard, Books of the Year 'Fascinating, vast and rich ... a dramatic family memoir' Guardian Uncovering his family's remarkable and moving stories, Mark Mazower recounts the sacrifices and silences that marked a generation and their descendants. It was a family that fate drove into the siege of Stalingrad, the Vilna ghetto, occupied Paris, and even into the ranks of the Wehrmacht . His British father was the lucky one, the son of Russian Jewish emigrants who settled in London after escaping the civil war and revolution. Max, the grandfather, had started out as a socialist and manned the barricades against tsarist troops, but never spoke of it. His wife, Frouma, came from a family ravaged by the Great Terror yet somehow making their way in Soviet society. In the centenary of the Russian Revolution, What You Did Not Tell recounts a brand of socialism erased from memory - humanistic, impassioned, and broad-ranging in its sympathies. But it also explores the unexpected happiness that may await history's losers, the power of friendship, and the love of place that allowed Max and Frouma's son to call England home.

Neither Anne nor Emily remembered choosing the book at the library, but when as they read it, the boundary between their world and the one described in the book disappears. Suddenly they are in Sherwood Forest, where they join Robin Hood's band. The further adventures that await Anne, Emily, and their brother, Will, are the kind they had always dreamed about. They had yearned for magic as strong as the spell cast by the stories they loved best. But then an uninvited guest turns up at their parents' garden party. The sinister man snatches the book with the intention of using its powers for evil, and the siblings find themselves engaged in a battle to regain possession of the book. Richly detailed black-and-white drawings enliven this intriguing literary fantasy, which pays homage to some of the heroes of the author's childhood, among them E. Nesbit, Edward Eager, and Leo Tolstoy.

English poet and critic Alvarez begins this autobiography with his recollections of his childhood as the sickly son of deeply unhappy parents. Alvarez courted danger as a way of overcoming his infirmities and found in the deadly ballet of the Battle of Britain - Messerschmitts and Spifires dancing and dueling across the London sky - an image of beauty and risk that would never leave him. And, yet, poetry and the literary life were his first loves as an adult, and he describes the excitement of his early successes at Oxford and as poetry critic at the Observer.

Winner - KOALA Children's Choice Awards 2011 - Fiction for Years 7-9 Winner - YABBA Children's Choice Awards 2011 - Hall of Fame Shortlisted - REAL Children's Choice Awards 2011 - Fiction for Years 7-9 Bridget wants a quiet life. Including, if possible, keeping her parents out of prison. Then a boy called Menzies makes her an offer she can't refuse, and they set off on a job of their own. It's a desperate, daring plan - to rescue two kids, Jamal and Bibi, from a desert detention centre. Can Bridget and Menzies pull off their very first jail break, or will they end up behind bars too? Sometimes, to help a friend, you have to dig deep . With its themes of friendship, perseverance and the power of standing up for what's right, Girl Underground is a must-read for anyone who loved Boy Overboard and wants to continue following Jamal and Bibi's journey through the eyes of all new, but every bit as endearing, characters. ------------------ PRAISE FOR MORRIS GLEITZMAN 'Readers can't get enough of him.' The Independent 'A brilliantly funny writer' Sunday Telegraph 'A virtuoso demonstration of how you can make comedy out of the most unlikely subject' Sunday Times 'He is one of the finest examples of a writer who can make humour stem from the things that really matter in life.' The Guardian

Surprise your mum with a chainsaw, be a bigger star than Tom Cruise, save the world with a plate of veggies, start your new life in a taxi, rescue your family with a tomato, send your dad into a panic with a tractor, do a good deed with a paper bag on your head pack your bags for a trip to the spleen, upset your auntie with ten kilos of chocolate, swap a bomb for three ice-creams on a train . . . and lots more.

In the much-anticipated third entry in Edeet Ravel's delightful series, Pauline Carelli-Bloom is off to London to visit her grandmother. She's thrilled by all the different cultures she encounters in the great city -- and thrilled even more with Nigel Sivananda, a dashing young New Age devotee with, as she faithfully records in her diary, "blue eyes that pierce your soul and penetrate your thoughts." Now that her soul's been pierced and her thoughts penetrated, will Pauline also be swept completely off her feet? Will she return to her dull-but-faithful boyfriend Yoshi or escape to an ashram with Nigel in search of adventure and everlasting enlightenment? One thing is certain: Pauline's life is never boring, and neither is her journey toward self-discovery. Relating her latest adventures in life and love with quirky humor and an ever-present flair for the dramatic, Pauline presents a warm and funny snapshot of teen life, unfiltered and uncensored.

' What I need,' said Pearl, as she started to slide off the roof, 'is a grandmother.' But where do you get a top gran at short notice? It's not easy. Luckily Pearl's got Winston to help her, and you can do anything when your best friend is the world's brainiest guinea pig. Then Pearl meets Gran and the surprises begin. Prepare for an emotional journey filled with laughter and tears as Pearl and her best friend Winston embark on a quest that will test their friendship and challenge them to learn valuable lessons about perseverance and acceptance. ------------------ PRAISE FOR MORRIS GLEITZMAN 'Readers can't get enough of him.' The Independent ' A brilliantly funny writer' Sunday Telegraph 'A virtuoso demonstration of how you can make comedy out of the most unlikely subject' Sunday Times 'He is one of the finest examples of a writer who can make humour stem from the things that really matter in life.' The Guardian

Tales of Innocence and Experience is a captivating exploration of the relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter as a second baby is about to be born. Alive to the special sweetness of the relationship, Figes also explores the darker side of childhood. How in fairytales such as 'Snow White', 'Little Red Riding Hood' and 'Hansel and Gretel' difficult emotions like jealousy and anger, fear of death and abandonment are evoked and transformed by the storyteller's art. It is at this point that the author evokes a fairy tale of her own privileged Berlin childhood which was brutally shattered when her family escaped from the Nazis to England, leaving behind her much loved grandparents, who later perished in Dachau. As Eva Figes says, 'Women lose their innocence, not with loss of virginity, but with childbirth', but a new child around allows the grandmother the chance we all seek to sneak back into the garden of innocence.

Edgar Morin, one of France's greatest living intellectuals, tells the story of his father, Vidal Nahoum, but also the story of Sephardic Jews, and of Europe. In this 'holographic history' Vidal's story, and that of his family, carries within it the flowering, decline, and death of Jewish culture in Spain, the passage from Empires to Nation States, the complex relations between Jews and Gentiles, between East and West, and, ultimately, the history of the twentieth century itself. Morin's work ranges from the great sweep of global historical events to the everyday details of individual lives, letters, feelings, reflections, and experiences. Vidal was born in 1894 in the Ottoman Empire's great Macedonian port. His great-grandfather came from Tuscany and spoke Italian. His mother tongue was fifteenth-century Spanish. He learned French and German as a child. When he was an adolescent, he dreamed of living in France; he was deported there as a prisoner, and then liberated by the French Prime Minister. He lived through the Balkan wars, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and two World Wars. Vidal cannot be isolated from his family. And as Edgar Morin explains, "this book also tells the stories of the men and women in his immediate family When, as his son, I inevitably come into his story... I describe him as objectively as possible. The reverence that inspired me did not call for a work of edification; it implied that I should attempt to write a truthful book. For this reason, the book is not in the least respectful, or at least not in the usual sense of the word. Vidal felt that loving someone meant being able to tease him. The author of these lines, who has inherited something of this trait, does not think it disrespectful to tease or make fun of the people he loves."