The Unbroken Circle

In a powerful and rhythmic picture book, a grandmother tells the tale of Gullahs and their beautiful sweetgrass baskets that keep their African heritage alive. Reprint.

A stunning repackage of a companion to Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, with cover art by two-time Caldecott Honor Award winner Kadir Nelson! It is a frightening and turbulent time for the Logan family. First, their friend T.J. must go on trial for murder--and confront an all-white jury. Then, Cousin Suzella tries to pass for white, with humiliating consequences. And when Cassie's neighbor, Mrs. Lee Annie, stands up for her right to vote, she and her family are driven from their home. Other neighbors are destroyed and shattered by the greed of landowners. But through it all, Cassie and the Logans stand together and stand proud--proving that courage, love, and understanding can defy even the deepest prejudice. "This dramatic sequel to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a powerful novel . . .capable of touching readers of any age."—The Christian Science Monitor "A profoundly affecting novel."—Publishers Weekly

Sequel to Jay Bird A month away from his high school graduation, Jay Kirkman must confront his doubts about the future. The recent death of his Grams, the feisty and funny grandparent he had counted on for wisdom and support, has taken a toll on him. Breaking away from his overbearing parents, especially his strict disciplinarian mother, is proving difficult. Struggling to say goodbye to the people he loves, Jay has to decide if he wants to move away to attend college at the end of the summer. He’s nervous about leaving the only place he has ever known to set out on a new journey toward self-discovery and adulthood. But departing from the tight-knit community of Milton means Jay will have to desert his best friend Rocco. Dealing with his own family problems, Rocco reaches out to male strangers for emotional support and comfort, but a handful of one-night stands and physical assaults leave him hurt and vulnerable. Will Rocco’s life-and-death circumstances alter Jay’s plans? Or will Jay leave his friends and community behind and never to look back?

Havana, Cuba, 1960. The euphoria following the nation's successful Revolution the previous year has waned among large sectors of the population. Cuba's new leader, Fidel Castro, after having promised to restore democracy to the troubled island, is forcibly dragging the country down the road to Communist dictatorship. As an ominous, Stalinist cloud begins to envelop the country, democratic forces launch an anti-government insurgency with the hope of saving Cuba from the totalitarian darkness that threatens her. The Unbroken Circle series is the story of the fictional Leon family, whose peaceful, middle class existence is swept suddenly into a tempest of warfare, betrayal, and separation during the early years of the Cuban Revolution. Told with the heart-pounding suspense of a Cold War saga and the poignancy of a family drama, The Struggle Begins sets the stage for The Unbroken Circle series with electrifying power. From Reader Reviews: "The Struggle Begins" is a thrilling historical novel that cannot be put down . . ." "The characters are so real that you can almost touch them." "The Struggle Begins" is presented to the readers in a scenario that combines the reality of Cuba in 1960 with fictional characters to make a fascinating novel." "Caught right away in the drama of a Cuban family in the midst of their struggles with Castro's revolution."

Using a rich selection of reviews, interviews, and articles, Metting (American literature, U. of New Hampshire, Manchester) explores and attempts to codify the creative process behind the work of these two musicians, exploring the wide range of styles they borrowed and adapted. Because of their lifelong interest and use of these traditional musical forms, the history of blues and folk music is interwoven into Metting's story, which is made lively by the frequent quotes from Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

From celebrated storyteller "Sean of the South" comes an unforgettable memoir of love, loss, the friction of family memories, and the unlikely hope that you're gonna be alright. Sean Dietrich was twelve years old when he scattered his father's ashes from the mountain range. His father was a man who lived for baseball, a steel worker with a ready wink, who once scaled a fifty-foot tree just to hang a tire swing for his son. He was also the stranger who tried to kidnap and kill Sean's mother before pulling the trigger on himself. He was a childhood hero, now reduced to a man in a box. Will the Circle Be Unbroken? is the story of what happens after the unthinkable, and the journey we all must make in finding the courage to stop the cycles of the past from laying claim to our future. Sean was a seventh-grade drop-out, a dishwasher then a construction worker to help his mother and sister scrape by, and a self-described "nobody with a sad story behind him." Yet he cannot deny the glimmers of life's goodness even amid its rough edges. Such goodness becomes even harder to deny when Sean meets the love of his life at a fried chicken church potluck, and harder still when his lifelong love of storytelling leads him to stages across the southeast, where he is known and loved as "Sean of the South." A story that will stay with you long after the final page, Will the Circle Be Unbroken? testifies to the strength that lives within us all to make our peace with the past and look to the future with renewed hope and wonder.

The renowned oral historian interviews ordinary people about facing mortality: “It’s the unguarded voices he presents that stay with you.” —The New York Times In this book, the Pulitzer Prize winner and National Book Award finalist Studs Terkel, author of the New York Times bestseller Working, turns to the ultimate human experience: death. Here a wide range of people address the unknowable culmination of our lives, the possibilities of an afterlife, and their impact on the way we live, with memorable grace and poignancy. Included in this remarkable treasury are Terkel’s interviews with such famed figures as Kurt Vonnegut and Ira Glass as well as with ordinary people, from policemen and firefighters to emergency health workers and nurses, who confront death in their everyday lives. Whether a Hiroshima survivor, a death-row parolee, or a woman who emerged from a two-year coma, these interviewees offer tremendous eloquence as they deal with a topic many are reluctant to discuss openly and freely. Only Terkel, whom Cornel West called “an American treasure,” could have elicited such honesty from people reflecting on the lives they have led and what lies before them still. “Extraordinary . . . a work of insight, wisdom, and freshness.” —The Seattle Times

Rachel Porter, captured as a child in 1838 by a band of renegade Sioux, finds it hard to adjust after she is recaptured by her minister father. Involving historical fiction, with powerful emotional impact. -- School Library Journal, starred review

We will all die. Yet modern culture fears and avoids the subject of death. Will the Circle be Unbroken? deals sensitively and unforgettably with a universal experience.