Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in Growing Up & Facts of Life

Lily the sailboat is small but sturdy, in a harbor full of enormous cargo ships, speedy fishing vessels, and bossy tugboats that all have somewhere to go. And something to say—mostly, "Out of my way, Lily!" But Lily has somewhere to go, too.

Black hands in Fayette County, Tennessee, were free to pick cotton and corn but were barred from casting ballots. A whirlwind of change blew through the county when Black landowners like John McFerren and Harpman Jameson organized registration drives to help Black citizens vote—but not without violent attempts to stop it. White farmers evicted Black sharecroppers off their land, leaving families stranded and forced to live in tents. White shopkeepers also refused to sell to them. But the voiceless did finally speak. In 1965 the Voting Rights Act legally ended voter discrimination.

Twelve-year-old Marigold Lafleur is the last of a long line of aromages: witches who blend scents into practical charms using aromagic. But ever since a terrible accident injured her father and damaged Luna Island, Marigold and her sisters, Birdie and Lou, have vowed to abandon their family legacy and mama’s way of life. Shunned by their neighbors and overlooked by their parents, Marigold relies on her big sisters above all else. But when Marigold discovers a secret curse that threatens her family, her sisters can’t stop the impending danger.

Roberto Alvarez’s world changed the day he could no longer attend Lemon Grove Grammar School in the small, rural community where he lived near San Diego, California. He and the other Mexican American students were told they had to go to a new, separate school on Olive Street. A school just for them. A school where they would not hold back the other students. But Roberto and the Mexican American students and their families believed the new school’s real purpose was to segregate, to separate. They didn’t think that was right, or just, or legal.

James Abram Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, was assassinated when he was shot by Charles Guiteau in July 1881, less than four months after he was elected president. But Garfield didn't actually die until 80 days later. In this thriller, award-winning author Gail Jarrow delves into the fascinating story of the relationship between Garfield and Guiteau, and relates the gruesome details of Garfield's slow and agonizing death.

Frank the cat has it good: Tons of toys, unlimited Whiskies™ and space and quiet to stretch and nap and think and write. Then his people bring home a box. A box with something unexpected inside. A puppy. A puppy who doesn’t know the rules of naps. A puppy who slobbers and tackles and barks. This won’t do. Frank will just have to find a better home. Should be easy, right?

Sometimes our feelings are so big, our dreams and our worries so wide, that we can’t find the words to express them. How MUCH love we feel; what a new sibling will bring; exactly what it’s like to take a hard tumble, or to want the sun to shine on a rainy day. These thoughts and questions are explored by Hans and Monique Hagen in poems pitched perfectly to the children who wonder.

In the new country, Shirley and her family all have big dreams. Take the family store: Shirley has great ideas about how to make it more modern! Prettier! More profitable! She even thinks she can sell the one specialty no one seems to want to try: Mama’s homemade gefilte fish. But her parents think she’s too young to help. And anyway they didn’t come to America for their little girl to work. “Go play with the cat!” they urge.

It’s Dat’s first day of school in a new country! Dat and his Mah made a long journey to get here, and Dat doesn’t know the language. To Dat, everything everybody says - from the school bus driver to his new classmates - sounds like gibberish. How is Dat going to make new friends if they can’t understand each other? Luckily there’s a friendly girl in Dat’s class who knows that there are other ways to communicate, besides just talking. Could she help make sense of the gibberish?

A long-ago “accident”. An isolated girl named Aviva. A community that wants to help but doesn’t know how. And a ghostly dybbuk that no one but Aviva can see, causing mayhem and mischief that everyone blames on her.

Hasani’s post-seventh-grade summer to-do list is pretty simple: get a bigger following for her makeup YouTube channel and figure out how to get her parents back together. What she does not expect is that an emotional outburst will spark a latent magical ability in her. Or that the magic will be strong enough to attract the attention of witches. Or that before she can say #BlackGirlMagic, she’ll be shipped off on a scholarship to a fancy finishing school for talented young ladies.

Twelve-year-old Grace is desperate for a puppy. All she wants is someone to love - and to love her back. Someone who’ll make her new stepfather’s house feel like home. Christmas morning, Grace springs out of bed hopeful that her dreams are about to come true. But the present that awaits her isn’t soft and furry. It’s not a puppy at all - it’s a pig.

Charlie O’Reilly is an only child. Which is why it makes everyone uncomfortable when he talks about his brother. Liam. His eight-year-old kid brother, who, up until a year ago, slept in the bunk above Charlie, took pride in being as annoying as possible, and was the only person who could make Charlie laugh until it hurt. Then came the morning when the bunk, and Liam, disappeared forever. No one even remembers him - not Charlie’s mother, who has been lost in her own troubles; and not Charlie’s father, who is gone frequently on business trips.

Sunny Beringer hates her first name - her real first name - Sunflower. And she hates that her mom has suddenly left behind her dad and uprooted their family miles away from New Jersey to North Carolina just so she can pursue some fancy degree. Sunny has to live with a grandmother she barely knows, and she’s had to leave her beloved cat and all her friends behind. And no one else seems to think anything is wrong. So she creates “Sunny Beringer’s Totally Awesome Plan for Romance” - a list of surefire ways to make her parents fall madly in love again.

To some kids, Amelia's life sounds like the ultimate fantasy. She and her brothers are homeschooled by their adventurous parents, and the family travels around the country in an RV, scaling mountains, rappelling down canyons, and skiing down double black diamond slopes.There's just one problem - Amelia didn't inherit the family's daredevil gene. She's terrified of heights and would give anything to be reading instead of careening down a mountain. She's also desperate for the chance to attend a regular school and make real friends.

There is a great commotion in the beehive. The bees are cramped, they can’t play games, and after many complex calculations, it seems there is one bee too many! Who was it? Was she eating their honey? Could they identify her buzz? And once they did, what would they do with her?

Rufus may have successfully sent the feylings home to the Green World, but he still has one pesky feyling under his wing: Nettle, his sometimes enemy, now mentor. Nettle is in charge of helping Rufus and his cousin Abigail protect Feylawn, their grandfather’s magical and mysterious homestead. But this difficult task becomes even more dangerous when a leopard appears in the woods without warning; strange, waterlogged women arrive to warn of impending doom; and a goblin begins digging his way back to Earth, hungry for revenge.

Mindy is super excited to go to South Korea to visit her grandparents! She has never taken such a big trip before, and she can’t wait to see her family again. Plus, Dad’s girlfriend, Julie, is also going to meet the family for the first time. Mindy and Julie decide to make a traditional Korean meal for the family as a thank-you for hosting. But after a few mishaps, Mindy fears they are cooking up a big disaster in the kitchen! Can Mindy and Julie make sure their meal passes the most important taste test of them all?

When Señor Fuentes asks Dominguita to run a very important errand to put an order in at the local butcher shop for his granddaughter Leni’s upcoming quinceañera — Dom is happy to help. But when Señor Fuentes discovers his order has gone missing and the food for the party has been sold to someone else, it becomes Dom’s next mission to find out what happened.

It’s time to pick a class president, and Mindy’s big campaign is all about: 1. Friendship! 2. Kindness! 3. Snacks! But there is one thing that Mindy is not sure she can do: Make a speech to her class about why they should vote for her.