Showing results by narrator "Kyla García" in All Categories

A dark wind gathers on Chaco Navajo reservation, deep in the heart of New Mexico. Grant Romer, the Keeper of the secret bell, can feel it pulling at his soul. Caroline and Owen work as hard as they can to treat the Navajo, but the dark wind brings a desperation to their clinic that is beyond western medicine.

When Louise Wolfe’s first real boyfriend mocks and disrespects Native people in front of her, she breaks things off and dumps him over e-mail. It’s her senior year, and she’d rather spend her time with her family and friends and working on the school newspaper. The editors pair her up with Joey Kairouz, the ambitious new photojournalist, and in no time the paper’s staff find themselves with a major story to cover: the school musical director’s inclusive approach to casting The Wizard of Oz has been provoking backlash in their mostly white, middle-class Kansas town.

In this enlightening book, scholars and activists Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker tackle a wide range of myths about Native American culture and history that have misinformed generations. Tracing how these ideas evolved, and drawing from history, the authors disrupt long-held and enduring myths.

Vanished tells the stories of women and girls in upstate New York who are often overlooked or unseen. The characters range from an aging art professor whose students are uninterested in learning what she has to teach, to a young girl who becomes the victim of a cruel prank in a swimming pool, to a television producer who regrets allowing her coworkers into her mother’s bird-filled house to film a show about animal hoarding because it will reveal too much about her family and past. Humorous and empathetic, the collection exposes the adversity in each character’s life.

The tight-knit Izquierdo family is grappling with misfortunes none of them can explain. Their beloved patriarch has suffered from an emotional collapse and is dying; eldest son Gonzalo’s marriage is falling apart as he tries to care for his father; daughter Dina, beleaguered by fear that her nightmares are real, is a shut-in. When Gonzalo digs up a strange object in the backyard of the family home, the Izquierdos take it as proof that a jealous neighbor has cursed them―could this be the reason for all their troubles?

Set against the tropics and megacities of the Americas, Maria, Maria takes inspiration from wild creatures, tarot, and the porous borders between life and death. Motivated by love and its inverse, grief, the characters who inhabit these stories negotiate boldly with nature to cast their desired ends. Brimming with sharp wit and ferocious female intuition, these stories bubble over into the titular novella, "Maria, Maria"—a family drama set in a reimagined California rainforest that explores the legacies of three Marias, and possibly all Marias.

In How We Disappear, award-winning author Tara Lynn Masih offers listeners transporting and compelling stories of those taken, those missing, and those neither here nor gone—runaways, exiles, wanderers, ghosts, even the elusive Dame Agatha Christie. From the remote Siberian taiga to the harsh American frontier, from rural Long Island to postwar Belgium, Masih’s characters are diverse in identity and circumstance, defying the burden of erasure by disappearing into or emerging from physical and emotional landscapes.

Labor and delivery nurse Penelope is an expert at her job, but a complete mess when it comes to her personal life. Despite avoiding relationships in the past, now all she wants is for her boyfriend to leave his wife. But soon after he dumps her in favor of his marriage, Penelope discovers she’s pregnant. Suddenly, she doesn’t feel like such an expert anymore. What happens when women tell the truth about themselves, their desires, and the sacrifices they’re willing—or unwilling—to make?

Yasmín Treviño didn’t have much of a freshman year thanks to Hurricane Humphrey, but she’s ready to take sophomore year by storm. That means mastering the marching side of marching band—fast!—so she can outshine her BFF Sofia as top of the flute section, earn first chair, and impress both her future college admission boards and her comfortably unattainable drum major crush Gilberto Reyes.

In a future shaken by climate disasters, Yolanda Cicerón knows that nature is something to be feared. While life in the Valley is brutal and harsh, Yoly dreams of leaving her farm to live in Silo—the most advanced town for miles around. But first, Yoly will need to prove she belongs in a place where only the smartest and most useful are welcomed.

In this mixed-media collection of short stories, personal essays, and poetry, this celebrated group of authors share the borders they have crossed, the struggles they have pushed through, and the two cultures they continue to navigate as Mexican Americans. Living Beyond Borders is at once an eye-opening, heart-wrenching, and hopeful love letter from the Mexican American community to today's young listeners.

The Russos look like an average family: Mom and Dad run a Manhattan deli, while their kids, Alex, Justin, and Max, deal with school, friendships, and first dates. But things are not exactly as they seem because these kids are all wizards in training! To make things more complicated, only one of them will remain a wizard after the age of 18. Talk about sibling rivalry! This collection includes the first four books in the Wizards of Waverly Place series.

The Russos are headed to the Caribbean for a family vacation, and Alex is less than thrilled. And to top it off, her parents have decided that there will be no magic allowed on the trip! Alex is totally bored and decides to conjure up a little magic...with disastrous results. Her parents have now completely forgotten they ever met! Alex and her brothers, Justin and Max, have only 48 hours to find the magical Stone of Dreams, which has the power to reverse the spell. Will they find the stone and save their family in time?

It’s summer break at Witch University, but Marnie and Dylan Piper have their broomsticks in high gear! Marnie has her hands full as a resident advisor - and is keeping an eye on her younger sister, Sophie, who has enrolled in the university’s junior sorcery school. Dylan’s working as a lab assistant to Professor La Biel, a powerful warlock who’s developing a youth serum. But when La Biel steals The Gift, an amulet that gives its wearer ultimate power over hearts and minds, will Marnie have the power to defeat the cunning warlock?

Juniper is a young girl who dreams of making it big in the movies along with her horse, Able. In particular, Juniper is obsessed with getting Able onto her favorite television show, Castle MacAvoy, and will do anything, even slay dragons, to make that happen.

Starring the special bond between sisters throughout history, this fun and inspiring biography collection from author Aura Lewis is perfect for fans of Rad American Women A-Z and the Women in Art/Science/Sports series.

Akashic Books’ acclaimed series of original noir anthologies has set a high standard for portraying cities and their neighborhoods in all their dark and violent splendor. Now, Mexico City Noir surpasses that standard with phantasmagorical tales of double-dealing, corruption, violence and self-delusion.... This collection is such a varied literary feast.

A medieval swindler gets caught with his proverbial pants down; a foolproof plan is put into place to pick up some cash via AI, until things take an unexpected and deadly turn; a legendary bodyguard is hired to protect precious cargo, but who will protect the cargo from him? The 14 brand-new stories deal with the complex idea of morality and will make listeners wonder what side is the right side.

Under the shimmering light of a full moon, newly engaged couple Paul and Cora head home from a dinner party. But when a devastating car accident leaves Cora paralyzed from the waist down, their future together is changed in the blink of an eye. As Cora’s depression leads to a dependence on prescription pain meds, Paul turns to the works of inspirational self-help author Gabrielle Lawson. After learning of the guru’s week-long retreat focused on "energetic healing", Paul convinces a skeptical Cora to attend.

The time is now. The place is San Francisco. The world is filled with adults devoid of emotion and children on the cusp of losing their feelings - of "waning" - when they reach their teens. Natalia Peña has already waned. So why does she love her little brother with such ferocity that, when he's kidnapped by a Big Brother-esque corporation, she'll do anything to get him back?