Showing results by narrator "Jade Wheeler" in All Categories

Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in small-town North Carolina, Nina Simone was a musical child. She sang before she talked and learned to play piano at a very young age. With the support of her family and community, she received music lessons that introduced her to classical composers like Bach who remained with her and influenced her music throughout her life. She loved the way his music began softly and then tumbled to thunder, like her mother's preaching, and in much the same way as her career.

Genevieve, a single mother, flies from New York to Port-au-Prince with her teenage son, Miles. The trip is meant to be an education for fifteen-year-old Miles—a chance to learn about his family’s roots while coming to terms with his father’s departure—but it’s also an excuse for Genevieve to escape the city, where her life is dominated by her failed marriage and the daily pressures of raising Black children in America.

'No regrets.' You've heard people proclaim it as a philosophy of life. That's nonsense, even dangerous, says Daniel H. Pink in his latest bold and inspiring work. Everybody has regrets. They're a fundamental part of our lives. And if we reckon with them in fresh and imaginative ways, we can enlist our regrets to make smarter decisions, perform better at work and school and deepen our sense of meaning and purpose.

A group of women contemplate violence after they’re sent into foreign territory to make husbands of the enemy. A support network of traumatized joggers meets to discuss the bodies they’ve found on their runs. And a town replaces its Confederate monument with a rotating cast of local residents. Slippery but muscular, sly but electric, this stunning debut collection moves from horror to magical realism to satire with total authority. In these stories, characters build and remake their sense of home, be it with one another or within themselves.

James and Michelle find themselves in the Atlanta airport on a layover. They couldn't be more different, but seemingly interminable delays draw them both to a mysterious flashing green light—and each other. Where James is passive, Michelle is anything but. And she quickly discovers that the flashing green light is actually...a button. Which she presses. Which may or may not break the rules of the universe—at least, as those rules apply to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta. The team up to find their families and either escape the airport, or put an end to its chaos—before it's too late.

It is winter, north of the Arctic Circle. A few hours of pale light is all the sun has to offer before the landscape is once more enveloped in complete darkness. This is Sápmi, land of the Sámi, Scandinavia’s Indigenous people. Nine-year-old Elsa is the daughter of Sámi reindeer herders. Her community is under constant threat. One morning, when Elsa goes skiing alone, she witnesses a man brutally killing her beloved reindeer calf. Elsa is terrified by what she sees. Fearing for her own life and for the lives of her family members, she remains silent.

In this fun, relatable, and inspirational story, Ansley and her family move to a new city to seek a fresh start after the death of their mother. Once there, Ansley finds comfort in things she loves - family, friends, gymnastics, and most of all baking! She even gets the chance to enter a bake-off at the fair. But her dreams of taking home the trophy and being on TV are threatened by strong competition: Taylor, a mean girl from her new school.

Nine-year-old Elsa lives just north of the Arctic Circle. She and her family are Sámi – Scandinavia’s indigenous people – and make their living herding reindeer. One morning when Elsa goes skiing alone, she witnesses a man brutally killing her reindeer calf, Nástegallu. Elsa recognises the man but refuses to tell anyone – least of all the Swedish police force – about what she saw. Instead, she carries her secret as a dark weight on her heart.

An new historical anthology from transatlantic slavery to the Reconstruction curated by the Schomburg Center, that makes the case for focusing on the histories of Black people as agents and architects of their own lives and ultimate liberation, with a foreword by Kevin Young.

From the family that brought you the Lena in the Spotlight series and the popular For Girls Like You magazine comes Ashton’s Dancing Dreams, book two in the Daniels Sisters series. This realistic fiction story of family, friendship, and the challenges that so many young girls face each day growing up will appeal to girls 8-12 looking to express their talents and individuality alongside their faith.

Sicily Jordan’s worst nightmare has come true! She’s been enrolled in a new school, with zero of her friends and stuck wearing a fashion catastrophe of a uniform. But however bad Sicily thought sixth grade was going to be, it only gets worse when she does her class presentation.

Six months into working for the Gambit, Ross is reeling from the betrayals of the competition – focusing all her hatred on Devroe – the lover she thought she could trust. On a new heist that takes her across continents, Ross encounters a rival gang stopping her every move. Devroe's mother is at the heart of this dangerous feud and he must decide where his loyalties lie, before there are deadly consequences . . .

Best friends Waffles and Mochi know that delicious food brings people together. So, when they start new jobs at a supermarket, they want to make a special treat for their coworkers. But what should it be? Their search for an answer will take them around the world as they investigate ingredients, find flavors, and make new friends.

After years of hustling, Collins Carter has finally made it...back to her parents' house. Between tending to the compost with her newly retired dad and running into her high school nemesis at the only decent coffee shop in town, Collins realizes this subdivision from hell she swore she'd never return to is her rock bottom. Then the homeowner's association complaint arrived. Nathaniel Adams always dreamed of a nice, quiet life in his suburban hometown. Or at least that's what he thought until Collins moved back and sent his quaint, organized life into a tailspin.

A young woman born in the suburbs of Paris—whose skin color and memories of occasional childhood visits alone connect her to her father’s native Guadeloupe—yearns to understand her lineage and her métis identity. Upon her request, her old aunt Antoine, the eccentric and indomitable family matriarch, unveils the history of the Ezechiel clan, and with it, that of the island over the course of the twentieth century. In a spirited account, punctuated by interludes from other family members, Antoine tells her life story.

Rosalyn Quest was raised by a legendary family of thieves with one rule: trust no one. Trapped in a glamorous world of riches and double-crosses, she is about to escape the family business when her parents are kidnapped. Her only chance to save them is to win the Thieves’ Gambit – a deadly competition for the world’s up-and-coming thieves, where the victor is granted one wish. To win, she must outwit all of her backstabbing competitors, including her archnemesis. But can she take victory from the handsome, charming boy who makes a play for her heart?

In this fun, relatable, and inspiring story, Amber and her sisters, Ashton and Ansley, head to Christian summer camp at Camp Caracara. With high hopes, the twins meet their cabinmates Gio - an old friend from back home in Texas - and Maxine, a new friend with some challenges to overcome. Amber will have to work hard to practice kindness and patience as she handles teasing from her own sisters and her old and new friends while navigating camp.

Cousins Rose and Cora Seville aren’t your typical eighth graders. They are matchmakers-in-training, learning how to magically make love connections out of San Francisco’s Hotel Coeur, where they live in the penthouse suite. As young Fledglings, Rose and Cora must perfect their charms and enchantments to pass a test that will determine their future, but they are not prepared for all the drama ahead!

When Miho's boyfriend breaks up with her without warning, all she can see is red - the color of blinding fury and pain, and the color of the fire she sets in an oil drum on the beach, burning every scrap of their memories. It's spring of senior year in Oahu, and while her friends are getting ready for college, Miho's deep in her misery, delivering pizzas on her bike. But then inspiration strikes: she'll do a triathlon.

Within the Heart of Wicked Creatures follows Priya Chkadhari, a child born during the blood moon and therefore 'cursed' with the ability to manipulate other people's souls. In her quiet rural village, Priya has learned to hide her true nature - blood children are killed if discovered. When she wins the annual test to attend the country's elite military school in Kuwatta, however, everything changes. During training sessions with other blood children, her curse becomes a gift. But will she survive the guerilla war that has plagued the torn land of Awaran for centuries