Rattlebone

Rattlebone
Author: Maxine Clair
Publisher: Agate Digital
Total Pages: 70
Release: 2014-03-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1572844833

Interconnected tales set in a black Kansas City community. “Strong, melodic, and honest . . . We need stories like these to replenish us.” —Terry McMillan In Rattlebone, a “fictional” black community north of Kansas City, the smell of manure and bacon from Armour’s Packing House is everywhere; Shady Maurice’s roadhouse plays the latest jazz; the best eggs are sold by the Red Quanders; and gospel rules at the Strangers Rest Baptist Church. This is the black Midwest of the 1950s, when towns could count their white folks on one hand—the years before the Civil Rights movement came along and changed everything. In perfectly cadenced vernacular, Maxine Clair speaks to us through the voices of Rattlebone’s citizens: October Brown, the new schoolteacher with a camel’s walk and shoulder-padded, to-the-nines dresses; Irene Wilson, naive and wise, who must grapple with her parent’s failing marriage as she steps eagerly into adulthood; and Thomas Pemberton, owner of the local rooming house, an old man with a young heart. Sparkling with lyricism, Clair’s interconnected stories celebrate the natural beauty of the Midwest and the dignity and vitality of these most ordinary lives. Rattlebone, winner of the Heartland Prize for fiction, is a tremendous work by a supremely talented writer. “Extraordinary . . . Each skillful plot twist, each new wonderful character has the effect of a sip of literary love potion.” —The New York Times Book Review “Told in a style that is memorable for its ability to shift tones and to capture, in rich and controlled language, new levels of consciousness.” —The Washington Post

October Suite

October Suite
Author: Maxine Clair
Publisher: Agate Digital
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2014-03-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1572844841

The debut novel by the author of Rattlebone. “Told in a melody all its own, this story touches many lovely and unexpected notes.” —Elizabeth Strout, #1 New York Times bestselling author It is 1950 and October Brown is a twenty-three-year-old first-year teacher thanking her lucky stars that she found a room in the best boardinghouse for Negro women teachers in Wyandotte County, Kansas. During an affair with an unhappily married handyman, October becomes pregnant. With job in jeopardy and her reputation in tatters, October goes back to Ohio to be with her family: her older sister, Vergie, and her aunts who raised the sisters after their mother was killed by their father. After giving birth, she gives the child to Vergie and her husband to raise as their own, then returns to Kansas City to rebuild her life. But something is missing—and, apparently too late, October realizes what she has done . . . The Midwest, the flourishing of modern jazz, and the culture of segregation form a compelling historical backdrop for this timeless and universal tale of one person’s battle to understand and master her own desires, and to embrace the responsibilities and promise of mature adulthood. In October Suite, Clair “has skillfully brought lyricism and word-play to her first novel, a family saga filled with secrets, redemption, and rivalry, as two sisters try to reclaim bonds forged in early childhood tragedy” (Library Journal). “Maxine Clair deserves our admiration for this beautifully written and humane novel.” —The Washington Post “A beautifully imagined novel that pulses with all the colors and sounds of the lives we live.” —Marita Golden, author of The Wide Circumference of Love

Sap Rising

Sap Rising
Author: Christine Lincoln
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2007-12-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307427609

In this spare and mesmerizing debut, Christine Lincoln takes us inside the hearts and minds of African Americans whose lives unfold against a vividly evoked rural community. As they navigate between old and new, between youth and responsibility, they find themselves choosing between the comforts of what they trust without question and the fearsome excitements of what they might come to know. One young man’s world is both expanded and contracted by stories he hears from a beautiful stranger. Another stumbles across his mother having an affair with his uncle. An intense friendship forms between one woman afraid she will turn out like everyone else and one afraid she won’t. Lincoln’s down-to-earth voice, saturated with the manner and details of the South, brings her characters to life with a remarkably light touch and an extraordinary depth of emotion. In Sap Rising, she proves herself one of those writers whose work transcends its own rich particularity to speak with clarity to the most fundamental elements of the human experience.

Emma's Magic Winter

Emma's Magic Winter
Author: Jean Little
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 68
Release: 2000-08-08
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 006443706X

With the help of her new friend who has magic boots just like her own, Emma overcomes her shyness and no longer hates reading out loud in school.

Agapanthus Hum and the Eyeglasses

Agapanthus Hum and the Eyeglasses
Author: Joy Cowley
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 52
Release: 2013-05-16
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0698157397

Agapanthus Hum is a whirlwind. She hums, she cartwheels, and she is always running around. Now that Agapanthus has eyeglasses, her parents want her to be careful. Agapanthus tries to slow down; she even wears a bag on her head so her glasses won't get lost, but more often then not, her glasses go flying. What do grown-up acrobats do with their eyeglasses? Agapanthus's parents bring her to a performance so that she can find out.

Wrapping Paper Romp

Wrapping Paper Romp
Author: Patricia Hubbell
Publisher: HarperFestival
Total Pages: 16
Release: 1998-08-28
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9780694010981

A toddler and kitten explore the simple joys of unwrapping a gift through playful, rhyming text in an adorable board book by the author of Pots and Pans.

Paddle Perch Climb

Paddle Perch Climb
Author:
Publisher: Dawn Publications (CA)
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2018
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9781584696131

"Introduces children to various types of bird feet. Each type is perfectly adapted to help a bird find food and escape predators in different habitats including: pond, river, desert, forest, and meadow"--

Baby Rattlesnake

Baby Rattlesnake
Author: Te Ata
Publisher: Children's Book Press (CA)
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9780892392162

Willful Baby Rattlesnake throws tantrums to get his rattle before he's ready, but he misuses it and learns a lesson. Adapted by Lynn Moroney.