The Cake Tree in the Ruins

by Akiyuki Nosaka
The Cake Tree in the Ruins
Author: Akiyuki Nosaka
Publisher: Pushkin Collection
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2019-05-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1782274197
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Intensely moving stories that tell of the absurd violence of war, and tenderly depict the animals and children caught in its vortex. In 1945, Akiyuki Nosaka watched the Allied firebombing of Kobe kill his adoptive parents, and then witnessed his sister starving to death. The shocking and blisteringly memorable stories of The Cake Tree in the Ruins are based on his own experiences as a child in Japan during the Second World War. They are stories of a lonely whale searching the oceans for a mate, who sacrifices himself for love; of a mother desperately trying to save her son with her tears; of a huge, magnificent tree which grows amid the ruins of a burnt-out town, its branches made from the sweetest cake imaginable. Profound, heartbreaking and aglow with a piercing beauty, they express the chaos and terror of conflict, yet also how love can illuminate even the darkest moment.

The Whale that Fell in Love with a Submarine

by Akiyuki Nosaka
The Whale that Fell in Love with a Submarine
Author: Akiyuki Nosaka
Publisher: Pushkin Children's Books
Total Pages: 113
Release: 2015-08-04
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1782690271
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A whale falls in love with a military submarine, and dies courting her; a mother caught in a fire following a bombing gives all her body's water to save her son, and her desiccated form turns into a kite; a wolf rescues a sick child abandoned by her parents, only to die himself at the hand of men. However, bunkers can also become real homes, a small Japanese girl and an American POW briefly understand each other and a miraculous tree feeds starving children... This is war, no doubt, but told by someone who understands how children truly experience war and its aftermath - the bombings and parents' deaths, the life of orphans who roam the streets, the starvation and blind violence in a society beyond destruction. Akiyuki Nosaka remembers what it was like to be a child caught in war-torn Japan in 1945, and he retells his experiences in this collection of powerful and beautifully expressive stories for children.

The Pornographers

by Akiyuki Nozaka
The Pornographers
Author: Akiyuki Nozaka
Publisher: Knopf
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2012-11-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307828034
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Subuyan—frantically busy not quite successful professional pornographer of Osaka—is at heart a simple man who wants only to make world a little happier. He is a pornographer with a dream, doing his small best to alleviate the sorrows of mankind, as least insofar as they afflict the wealthy man and large corporations who are his clients (a humanistic point of view not shared by his chief cameraman, Banteki, who is a firm believer in Art for Art’s Sake). Burdened by the eternal problems of the small business man (shoddy workmanship, equipment breakdowns, the difficulty of finding decent help, customers who won’t pay their bills), Subuyan and Bantaki struggle to maintain their moral and aesthetic standards in an immoral and careless world. With ironic humor and a sharp compassion, The Pornographers follows its oddly endearing hero through a succession of tragicomic encounters—with the rich and sometimes treacherous clients to whom he purveys a bewildering diversity of artifacts and entertainments; with the synthetic schoolgirls he recruits from among Osaka’s thirteen Veteran Virgins; with infuriating technical problems (tape recorders more sensitive to the interference of ham radios than to the sounds of love-making in the adjoining apartment); with idiot film actors incapable of following the simplest script. But Subuyan’s cheerful humanism prevails against all frustrations—in a novel that is rich in comic invention, unflinching in its acceptance of life, a brilliant modern extravaganza in a classic tradition.

Grave of the Fireflies

by Alex Dudok de Wit
Grave of the Fireflies
Author: Alex Dudok de Wit
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 105
Release: 2021-04-08
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1838719253
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On its release in 1988, Grave of the Fireflies riveted audiences with its uncompromising drama. Directed by Isao Takahata at Studio Ghibli and based on an autobiographical story by Akiyuki Nosaka, the story of two Japanese children struggling to survive in the dying days of the Second World War unfolds with a gritty realism unprecedented in animation. Grave of the Fireflies has since been hailed as a classic of both anime and war cinema. In 2018, USA Today ranked it the greatest animated film of all time. Yet Ghibli's sombre masterpiece remains little analysed outside Japan, even as its meaning is fiercely contested - Takahata himself lamented that few had grasped his message. In the first book-length study of the film in English, Alex Dudok de Wit explores its themes, visual devices and groundbreaking use of animation, as well as the political context in which it was made. Drawing on untranslated accounts by the film's crew, he also describes its troubled production, which almost spelt disaster for Takahata and his studio.

Cake

by Joyce Magnin
Cake
Author: Joyce Magnin
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2012-12-25
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0310733359
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More than frosting filled those cakes... Wilma Sue seems destined to go from one foster home to the next—until she is sent to live with sisters and missionaries, Ruth and Naomi. Do they really care about Wilma Sue, or are they just looking for a Cinderella-style farmhand to help raise chickens and bake cakes? As Wilma Sue adjusts to her new surroundings and helps deliver “special” cakes, Wilma Sue realizes there’s something strange going on. She starts looking for secret ingredients, and along the way she makes a new friend, Penny. When Penny and her mother hit a rough patch, Naomi decides to make her own version of cake—with disastrous results. Then tragedy strikes the chickens, and all fingers point to Wilma Sue—just when she was starting to believe she could at last find a permanent home with Ruth and Naomi. Will the sisters turn her out, or will she discover what it feels like to be truly loved?

Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children Boxed Set

by Ransom Riggs
Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children Boxed Set
Author: Ransom Riggs
Publisher: Quirk Books
Total Pages: 1234
Release: 2015-10-20
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 159474839X
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The New York Times #1 best-selling series. Includes 3 novels by Ransom Riggs and 12 peculiar photographs. Together for the first time, here is the #1 New York Times best seller Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and its two sequels, Hollow City and Library of Souls. All three hardcovers are packaged in a beautifully designed slipcase. Also included: a special collector's envelope of twelve peculiar photographs, highlighting the most memorable moments of this extraordinary three-volume fantasy. MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN: A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in this groundbreaking novel, which mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling new kind of reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob Portman journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. HOLLOW CITY: September 3, 1940. Ten peculiar children flee an army of deadly monsters. And only one person can help them—but she's trapped in the body of a bird. The extraordinary adventure continues as Jacob Portman and his newfound friends journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. There, they hope to find a cure for their beloved headmistress, Miss Peregrine. But in this war-torn city, hideous surprises lurk around every corner. LIBRARY OF SOULS: A boy, a girl, and a talking dog. They're all that stands between the sinister wights and the future of peculiar children everywhere. Jacob Portman ventures through history one last time to rescue the peculiar children from a heavily guarded fortress. He's joined by girlfriend and firestarter Emma Bloom, canine companion Addison MacHenry, and some very unexpected allies.

Fruit of the Drunken Tree

by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Fruit of the Drunken Tree
Author: Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2018-07-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0385542739
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Seven-year-old Chula lives a carefree life in her gated community in Bogotá, but the threat of kidnappings, car bombs, and assassinations hover just outside her walls, where the godlike drug lord Pablo Escobar reigns, capturing the attention of the nation. “Simultaneously propulsive and poetic, reminiscent of Isabel Allende...Listen to this new author’s voice—she has something powerful to say.” —Entertainment Weekly When her mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city’s guerrilla-occupied neighborhood, Chula makes it her mission to understand Petrona’s mysterious ways. Petrona is a young woman crumbling under the burden of providing for her family as the rip tide of first love pulls her in the opposite direction. As both girls’ families scramble to maintain stability amidst the rapidly escalating conflict, Petrona and Chula find themselves entangled in a web of secrecy. Inspired by the author's own life, Fruit of the Drunken Tree is a powerful testament to the impossible choices women are often forced to make in the face of violence and the unexpected connections that can blossom out of desperation.

A Pig Parade Is a Terrible Idea

by Michael Ian Black
A Pig Parade Is a Terrible Idea
Author: Michael Ian Black
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2011-05-24
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1416982833
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Could anything possibly be more fun than a pig parade!? You wouldn't think so. But you'd be wrong. A pig parade is a terrible idea. Pigs hate to march, refuse to wear the uniforms, don't care about floats, and insist on playing country music ballads. Those are just some of the reasons. And trust me, this hysterical book has plenty more!

Clever Jack Takes the Cake

by Candace Fleming
Clever Jack Takes the Cake
Author: Candace Fleming
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade
Total Pages: 41
Release: 2012-10-31
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0307982572
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Take a bite out of this deliciously funny original fairy tale, which received four starred reviews and was named a Best Book of the Year by Booklist, School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and the Bank Street College of Education. What would you do if you were invited to the princess’s tenth birthday party but didn’t have money for a gift? Well, clever Jack decides to bake the princess a cake. Now he just has to get it to the castle in one piece. What could possibly go wrong? Candace Fleming and G. Brian Karas, creators of the bestselling picture book Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!, have teamed up again to bring us a modern fairy tale starring a determined boy and a story-loving princess with a good sense of humor. While girls will fall for a story featuring a princess’s birthday party, Jack’s adventures with trolls, bears, and gypsies make this the perfect read for young boys as well—and ideal for storytime.