Cindergirl

How is it possible for a young, homeless woman to overcome abuse, endure the foster care system, and rise to prominence to help others? CinderGirl tells Christina Meredith's incredible story of how she overcame these hardships to earn the title of Miss California and become an advocate for the vulnerable. Born into a large, working-class family in upstate New York, Christina endured years of abuse before entering the foster care system as a teenager. With nowhere to turn after she graduated from high school, Christina lived in her car for almost a year, working three jobs to survive. As she prayed in her car every day, Christina had no idea that in just a few years, her suffering would help others find healing. But she did know that she was destined for more, and she refused to give up hope, no matter the circumstance. In CinderGirl, Christina tells her piercing and poignant story of leaving behind homelessness to become Miss California and the founder of a nonprofit organization that provides advocacy for foster care children. With stunning vulnerability, Christina invites us into her childhood home and the heart of a child longing to be loved, challenging us to dig deeper into our own personal courage, even in the most difficult conditions. And in return, you'll learn how to: Dream big, even when you're at rock bottom Embrace the inherent worth that is yours in Christ Jesus Deepen your faith and your relationship with God Praise for CinderGirl: "Christina Meredith's life experience and real-life Cinderella story are beyond inspirational to me, and I'm so proud of her. She is an overcomer like few I've ever read about. But what impresses me the most is her desire to transform the foster care system and use her challenges to better the next generation." --Kristen Dalton-Wolfe, bestselling author and former Miss USA "Christina Meredith's story, which she tells with unique courage, follows a young woman's rise out of vulnerability, homelessness, and abuse to become a soldier, leader, and pillar in her community. Christina's spirited and empathetic soul shines through every page." --Jason Jones, author, activist, film producer

Growing up on welfare, food stamps, and Greyhound buses, Holly Thompson Rehder quit school at fifteen to help take care of her mother and younger sister after a devastating car accident. Getting married and pregnant soon thereafter, like so many other young girls caught in the poverty-cycle, Holly decided that the life she had been born into was not what she intended to give her child. But unlike others who wind up mired in a lifetime of poverty, dysfunction, and despair, Holly used her resourcefulness, faith, and sheer stubborn American grit to fight her way out of the gutter. Two decades later she was a successful businesswoman. And today, she is a rising political star who serves as an inspiration to young women across the state of Missouri—and indeed, the entire nation—all while never forgetting where she came from. She worked her butt off to help so many others born into seemingly helpless circumstances. As a rare lawmaker who speaks candidly from raw personal experience, in Cinder Girl, Rehder rises above standard political prose to provide an unvarnished look inside the worst of American poverty––those living in the margins. Rehder challenges us to recall the plight of those far less fortunate, who struggle without the opportunities most of us take for granted.

“One slipper will fall from your foot, and the Prince will come after you and find it.” Scorned by her two elder sisters, Sinderela is forced to hide in the coal-hole so no one can see her. After she overhears her sisters talking about a Prince, Sinderela finds help in the guise of an old beggar woman who shows her a secret door, inside which are the means to transform her into a lady so grand no one would recognise her. When one of Sinderela’s golden slippers falls from her foot, her life is changed forever, but her elder sister is determined to make sure Sinderela never gets her happy-ever-after with her Prince. A Cinderella tale with a twist, this Welsh-Romani fairytale was one of many collected by the esteemed linguist John Sampson from the dramatic storyteller, Matthew Wood. Look no further than this English edition to discover more about the fate of Sinderela and her family, as well as that of a Welsh-Romani Cinder Lad in Goggle-Eyes. [Folklore Type: ATU-510 (Cinderella and Catskin) and ATU-707 (The Bird of Truth)]

Gathers traditional French-American stories featuring other worlds, brash heroes, scoundrels, princesses, and tall tales

Dickens scholar Jerome Meckier's acclaimed Hidden Rivalries in Victorian Fiction examined fierce literary competition between leading novelists who tried to establish their credentials as realists by rewriting Dickens's novels. Here, Meckier argues that in Great Expectations, Dickens not only updated David Copperfield but also rewrote novels by Lever, Thackeray, Collins, Shelley, and Charlotte and Emily Brontë. He periodically revised his competitors' themes, characters, and incidents to discredit their novels as unrealistic fairy tales imbued with Cinderella motifs. Dickens darkened his fairy tale perspective by replacing Cinderella with the story of Misnar's collapsible pavilion from The Tales of the Genii (a popular, pseudo-oriental collection). The Misnar analogue supplied a corrective for the era's Cinderella complex, a warning to both Haves and Have-nots, and a basis for Dickens's tragicomic view of the world.

This book, a selection of folk tales, true tales, tall tales, myths, gossip, legends and memories, celebrates and honours unique Welsh stories. Some are well known, others from forgotten manuscripts or out-of-print volumes, and some are contemporary oral tales. They reflect the diverse tradition of storytelling, and the many meanings of ‘chwedlau’. If someone says, ‘Chwedl Cymraeg?’ they are asking, ‘Do you speak Welsh?’ and ‘Do you tell a tale in Welsh?’ Here is the root of storytelling, or ‘chwedleua’, in Wales. It is part of conversation.This book, one to linger over and to treasure, keeps these ancient tales alive by retelling them for a new audience.

Noocee, Nuffy and Peacher Boy were happy house cats. Escaping to the outdoors to play with their forest friends in the near by woods was their most favorite thing to do. The forest animals told them many times about a far away place where only cats and dogs could go. It was told to them that a bright light would appear and the next thing you know they would be gone. The cats thought they were only teasing because they never heard a cat or dog who went missing into a bright light. They heard on TV that sometimes a dog or cat was lost only to show up months, even years later on their owner’s doorstep. The cats dismissed the story their friends told them coming back to the forest year after year to play fun games in the woods especially hide and seek. One day, while trying to find new hiding places, a bright light did appear in front of them. Peacher Boy, who was always adventurous, ran right into the light and disappeared in front of their eyes. Scared, they ran after him into the bright light too. Tumbling into the light they soon landed on what appeared to look like a leap. Where are we, how did we get here, what happened the cats were asking each other when they heard a faint Hello. Frozen in place the three knew they weren’t in their woods anymore.