Creating A New Medina

"Discusses the fundamental assumptions regarding the foundations of Pakistani nationalism as well as our current understanding of the roots of its postcolonial identity crisis"--

In Meg Medina’s follow-up to her Newbery Medal–winning novel, Merci takes on seventh grade, with all its travails of friendship, family, love—and finding your rhythm. Seventh grade is going to be a real trial for Merci Suárez. For science she’s got no-nonsense Mr. Ellis, who expects her to be a smart as her brother, Roli. She’s been assigned to co-manage the tiny school store with Wilson Bellevue, a boy she barely knows, but whom she might actually like. And she’s tangling again with classmate Edna Santos, who is bossier and more obnoxious than ever now that she is in charge of the annual Heart Ball. One thing is for sure, though: Merci Suárez can’t dance—not at the Heart Ball or anywhere else. Dancing makes her almost as queasy as love does, especially now that Tía Inés, her merengue-teaching aunt, has a new man in her life. Unfortunately, Merci can’t seem to avoid love or dance for very long. She used to talk about everything with her grandfather, Lolo, but with his Alzheimer’s getting worse each day, whom can she trust to help her make sense of all the new things happening in her life? The Suárez family is back in a touching, funny story about growing up and discovering love’s many forms, including how we learn to love and believe in ourselves.

Twenty-two-year-old Maryam, a Saudi woman living comfortably with her parents in Medina, is old enough to get married and old enough to get a job. She is also old enough to pursue postgraduate studies in English in Leeds in the United Kingdom—but that option fuels her dilemma. Her hesitation to study abroad stems from the fact she is a devout and traditional woman, deeply dedicated to her Muslim faith. She is initially ambivalent about leaving the world she has always known. Even so, encouraged by her mother, an academic who also studied and lived in the West, she ventures to this new place and encounters both enriching experiences and a sense of displacement. What’s more, her sojourn in the West leads to a new set of decisions to be made. A story of contemporary women’s fiction, Road to Medina follows Maryam from the age of twenty-two, when she is deciding to apply to study in Leeds, to her eventual return to Saudi Arabia several years later.

This novel, banned shortly before publication in Sept '08 by Random House, attracting British and world-wide media attention, tells for the first time the moving but little known love story between Mohammed and his favoured wife Ai'sha. A wonderful fast-paced novel and an uplifting subject that readers from all religions will enjoy.

A reappraisal of the tumultuous Partition and how it ignited long-standing animosities between India and Pakistan This new edition of Yasmin Khan’s reappraisal of the tumultuous India-Pakistan Partition features an introduction reflecting on the latest research and on ways in which commemoration of the Partition has changed, and considers the Partition in light of the current refugee crisis. Reviews of the first edition: “A riveting book on this terrible story.”—Economist “Unsparing. . . . Provocative and painful.”—Times (London) “Many histories of Partition focus solely on the elite policy makers. Yasmin Khan’s empathetic account gives a great insight into the hopes, dreams, and fears of the millions affected by it.”—Owen Bennett Jones, BBC

A little girl uses imagination and inventiveness to spread friendship through her community. But will she find a friend of her own? Whether it’s a supersonic sandwich maker or a twelve-tailed dragon, Sicily Bridges can make almost anything from materials she finds around her apartment complex. But when it comes to making friends, Sicily has yet to find the perfect fit. With a diverse cast of characters brought to life by illustrator Erika Medina, Sara de Waal’s whimsical debut emphasizes the power of imagination and finding companionship where you least expect it.

While violence runs rampant throughout New York, a teenage girl faces danger within her own home in Meg Medina's riveting coming-of-age novel. Nora Lopez is seventeen during the infamous New York summer of 1977, when the city is besieged by arson, a massive blackout, and a serial killer named Son of Sam who shoots young women on the streets. Nora’s family life isn’t going so well either: her bullying brother, Hector, is growing more threatening by the day, her mother is helpless and falling behind on the rent, and her father calls only on holidays. All Nora wants is to turn eighteen and be on her own. And while there is a cute new guy who started working with her at the deli, is dating even worth the risk when the killer likes picking off couples who stay out too late? Award-winning author Meg Medina transports us to a time when New York seemed balanced on a knife-edge, with tempers and temperatures running high, to share the story of a young woman who discovers that the greatest dangers are often closer than we like to admit — and the hardest to accept.

A call to action for America to embrace a new society that honors the spiritual reality of the human soul. Offers hope with a framework for creating an entirely new society that truly uplifts and honors the spiritual reality of the human soul, while fostering the conditions for humankind to transcend the existential fears, anxieties, and petty concerns of this temporal physical world. The author explores the writings of the Bahai Faith and uncovers prophecies that foreshadow a glorious destiny for the United States and its peoples.