Gabriel S Journey

Twelve-year-old Gabriel is too young to join the fifth U.S. Colored Calvary of the Union Army, his father's regiment, as a soldier in the Civil War. He finds a job as personal groom to Champion, the unruly horse that belongs to Colonel Waite, the white commander. The Calvary receives orders to join white regiments in an attack on the Virginia salt works, so Gabriel gets ahold of a horse and a uniform and joins the troops. When his father and Colonel Waite are not among the weary and wounded who return from battle, Gabriel mounts Champion and rides to the battlefield in search of them. In the final book of the Racing to Freedom trilogy, Alison Hart continues to explore the complex relationships of the Civil War. The result is a gripping story that vividly brings to life the danger and drama of a time when war and issues of race and freedom divided the country. Background historical material, photos, and suggestions for further reading are included.

When Gabriel Lynch moves with his mother and brother from a brownstone in Baltimore to a dirt-floor hovel on a homestead in Kansas, he is not pleased. He does not dislike his new stepfather, a former slave, but he has no desire to submit to a life of drudgery and toil on the untamed prairie. So he joins up with a motley crew headed for Texas only to be sucked into an ever-westward wandering replete with a mindless violence he can neither abet nor avoid–a terrifying trek he penitently fears may never allow for a safe return. David Anthony Durham is a genuine talent bent on devastating originality and Gabriel’s Story is as formidable a debut as we have witnessed.

“Gabriel’s Journey” is a powerful book! One that will open discussions with your children about trust, believing in yourself, goal setting and focusing on the good in every situation. I love how the Author has incorporated many teachable concepts into the story. The illustrations are magnificent and bring the story to life. This is a book to be shared. I highly recommend it! Miriam Laundry Award Winning Author of “I CAN Believe in Myself” and “I CAN Make a Difference” and Guinness World Record Holder Join the author as she writes about Gabriel on his journey to America through heartfelt prose partnered with illustrations that glow of warmth and carefully observed detail, creating an unforgettable adventure of the immigrant experience. This inspiring story encourages readers to believe in their dreams and to connect with their own family stories. The original prints add authenticity to the dramatic journey of an ordinary boy on his way to a new life. The activities help the reader think about adventures they might like to take one day. When you believe in yourself you can create a new world and change your life. Enjoy!

In 1864 Kentucky, an enslaved boy dares to pursue his dream of becoming a jockey. Twelve-year-old Gabriel loves to help his father—one of the best horse trainers in Kentucky—care for the thoroughbred racehorses on Master Giles's farm until the violence of war disrupts their familiar daily routine. When Gabriel's father enlists in a Colored Battalion, Gabriel is both proud and worried. But his father's departure brings the arrival of Mr. Newcastle, a white horse trainer with harsh, cruel methods for handling both horses and people. Now it is up to Gabriel to protect the horses he loves from Mr. Newcastle and keep them safely out of the clutches of Confederate raiders. In this first book in the Racing to Freedom trilogy, Alison Hart explores the complex relationships of the Civil War in a gripping work of historical fiction. The result is a gripping story that vividly brings to life the danger and drama of a time when war and issues of race and freedom divided the country. Background historical material and photos are included.

Recently freed from slavery, Gabriel is burning up the horse track as jockey and stacking up wins for his former master. When Mister Giles asks him to ride Aristo, a powerful but unpredictable horse, in the prestigious Saratoga Chase, Gabriel jumps at the chance to compete against some of the greatest jockeys in the business. But as he begins the journey to Saratoga, he finds that high-stakes horse racing can be a nasty business as he works to keep Aristo safe and fend off horse poachers and jealous jockeys. Gabriel also learns the difficult lesson that being freed is not the same as being free. More than ever, Gabriel misses his father, who is fighting with the Union Army. Who else can he trust? In the second book of the Racing to Freedom trilogy, Alison Hart continues to explore the complex relationships of the Civil War. The result is a gripping story that vividly brings to life the danger and drama of a time when war and issues of race and freedom divided the country. Background historical material and photos are included.

The Journey Home is a novel narrated through 35 engaging vignettes involving a son’s relationship with his parents during their final year of life. Using amplified recollections, vivid dreams, and impressionistic illustrations. The Journey Home leads the reader on an amazing pilgrimage of discovery and healing. Staring with the onset of his mother’s Alzheimer’s and proceeding through the eventual admission of both his parents to nursing homes. The Journey Home explores the complex and intimate process of evolving relationship in the final passage of life. Immersing the reader in the experience of caring for someone facing physical decline and dementia, this novel offers encouragement for all caregivers of the elderly. Told with the warmth and humor, each vignette invites the reader to understand the bittersweet emotions that are part of grieving and healing. Through making honest connections with the past and present, the Journey narrative demonstrates how life-altering challenges can be faced with openness, dignity, and grace.

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2020 Winner of the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence “A comically dark coming-of-age story about growing up on the South Side of Chicago, but it’s also social commentary at its finest, woven seamlessly into the work . . . Bump’s meditation on belonging and not belonging, where or with whom, how love is a way home no matter where you are, is handled so beautifully that you don’t know he’s hypnotized you until he’s done.” —Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review In this alternately witty and heartbreaking debut novel, Gabriel Bump gives us an unforgettable protagonist, Claude McKay Love. Claude isn’t dangerous or brilliant—he’s an average kid coping with abandonment, violence, riots, failed love, and societal pressures as he steers his way past the signposts of youth: childhood friendships, basketball tryouts, first love, first heartbreak, picking a college, moving away from home. Claude just wants a place where he can fit. As a young black man born on the South Side of Chicago, he is raised by his civil rights–era grandmother, who tries to shape him into a principled actor for change; yet when riots consume his neighborhood, he hesitates to take sides, unwilling to let race define his life. He decides to escape Chicago for another place, to go to college, to find a new identity, to leave the pressure cooker of his hometown behind. But as he discovers, he cannot; there is no safe haven for a young black man in this time and place called America. Percolating with fierceness and originality, attuned to the ironies inherent in our twenty-first-century landscape, Everywhere You Don’t Belong marks the arrival of a brilliant young talent.

Set in the hills of Northern Ireland in the 1960's and 70's, A Son Called Gabriel is a deeply felt and often funny coming-of-age novel that is ultimately unforgettable. Gabriel Harkin, the eldest of four children in a working-class family, struggles through a loving yet often brutal childhood. It's a turbulent time in Ulster, and in the staunchly Catholic community to which Gabriel belongs, the rigid code for belief and behaviour is clear. As Gabriel begins to suspect that he s not like other boys, he tries desperately to lock away his feelings, and his fears. But secrets have a way of being discovered, and Gabriel learns that his might not be the only one in the Harkin family.