I Was Sold To My Dead Brother S Best Friend

My brother disappeared when I was eight, after a while we just assumed that he was dead. On my eighteenth birthday my life fell apart as my dead brother turned out to be not dead at all. What's worse was that my parents knew and did something that I will not forgive. They sold me to his best friend who is supposed to be some kind of "prince". They made the decision to ruin my life and payback is an understatement.Winner of the 2012 Watty Award- Vampire Most Popular

A powerful National Book Award Finalist from the acclaimed, bestselling author of Monster. "This novel is like photorealism; it paints a vivid and genuine portrait of life that will have a palpable effect on its readers." (School Library Journal starred review) With Harlem as its backdrop, Autobiography of My Dead Brother follows the diverging paths of best friends Rise and Jesse. When Rise becomes engulfed in gang activity and starts dealing drugs, Jesse, a budding artist, tries to make sense of the complexities of friendship, loyalty, and loss in a neighborhood plagued by drive-by shootings, vicious gangs, and an indifferent juvenile justice system. The innovative first-person storytelling, along with cartoons and photos, pulls in readers and makes Autobiography of My Dead Brother a strong and thought-provoking choice for sharing in a classroom or at home. "Though the story is starkly realistic, there is always hope in the gifts of Jesse the artist and C. J. the musician, of schools and churches and of caring parents." (Kirkus) "Touching and impactful, Autobiography cannot fail to intrigue, and hopefully influence youngsters with its poignant statement of two roads taken." (Judges' Citation, National Book Award)

A Study Guide for Walter Dean Myers's "Autobiography of My Dead Brother," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Literary Themes for Students: The American Dream. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Literary Themes for Students: The American Dream for all of your research needs.

The long-awaited second novel from David Chariandy, whose debut, Soucouyant, was nominated for nearly every major literary prize in Canada and published internationally. An intensely beautiful, searingly powerful, tightly constructed novel, Brother explores questions of masculinity, family, race, and identity as they are played out in a Scarborough housing complex during the sweltering heat and simmering violence of the summer of 1991. With shimmering prose and mesmerizing precision, David Chariandy takes us inside the lives of Michael and Francis. They are the sons of Trinidadian immigrants, their father has disappeared and their mother works double, sometimes triple shifts so her boys might fulfill the elusive promise of their adopted home. Coming of age in The Park, a cluster of town houses and leaning concrete towers in the disparaged outskirts of a sprawling city, Michael and Francis battle against the careless prejudices and low expectations that confront them as young men of black and brown ancestry -- teachers stream them into general classes; shopkeepers see them only as thieves; and strangers quicken their pace when the brothers are behind them. Always Michael and Francis escape into the cool air of the Rouge Valley, a scar of green wilderness that cuts through their neighbourhood, where they are free to imagine better lives for themselves. Propelled by the pulsing beats and styles of hip hop, Francis, the older of the two brothers, dreams of a future in music. Michael's dreams are of Aisha, the smartest girl in their high school whose own eyes are firmly set on a life elsewhere. But the bright hopes of all three are violently, irrevocably thwarted by a tragic shooting, and the police crackdown and suffocating suspicion that follow. With devastating emotional force David Chariandy, a unique and exciting voice in Canadian literature, crafts a heartbreaking and timely story about the profound love that exists between brothers and the senseless loss of lives cut short with the shot of a gun.

For months, Cass has heard her best friend, Julia, whisper about a secret project. When Julia dies in a car accident, her drama friends decide to bring the project?a musical called Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad?to fruition. But Cass isn't a drama person. She can?t take a summer of painting sets, and she won?t spend long hours with Heather, the girl who made her miserable all through middle school and has somehow landed the leading role. So Cass takes off. In alternating chapters, she spends the first part of summer on a cross-country bike trip and the rest swallowing her pride, making props, and?of all things?falling for Heather. This is a story of the breadth of love. Of the depth of friendship. And of the most hilarious musical one quiet suburb has ever seen.

_______________ 'One of the most emotive accounts of life in Nazi Austria that I've ever read' - Guardian 'A moving portrait of a girl forced to come of age in a world at war' - Sunday Times 'Vividly depicted and shrewdly observed ... The world evoked here strikes me as fundamentally true' - Sydney Morning Herald _______________ An unforgettable, nightmarish coming-of-age story set in rural Austria towards the end of the Second World War. It is 1944, and war has taken the men in Nazi-controlled Austria to the front line. For thirteen-year-old Ursula Hildesheim, life in the village of Felddorf remains almost as it was: bullied by her schoolmates, idly thieving from the village shop, enlisted in endless chores by her mama and sister and running wild with her adored older brother Anton. But when Russian prisoners escape from the local concentration camp, her mama starts an affair with a married man, her friend goes missing and her brother's allegiance to the Hitler Youth emerges in shocking ways, Ursula finds herself alone, disturbed by dark memories, and surrounded by threat. In this new world of conflict, Ursula discovers a bravery she has never known before and is forced to recognise that danger comes not only from the enemy at the door but from the enemy within. My Own Dear Brother is a remarkable coming-of-age story and an unflinching study of both cruelty and courage. Rich in folklore, it introduces a daring young heroine and a powerful new literary voice. _______________ 'Intensely imagined' - Independent 'A powerful and absorbing novel ... Brilliantly done' - Esther Freud, author of Mr Mac and Me 'A touching chronicle of some of the lesser-known casualties of war and of the resilience of human spirit' - Washington Independent Review of Books 'Muller creates a flawed and vulnerable young heroine we believe in' - The Australian

A Tale of Survival is an explosive story that is much more than a simple memoir of an Hispanic woman: it is an important, quintessential American story of adversity and perseverance. This is a brutally honest and provocative tale of not merely survival but success from one who came from a time and place where success and upward mobility for a Mexican-American was not only unlikely but damn near impossible. Unlike some other Hispanic memoirs, Grace Flores-Hughes describes her childhood and transition to adulthood and beyond, against the tapestry of the modern Hispanic experience and the sometimes turbulent era of the rebellious baby-boomer generation. She writes of assimilation, racial and ethnic injustice, her role in coining of the term Hispanic, and her championing the lives of the disenfranchised before and after the civil rights movement. Further, Ms. Flores- Hughes takes you on this treacherous journey while exploring her encounters and friendships with many of Americas leaders. She demonstrates in this colorful and spicy story that Hold the Salsa has never been her style; a story that chronicles the emergence of a childs identity to that of an accomplished Hispanic woman who rose against all odds.