My Brother Sammy

Sammy does not go to school with his older brother. Sammy has to go to school on a special bus. They cannot play in the park together. Sammy lies under the tree and watches the leaves. They are constantly at cross purposes because Sammy is autistic and does not know how to be a 'normal brother.' Then one day the older brother realises that he should not demand everything on his own terms and that Sammy's way of doing things may not be so bad. This moving book realistically portrays life with an autistic child in the family. It does not promise any simple solution but reminds us all that understanding and compromise are vital ingredients in a good relationship.

A boy describes some of the many feelings he has about his brother Sammy, who is autistic.

A boy describes some of the many feelings he has about his brother Sammy, who is autistic.

My name is Calvin Sinclair, I'm eleven years old and I have a confession... I killed my brother. It's the summer before grade six and Calvin Sinclair is bored to tears. He's recently moved from a big city to a small town and there's nothing to do. It's hot, he has no friends and the only kid around is his six-year-old brother, Sammy, who can barely throw a basketball as high as the hoop. Cal occupies his time by getting his brother to do almost anything: from collecting ants to doing Calvin's chores. And Sammy is all too eager - as long as it means getting a "Level" and moving one step closer to his brother's Eagle status. When Calvin meets Aleta Alvarado, a new girl who shares his love for Goosebumps books and adventure, Sammy is pushed aside. Cal feels guilty but not enough to change. At least not until a diagnosis makes things at home start spinning out of control and he's left wondering whether Sammy will ever complete his own journey... "Tender, direct, and honest."—Kirkus Reviews "An honest portrayal of love, loss, and friendship." —School Library Journal "A moving and ultimately hopeful book."—Booklist "This book is heart-breaking, gut-wrenching, and awe-inspiring.... highly recommend this book to fans of the book Wonder by R. J. Palacio, but i think that any reader will enjoy this excellent debut novel from Alex Lyttle." —JacobtheBookworm, Goodreads "This is touching, moving, beautiful story and I can't recommend it enough. Even though its target audience is upper middle grade, everyone should read this. Did you watch that television show Red Band Society? My teenager daughter and I loved that show and this book had that seem feel but from the perspective of the non-ill sibling. Nicola Yoon's Everything, Everything was released in September of 2015 and the hype that followed was out of control. The hype for this book needs to surpass that." —Candace, Goodreads Check out Alex Lyttle's other book: The Rise of Winter The Critics Agree: From Ant to Eagle, like The Bridge to Terabithia and Out of My Mind, shouldn't be missed. Read this award-winning book today! Winner, Red Cedar Award 2019 Winner, Silver Birch Fiction Award 2018 Winner, Rocky Mountain Book Award 2019 Finalist, Alberta Writers Guild 2019 Finalist, Foreword Indies Book of the Year 2017

"The most winning junior detective ever in teen lit. (Take that, Nancy Drew!)" —Midwest Children's Book Review The Christmas parade gets furry in a hurry when three pranksters dressed as wise men toss some cats onto Sammy's float. Dogs shoot off in all directions, and the prize Pomeranian Sammy's supposed to be watching disappears. Turns out the darn fuzzball's been kidnapped. The owner is demanding that Sammy find her doggone dog . . . and she's a woman who knows how to get what she wants. But Sammy's a pretty tough cookie herself. Dognappers, blackmailers, and wise men be warned! The Sammy Keyes mysteries are fast-paced, funny, thoroughly modern, and true whodunits. Each mystery is exciting and dramatic, but it's the drama in Sammy's personal life that keeps readers coming back to see what happens next with her love interest Casey, her soap-star mother, and her mysterious father.

For fans of Rene Denfeld and Shari Lapena comes a rich, atmospheric family drama set in the 1980's following the disappearances of two paperboys from a small midwestern town. It's August 1984, and paperboy Christopher Stewart has gone missing. Hours later, twelve-year-old Sammy Cox hurries home from his own paper route, red-faced and out of breath, hiding a terrible secret. Crystal, Sammy's seventeen-year-old sister, is worried by the disappearance but she also sees opportunity: the Stewart case has echoes of an earlier unsolved disappearance of another boy, one town over. Crystal senses the makings of an award winning essay, one that could win her a scholarship - and a ticket out of their small Iowa town. Officer Dale Goodkind can't believe his bad luck: another town and another paperboy kidnapping. But this time he vows that it won't go unsolved. As the abductions set in motion an unpredictable chain of violent, devastating events touching each life in unexpected ways, Dale is forced to face his own demons. Told through interwoven perspectives--and based on the real-life Des Moines Register paperboy kidnappings in the early 1980's--The Monsters We Make deftly explores the effects of one crime exposing another and the secrets people keep hidden from friends, families, and sometimes, even themselves.

From Karen Gravano, a star of the hit VH1 reality show Mob Wives, comes a revealing memoir of a mafia childhood, where love and family come hand-in-hand with murder and betrayal. Karen Gravano is the daughter of Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, once one of the mafia's most feared hit men. With nineteen confessed murders, the former Gambino Crime Family underboss—and John Gotti's right-hand man—is the highest ranking gangster ever to turn State's evidence and testify against members of his high-profile crime family. But to Karen, Sammy Gravano was a sometimes elusive but always loving father figure. He was ever-present at the head of the dinner table. He made a living running a construction firm and several nightclubs. He stayed out late, and sometimes he didn't come home at all. He hosted "secret" meetings at their house, and had countless whispered conversations with "business associates." By the age of twelve, Karen knew he was a gangster. And as she grew up, while her peers worried about clothes and schoolwork, she was coming face-to-face with crime and murder. Gravano was nineteen years old when her father turned his back on the mob and cooperated with the Feds. The fabric of her family was ripped apart, and they were instantly rejected by the communities they grew up in. This is the story of a daughter's struggle to reconcile the image of her loving father with that of a murdering Mafioso, and how, in healing the rift between the two, she was able to forge a new life.

When Josh's mother dies in a phobia-induced car crash, she leaves two questions for her grieving family: how did a snake get into her car and how do you mourn with no faith to guide you? Twelve-year-old Josh is left alone to find the answers. His father is building a time machine. His four-year-old brother's closest friend is a plastic Power Ranger. His psychiatrist offers nothing more than a blank journal and platitudes. Isolated by grief in a home where every day is pajama day, Josh makes death his research project. He tests the mourning practices of religions he doesn't believe in. He tries to mend his little brother's shattered heart. He observes, records and waits—for his life to feel normal, for his mother's death to make sense, for his father to come out of the basement. His observations, recorded in a series of journal entries, are funny, smart, insightful—and heartbreaking. His conclusions about the nature of love, loss, grief and the space-time continuum are nothing less than life-changing.