My Brothers Keeper

The death of a sibling is unlike any other. Gloria Reuben’s little brother died just before his twenty-second birthday. Two decades later, her oldest brother Denis died two weeks short of his sixtieth birthday. Just as Gloria felt like she was finally healing from David’s death, the shock of Denis’ unexpected death was almost too much to take. In My Brothers’ Keeper, Gloria bares her soul as she reveals the intimate details of her life at home as a young girl. How the death of her father when she was twelve shaped her view of love and life. How David’s death was the impetus for her move from Canada to the United States. And how her brother Denis was her heart’s twin in a multitude of ways. Gloria, most well known as an actress, debuts her talent as a writer in My Brothers’ Keeper, an intimate and honest tribute to David and Denis. Their lives. Their deaths. And the hope that awaits. “Gloria has written a truly wonderful and inspirational tribute to her brothers and to life. Helpful to all of us who have suffered losses.”—Pete Earley

The author describes the Holocaust and explains how he tries to tell the story of that catastrophic slaughter of Jews through his art.

The stirring story of African Canadians who had fled slavery and oppression in the United States but returned to enlist in the Union forces in the American Civil War.

With war looming on the horizon and winter setting in, can two children escape North Korea on their own? Winner of the Freeman Book Award! North Korea. December, 1950. Twelve-year-old Sora and her family live under an iron set of rules: No travel without a permit. No criticism of the government. No absences from Communist meetings. Wear red. Hang pictures of the Great Leader. Don't trust your neighbors. Don't speak your mind. You are being watched. But war is coming, war between North and South Korea, between the Soviets and the Americans. War causes chaos--and war is the perfect time to escape. The plan is simple: Sora and her family will walk hundreds of miles to the South Korean city of Busan from their tiny mountain village. They just need to avoid napalm, frostbite, border guards, and enemy soldiers. But they can't. And when an incendiary bombing changes everything, Sora and her little brother Young will have to get to Busan on their own. Can a twelve-year-old girl and her eight-year-old brother survive three hundred miles of warzone in winter? Haunting, timely, and beautiful, this harrowing novel from a searing new talent offers readers a glimpse into a vanished time and a closed nation. A Jane Addams Children's Book Award Finalist An ILA Intermediate Fiction Award Winner An American Library Association Notable Children’s Book A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year A Junior Library Guild Selection A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year "Will ultimately be recognized as one of the best books... on the Korean War."—Education About Asia, the Association for Asian Studies

What responsibility do the Poles share for the mass murder of the Jews, which took place largely on Polish soil? In a major contribution to the history of the Holocaust Polonsky gathers together the most important arguments in this debate.

This is the 10th anniversary and third printing of "Our Brother's Keeper" is the story of all wars, past and present. While it is an unvarnished depiction of combat and its somber compilation of battlefield casualties, it is also the story of war's staggering list of collateral damage-the family and friends of the slain. Since 1941, three generations have been seared by five catastrophic wars; for the present generation, it is Iraq and Afghanistan. But for author Jedwin Smith, his parents and his brothers and sisters, it is the haunting specter of Vietnam that will never be forgotten. Seemingly on a whim, Jeffrey Earl Smith, the author's younger brother, put aside his anti-war sentiments and joined the Marines in July 1967. Sent to Vietnam four months later, his death during a Viet Cong ambush in March 1968 was the catalyst that finally ended his parents' turbulent marriage and created a lost generation of Smith siblings. For the author, himself a former Marine, it was the beginning of a 32-year odyssey to track down the individual who killed his brother and extract revenge-a quest that takes the author across the country in search of the Marines who were at Jeff's side on that horrific day three decades earlier, and ends in Vietnam at the village of Mai Xa Thi, where the author confronts Duong Tu Anh, the former VC commander responsible for the attack that killed Jeff. This encounter is chilling, extraordinary, and life-changing. "Our Brother's Keeper" is more than a moving and beautifully written family saga of the Vietnam War and its bitter and ongoing aftermath, it is also an inspiring personal tale of loss and healing, anger and forgiveness, self-discovery-and the transcendent power of love.

Countless books on the Civil War recount the carnage, vengeance, and heroism in battle. But there was another aspect of the Civil War as well: one in which Yankees and Rebels during the heat of battle saved one another, often at risk of their own lives; one in which soldiers and civilians, prison guards and prisoners, though on opposing sides, not only traded with one another, but gave humanitarian aid and sustenance in times of need. This "brotherhood for the enemy" contradicted all the rules of normal warfare but did in fact take place. Using primary source materials such as diaries, letters, military reports, and newspapers, Daniel Rolph opens up a unique and little-know genre of Civil War history.

Toby is a freshman whose life is slowly unraveling. His father has left, his brother's an addict, and his mother is solely focused on dating, in this realistic and engaging story about trying to hold a family together.