Passager

Poetry. Jewish Studies. GRANDFATHER'S MANDOLIN; by Fran Markover; is a collection of poems deeply rooted in family and what has come before. David Keplinger notes that "in these poems languages and names and articles of clothing seem to have lives; hats are thought to be alive; and names deserve elegies and memorials because they are breathing things that can pass away from this world; if we do not take care. Poem by poem; Markover creates a rich landscape of lives remembered; honored and loved."

The legendary wizard’s early years are explored in this magical adventure by the acclaimed author of the Pit Dragon Chronicles. A boy is abandoned in the woods of medieval England. A year passes—a year of terror and hunger, of sleeping in trees and foraging for food, of outrunning packs of wild dogs—until one day a falconer captures and tames the boy as he would any passager, a young bird caught in the wild and trained. The falconer adopts the boy and teaches him all of the things he’s forgotten, including the boy’s true name—and the legacy of magic that will be his when he comes of age. Praise for Passager “This first book of the Young Merlin Trilogy will have readers awaiting the sequels.” —The Horn Book “Steeped in hawks, mews, and wood life, the trilogy evokes a romantic, dreamy time. But its unadorned language lets the story emerge in a guileless way that will captivate young readers. This is a fine read-aloud.” —San Diego Union Tribune

Poetry. Latinx Studies. PRAYERS OF LITTLE CONSEQUENCE is a debut collection by a new poet and first generation Mexican American, Gilbert Arzola. Arzola's humble, penetrating voice invites us into his story with poems about growing up poor and Mexican in an all-white neighborhood as well as poems about family, the self, and people in his life he has lost. Love and determination emanate from every page.

Poetry. "Only some art knows how to teach us how to live, and in a way that we are willing, ardently willing, to be taught. Jean Connor's A CARTOGRAPHY OF PEACE is that kind of book. By turns 'wildly admiring' or 'sitting beneath the tutelage of the dark,' these poems take hold of me and sit me down in an attention to both language and the natural world that is riveting and wrought, silence-filled and sublime. 'Time to read/ something old/ deeper than August,' says the speaker in one poem. Yes. Indeed. Right here. This whole book"--Robin Behn.

Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Illustration Award-winning artist Matt James takes the iconic song "Northwest Passage" by legendary Canadian songwriter and singer Stan Rogers and tells the dramatic story of the search for the elusive route through the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific, which for hundreds of years and once again today, nations, explorers and commercial interests have dreamt of conquering, often with tragic consequences. For hundreds of years explorers attempted to find the Northwest Passage - a route through Canada's northern waters to the Pacific Ocean and Asia. Others attempted to find a land route. Many hundreds of men perished in the attempt, until finally, in 1906, Roald Amundsen completed the voyage by ship. Today global warming has brought interest in the passage back to a fever pitch as nations contend with each other over its control and future uses. The historic search inspired Canadian folk musician Stan Rogers to write "Northwest Passage", a song that has become a widely known favorite since its 1981 release. It describes Stan's own journey overland as he contemplates the arduous journeys of some of the explorers, including Kelsey, Mackenzie, Thompson and especially Franklin. The song is moving and haunting, a paean to the adventurous spirit of the explorers and to the beauty of the vast land and icy seas. The lyrics are accompanied by the striking paintings of multiple award-winning artist Matt James. Matt brings a unique vision to the song and the history behind it, providing commentary on the Franklin expedition and its failure to heed the wisdom of Inuit living in the North. The book also contains the music for the song (as well as a final verse that was never recorded), maps, a timeline of Arctic exploration, mini-biographies and portraits of the principal explorers, and suggestions for further reading. Following on the success of Canadian Railroad Trilogy, this is another beautiful book in which a memorable song illuminates a fascinating history that has taken on new resonance today.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Henry Bright has newly returned to West Virginia from the battlefields of the First World War. Griefstruck by the death of his young wife and unsure of how to care for the infant son she left behind, Bright is soon confronted by the destruction of the only home he’s ever known. His hopes for safety rest with the angel who has followed him to Appalachia from the trenches of France and who now promises to protect him and his son. Haunted by the abiding nightmare of his experiences in the war and shadowed by his dead wife’s father, the Colonel, and his two brutal sons, Bright—along with his newborn—makes his way through a ravaged landscape toward an uncertain salvation. DON’T MISS THE EXCLUSIVE CONVERSATION BETWEEN JOSH RITTER AND NEIL GAIMAN IN THE BACK OF THE BOOK.

This is the story of a small group of English immigrants and their struggle to establish a community and livelihood in the forbidding environment of Cape Random on the NE coast of Newfoundland in mid-environment of Cape Random on the NE coast of Newfoundland in the mid-1800s.

The highly anticipated final book in the internationally bestselling The Art of Hearing Heartbeats trilogy, a moving story about love’s power to transcend distances and heal seemingly irreparable wounds. Twelve-year-old Ko Bo Bo lives with his uncle U Ba in Kalaw, a town in Burma. An unusually perceptive child, Bo Bo can read people’s emotions in their eyes. This acute sensitivity only makes his unconventional home life more difficult: His father comes to visit him once a year, and he can hardly remember his mother, who, for unclear reasons, keeps herself away from her son. Everything changes when Bo Bo discovers the story of his parents’ great love, which threatens to break down in the whirlwind of political events, and of his mother’s mysterious sickness. Convinced that he can heal her and reunite their family, Bo Bo decides to set out in search of his parents. A gripping, heartwarming tale that takes the reader from Burma to New York and back, The Heart Remembers is a worthy conclusion to Jan-Philipp Sendker’s beloved series.