The Tree Of Young Dreamers

Brought up in the Depression, Johnny DaSilva is leader of a fun and imaginative gang that lives out their dreams in the Big Tree in which each has a branch that serves as the Lone Ranger's Silver, the race car of Morey Amsterdam, the rocket ship of Buck Rogers, the crow's nest for Black Bart the Pirate. When World War II broke out, they tried every ruse their young imaginations could think of to get into the marines, army, and navy but had to settle for the Boy Scouts. But the faux pas war to end all wars came too soon for the Big Tree Gang. Johnny is best described by an aunt as having the millstone around the neck of having a strict English Episcopalian conscience and bucking bronco Portuguese sexual proclivities. Two girls are in love with him, one wealthy and popular, the other sexually abused and who considered herself a worthless toy, until she met Johnny. Whatever they knew about the facts of life, male and female, were learned pretty much by trial and error.

In a collection of separate, mostly unrelated essays written for his newspaper column over many years, Workman charms with his grace, comforts with his wisdom and makes us smile with his wit. Like his previous collections of inspirational columns, Open Windows and Fireflies in a Fruitjar, this is a book to be read and given as a gift to those we love.

Countless cozy animals are settling in for the night, but they all sleep in different ways. The celebrated creator of "Plume" and "The Blue Hour" explains how in her latest enchanting animal book. Full color.

The Tree of Lost Dreams takes Johnny DaSilva and his Big Tree buddies from youths who lived out their fantasies of heroism high on the towering limbs of the Big Tree to the real world. While trying and failing to enter WW II because of their youth, they were greeted with the Korean War. Johnny's words "Now we have our own war" were received with some standing tall on their high limb while others deciding to instead abandon the heights and place their two feet squarely on the ground. Johnny, Righty, Scoff, Rhesus and others bought into Johnny's words, "If we don't fight them there, we will fight them here." The two young girls that were in love with Johnny, wealthy and popular Yelena, and poor and abused Bernadette, are now women. It took little time for the Big Tree gang to learn the great distance between the lofty fresh air of their beloved Tree to the lowly face in the muck, nearly impossible to breathe gasps of battlefield blood and barf. Johnny suffers the epitome of the wounds of the lower depths and the different directions it spirals him, Yelena and Bernadette into. Hopefully you have read the Tree of Young Dreamers, Frank Sousa's first novel of the Tree Trilogy. The third, the Tree of New Roots is underway.

A lovely and tranquil celebration of nature The sun has set, the day has ended, but the night hasn't quite arrived yet. This magical twilight is known as the blue hour. Everything in nature—sky, water, flowers, birds, foxes—comes together in a symphony of blue to celebrate the merging of night and day. With its soothing text and radiant artwork, this elegant picture book displays the majesty of nature and reminds readers that beauty is fleeting but also worth savoring.

A compulsively readable debut novel about marriage, immigration, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream—the unforgettable story of a young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York just as the Great Recession upends the economy New York Times Bestseller • Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award • Longlisted for the PEN/Open Book Award • An ALA Notable Book NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • The New York Times Book Review • San Francisco Chronicle • The Guardian • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Chicago Public Library • BookPage • Refinery29 • Kirkus Reviews Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, has come to the United States to provide a better life for himself, his wife, Neni, and their six-year-old son. In the fall of 2007, Jende can hardly believe his luck when he lands a job as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a senior executive at Lehman Brothers. Clark demands punctuality, discretion, and loyalty—and Jende is eager to please. Clark’s wife, Cindy, even offers Neni temporary work at the Edwardses’ summer home in the Hamptons. With these opportunities, Jende and Neni can at last gain a foothold in America and imagine a brighter future. However, the world of great power and privilege conceals troubling secrets, and soon Jende and Neni notice cracks in their employers’ façades. When the financial world is rocked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Jongas are desperate to keep Jende’s job—even as their marriage threatens to fall apart. As all four lives are dramatically upended, Jende and Neni are forced to make an impossible choice. Praise for Behold the Dreamers “A debut novel by a young woman from Cameroon that illuminates the immigrant experience in America with the tenderhearted wisdom so lacking in our political discourse . . . Mbue is a bright and captivating storyteller.”—The Washington Post “A capacious, big-hearted novel.”—The New York Times Book Review “Behold the Dreamers’ heart . . . belongs to the struggles and small triumphs of the Jongas, which Mbue traces in clean, quick-moving paragraphs.”—Entertainment Weekly “Mbue’s writing is warm and captivating.”—People (book of the week) “[Mbue’s] book isn’t the first work of fiction to grapple with the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, but it’s surely one of the best. . . . It’s a novel that depicts a country both blessed and doomed, on top of the world, but always at risk of losing its balance. It is, in other words, quintessentially American.”—NPR “This story is one that needs to be told.”—Bust “Behold the Dreamers challenges us all to consider what it takes to make us genuinely content, and how long is too long to live with our dreams deferred.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “[A] beautiful, empathetic novel.”—The Boston Globe “A witty, compassionate, swiftly paced novel that takes on race, immigration, family and the dangers of capitalist excess.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Mbue [is] a deft, often lyrical observer. . . . [Her] meticulous storytelling announces a writer in command of her gifts.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

The Tree of Lost Dreams takes Johnny DaSilva and his Big Tree buddies from youths who lived out their fantasies of heroism high on the towering limbs of the Big Tree to the real world. While trying and failing to enter WW II because of their youth, they were greeted with the Korean War. Johnny's words "Now we have our own war" were received with some standing tall on their high limb while others deciding to instead abandon the heights and place their two feet squarely on the ground. Johnny, Righty, Scoff, Rhesus and others bought into Johnny's words, "If we don't fight them there, we will fight them here." The two young girls that were in love with Johnny, wealthy and popular Yelena, and poor and abused Bernadette, are now women. It took little time for the Big Tree gang to learn the great distance between the lofty fresh air of their beloved Tree to the lowly face in the muck, nearly impossible to breathe gasps of battlefield blood and barf. Johnny suffers the epitome of the wounds of the lower depths and the different directions it spirals him, Yelena and Bernadette into. Hopefully you have read the Tree of Young Dreamers, Frank Sousa's first novel of the Tree Trilogy. The third, the Tree of New Roots is underway.