When I Was The Greatest

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds, a “funny and rewarding” (Publishers Weekly) coming-of-age novel about friendship and loyalty across neighborhood lines and the hardship of life for an urban teen. A lot of the stuff that gives my neighborhood a bad name, I don’t really mess with. The guns and drugs and all that, not really my thing. Nah, not his thing. Ali’s got enough going on, between school and boxing and helping out at home. His best friend Noodles, though. Now there’s a dude looking for trouble—and, somehow, it’s always Ali around to pick up the pieces. But, hey, a guy’s gotta look out for his boys, right? Besides, it’s all small potatoes; it’s not like anyone’s getting hurt. And then there’s Needles. Needles is Noodles’s brother. He’s got a syndrome, and gets these ticks and blurts out the wildest, craziest things. It’s cool, though: everyone on their street knows he doesn’t mean anything by it. Yeah, it’s cool…until Ali and Noodles and Needles find themselves somewhere they never expected to be…somewhere they never should've been—where the people aren’t so friendly, and even less forgiving.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds, a 'funny and rewarding' (Publishers Weekly) coming-of-age novel about friendship and loyalty across neighbourhood lines and the hardship of life for an urban teen.A lot of the stuff that gives my neighbourhood a bad name, I don't really mess with. The guns and drugs and all that, not really my thing.Nah, not his thing. Ali's got enough going on, between school and boxing and helping out at home. His best friend Noodles, though. Now there's a dude looking for trouble - and, somehow, it's always Ali around to pick up the pieces. But, hey, a guy's gotta look out for his boys, right? Besides, it's all small potatoes; it's not like anyone's getting hurt.And then there's Needles. Needles is Noodles's brother. He's got a syndrome, and gets these ticks and blurts out the wildest, craziest things. It's cool, though: everyone on their street knows he doesn't mean anything by it.Yeah, it's cool . . . until Ali and Noodles and Needles find themselves somewhere they never expected to be . . . somewhere they never should've been - where the people aren't so friendly, and even less forgiving.'A funny and rewarding read.' Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review'Urban fiction with heart . . . unexpectedly gorgeous.' Booklist'Moving and thought-provoking . . . defies readers' expectations.' Kirkus

“An intense snapshot of the chain reaction caused by pulling a trigger.” —Booklist (starred review) “Astonishing.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A tour de force.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) A Newbery Honor Book A Coretta Scott King Honor Book A Printz Honor Book A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner for Young Adult Literature Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award An Edgar Award Winner for Best Young Adult Fiction Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner An Entertainment Weekly Best YA Book of 2017 A Vulture Best YA Book of 2017 A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of 2017 An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds’s electrifying novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother. A cannon. A strap. A piece. A biscuit. A burner. A heater. A chopper. A gat. A hammer A tool for RULE Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES. And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if Will gets off that elevator. Told in short, fierce staccato narrative verse, Long Way Down is a fast and furious, dazzlingly brilliant look at teenage gun violence, as could only be told by Jason Reynolds.

Fifteen-year-old Fawad has big dreams about being the world's first Pakistani to be drafted into the NBA. A first-generation Pakistani coming-of-age story for fans of David Yoon and Ben Philippe. Fifteen-year-old Fawad Chaudhry loves two things: basketball and his mother's potato and ground beef stuffed parathas. Both are round and both help him forget about things like his father, who died two years ago, his mother’s desire to arrange a marriage to his first cousin, Nusrat, back home in Pakistan, and the tiny apartment in Regent Park he shares with his mom and sister. Not to mention his estranged best friend Yousuf, who's coping with the shooting death of his older brother. But Fawad has plans: like, asking out Ashley, even though she lives on the other, wealthier side of the tracks, and saving his friend Arif from being beaten into a pulp for being the school flirt, and making the school basketball team and dreaming of being the world’s first Pakistani to be drafted into the NBA. All he has to do now is convince his mother to let him try out for the basketball team. And let him date girls from his school. Not to mention somehow get Omar, the neighborhood bully, to leave him alone . . .

“Captures the excitement that Ali created in a generation of young African Americans, who found in the brash, young boxer a new kind of hero.” —Booklist Includes photos From his childhood in the segregated South to his final fight with Parkinson’s disease, Muhammad Ali never backed down. He was banned from boxing during his prime because he refused to fight in Vietnam. He became a symbol of the antiwar movement—and a defender of civil rights. As “The Greatest,” he was a boxer of undeniable talent and courage. He took the world by storm—only Ali could “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” From a New York Times–bestselling author and winner of numerous awards—including the Michael L. Printz Award, Newbery Honors, a Caldecott Honor and five Coretta Scott King awards—this is an inspiring biography of Ali, Olympic gold medalist, former heavyweight champion, and one of the most influential people of all time. “Myers interweaves fight sequences with the boxer’s life story and the political events and issues of the day. He doesn’t shy away from reporting on the brutality of the sport and documents the toll it has taken on its many stars . . . Myers’s writing flows while describing the boxing action and the legend’s larger-than-life story.” —School Library Journal

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.

Writing from deep, been-there experience, college football standout-turned NFL dropout Trent Shelton takes you on a journey to become the best hope-filled version of yourself. Trent Shelton seemed to have it all together–until everything fell apart. A college football standout, his NFL dreams died when he was cut from multiple teams. With no job and no prospects, learning he had a child on the way and numbing himself with whatever he could find, Trent then found out one of his closest friends had killed himself. Life seemed without hope–until Trent discovered the secret to finding promise in the darkest of times. And now he shares that secret with you. Sharing his revolutionary toolkit for transforming your life and reaching your goals, in The Greatest You, Trent will help you become everything you are meant to be; face the reality of your circumstances and realize your purpose in life; break free from toxic environments and forgive those who've harmed you; and learn how to guard yourself against the pitfalls of life. Weaving together personal stories from his own life and from others who have also gone through hard times, Trent reveals how you can bring out the best in yourself and establish a happier, more fulfilled future for generations to come.

The runaway bestseller with more than four million copies in print! You too can change your life with the priceless wisdom of ten ancient scrolls handed down for thousands of years. “Every sales manager should read The Greatest Salesman in the World. It is a book to keep at the bedside, or on the living room table—a book to dip into as needed, to browse in now and then, to enjoy in small stimulating portions. It is a book for the hours and for the years, a book to turn to over and over again, as to a friend, a book of moral, spiritual and ethical guidance, an unfailing source of comfort and inspiration.”—Lester J. Bradshaw, Jr., Former Dean, Dale Carnegie Institute of Effective Speaking & Human Relations “I have read almost every book that has ever been written on salesmanship, but I think Og Mandino has captured all of them in The Greatest Salesman in the World. No one who follows these principles will ever fail as a salesman, and no one will ever be truly great without them; but, the author has done more than present the principles—he has woven them into the fabric of one of the most fascinating stories I have ever read.”—Paul J. Meyer, President of Success Motivation Institute, Inc. “I was overwhelmed by The Greatest Salesman in the World. It is, without doubt, the greatest and the most touching story I have ever read. It is so good that there are two musts that I would attach to it: First, you must not lay it down until you have finished it; and secondly, every individual who sells anything, and that includes us all, must read it.”—Robert B. Hensley, President, Life Insurance Co. of Kentucky