Helen Plum Library

"A bolt of lightning on my kicks ... The court is sizzling. My sweat is drizzling. Stop all that quivering. Cuz tonight I'm delivering," raps basketball phenom Josh Bell. Thanks to his dad, he and his twin brother, Jordan, are kings on the court, with crossovers that make even the toughest ballers cry. But Josh has more than hoops in his blood. He's got a river of rhymes flowing through him - a sick flow that helps him find his rhythm when everything's...

In 1993, twelve-year-old Becca, who struggles with a anxiety disorder, visits her divorced father in Vienna, Austria, where she befriends a Muslim refugee fleeing the Bosnian genocide

"A vibrant, heartfelt memoir about confronting mortality, surviving loss, finding resilience in one's Midwest roots and seeking a father's wisdom through an unusual woodworking project--constructing his own coffin"--Amazon.com When Giffels enlisted his dad to help him build his own casket, he thought of it mostly as an opportunity to sharpen his woodworking skills and to spend time together. But the unexpected deaths of his mother and a friend led...

"Set in the years 1950-1970 in a changing America and London, follow[s] two married couples - ministers and academics - whose intricate bonds of faith and friendship, jealousy and understanding, are tested by the birth of an autistic child"-- Charles and Lily, James and Nan. They meet in Greenwich Village in 1963 when Charles and James are jointly hired to steward the historic Third Presbyterian Church through turbulent times. Their personal differences...

In the summer of 1988, twelve-year-old Chuck Bell is sent to stay with his grandparents, where he discovers jazz and basketball and learns more about his family's past

"Ojibwe tradition calls for fathers to walk their children through the world, sharing the ancient understanding "that we are all, animate and inanimate alike, living on the one pure breath with which the Creator gave life to the Universe." In this new entry in the Seedbank series, an intimate series of letters to the six-year-old son from whom he was estranged, Richard Wagamese fulfills this traditional duty with grace and humility, describing his...

"When Evie McKnight slams into Jamie Mackenzie on a quay on Southampton, she flashes back to the day she accidentally knocked him into the river Cam. When she fished him out again, he shocked her with a searing, bold kiss before walking away in dripping wet shirt and kilt. Evie has no business reveling in memories of Jamie then and the nearness of him now--she is betrothed to a respectable man from a respectable and wealthy family. But Jamie appears...

"Daughter of the oil titan and wife of the the son of the Reaper King, Edith Rockefeller McCormick was a woman wronged, left to fend for herself in the face of bankruptcy and cancer."--

"Tracking an underground language from one family's obsession to the outcasts who spoke it in order to survive. Centuries ago in middle Europe, a coded language appeared, scrawled in graffiti and spoken only by people who were "wiz" (in the know)--vagrants and refugees, merchants and thieves. This hybrid language was rich in expressions for police, jail, or experiencing trouble, such as "being in a pickle." And beginning with Martin Luther, German...

"Contains over 100 primary source selections including essays, proclamations, letters, eulogies, poems, and songs to illustrate Abraham Lincoln's life, presidency, and legacy. Features include a chronology, bibliography, and contact information and web sites for associations, libraries, museums, and historic sites"--Provided by publisher