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Thirty years ago Tobias Wolff wrote a memoir that changed the form. This Boys Life is the story of the young, tough-on-the-outside but vulnerable Toby Wolff. Separated by divorce from his father and brother, Toby and his mother travel from Florida to Utah to a small village in Washington state, with many stops along the way. As each place doesnt quite work out, they pick up to find somewhere new. In the story of their journey, Wolff masterfully recreates...
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"Drama, family secrets, and a KGB spy in his own kitchen! How will Yevgeny ever fulfill his parents' dream that he become a national hero when he doesn't even have his own room? He's not a star athlete or a legendary ballet dancer. In the tiny apartment he shares with his Baryshnikov-obsessed mother, poetry-loving father, continually outraged grandmother, and safely talented brother, all Yevgeny has is his little pencil, the underside of a massive...
4) The dreamer
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English
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A fictionalized biography of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who grew up a painfully shy child, ridiculed by his overbearing father, but who became one of the most widely-read poets in the world. Includes author's note about the poet.
6) The children of Willesden Lane: beyond the kindertransport : a memoir of music, love, and survival
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In this remarkable memoir, world-renowned concert pianist Mona Golabek shares the inspiring story of her mother's journey through World War II ... and of the extraordinary gift that became her enduring legacy to her daughter: the gift of music.
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"Forget the moon landing, the Nobel prizes, and the famous inventions. When the world's most brilliant scientists were growing up, they had regular-kid problems just like you. Albert Einstein daydreamed instead of paying attention in class. Jane Goodall got in trouble for bringing worms and snails in her house. And Neil deGrasse Tyson had to start a dog-walking business to save up money to buy a telescope. Kid Scientists tells these stories and more...
8) Punching bag
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Memoir (Rex Ogle) volume 2
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English
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"The companion to Rex Ogle's award-winning Free Lunch is a searing account of adolescence in a household torn by domestic violence. Punching Bag is the compelling true story of a high school career defined by poverty and punctuated by outbreaks of domestic abuse. Rex Ogle, who brilliantly mapped his experience of hunger in Free Lunch, here describes his struggle to survive; reflects on his complex, often paradoxical relationship with his passionate,...
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Two kids with the same name were born blocks apart in the same decaying city within a few years of each other. One grew up to be a Rhodes Scholar, army officer, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison. Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, this is the story of two boys and the journey of a generation trying to find their...
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"His name is synonymous with high-stakes wilderness survival stories. Now, beloved author Gary Paulsen portrays a series of life-altering moments from his turbulent childhood as his own original survival story. If not for his summer escape from a shockingly neglectful Chicago upbringing to a North Woods homestead at age five, there never would have been a Hatchet. Without the encouragement of the librarian who handed him his first book at age thirteen,...
11) Free lunch
Author
Series
Memoir (Rex Ogle) volume 1
Language
English
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2021 Summer Top Picks for Middle Schoolers
2022 Caudill Award Nominees
Rebecca Caudill Award Nominees 2022
2022 Caudill Award Nominees
Rebecca Caudill Award Nominees 2022
Description
"A distinctive new voice: Rex Ogle's story of starting middle school on the free lunch program is timely, heartbreaking, and true. Free Lunch is the story of Rex Ogle's first semester in sixth grade. Rex and his baby brother often went hungry, wore secondhand clothes, and were short of school supplies, and Rex was on his school's free lunch program. Grounded in the immediacy of physical hunger and the humiliation of having to announce it every day...
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2023 Caudill Award Nominees
Cookies & Comics | New Beginnings
Graded Summer - 7th/8th Grade
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Cookies & Comics | New Beginnings
Graded Summer - 7th/8th Grade
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Description
"This book is a work of fiction based on true events. It reflects the author's present recollections of experiences over time. Some names and characteristics have been changed or invented, some events have been compressed, and dialogue has been re-created." -- title page verso.
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National Hispanic Heritage Month (SCPL)
National Hispanic Heritage Month - Adult
National Hispanic Heritage Month - Teens
National Hispanic Heritage Month - Adult
National Hispanic Heritage Month - Teens
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"Perfect for fans of Fresh Off the Boat's situational humor and Jane the Virgin's celebration of Latinidad, Definitely Hispanic is a collection of introspective memoiristic essays by social media influencer and viral phenomenon LeJuan James about growing up Hispanic in the US"--
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"Robert Hoge was born with a tumor the size of a tennis ball in the middle of his face and short, twisted legs, but he refused to let what made him different stand in the way of leading a happy, successful life. This is the true story of how he embraced his circumstances and never let his "ugly" stop him from focusing on what truly mattered."--
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The author grew up in the woods of Mississippi amid poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. He lied, stole, and raged at those around him; at six he was a "drunkard", hanging about in taverns. Surly, brutal, cold, suspicious, and self-pitying, he was surrounded on one side by whites who were either indifferent to him, pitying, or cruel, and on the other side by blacks who resented anyone trying to rise above the common law. This is the author's powerful...
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"In this unputdownable story of nature, nurture, and coming to terms with one's true inheritance, the author, introducing her deeply dysfunctional yet fiercely loving family that is anything but "normal," reveals how a colorful cast of characters were thrown together by chance and DNA. For most of her life, Chrysta Bilton was part of a small, if dysfunctional, family of three. When Chrysta and her sister learn as young adults that their father donated...
18) The contract
Author
Series
The contract (Derek Jeter) volume 1
Language
English
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In Kalamazoo, Michigan, eight-year-old Derek Jeter, who dreams of playing for the New York Yankees, learns what it takes to be a champion on and off the field.
19) Button pusher
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Tyler's brain is different. Unlike his friends, he has a hard time paying attention in class. He acts out in goofy, over-the-top ways. Sometimes, he even does dangerous things--like cut up a bus seat with a pocketknife or hang out of an attic window. To the adults in his life, Tyler seems like a troublemaker. But he knows that he's not. Tyler is curious and creative. He's the best artist in his grade, and when he can focus, he gets great grades. He...
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"They were three Black girls. Dawn, tall and studious; her sister, Kim, younger by three years and headstrong as they come; and her best friend, Debra, already prom-queen pretty by third grade. They bonded--fervently and intensely in that unique way of little girls--as they roamed the concrete landscape of Bronzeville, a historic neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, the destination of hundreds of thousands of Black folks who fled the ravages of the...