Some of the stuff that goes on in the Auburn Street Projects, I'm never gonna do. These projects are like some kind of never-never land, like they never got put on a regular map. Nobody comes around here on purpose. It's as if we all got lost, right in the middle of the city.
Reeve McClain, Jr. -- Junebug -- has decided to skip his birthday. Since ten is the age when boys in the projects are forced to join gangs or are ensnared by drug dealers, Junebug would rather remain nine. Still, he does have a birthday wish: to someday become a ship's captain and sail away. So Junebug comes up with a plan to launch a flotilla, fifty glass bottles containing notes with his wish, in the hope that someone somewhere will help to make his dream come true.

Junebug

Children's Books

Mead, Alice

Growing Up & Facts of Life

Square Fish

"Adem is an ethnic Albanian in the former Yugoslavian province of Kosovo, where the Serbian soldiers are making their violent presence increasingly felt...Acts of resistance are met with reprisals and death, as Adem finds out when his defiant older sister loses her life."-Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. "Riveting."-Publishers Weekly

Adem's Cross

Literature & Fiction

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

"Best friend macaws Billy and Emma share a cage at the zoo . . . A simple, appealing animal story and language well-suited to beginning readers. Hale's bright, cartoonish watercolors emphasize the birds' beauty and personalities, as well as the delicious freedom of flight." -Booklist

Billy and Emma

Animals

For as long as thirteen-year-old Azad can remember, the Islamic Republic of Iran, where he lives in the predominantly Kurdish town of Sardasht, has been at war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and his country has been a harsh society full of spies, secrets, and "disappearances." Still, most of the time Azad manages to live a normal life, hanging out at the bakery next door, going to school with his friend Hiwa, playing sports, and taking care of his parrot. Then Azad learns that his town may soon become a target for Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. Now more than ever, Azad feels torn between his divorced parents and his conflicting desires to remain in his home or escape. His father is somehow connected to the police and is rooted in the town. His mother may be part of the insurgency, yet is ready to flee. How can Azad make the choice? The story of how one boy's world was turned upside down in 1987 Iran is a timely and memorable introduction to the conflicts in the Middle East.

Dawn And Dusk

Farrar. Straus & Giroux

A child's perspective on war. In 1998 the Serb military intensifies its efforts to expel Albanians from Kosovo. Ethnic cleansing forces many families to seek safety in the surrounding hills and mountains. The Kosovo Liberation Army fights back guerrilla style, struggling for an independent Kosovo. Some Albanian villagers support the freedom fighters. Others fear that armed resistance, which they have successfully avoided through long years of Serb repression, will only increase the death toll. And always there is terrible tension between Serbian and Albanian neighbors who once were friends. Eleven-year-old Zana Dugolli, an Albanian Kosovar, isn't sure what to think. She does know not to speak her language to Serbs. And every day she worries about her mother and father, her brothers, the farm, the apple orchard. Already she has lost her best friend, a Serb. Then Zana's village is shelled, and her worst nightmare is realized. Her father and two brothers are killed in the attack, and her leg is shattered by shrapnel. Alone in a Serb hospital, she remembers her father's words: "Don't let them fill your heart with hate." Based on a true story, Alice Mead's stark, affecting novel about a place and conflict she knows well will help young readers understand the war in Kosovo.

Girl of Kosovo

Ten-year-old Reeve McClain, Jr.-Junebug-shuns the gangs and drug dealers who inhabit the projects where he lives, and dreams instead of being a ship's captain and sailing away. Then Junebug's mother gets a job offer that would mean a move-but the decision is not as easy as it seems.

The sequel to Junebug. Junebug and his mother move from their New Haven housing project to a new neighborhood, where he encounters, not the drug lords and gangs of old, but ubiquitous, run-of-the-mill bullies. With his friends so far away, who will stand by him? The only other kid at school who seems to need a buddy is a helpless white boy. And all the people in the small apartment building to which Junebug's family has moved are elderly patients his mother supervises. Then Junebug's mother insists that Junebug walk cranky old Reverend Ashford every morning. And through Junebug's little sister, Tasha, he becomes close to frail-looking Rosalie Williams. From one, Junebug learns valuable life lessons; from the other, key martial-arts moves. Thanks to them both, he discovers that danger may be everywhere, but so is friendship. The second book about Junebug is as compelling and heartwarming as the first, which was named to six state master lists.

Junebug and the Reverend

Junebug hasn’t seen his friend Robert since the family moved from their housing project in May. It’s Labor Day weekend, reunion time, and Mama, Tasha, Harriet, and Junebug are off to the beach. Robert is there, but so is Trevor, another boy from the project. Trevor is a gang member; Trevor has a gun. With Junebug gone, Trevor has easily befriended Robert. Robert might even join Trevor’s gang, the Rex. How can Junebug stop him? At the same time, Junebug wonders about his own father, who’s been imprisoned for more than six years. Junebug longs to know him, to know that he’s innocent – and that if he’s not, Junebug won’t necessarily turn out like him.With all the spunk with which he made his dream come true in Junebug and assimilated a whole new life in Junebug and the Reverend, Alice Mead’s ten-year-old hero sets out to save his friend and understand his father.  Junebug in Trouble is a 2003 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Junebug in Trouble

The story of a girl whose mother has a chronic illness Beanie's mom used to be a lot of fun. She still is, when she pretends to be the amazing fortune-teller, Madame Squidley. But Beanie knows it's a strain. Mrs. Kingsley has been sick for months, and doctors can't say exactly what's wrong. They don't seem to take the illness very seriously, though. Beanie does. She worries about her mom, and wonders what will happen to her and Jerm, her little brother, if their mother doesn't get well. Beanie's friend Charles Sprague has a problem, too -- scoliosis, and divorced parents who fight about it. Beanie begins to long for a new mother and a whole new set of friends. Then she discovers that she already has the best family, and the best friend, and that there's plenty she can do to help them. This is perhaps the most personal story written by Alice Mead, herself a mother with a chronic illness.

Madame Squidley and Beanie

"An artfully told story . . . The history, the land, and the determination of a band of refugees to care for each other are vividly evoked in this important work." -- Starred review, Kirkus Reviews In the dry spring of 1999, eleven-year-old Stephen Majok watches as his friend Wol joins a circle of dancers. Wol is celebrating – only fourteen, he is engaged to Stephen’s sister. Wol wants to marry because he might join the guerrillas in southern Sudan and fight the northern government soldiers. He wants a wife to remember him. Stephen thinks Wol is crazy. Children should study. But because of the civil war, there has been no school in their village for over a year. All Stephen has left from his student days is his books and one precious pencil, and the hunger for knowledge. Then, suddenly – but not unexpectedly – exploding bombs are heard in the tiny village. Stephen’s mother tells him to hurry, pack his bag, and hide beyond the forest with Wol and their friend Deng. Stephen grabs his geography book, his pencil, and little else. He does not want to leave his mother and sister. He does not want to leave the life he loves. In her latest portrayal of “children caught in the cultural crossfire” (School Library Journal), Alice Mead emphasizes the attachment all humans have to the small place on earth we call home, and our resistance to being displaced, even when our very lives are threatened.

Year of No Rain

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mead, Alice. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Mead, Alice

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mead, Alice. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Junebug

Adem's Cross

Billy and Emma

Dawn And Dusk

Girl of Kosovo

Junebug

Junebug and the Reverend

Junebug in Trouble

Madame Squidley and Beanie

Year of No Rain