Gravity

A. S. King meets Chris Crutcher in boxing journalist Sarah Deming's YA novel about a young female boxer who learns to fight for what she wants. Gravity "Doomsday" Delgado is good at breaking things. Maybe she learned it from her broken home. But since she started boxing with a legendary coach at a gym in Brooklyn, Gravity is finding her talent for breaking things has an upside. Lately, she's been breaking records, breaking her competitors, and breaking down the walls inside her. Boxing is taking her places, and if she just stays focused, she knows she'll have a shot at the Olympics. Life outside the ring is heating up, too. Suddenly she's flirting (and more) with a cute boxer at her gym--much to her coach's disapproval. Meanwhile, things at home with Gravity's mom are reaching a tipping point, and Gravity has to look out for her little brother, Ty. With Olympic dreams, Gravity will have to decide what is worth fighting for.

Teen & Young Adult

Deming, Sarah

Literature & Fiction

Make Me a World

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST STONEWALL BOOK AWARD WINNER "[A] beautiful, genre-expanding debut. . . . Pet is a nesting doll of creative possibilities." -The New York Times The highly-anticipated, genre-defying new novel by award-winning author Akwaeke Emezi that explores themes of identity and justice. Pet is here to hunt a monster. Are you brave enough to look? There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors and claws, who emerges from one of her mother's paintings and a drop of Jam's blood, she must reconsider what she's been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption's house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question--How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist? Acclaimed novelist Akwaeke Emezi makes their riveting and timely young adult debut with a book that asks difficult questions about what choices you can make when the society around you is in denial. "Like [Madeleine] L'Engle, Akwaeke Emezi asks questions of good and evil and agency, all wrapped up in the terrifying and glorious spectacle of fantastical theology." -NPR

Emezi, Akwaeke

Akwaeke Emezi

Product Description 
A lyrical novel-in-verse that takes us through the journey of coming of age in New York during the 80s.\nAlma's life is a series of halfways: She's half-Chinese, half-Jewish; her parents spend half the time fighting, and the other half silent; and she's halfway through becoming a woman. But as long as she can listen to her Walkman, hang out with her friends on the stoops of the Village, and ride her bike around the streets of New York, it feels like everything will be all right. Then comes the year when everything changes, and her life is overtaken by constant endings: friends move away, romances bloom and wither, her parents divorce and--just like that--her life as she knew it is over. In this world of confusing beginnings, middles, and endings, is Alma ready to press play on the soundtrack of her life?\nFrom School Library Journal 
Gr 6-9-It's 1982, and Alma Rosen is 13 years old. She is in her final year of middle school and can feel her world changing around her. Her parents are on the cusp of divorce, she just started her period, and she can see her friendships growing and changing. Alma spends her days listening to music on her Walkman, riding her bike through the East and West Villages of NYC, and eating candy. This novel-in-verse is filled with interstitials such as lists, postcards to family and friends, and letters to her Grandma Miriam who passed away but whom she misses dearly. Alma is Jewish on her paternal side and Chinese on her maternal side, and both of these facets of her identity have deeply influenced the way she walks in the world. All the characters, from primary to tertiary, are fully developed. Alma's relationships with her grandparents, her parents, her friends, and even her school social worker are important to her and shine throughout the story. Additionally, Cane brings 1980s New York City to life with organic references to the music, books, and media Alma consumes. There is a strong sense of her neighborhood through the friends she spends her days with and landmarks she roams to on her bicycle. VERDICT This beautifully written, emotionally charged look at growing up and moving through life's changes is a great addition to upper middle grade collections looking for detailed and nuanced coming-of-age stories.-Kristyn Dorfman, Friends Academy, Locust Valley, NYα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 
 About the Author 
Tina Cane grew up in downtown New York City during the 70s and 80s, surrounded by artists and writers and musicians, and she draws much of her creative inspiration from that era. The founder/ director of Writers-in-the-Schools, RI, Tina also currently serves as the poet laureate of Rhode Island where she lives with her husband and three children, who are also a major source of inspiration.

Alma Presses Play

Cane, Tina

Snow Angel, Sand Angel

A celebration of home, family, and finding beauty in your heritage, beautifully illustrated by the artist behind Anti-Racist Baby. Claire has been surrounded by the deep blue waves of Hapuna Beach and the magnificent mountains of Hawai'i all her life, but has never, ever seen snow. When her father drives her and her family to the top of the Mauna Kea, she can't help but to be disappointed...it's not the winter wonderland she's always dreamed of. And that's what she wants, more than anything. But as Claire edges ever closer to the new year, she wonders if maybe-- just maybe--she can delight in the special joys of winter in her own way--right there, on her Big Island of Hawaii. Includes backmatter that captures the environmental culture of Hawaii, and will teach children not only about the local flora and fauna, but also the value of being environmentally friendly.

Children's Books

Yamanaka, Lois-Ann

Science, Nature & How It Works

A celebration of home, family, and finding beauty in your heritage, beautifully illustrated by the artist behind Anti-Racist Baby. Claire has been surrounded by the deep blue waves of Hapuna Beach and the magnificent mountains of Hawai'i all her life, but has never, ever seen snow. When her father drives her and her family to the top of the Mauna Kea, she can't help but to be disappointed...it's not the winter wonderland she's always dreamed of. And that's what she wants, more than anything. &nbsp; But as Claire edges ever closer to the new year, she wonders if maybe-- just maybe--she can delight in the special joys of winter in her own way--right there, on her Big Island of Hawaii. Includes backmatter that captures the environmental culture of Hawaii, and will teach children not only about the local flora and fauna, but also the value of being environmentally friendly.

Home Is Not a Country

Product Description 
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD “Nothing short of magic.” —Elizabeth Acevedo, New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X From the acclaimed poet featured on Forbes Africa’s “30 Under 30” list, this powerful novel-in-verse captures one girl, caught between cultures, on an unexpected journey to face the ephemeral girl she might have been. Woven through with moments of lyrical beauty, this is a tender meditation on family, belonging, and home. \nmy mother meant to name me for her favorite flower\nits sweetness garlands made for pretty girls\ni imagine her yasmeen bright & alive\n& i ache to have been born her instead\nNima wishes she were someone else. She doesn’t feel understood by her mother, who grew up in a different land. She doesn’t feel accepted in her suburban town; yet somehow, she isn't different enough to belong elsewhere. Her best friend, Haitham, is the only person with whom she can truly be herself. Until she can't, and suddenly her only refuge is gone.\nAs the ground is pulled out from under her, Nima must grapple with the phantom of a life not chosen—the name her parents meant to give her at birth—Yasmeen. But that other name, that other girl, might be more real than Nima knows. And the life Nima wishes were someone else's. . . is one she will need to fight for with a fierceness she never knew she possessed.\nFrom School Library Journal 
Gr 6 Up-Sudanese American poet Elhillo invites readers into her dreamlike story of 15-year-old Nima, who struggles with loneliness and the possibilities of the road not taken. Growing up in the United States, Nima wonders what life would be like if she spoke Arabic fluently, if her father hadn't died, if her mother had not left a country where everyone had dark eyes, sepia-toned skin, and textured hair like her, or if she had been given a name she felt she could live up to. In this novel in verse, Elhillo shows readers the beauty of what could have been, and the pain of being labeled a terrorist. When Nima's best friend, Haitham, is attacked, a series of dangerous events unfold, yet readers are given no real resolution. Told in three parts, the flow is a bit disjointed, but overall this is a quick and engaging story. Fans of Elizabeth Acevedo's Clap When You Land or Samira Ahmed's Love, Hate & Other Filters will enjoy this look at identity and acceptance. VERDICT A unique verse novel that looks at how our past choices influence identity and sense of belonging.-Monisha Blair, Rutgers Univ., NJα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 
 Review 
“ 
Movingly unravels themes of belonging, Islamophobia, and the interlocking oppressions thrust upon immigrant women.” 
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review\n“ 
[A] surreal crash-course in perspective, agency, and self-love.” 
—Booklist, starred review\n“Artfully profound and 
achingly beautiful, Elhillo’s verse 
aptly explores diasporic yearning for one’s home and a universal fascination with possibilities.” 
—Publishers Weekly, starred review\n"Elhillo's 
tender and descriptive writing may leave readers feeling the need to live life to the fullest…[a] 
passionate, piercing YA collection of poems." 
—Shelf Awareness, starred review \n“A 
love letter to anyone who has ever been an outsider, or searched to understand their history, no matter where they come from.” 
—NPR\n" 
Richly imagined [...] An 
immersive experience of the intersectionality of gender, class, race, religion, and identity." 
—The Horn Book\nAbout the Author 
Safia Elhillo is the author of the poetry collection 
The January Children, which received the the 2016 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets and a 2018 Arab American Book Award.\nSudanese by way of Washington, DC, she holds an MFA from The New School, a Cave Canem Fellowship, and a 2018 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Fo

Elhillo, Safia

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Books by Make Me a World

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

Gravity

Gravity

Gravity

Pet

Pet

Pet

Alma Presses Play

Snow Angel, Sand Angel

Snow Angel, Sand Angel

Home Is Not a Country