John Mc Guckin's work is anchored deep in the realities of life: personal, social, political. His opinions on each of these subjects are clearly (sometimes even roughly) expressed, there is no subject that his pen considers taboo. And yet, you can sense there, beneath all these worldly layers - the dreamer. In his ever present melancholic, soft poetry.

"I worry that the patterns in life say I worry that they dictate, that, through the education that should free us, we will all fall in line. So our search for knowledge will eventually turn us all into people willing to be oppressed. We'll even feel good about it. We'll like being oppressed. We have taught this ignorance that is guiding us. We have to smash this." When an acquaintance tells 19 year old Langley Jackson this, Langley is naïve and new to the city of Long Beach. But as time climbs forward Langley learns that it's true: some things need to be smashed. Some things can't be solved, only learned from. And some people-including loved ones-you have to just let them die.

What would you do if you were part of an ancient prophecy that would change history? Xavier, a normal high school student, is thrown into a strange world seemingly in the past. But, not is all as it seems. Join our friend as he delves into a world of magic and impending war, a part of something he never could have expected. There are those who are born to be heroes and those who are thrust into the role. Which will Xavier prove to be? Finding Myself in Fantasy is a series in the works for awhile. A graphic novel will be on the way sometime soon.

A groundbreaking contribution to the history of the "long Civil Rights movement," Hammer and Hoe tells the story of how, during the 1930s and 40s, Communists took on Alabama's repressive, racist police state to fight for economic justice, civil and political rights, and racial equality. The Alabama Communist Party was made up of working people without a Euro-American radical political tradition: devoutly religious and semiliterate black laborers and sharecroppers, and a handful of whites, including unemployed industrial workers, housewives, youth, and renegade liberals. In this book, Robin D. G. Kelley reveals how the experiences and identities of these people from Alabama's farms, factories, mines, kitchens, and city streets shaped the Party's tactics and unique political culture. The result was a remarkably resilient movement forged in a racist world that had little tolerance for radicals. After discussing the book's origins and impact in a new preface written for this twenty-fifth-anniversary edition, Kelley reflects on what a militantly antiracist, radical movement in the heart of Dixie might teach contemporary social movements confronting rampant inequality, police violence, mass incarceration, and neoliberalism.

Fourteen-year-old Charlie Law has lived in Little Town, on the border with Old Country, all his life. He knows the rules: no going out after dark; no drinking; no litter; no fighting. You don't want to get on the wrong side of the people who run Little Town. When he meets Pavel Duda, a refugee from Old Country, the rules start to get broken. Then the bombs come, and the soldiers from Old Country, and Little Town changes forever. Sometimes, to keep the people you love safe, you have to do bad things. As Little Town's rules crumble, Charlie is sucked into a dangerous game. There's a gun, and a bad man, and his closest friend, and his dearest enemy. Charlie Law wants to keep everyone happy, even if it kills him. And maybe it will . . . But he's got to kill someone else first.

A poetic, gifty offering that combines first love, friendship, and persistant courage in this lyrical immigration story told in verse. Award-winning authors Brian Conaghan and Sarah Crossan tell a thought-provoking dual-narrated tale about two troubled teens, one immigrating to a new home and the other facing domestic violence, whose paths cross in the unlikeliest of places. Nicu has emigrated from Romania and is struggling to find his place in his new home. Meanwhile, Jess's home life is overshadowed by violence. When Nicu and Jess meet, what starts out as friendship slowly blossoms into romance as the two bond over their painful pasts and their hope and dreams of a better future. But will they be able to save each other, let alone themselves? This illuminating story told in dual points of view through vibrant verse will stay with readers long after they've finished. Winner of the 2018 UKLA Book Award Acclaim for Brian Conaghan Shortlisted for the 2015 Carnegie Award, When Mr. Dog Bites Shortlisted for the CBI Book of the Year Award, When Mr. Dog Bites Acclaim for Sarah Crossan Winner of the 2016 Carnegie Award, One Winner of the 2016 Bookseller's prize for YA fiction, One Winner of the 2016 CBI Book of the Year, One Shortlisted for the 2015 Carnegie Award, Apple and Rain Shortlisted for the 2013 Carnegie Award, The Weight of Water

"Where is the most boring town in eastern Canada? How cana government most efficiently mismanage prosperity? Are all of our contemporary psychoses a direct result of the motion-picture montage? In this collection of hilarious essays, Edward Riche stretches his satiric muscles to lambaste just about anything that crosses his field of vision. Newfoundland writes a heartfelt letter to Canada, offering to console mainland frustrations over a pint. The Canadian government brainstorms to find which national symbol it can ruin next. And a concerned citizen writes a scathing critique of The Muskrat Falls Festival of the Arts, now hundreds of dollars over budget. In 'Bag of hammers' Riche reminds us just how enlivening and enlightening satire can be, and how much we need it right now." --