Bana's mother tells her of the strong bana tree that grows in their homeland, Syria, and how Bana's strength helped her survive war, being a refugee, and starting fresh in a new country.

“A story of love and courage amid brutality and terror, this is the testimony of a child who has endured the unthinkable.” —J.K. Rowling “I’m very afraid I will die tonight.” —Bana Alabed, Twitter, October 2, 2016 “Stop killing us.” —Bana Alabed, Twitter, October 6, 2016 “I just want to live without fear.” —Bana Alabed, Twitter, October 12, 2016 When seven-year-old Bana Alabed took to Twitter to describe the horrors she and her family were experiencing in war-torn Syria, her heartrending messages touched the world and gave a voice to millions of innocent children. Bana’s happy childhood was abruptly upended by civil war when she was only three years old. Over the next four years, she knew nothing but bombing, destruction, and fear. Her harrowing ordeal culminated in a brutal siege where she, her parents, and two younger brothers were trapped in Aleppo, with little access to food, water, medicine, or other necessities. Facing death as bombs relentlessly fell around them—one of which completely destroyed their home—Bana and her family embarked on a perilous escape to Turkey. In Bana’s own words, and featuring short, affecting chapters by her mother, Fatemah, Dear World is not just a gripping account of a family endangered by war; it offers a uniquely intimate, child’s perspective on one of the biggest humanitarian crises in history. Bana has lost her best friend, her school, her home, and her homeland. But she has not lost her hope—for herself and for other children around the world who are victims and refugees of war and deserve better lives. Dear World is a powerful reminder of the resilience of the human spirit, the unconquerable courage of a child, and the abiding power of hope. It is a story that will leave you changed.

Based on the life of a real boy, this warm-hearted, beautifully illustrated book tells the story of Baraka, a young Kenyan boy with a physical disability. Baraka and eight cousins live with their grandmother. She gives them boundless love, but there is never enough money or food, and life is hard --love doesn't feed hungry stomachs or clothe growing bodies, or school keen minds. Baraka is too young, and, with his disability, needs too much, and she is too old. A difficult choice must be made, and grandmother and grandchild set off on a journey to see if there is a place at the orphanage for Baraka. The story begins by looking at Baraka's physical disability as a misfortune, but ends by looking beyond the disability, to his great heart and spirit, and the blessings he brings.

From a popular writer on the LaineyGossip.com blog comes a book about first names, what they really mean, and how learning to get comfortable with an awkward name can become a search for identity. In this book readers will find fascinating name stories that showcase tastes, perceived relationships between names and success and whether there really are such things as 'stripper names'.

There are places that remind us of happy moments. Zoe, a little girl who has to flee from her city with her family because of a war, remembers them before she leaves. She uses them to draw a "map of good memories," knowing that they will always be with her. Guided Reading Level: O, Lexile Level: 820L

The authors in this work offer a cross-disciplinary approach to examining dialogue as a communicative medium.

Beatrice's mum has asked her to take a bunch of bananas to Grandad. On her path through the jungle, Beatrice meets a giraffe who accidentally flicks them into a stream. Whoops! But the giraffe picks some flowers for Beatrice to take instead. As her journey continues flowers are swapped forhoney, honey is swapped for some mangoes . . . and so it goes on until a friendly elephant swaps a feather for . . . a beautiful bunch of bananas! A lovely circular story, based on an African folktale, about family, friendship, and teamwork. Written by best-selling author Elizabeth Laird, andillustrated by Liz Pichon, creator of Tom Gates.

As The Giving Tree turns fifty, this timeless classic is available for the first time ever in ebook format. This digital edition allows young readers and lifelong fans to continue the legacy and love of a classic that will now reach an even wider audience. "Once there was a tree...and she loved a little boy." So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein. This moving parable for all ages offers a touching interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another's capacity to love in return. Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk...and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and gave and gave. This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. Shel Silverstein's incomparable career as a bestselling children's book author and illustrator began with Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back. He is also the creator of picture books including A Giraffe and a Half, Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros?, The Missing Piece, The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, and the perennial favorite The Giving Tree, and of classic poetry collections such as Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, Every Thing On It, Don't Bump the Glump!, and Runny Babbit. And don't miss the other Shel Silverstein ebooks, Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic!

Balaichand Mukhopadhyay (1899-1979) adopted the pseudonym Banaphool, or wildflower, the name by which he is widely known to the Bengali reading public. A practising physician with a busy medical practice, he still succeeded in turning out an impressively large number of literary works, including novels, short stories, plays, poetry, essays, autobiographical writings and so on. But it was not the mere quantity of his outpourings which made him one of Bengal s most celebrated literary figures; it was their quality. The accolades came in many forms. He received several honours and awards, whilst leading figures including Rabindranath Tagore heaped praise on his writing. Banaphool, who was as uncompromising and individualistic in his personal life as one of his protagonists, seems to have taken all this praise with great composure: Such opinions were always received by me with total calm. They never agitated me. The only occasion when he was shaken was when a train driver reversed the engine in order to pick him up. The driver, a fan who recognized him, refused to leave him stranded on a remote country platform all night. Banaphool commented later, I had never expected that life would allow me such a gift. Later I was to receive an honorary D. Litt and the Tagore Prize. But never did I feel so honoured as on that day. These forty-five pieces by Banaphool are representative of his multifaceted talent. There are plainly whimsical tales, several ghost stories, a few morality fables, some bitterly critical political stories, and a number of stories which examine the consequences of religious belief when taken to levels of bigotry and exclusionism: in a word, communalism. In short, Banaphool retains a relevant and contemporary touch, writing about an India we can easily identify with even today. Anandjit Ray, the artist who has interpreted Banaphool s writing through his delicate but incisive visuals, has long been a Banaphool admirer. He has exhibited widely through the country; he resides at Baroda. Somnath Zutshi, who has translated these stories, is also an appreciative Banaphool fan. He is currently researching and writing on Indian cinema, and has several translations to his credit.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS In this iconic memoir of his early days, Barack Obama “guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race” (The Washington Post Book World). “Quite extraordinary.”—Toni Morrison In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance. Praise for Dreams from My Father “Beautifully crafted . . . moving and candid . . . This book belongs on the shelf beside works like James McBride’s The Color of Water and Gregory Howard Williams’s Life on the Color Line as a tale of living astride America’s racial categories.”—Scott Turow “Provocative . . . Persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither.”—The New York Times Book Review “Obama’s writing is incisive yet forgiving. This is a book worth savoring.”—Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here “One of the most powerful books of self-discovery I’ve ever read, all the more so for its illuminating insights into the problems not only of race, class, and color, but of culture and ethnicity. It is also beautifully written, skillfully layered, and paced like a good novel.”—Charlayne Hunter-Gault, author of In My Place “Dreams from My Father is an exquisite, sensitive study of this wonderful young author’s journey into adulthood, his search for community and his place in it, his quest for an understanding of his roots, and his discovery of the poetry of human life. Perceptive and wise, this book will tell you something about yourself whether you are black or white.”—Marian Wright Edelman