Baseball was everything and everywhere in the 1950s on the east side of Brockton, Massachusetts. In The Eastside Kid, author John DeCosta tells what it was like growing up in that era and what the game of baseball has meant to his life. This memoir describes DeCostas baseball experiences both as a youngster and as an adult, and it shows how this passion shaped him. With photographs included, The Eastside Kid shares DeCostas life story from 1957 to 2011, including details about his Catholic family, his love for animals, his first job, serving in the military in Korea, dealing with heart problems, and his continued participation in baseball. From the sandlot to Little League to adult amateur baseball, The Eastside Kid provides an inside view of how deeply baseball beats in the heart of John DeCosta.

Meet and become friends with many of the actors from the Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, East Side Kids and the Bowery Boys! Since he began collecting Movie Memorabilia on the Dead End Kids in 1964, author Richard Roat has had the great fortune to develop personal relationships with David Gorcey, Stanley Clements, Gabe Dell, Bernard Punsly, Huntz Hall, Billy Benedict, Frankie Thomas, Eddie Le Roy, Brandy Gorcey (daughter of Leo Gorcey), Gary Hall (son of Huntz Hall), and Leo Gorcey Jr. (son of Leo Gorcey). This book draws upon those acquaintances and his talking with Billy Halop, Bennie Bartlett, Johnny Duncan, Ward Wood, Dick Chandlee, Eugene Francis, Harris Berger, Charles Peck, Ronald Sinclair, and more! Lavished with many photos from the films from the author's personal collection, this is one book you'll need to have in your collection, tough guy!

When ten-year-old Journey Song hears that two pandas are being held in a warehouse in her neighborhood, she worries that they may be hungry, cold and lonely. Horrified to learn that the pandas, originally destined for a zoo in Washington, might be shipped back to China because of a diplomatic spat between China and the United States, Journey rallies her friends and neighbors on the poverty-stricken Eastside. Her infectious enthusiasm for all things panda is hard to resist, and soon she's getting assistance from every corner of her tight-knit neighborhood.

From the creator of Netflix original series Dead End: Paranormal Park comes the graphic novel series that started it all! “DeadEndia is immediately appealing with its colorful art, unique setting, and funny jokes, but I especially loved the complicated emotional arcs of the characters and the weird, spooky magic underlying everything!” —Molly Knox Ostertag, creator of The Witch Boy “Heart-warming, heartbreaking, heart-pounding, and heartfelt!" —Marika McCoola, The New York Times bestselling author of Baba Yaga’s Assistant Barney Guttman’s life has been turned upside down. His family is struggling to fully embrace his trans identity, but thanks to his best friend Norma, he’s just landed a job at Phoenix Parks, a Dollywood-esque amusement park inspired by the long life and career of mysteriously youthful actress and singer Pauline Phoenix. Soon, Barney and his dog, Pugsley, secretly move into the haunted house attraction. Little does Barney know, the house contains a portal to the demonic planes of Hell. When Courtney, Barney’s devilish new roommate, invites a demon king to Earth through the portal, they offer Barney and Norma as flesh vessels for the king, but in a strange twist, Pugsley is possessed instead! It’s a race through the park to save Pugsley—and the world—from the demon king’s reign of terror that leaves Pugsley with strange and magical side effects. With all of this chaos going on, Barney is also discovering he has crush on park employee, Logan, so he must face his biggest fear of all… talking to someone he likes. Follow the lives of this diverse group of friends in this hilarious and moving graphic novel series, complete with talking pugs, vengeful ghosts, and first love. Part workplace comedy, part supernatural horror adventure, with a splash of LGBTQ+ romance, The Watcher’s Test is perfect for fans of author Hamish Steele’s TV series Dead End: Paranormal Park who are in search of more adventures, for graphic novel lovers who want more diversity in their reads, or simply as an introduction to the zany, creative, and laugh-out-loud funny world of DeadEndia.

Reality TV personality Lauren "Lo" Bosworth has witnessed her fair share of bad dating and has experienced some herself. As a star on two reality shows, she is no stranger to drama and what comes along with it. Now she is offering her advice gleaned from her and her famous friends' relationship experiences on dating and love. Featuring personal photos and anecdotes about her experiences on "Laguna Beach" and "The Hills", The Lo-Down is a further glimpse into the lives of the people that have enthralled so many.

Did you ever wonder what a member of congress was like as a juvenile roaming the streets of his or her neighborhood? Probably not. But nevertheless all of these people in our nation’s capital were once kids. They grew up with a set of interests and values that they would take with them to the halls of a great democracy. Tracing his roots back to the small and large towns in Europe, Bonior recounts for us the coming of age of his boyhood in the Polish/Ukrainian community of Hamtramck, Michigan. The foundations of his boyhood, his Catholicism and athleticism, were where he often sought and found comfort. It was then he learned to embrace the struggle of the underdog. He was taught the value of work by a loving, yet taciturn father and grandfather. And he grew up faster than most boys his age as he lived with the specter of his mother's early death at 37 years of age. David Bonior was a working class kid with big dreams. This book is about the lessons of his youth and how he used them to navigate life on Detroit's Eastside. How he became a leader in his community on and off the sports field and then used those skills to become not only a member of congress, but the House Whip, the number two person in his party in the United States House of Representatives. This is a book of early memories. It's about "Elbowing his way into memory". It is about an American town where he took his first step, said his first word, and learned the fundamental life lessons that made him the legislator he was and the person he will always be. Fully illustrated with period and family photographs, this story is an invocation of a truly American life.

Award-winning author Kao Kalia Yang delivers an inspiring tale of resourceful children confronting adversaries in a refugee camp After lunch the Yang warriors prepare for battle. They practice drills, balance rocks on their heads, wield magical swords from fallen branches. Led by ten-year-old Master Me (whose name means “little”), the ten cousins are ready to defend the family at all costs. After a week without fresh vegetables , the warriors embark on a dangerous mission to look for food, leaving the camp’s boundaries, knowing their punishment would be severe if they were caught by the guards. In this inspiring picture book, fierce and determined children confront the hardships of Ban Vinai refugee camp, where the author lived as a child. Yang’s older sister, seven-year-old Dawb, was one of the story’s warriors, and her brave adventure unfolds here with all the suspense and excitement that held her five-year-old sister spellbound many years later. Accompanied by the evocative and rich cultural imagery of debut illustrator Billy Thao, the warriors’ secret mission shows what feats of compassion and courage children can perform, bringing more than foraged greens back to the younger children and to their elders. In this unforgiving place, with little to call their own, these children are the heroes, offering gifts of hope and belonging in a truly unforgettable way.

"Marvelous! What memories came back to me with each page I read... you did a really fantastic job of gathering information to support the stories you wrote about. Memories are like th blind tribesmen coming back to the Village and telling about the big elephant they encountered in the bush... each has their own remembrances of the past and a personal story to tell." H. Laury Lepage "Just read the book cover to cover. I keep coming back to where I started. I think the whole thing is a treasure. I can't tell you how much enjoyment your efforts brought me." Bill Gee "The era we grew up in, where we learned about life, developed lasting friendships, and gave birth to those countless, delightful and not so delightful memories..." "I read the book in one sitting. Now I have to reshuffle my favorite book list. 1) The Bible 2) Of Mice and Men 3) In Cold Blood 4) The Harrod Experiment And now rounding up fifth place, Fractured Tales of Milwaukee's East Side" Bob Kern "I just finished reading your book about our beloved eastside and many of our dear friends. I loved it. You captured the beauty of being raised in a blue collar community, next to a great lake, with many characters and so many fun stories and events." Marian Catania Yoder

Eastside is a coming-of-age tale set among the backdrop of inner-city gang violence in the early '90s. Eastside is about mothers struggling and supporting one another as they match in a seemingly endless procession to the cemetary to bury their children. Unrepentantly crooked police officers, violent gangland shoot-outs, blazing car chases, petty drug dealing, ruthless armed robberies, a psychotic seventeen year-old albino gang member, and the haunting legacy of a long dead brother, complete the complex panoply that is Eastside.