Fifth grade is proving to be a challenge for ten-year-old Cassidy. There's a new girl at school who's stealing her best friend's heart, an abandoned bird who might not survive the winter, and an older sister whose emotional needs leave Cassidy scrambling to keep the peace. Cassidy will do anything to help prevent her sister's "Super Sophie Tantrums," even if that means pretending life is fine when it one-hundred-percent is not. But pretending has its limits and its costs, even for a sunshiny girl like Cassidy. Will she find a way to embrace the stormy side of her personality before everything falls apart?

It's 1855 in Oregon City. Twelve year-old Biddy has survived an intolerable life of indenture by remembering two things: adults can't be trusted, and it's best to be invisible. Due to an early trauma, she's mute with no memory of her past. The man who holds her contract for indenture has evil plans for her, and he will stop at nothing to ensure his schemes come to fruition. Things look hopeless for Biddy until she meets two school teachers, Brenna and Emily. From that moment on, these three lives become intricately entwined. Biddy's new champions take desperate measures to ensure her safety. Life and death choices are made and these accelerate into an unanticipated conclusion. As is often the case in life, what was wished for is granted in a most unexpected way. Victoria Murata has again embraced history to tell an enduring story of love and loss in our country's not too distant past.

For the best results and experience with this book, be sure to purchase the companion AUDIO CLIPS that complete the "Real Singers Don't Sing Vocal Training Program." The AUDIO CLIPS are available at the following link here on AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_23?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=real%20singers%20don%27t%20sing&sprefix=real+singers+don%27t+sing%2Caps%2C310">http://www.amazon.com/Real-Singers-Dont-Sing-Audio/dp/B00GXKON36/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1389432234&sr=8-2&keywords=real+singers+don%27t+sing --Book Description-- "Most people believe that singing is something mysterious and reserved for the gifted, but I assure you, this is not the case. Real Singers Don't Sing will open your mind and ears to your own unique voice. It will give you the tools you need to succeed as a real vocalist, in the real world. My program is easy to follow, and will help you reconnect with your innate vocal abilities, leading you to your most powerful voice. I am here to help you clear away the clutter of old, book-taught vocal philosophies, and revolutionize the way you think about singing. Real Singers Don't Sing, and neither should you." -Felicia Farerre www.FeliciaFarerreMusic.com

Ten years of infertility issues culminate in the destruction of music therapist Zoe Baxter's marriage, after which she falls in love with another woman and wants to start a family, but her ex-husband, Max, stands in the way.

A young Colombian-American woman uncovers the truth about her deceased mother's secret past in this beautiful and poignant debut novel from journalist Leila Cobo. Gabriella always loved the picture of her mother kneeling in front of a bed of roses, smiling, beautiful and impossibly happy. But then she learns that her late mother hated gardening; that she had never wanted the house in the Hollywood hills, the successful movie producer husband, and possibly, her only daughter. When Gabriella discovers a journal--a book that begins as a new mother's letters to her baby girl, but becomes a secret diary--the final entry leaves one question unanswered: the night her mother died, was she returning to Colombia to end an affair, or was she abandoning her family for good? Tell Me Something True is the bittersweet story of a daughter learning to see her mother as a woman, and not just a parent.

Far too often, life’s challenges and questions cause people to fight feelings of doubt and despair, as they search endlessly for hope. In Singing in the Dark, Ginny Owens introduces the reader to powerful ways of drawing closer to God and how the elements of music, prayer, and lament offer rich, vibrant, and joyful communion with Him, especially on the darkest days. Ginny has gained a unique life perspective, as she has lived without sight since age three. She brings rich, biblical teaching that will encourage readers and compel them to dig deep into the beautiful songs, prayers, and poetry of Scripture—the same words through which the people of the Bible flourished in impossible circumstances. Singing in the Dark includes reflection and journaling prompts at the end of each chapter.

Multivocality frames vocality as a way to investigate the voice in music, as a concept encompassing all the implications with which voice is inscribed-the negotiation of sound and Self, individual and culture, medium and meaning, ontology and embodiment. Like identity, vocality is fluid and constructed continually; even the most iconic of singers do not simply exercise a static voice throughout a lifetime. As 21st century singers habitually perform across styles, genres, cultural contexts, histories, and identities, the author suggests that they are not only performing in multiple vocalities, but more critically, they are performing multivocality-creating and recreating identity through the process of singing with many voices. Multivocality constitutes an effort toward a fuller understanding of how the singing voice figures in the negotiation of identity. Author Katherine Meizel recovers the idea of multivocality from its previously abstract treatment, and re-embodies it in the lived experiences of singers who work on and across the fluid borders of identity. Highlighting singers in vocal motion, Multivocality focuses on their transitions and transgressions across genre and gender boundaries, cultural borders, the lines between body and technology, between religious contexts, between found voices and lost ones.

This heartwarming picture book reassures children that a parent’s love never lets go—based on the poignant lyrics of JJ Heller’s beloved lullaby “Hand to Hold.” “May the living light inside you be the compass as you go / May you always know you have my hand to hold.” With delightful illustrations and an engaging rhyme scheme, this book offers the promise of security and love every child’s heart longs to know. From skipping stones and counting stars to climbing trees and telling stories, every moment is wrapped snugly in the certain warmth of a parent’s presence and God’s blessing. With poignancy and joy, this bedtime read captures the unconditional love parents want their children to know but so often fail to express amid the chaos of daily life.

Thanks to her black mother and her Irish father, Ruth "Penny" Borum is the color of a new penny. Big-boned and notoriously sassy, Ruth is nonetheless the organist and a member in good standing of Antioch, Virginia's most prominent black church--or at least she was until she dragged the popular Reverend Jonas Borum into an ugly divorce. Having lost everything in the divorce, Ruth scrapes by on what she can make as a hairdresser at Diana's, a tiny two-seat salon. Alone at night, in her basement apartment, she indulges in ice cream and argues with the Almighty. Did He have to take everything away? And when is He going to give something back? The Good Lord must have a sense of humor. That's the only conclusion Ruth can reach when He makes her fall head over heels in love. . .with a white man. Her friends are appalled, and Antioch, her spiritual home since birth, is ready to throw her out on her ear. Still, with the help of jump rope rhymes, a homeless man who hears God's voice in a mason jar, and two children who want a Mama as much as she wants them, Ruth's determined to prove anything is possible--even love between two people who couldn't be more mismatched. . . "Delightful! Sexy! Something Real is like a burst of sunshine." --Romance in Color "J. J. Murray has outdone himself with his latest work. He has written a realistic story that could happen to anyone."--RAWSistaz

The New York Times bestseller about a young black man's journey from violence and despair to the threshold of stardom: "A beautiful tribute to the power of good teachers" (Terry Gross, Fresh Air). "One of the most inspiring stories I've come across in a long time."-Pamela Paul, New York Times Book Review Ryan Speedo Green had a tough upbringing in southeastern Virginia: his family lived in a trailer park and later a bullet-riddled house across the street from drug dealers. His father was absent; his mother was volatile and abusive. At the age of twelve, Ryan was sent to Virginia's juvenile facility of last resort. He was placed in solitary confinement. He was uncontrollable, uncontainable, with little hope for the future. In 2011, at the age of twenty-four, Ryan won a nationwide competition hosted by New York's Metropolitan Opera, beating out 1,200 other talented singers. Today, he is a rising star performing major roles at the Met and Europe's most prestigious opera houses. Sing for Your Life chronicles Ryan's suspenseful, racially charged and artistically intricate journey from solitary confinement to stardom. Daniel Bergner takes readers on Ryan's path toward redemption, introducing us to a cast of memorable characters -- including the two teachers from his childhood who redirect his rage into music, and his long-lost father who finally reappears to hear Ryan sing. Bergner illuminates all that it takes -- technically, creatively -- to find and foster the beauty of the human voice. And Sing for Your Life sheds unique light on the enduring and complex realities of race in America.