New Releases by Kathryn Erskine

National Book Award winner Kathryn Erskine teams up with Keith Henry Brown on this lyrical picture book that celebrates music and Black identity. Trevor’s dad is a DJ, and he always picks the best music— tunes jivin’, beat drivin’, high fivin’! —he’s DJ Dap Daddy! But after his parents split up and Dad moves out, Trevor feels like the pitch doesn’t fit between them. Trevor has his own music now—hip-hop—and Dad can’t seem to let go of his old soul favorites. As the end-of-year dance approaches, Trevor and his father will have to find their new groove to get the party started. My Dad Is a DJ is a hip-hoppin’, beat boppin’, tunes poppin’, not stoppin’ story of a father and son’s shared love of music and each other.

From National Book Award–winning author Kathryn Erskine comes a heartfelt, poignant novel that tackles grief, change, and the struggle to let your voice be heard. Perfect for fans of Lynda Mullaly Hunt, Erin Entrada Kelly, and Ali Benjamin. Shy, eleven-year-old Lily made her dad an important promise before he passed away—that she would “Strive for Five” and speak her mind at least five times. But speaking up one time, let alone five, is easier said than done. It’ll be even harder now that Lily must attend public school for the first time. Fortunately, she meets curling-obsessed Hobart and quiet Dunya at the beginning of sixth grade. Their kindness gives Lily hope that life without Dad might just be bearable. But when Lily and her friends are bullied by Ryan and his mean clique, she quickly discovers the true meaning of friendship and speaking out. Despite the anxiety she feels, Lily knows she needs to stand up for herself and others. And she’ll use the tools her dad gave her to not only keep her final promise but bring her whole school together. Following Lily’s journey and the snarky, insightful, and humorous commentary from Libro, the actual book, who guides readers through this thoughtful tale, makes Lily’s Promise a strong title for social emotional learning.

A beautiful book about community and love by National Book Award winner Kathryn Erskine and #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Alexandra Boiger. ME can be WE. YOU can come, too. In a lyrical text that travels the globe, National Book Award winner Kathryn Erskine shows young readers how the whole world is a community made up of people who are more similar than we are different. With stunning, cinematic art by Alexandra Boiger, the illustrator of the She Persisted series, this is the perfect read-aloud at bedtime or for story time. Perfect for fans of All Are Welcome and Be Kind. Praise for All of Us: * "[In this] book about global inclusivity . . . the breathtaking art carries the message throughout." --Booklist, starred review * "This simple yet beautiful book reminds readers that they are not alone. . . . Children will find something different u00adevery time they read the poem, and feel cherished by the message of openness." --School Library Journal, starred review "A lyrical celebration of unity and diversity . . . Purely sweet." --Kirkus Reviews "This picture book offers an uplifting vision for a unified world." --Publishers Weekly

National Book Award winner Kathryn Erskine delivers a contemporary story about a boy with a mystical worldview and a love of science and comets as he faces questions about what makes him special. Some might say Julian is sheltered. But he lives large, and his eternal optimism allows him to see infinite possibilities wherever he looks. Despite his optimism, he is anxious about his stressed family falling apart. Even his ability to "uni-sense" what''s happening with his sister is gone. If he can make his family focus on the magic in the universe, surely they''ll appreciate life again. Now that they are moving from Washington, DC, to rural Maine, Julian can use his beloved telescope without any light pollution. He can discover a comet, name it for himself, and show his family how they''re all truly connected.As Julian searches the night sky, he encounters a force that may drive his plan apart. His neighbor, Mr. X, could bring an end to his parents'' dream of opening their B&B. Could one negative force unravel everything? An avid student of science, Julian understands that there is much about the universe that we don''t yet know. Who is to say what''s possible and what''s not?

Offers young readers an intimate view of Miriam Makeba''s fight for equality.

Caitlin non ama essere toccata e ha un rapporto difficile con le persone intorno. Adora disegnare, ma solo in bianco e nero perché i colori la confondono. Ad aiutarla a capire le sfumature del mondo c''era Devon, il fratello adorato, ma da quando è morto in una tragica sparatoria tutto sembra andare in frantumi. È solo la caparbietà di Caitlin a spingerla a rimettere insieme i pezzi, ad accettare il dolore. E, soprattutto, a farlo insieme agli altri. KATHRYN ERSKINE è nata in Olanda e oggi vive in Virginia con il marito, due figli e un cane. Ha lavorato come avvocato per quindici anni, ma poi ha deciso di dedicarsi al suo primo amore: la scrittura. Ha un interesse particolare per i disturbi del linguaggio e dell''apprendimento, di cui si è sempre occupata. Da qui è nata l''idea per I colori del buio, con il quale ha vinto il National Book Award nel 2010.

National Book Award winner Kathryn Erskine presents unique novel about a sickly boy''s epic journey through England and Scotland at the height of Medieval times. Adrian is small for his age, even for a twelve year old. It doesn''t help that he''s an albino, which makes those he meets wonder if he''s an angel or a devil. His father is a bowyer, and all Adrian wants to do is become apprenticed and go off to war as a long bowman. But that''s not what his father wants for him. Since Adrian can write, his father wants him to be a scribe. That''s just about the last thing Adrian wants. When the Scots invade England and Adrian''s best friend Hugh runs off to find his father and fight in battles, Adrian soon follows, intent on finding Hugh and joining him in glorious warfare against the pagans invading England from the north. When Adrian finds Hugh, who is caring for a wounded Scotsman, he''s horrified that Hugh would aid an enemy. But soon, as Adrian gets to know the Donald, he begins to question what he''s been taught about the enemy and the nature of war. In this epic journey an afflicted boy finds and inner strength he never knew belonged to him.

No mundo de Caitlin, tudo é preto e branco. Qualquer coisa entre um e outro dá uma baita sensação de recreio no estômago e a obriga a fazer bicho de pelúcia. É isso que seu irmão, Devon, sempre tentou explicar às pessoas. Mas agora, depois do dia em que a vida desmoronou, seu pai, devastado, chora muito sem saber ao certo como lidar com isso. Ela quer ajudar o pai - a si mesma e todos a sua volta -, mas, sendo uma menina de dez anos de idade, autista, portadora da Síndrome de Asperger, ela não sabe como captar o sentido. Caitlin, que não gosta de olhar para a pessoa nem que invadam seu espaço pessoal, se volta, então, para os livros e dicionários, que considera fáceis por estarem repletos de fatos, preto no branco. Após ler a definição da palavra desfecho, tem certeza de que é exatamente disso que ela e seu pai precisam. E Caitlin está determinada a consegui-lo. Seguindo o conselho do irmão, ela decide trabalhar nisso, o que a leva a descobrir que nem tudo é realmente preto e branco, afinal, o mundo é cheio de cores, confuso mas belo. Um livro sobre compreender uns aos outros, repleto de empatia, com um desfecho comovente e encantador que levará o leitor às lágrimas e dará aos jovens um precioso vislumbre do mundo todo especial dessa menina extraordinária. * VENCEDOR do National Book Award, 2010 * FINALISTA do Redbridge Children''s Book Award (Reino Unido), 2012 * FINALISTA do UKLA Award (Associação Literária do Reino Unido), 2012 * VENCEDOR do International Reading Association Award, 2011 * VENCEDOR do Crystal Kite Award, 2011 * HONRA AO MÉRITO do Golden Kite Award, 2011 * VENCEDOR do Southern Independent Booksellers Award, 2011 * OBRA NOTÁVEL PARA CRIANÇAS da American Library Association''s, 2011 * MELHOR ROMANCE PARA JOVENS da American Library Association''s, 2011 * OBRA EXTRAORDINÁRIA no Bank Street Best Children''s Books, 2011 * OBRA NOTÁVEL PARA CRIANÇAS E ADOLESCENTES, Capitol Choices, 2011 * VENCEDOR do Dolly Gray Children''s Literature Award, 2012

National Book Award winner Kathryn Erskine delivers a powerful story of family, friendship, and race relations in the South.Life will never be the same for Red Porter. He''s a kid growing up around black car grease, white fence paint, and the backward attitudes of the folks who live in his hometown, Rocky Gap, Virginia. Red''s daddy, his idol, has just died, leaving Red and Mama with some hard decisions and a whole lot of doubt. Should they sell the Porter family business, a gas station, repair shop, and convenience store rolled into one, where the slogan -- "Porter''s: We Fix it Right!" -- has been shouting the family''s pride for as long as anyone can remember? With Daddy gone, everything''s different. Through his friendship with Thomas, Beau, and Miss Georgia, Red starts to see there''s a lot more than car motors and rusty fenders that need fixing in his world. When Red discovers the injustices that have been happening in Rocky Gap since before he was born, he''s faced with unsettling questions about his family''s legacy.

The world is increasingly mobile (Adey 2006). Flows of good, services and cultures are changing the relations between people and place, leading scholars to questions existing notions of home, travel, and belonging. This thesis explores these issues by focusing on one group who epitomise the twenty-first century world of mobility: lifestyle travellers. The thesis considers the experiences of lifestyle travellers across numerous world-wide locations, drawing on primary data collected over two years. It adopts an explicitly geographical approach to studying lifestyle travel, focusing attention on the significance of place and movement for these highly mobile beings, in order to examine what this mobility means for ideas of identity and home. Complementing research in the tourism field, the research highlights how lifestyle travel is a heterogeneous and difficult to classify activity, involving a myriad of different ideas, practices, behaviours and motivations. However, by adopting Cresswell''s ''constellations of mobility'' (2010) as an organising rather than classifying device, the thesis is able to unpack this diversity and illuminate the embroilment of ''mobilities'' and ''moorings'' in the practices of lifestyle travellers. It goes on to demonstrate how place immersion is crucial to lifestyle travel, illustrating how practices of mobility extend past corporeal movement between places, exploring the unique and diverse practices within places. This pursuit of integration within places by lifestyle travellers shows how place and mobility can be complementary rather than exclusionary, with different immersion techniques outlined to demonstrate the different depths of place experience desired by participants (ranging from ''spectating'' at the peripheries to becoming ''community members'' within places). From these findings, the research emphasises how place itself is mobile, as well as lifestyle travellers. By illustrating the relational ways in which lifestyle travellers continually take and make place, the thesis uncovers new ways of conceptualising ''home'' that are formed through the co-constituent relationship between place and mobility. The thesis therefore demonstrates these factors to be significant and mutually enabling components to the identities of lifestyle travellers in the twenty first century.

Mike tries so hard to please his father, but the only language his dad seems to speak is calculus. And for a boy with a math learning disability, nothing could be more difficult. When his dad sends him to live with distant relatives in rural Pennsylvania for the summer to work on an engineering project, Mike figures this is his big chance to buckle down and prove himself. But when he gets there, nothing is what he thought it would be. The project has nothing at all to do with engineering, and he finds himself working alongside his wacky eighty-something- year-old aunt, a homeless man, and a punk rock girl as part of a town-wide project to adopt a boy from Romania. Mike may not learn anything about engineering, but what he does learn is far more valuable.

THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER and ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT NOVELS OF OUR TIME FOR YOUNG READERS Caitlin has Asperger''s. The world according to her is black and white; anything in between is confusing. Before, when things got confusing, Caitlin went to her older brother, Devon, for help. But Devon was killed in a school shooting, and Caitlin''s dad is so distraught that he is just not helpful. Caitlin wants everything to go back to the way things were, but she doesn''t know how to do that. Then she comes across the word closure--and she realizes this is what she needs. And in her search for it, Caitlin discovers that the world may not be so black and white after all. "Powerful."--Publishers Weekly "A strong and complex character study."--The Horn Book "Allusions to Harper Lee''s To Kill a Mockingbird, the portrayal of a whole community''s healing process, and the sharp insights into Caitlyn''s behavior enhance this fine addition to the recent group of books with narrators with autism and Asbergers."--Booklist

Goth girl Matt lives her life by simple rules: Stay under the radar, never go by Matilda (only Matt), and don''t let anyone get too close. But everything changes when she moves in with a peaceful Quaker family in Pennsylvania. As the country fights a war in the Middle East, Matt fights her own personal war, battling bullies of her past and present and fighting to stand up for her belief in peace. Then violence erupts in town, and Matt finds that she will need to fight even harder to save the family she is starting to love.