Set in the late '70s, A Girl Called Sidney: The Coldest Place by rock musician Courtney Yasmineh is a searing, nerve-rattling story of a mature 17-year-old whose family disintegrates in spectacular fashion in affluent suburban Chicago. After first spiriting her mother away and then running away herself to the family's remote Northwoods cabin in Minnesota, Sidney challenges herself to survive alone and find her voice over the course of a brutal winter. The narrative takes the reader on a dark and moody ride back and forth in both time and place, between Chicago and a tiny rural town. Getting inside Sidney's head as she tries to make sense of a cast of characters - family, hangers-on, and old and new friends - the novel examines the roots of their dysfunction while Sidney plots the future and works to make real her pursuit of music. With appeal to readers of the recent rash of women rocker bios - and contemporary fiction of the heartland - the story looks with a fresh perspective back to a distinct time and the experiences of a young woman that will resonate with many adults.

Author of over a dozen bestsellers, Academy Award-winning screenwriter, and creator of some of television's greatest hits, Sheldon has seen and done it all, and now in this candid memoir, he shares his story for the first time.

The malfunction of Sydney's mechanical star leads her to an unexpected happy ending.

I Am Not Sidney Poitier is an irresistible comic novel from the master storyteller Percival Everett, and an irreverent take on race, class, and identity in America I was, in life, to be a gambler, a risk-taker, a swashbuckler, a knight. I accepted, then and there, my place in the world. I was a fighter of windmills. I was a chaser of whales. I was Not Sidney Poitier. Not Sidney Poitier is an amiable young man in an absurd country. The sudden death of his mother orphans him at age eleven, leaving him with an unfortunate name, an uncanny resemblance to the famous actor, and, perhaps more fortunate, a staggering number of shares in the Turner Broadcasting Corporation. Percival Everett's hilarious new novel follows Not Sidney's tumultuous life, as the social hierarchy scrambles to balance his skin color with his fabulous wealth. Maturing under the less-than watchful eye of his adopted foster father, Ted Turner, Not gets arrested in rural Georgia for driving while black, sparks a dinnertable explosion at the home of his manipulative girlfriend, and sleuths a murder case in Smut Eye, Alabama, all while navigating the recurrent communication problem: "What's your name?" a kid would ask. "Not Sidney," I would say. "Okay, then what is it?"

When she discovers that her boyfriend is cheating on her, Sydney, a 22-year-old college student, must decide what to do next, especially when she becomes captivated by her mysterious neighbor Ridge.

Young Charity Still has one wish. She longs to be free, just like the guinea hen from her ancestral land of West Africa. She wants to be strong and free to roam the land. Instead, she is a slave, one of many on the Steele plantation in Maryland. Its the only life shes ever known. Growing up before the Emancipation Proclamation becomes law, her world consists of picking cotton, beans, and corn in the hot fields and slopping the pigs. She mourns the death of her mother, survives the influenza running rampant through the slave quarters, endures beatings for her mistakes, and experiences being sold to a new owner. Through it all, Charity dreams of freedom and what it might mean. Based on a true story, this picture book for young children puts a personal face on the history of slavery. It teaches that whatever the circumstances in lifegood or bad, joyful or painfulthey can be overcome. Its important to have, hope, faith, and belief in yourself that the spirit within will provide the strength to overcome any obstacle.

The untold life story of All-of-a-Kind Family author Sydney Taylor, highlighting her dramatic influence on American children’s literature This is the first and only biography of Sydney Taylor (1904–1978), author of the award-winning All-of-a-Kind Family series of books, the first juvenile novels published by a mainstream publisher to feature Jewish children characters. The family—based on Taylor’s own as a child—includes five sisters, each two years apart, dressed alike by their fastidious immigrant mother so they all look the same: all-of-a-kind. The four other sisters’ names were the same in the books as in their real lives; only the real-life Sarah changed hers to the boyish Sydney while she was in high school. Cummins elucidates the deep connections between the progressive Taylor’s books and American Jewish experiences, arguing that Taylor was deeply influential in the development of national Jewish identity. This biography conveys the vital importance of children’s books in the transmission of Jewish culture and the preservation of ethnic heritage.