With war looming on the horizon and winter setting in, can two children escape North Korea on their own? Winner of the Freeman Book Award! North Korea. December, 1950. Twelve-year-old Sora and her family live under an iron set of rules: No travel without a permit. No criticism of the government. No absences from Communist meetings. Wear red. Hang pictures of the Great Leader. Don't trust your neighbors. Don't speak your mind. You are being watched. But war is coming, war between North and South Korea, between the Soviets and the Americans. War causes chaos--and war is the perfect time to escape. The plan is simple: Sora and her family will walk hundreds of miles to the South Korean city of Busan from their tiny mountain village. They just need to avoid napalm, frostbite, border guards, and enemy soldiers. But they can't. And when an incendiary bombing changes everything, Sora and her little brother Young will have to get to Busan on their own. Can a twelve-year-old girl and her eight-year-old brother survive three hundred miles of warzone in winter? Haunting, timely, and beautiful, this harrowing novel from a searing new talent offers readers a glimpse into a vanished time and a closed nation. A Jane Addams Children's Book Award Finalist An ILA Intermediate Fiction Award Winner An American Library Association Notable Children’s Book A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year A Junior Library Guild Selection A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year "Will ultimately be recognized as one of the best books... on the Korean War."—Education About Asia, the Association for Asian Studies

“A rare triumph” (The New York Times Book Review), this powerful memoir about the divergent paths taken by two brothers is a classic work from one of the greatest figures in American literature: a reflection on John Edgar Wideman’s family and his brother’s incarceration—a classic that is as relevant now as when originally published in 1984. A “brave and brilliant” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) portrait of lives arriving at different destinies, the classic John Edgar Wideman memoir, Brothers and Keepers, is a haunting portrait of two brothers—one an award-winning writer, the other a fugitive wanted for a robbery that resulted in a murder. Wideman recalls the capture of his younger brother, Robby, details the subsequent trials that resulted in a sentence of life in prison, and provides vivid views of the American prison system. A gripping, unsettling account, Brothers and Keepers weighs the bonds of blood, affection, and guilt that connect Wideman and his brother and measures the distance that lies between them. “If you care at all about brotherhood and dignity…this is a must-read book” (The Denver Post). With a new afterword by his brother Robert Wideman, recently released after more than fifty years in prison.

The death of a sibling is unlike any other. Gloria Reuben’s little brother died just before his twenty-second birthday. Two decades later, her oldest brother Denis died two weeks short of his sixtieth birthday. Just as Gloria felt like she was finally healing from David’s death, the shock of Denis’ unexpected death was almost too much to take. In My Brothers’ Keeper, Gloria bares her soul as she reveals the intimate details of her life at home as a young girl. How the death of her father when she was twelve shaped her view of love and life. How David’s death was the impetus for her move from Canada to the United States. And how her brother Denis was her heart’s twin in a multitude of ways. Gloria, most well known as an actress, debuts her talent as a writer in My Brothers’ Keeper, an intimate and honest tribute to David and Denis. Their lives. Their deaths. And the hope that awaits. “Gloria has written a truly wonderful and inspirational tribute to her brothers and to life. Helpful to all of us who have suffered losses.”—Pete Earley

Charlotte came to Amish country to find answers. What she never expected to find was peace. Charlotte Dolinsky is not above playing dress-up and telling a few lies to find out what happened to her only brother. In fact, that is exactly what she’s come to Lancaster County to do. Now, calling herself Mary and slipping on a kapp, Charlotte will lie her way into the confidence of anyone who knows why Ethan had to die. Unless she gets found out first. But when Charlotte befriends a quiet Amish man named Isaac Miller, she begins to rethink her motives. And with a little help from a friend back home, Charlotte might find out that love comes packaged in ways she couldn’t have foreseen. Isaac’s been caring for his cancer-stricken father and sympathizing with his frustrated mother for three difficult years. And that means he hasn’t been dating. He believes Hannah King is the woman for him, but Hannah is still grieving the loss of her fiancé, and Isaac has all he can handle on the farm. When Hannah’s family plays host to a woman named Mary, their new cousin shakes things up for all of them. As Charlotte digs deeper into the mystery of Ethan’s death, she finds more than she’d bargained for in the community he once called home. But will she ever learn the truth? And what will the community—and her new family—do if they learn the truth about her?

In a captivating debut novel that is both humorous and heartwrenching, ReShonda Tate Billingsley -- winner of the Gold Pen Award for Best New Author -- spins an irresistible story that will touch every reader's heart. Aja James hasn't had it easy. She has kept a close watch over her siblings ever since tragedy robbed them of their parents. Tired of carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, Aja is ready for a change. Her best friend, Roxie, knows just what to do -- she sets Aja up on a date with one of the most sought after bachelors in town, handsome sportscaster Charles Clayton. Charles is everything Aja has ever dreamed of -- sensitive, sexy, and charming. But "happily ever after" isn't that simple. While Aja has rebounded from the loss of her parents, her sister and brother have not. Jada is lost in a world of silence with no way for Aja to reach her, and Eric's uncontrollable rage is wreaking havoc on his life. As Aja sees her brother heading down the same violent path that destroyed their family, she makes it her business to stop the cycle -- even if it means putting her own life, and her own chance at love, on hold. My Brother's Keeper is a poignant novel about a resilient family learning that sometimes you have to forgive in order to find the strength to move on.

Few Vietnam books treat the effects of a U.S. soldier's death on his family. This muscularly written, starkly honest memoir fills a significant gap. Smith (Fatal Treasure), an Atlanta Journal-Constitution editor, was 22 years old, the oldest of six children, when his beloved younger brother Jeff was killed by a Vietcong rocket during a firefight near the village of Mai Xa Thi on March 7, 1968. Jeff's death tore the fragile family apart: their mother retreated into severe alcoholism and an all-encompassing fixation on Jeff (who had been her favorite); their emotionally distant father-a WWII Marine beset by postwar demons-left the family for another woman. Smith's other brothers and sisters suffered severe and lasting psychological problems, and Smith himself-while outwardly coping well by marrying, having children and working his way up the journalism ladder-became an emotional cripple bent on self-destruction: "Not only did I thoroughly embrace alcohol, but I also became kind of psychotic." Smith tells his story with bluntness and conviction, including what becomes a cathartic happy ending when he and two of his brother's fellow Marines make a journey to Vietnam in 2001 to visit the spot where Jeff died. --Publ.

Like Friday Night Lights did years ago, Brother's Keeper tries to put the reader in the mind of a high school football player during one of the most exciting times of his young life. Listening to the words and thoughts of some fo the most impactful Abilene football players of the past 50 years is a rare treat -- and the central theme, that of protecting and working for your teammate, is a lost art in a me-first sporting world. This book captures the best of high school football and the best of the city of Abilene.