With the Shenandoah Valley Railroad now operational and the American Civil War lingering in recent memory, narrator Billy Washita sets his heart on finding the secret to his past. Along with his friend, Rascal, Billy follows where the railroad leads. Along the way, the two fatherless wanderers encounter five more orphans, each with their own stories of abandonment. Together, their uncertain hope for adoption means facing fears, suffering unrequited love, and discovering a future no one could have imagined. Will the mystery of the past bring the hope they seek? Social entrepreneur specializing in global orphan ministry, Blake Fite, turns his energy to historical fiction as he teams up with burgeoning young authors in the first book of the Carriage Kids Series for a one-of-a-kind journey from bondage to freedom—fatherlessness to family. Young readers and parents alike are drawn into the action of each chapter with engaging discussion questions and gain real-life survival tips along the way!

Carnegie Medal Nonfiction Longlist 2023 The Washington Post Best Non-Fiction Books of 2022 Publishers Weekly Best Books 2022 Kirkus Best Non-Fiction Books of 2022 Slate Best Books 2022 Chicago Tribune Best Books 2022 Los Angeles Times Best Books 2022 Based on hundreds of hours of research, interviews, and access to exclusive sources and materials, Sandy Hook is Elizabeth Williamson’s landmark investigation of the aftermath of a school shooting, the work of Sandy Hook parents who fought to defend themselves, and the truth of their children’s fate against the frenzied distortions of online deniers and conspiracy theorists. On December 14, 2012, a gunman killed twenty first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Ten years later, Sandy Hook has become a foundational story of how false conspiracy narratives and malicious misinformation have gained traction in society. One of the nation’s most devastating mass shootings, Sandy Hook was used to create destructive and painful myths. Driven by ideology or profit, or for no sound reason at all, some people insisted it never occurred, or was staged by the federal government as a pretext for seizing Americans’ firearms. They tormented the victims’ relatives online, accosted them on the street and at memorial events, accusing them of faking their loved ones’ murders. Some family members have been stalked and forced into hiding. A gun was fired into the home of one parent. Present at the creation of this terrible crusade was Alex Jones’s Infowars, a far-right outlet that aired noxious Sandy Hook theories to millions and raised money for the conspiracy theorists’ quest to “prove” the shooting didn’t happen. Enabled by Facebook, YouTube, and other social media companies’ failure to curb harmful content, the conspiracists’ questions grew into suspicion, suspicion grew into demands for more proof, and unanswered demands turned into rage. This pattern of denial and attack would come to characterize some Americans’ response to almost every major event, from mass shootings to the coronavirus pandemic to the 2020 presidential election, in which President Trump’s false claims of a rigged result prompted the January 6, 2021, assault on a bastion of democracy, the U.S. Capitol. The Sandy Hook families, led by the father of the youngest victim, refused to accept this. Sandy Hook is the story of their battle to preserve their loved ones’ legacies even in the face of threats to their own lives. Through exhaustive reporting, narrative storytelling, and intimate portraits, Sandy Hook is the definitive book on one of the most shocking cultural ruptures of the internet era.

The Land Speaks explores the intersection of two vibrant fields, oral history and environmental studies. Ranging across farm and forest, city and wilderness, river and desert, this collection of fourteen oral histories gives voice to nature and the stories it has to tell. These essays consider topics as diverse as environmental activism, wilderness management, public health, urban exploring, and smoke jumping. They raise questions about the roles of water, neglected urban spaces, land ownership concepts, protectionist activism, and climate change. Covering almost every region of the United States and part of the Caribbean, Lee and Newfont and their diverse collection of contributors address the particular contributions oral history can make toward understanding issues of public land and the environment. In the face of global warming and events like the Flint water crisis, environmental challenges are undoubtedly among the most pressing issues of our time. These essays suggest that oral history can serve both documentary and problem-solving functions as we grapple with these challenges.

New House brings to life an imaginary monastery in Wales, through the medium of invented documents that reflect fifteen centuries of history and prayer. The historical essay, "Guto'r Glyn in 1492," complements the fictional New House by examining an actual fifteenth-century Welsh poet in the age when Europe was beginning to map the New World.

Teaching Stephen King critically examines the works of Stephen King and several ways King can be incorporated into the high school and college classroom. The section on Variations on Horror Tropes includes chapters on the vampire, the werewolf, the undead monster, and the ghost. The section on Real Life Horror includes chapters on King's school shooting novella Rage, sexual violence, and coming of age narratives. Finally, the section on Playing with Publishing includes chapters on serial publishing and The Green Mile, e-books, and graphic novels.