Little Girl in a Messed Up World By: Tonya Parker Tonya Parker was born on February 20, 1963, in Richmond, Virginia. That day her mother was informed that she was born with a veil on her face. She was born with a special gift; this was an old folks’ saying. She had the gift of insight, and she carries her gift until this day. She was raised in her native town of Wakefield and Pocohontas, Virginia, where she grew to know that she was very special. Tonya was blessed to be a part of two great generations. The Robinson family, where her great-great-grandmother, Sarah Robinson, who was a Black Native American. Then, Sarah met her great-great-grandfather, Charlie Parker, who was a Black Native American who was a shoemaker. The two were raised and groomed by old family traditions that were passed on from generation to generation. But this child was gifted with many talents, and the family did know this. Tonya Parker would always see and say the strangest things as a child. She would have the people in town listening to her little made-up stories. She would even have everybody believing some of her stories. And through this talent she created, they were to endure the pain and the struggle that makes her stories real and heartbreaking. She lived through being molested as a child. So she wrote the diary that she calls Little Girl in a Messed Up World. This she shares with the world. While coming out and enduring other sexual abuses to finding the Lord, she wrote, He Touched Me. And now coming out of that to being abused as a wife and a mother, she wrote Markese Strong: A Miracle, and some poems to go along with this.

Jasmine wants to make a difference in her community, but she feels helpless in the face of the problems she sees around her, like homelessness and kids skipping school. But when she begins taking small steps to solve these problems, and recognizes the power of her BIG personality, the impact she makes may surprise even her.

A feisty girl from a family of ranchers lands a job as a daredevil stunt girl in the early days of silent film in this adventurous and funny cross between Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken and Ramona. Pearl lives on a ranch where her chores include collecting eggs and feeding ornery ostriches. She has three older brothers, who don't coddle her at all. And she knows a thing or two about horses, too. One day, Pearl's brothers get cushy jobs doing stunts for this new form of entertainment called "moving pictures." They're the Daredevil Donnelly Brothers, a Death-Defying Cowboy Trio. Before she knows it, Pearl has stumbled into being a stunt girl herself--and dreams of becoming a star. The only problem is, her mother has no idea what she's up to. And let's just say she wouldn't be too happy to find out that Pearl's been jumping out of burning buildings in her spare time. Filled with action, humor, and heart--not to mention those pesky ostriches--The Nerviest Girl in the World introduces a spunky heroine whose adventures will have kids on the edge of their seats and whose sense of humor will have them laughing until the very last line.

For a child, anything happening around him/her tends to be a big thing. They can even sail a boat in a pothole imagining it a pond or river. Understanding the way a child's mind develops and acts, is a learning. We parents in our journey of parenthood, forget to notice many such milestones in the kid's development those we can say are 'incredible'. A little girl and her Big World is about the same perspective of a 5 year old girl, for whom everything around her is her big world where she has lots of questions and even answers.

What's everyone doing later? Some creatively named Facebook events? Haircuts and happy meals? This clever and gorgeous graphic novel proves that there is nothing cooler than cool girls, showcasing a particularly chaotic ride-along with one group of friends for 24 hours.

For readers of Room and The Glass Castle, an astonishing memoir of one woman's rise above an unimaginable childhood. Maude Julien's parents were fanatics who believed it was their sacred duty to turn her into the ultimate survivor -- raising her in isolation, tyrannizing her childhood and subjecting her to endless drills designed to "eliminate weakness." Maude learned to hold an electric fence for minutes without flinching, and to sit perfectly still in a rat-infested cellar all night long (her mother sewed bells onto her clothes that would give her away if she moved). She endured a life without heat, hot water, adequate food, friendship, or any kind of affectionate treatment. But Maude's parents could not rule her inner life. Befriending the animals on the lonely estate as well as the characters in the novels she read in secret, young Maude nurtured in herself the compassion and love that her parents forbid as weak. And when, after more than a decade, an outsider managed to penetrate her family's paranoid world, Maude seized her opportunity. By turns horrifying and magical, The Only Girl in the World is a story that will grip you from the first page and leave you spellbound, a chilling exploration of psychological control that ends with a glorious escape.

Just try not to smile! A positively inspiring picture book from the creator of the Caldecott Honor–winning Interrupting Chicken. Because Amelia smiles as she skips down the street, her neighbor Mrs. Higgins smiles too, and decides to send a care package of cookies to her grandson Lionel in Mexico. The cookies give Lionel an idea, and his idea inspires a student, who in turn inspires a ballet troupe in England! And so the good feelings that started with Amelia’s smile make their way around the world, from a goodwill recital in Israel, to an impromptu rumba concert in Paris, to a long-awaited marriage proposal in Italy, to a knitted scarf for a beloved niece back in New York. Putting a unique spin on "what goes around comes around," David Ezra Stein’s charmingly illustrated story reminds us that adding even a small dose of kindness into the world is sure to spur more and more kindness, which could eventually make its way back to you!