With a series of lyrical vignettes Eileen M. Julien traces her life as an African American woman growing up in middle-class New Orleans in the 1950s and 1960s. Julien's narratives focus on her relationship with her mother, family, community, and the city itself, while touching upon life after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Haunted by a colonial past associated with African presence, racial mixing, and suspect rituals, New Orleans has served the national imagination as a place of exoticism where objectionable people and unsavory practices can be found. The destruction of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath revealed New Orleans' deep poverty and marginalized population, and brought a media storm that perpetuated the city's stigma. Travels with Mae lovingly restores the wonder of this great city, capturing both its beauty and its pain through the eyes of an insider.

How do you forgive when the wound is still open? People often ask Sarah, "How did you forgive your alcoholic mother?” How do you forgive someone who carelessly brushed aside your pain, who caused such destruction, and who doesn’t show remorse? How do you know when to stay and when to go? In The Complicated Heart, you will travel through Sarah's story with her, from age 14 and beyond, as she wrestles with these very questions. Prepare yourself: she holds nothing back. If you’ve struggled with a difficult relationship, if you’ve felt torn-up and crazy and confused because of it, if you just want to know how to move forward and be okay, this story is for you. Dysfunction does not have to be your destiny or your identity. Victory is on the table. What's more: you’ll not only travel with Sarah, you’ll travel with her mom as well as you read her mom’s journal entries and letters. What goes on in the mind of the person who hurt you the most? In this story, you’ll get a rare peek into that mind and heart. In these pages you'll be reminded that light always finds a way in, even in the deepest darkness, and redemption and joy are possible in the midst of trauma and unmet needs. If you want to learn how to forgive when your wound is still open, heal when circumstances don't change, and become a generational bondage-breaker, The Complicated Heart is for you. And if not for you, for someone you know. Pass it along.

"Dr. Mae Jemison and 100 Year Starship"--P. [1] of cover.

If you’re gonna run for your life, you gotta wear the right shoes. Life is rapidly changing for pre-teen shoe spokesperson Riley Mae. After escaping near disaster at the top of Half Dome in Yosemite, Riley, her family, and her Swiftriver co-workers fly to a secret hideout in Northwest Montana. But when the plane’s malfunction leads to a rough landing, Riley wants nothing more than to return to friends, church, and home. Then she meets Sunday, a ten-year-old boy from Kenya who wrestles fish, battles bears, and tackles leukemia. While her rigorous raft training for the marketing campaign brings a few bumps and bruises, Riley now feels up for the challenge. Everything looks as bright as the glistening fool’s gold on her “Ready Eddy” river sandals, but everything is not as it seems. Riley soon learns that life is as unpredictable as the raging waters, which, if she is not careful, will sweep her away and into the hands of an enemy who is even closer than she thinks.

Desperate is for those who love their children to the depths of their souls but who have also curled up under their covers, fighting back tears, and begging God for help. It’s for those who have ever wondered what happened to all their ideals for what having children would be like. For those who have ever felt like all the “experts” have clearly never had a child like theirs. For those who have prayed for a mentor. For those who ever felt lost and alone in motherhood. In Desperate you will find the story of one young mother’s honest account of the desperate feelings experienced in motherhood and one experienced mentor’s realistic and gentle exhortations that were forged in the trenches of raising her own four children. Also in Desperate: QR codes and links at the end of each chapter that lead to videos with Sarah Mae and Sally talking about the chapter Practical steps to take during the desperate times Bible study and journal exercises in each chapter that will lead you to identify ways in which you can grow as a mom Mentoring advice for real-life situations Q & A section with Sally where she answers readers questions

A beautiful picture book for sharing and marking special occasions such as graduation, inspired by the life of the first African American woman to travel in space, Mae Jemison. An Amazon Best Book of the Month! A great classroom and bedtime read-aloud, Mae Among the Stars is the perfect book for young readers who have big dreams and even bigger hearts. When Little Mae was a child, she dreamed of dancing in space. She imagined herself surrounded by billions of stars, floating, gliding, and discovering. She wanted to be an astronaut. Her mom told her, "If you believe it, and work hard for it, anything is possible.” Little Mae’s curiosity, intelligence, and determination, matched with her parents' encouraging words, paved the way for her incredible success at NASA as the first African American woman to travel in space. This book will inspire other young girls to reach for the stars, to aspire for the impossible, and to persist with childlike imagination.

"A DELICIOUS HIGH-STAKES ADVENTURE." --PEOPLE MAGAZINE Perfect for fans of Victoria Aveyard and Holly Black, this enthralling fantasy adventure follows a teenage girl chosen to be the human sacrifice in a deadly game between three heirs who will do anything for the crown. Zahru has long dreamed of leaving the kingdom of Orkena and having the kinds of adventures she's only ever heard about in stories. But as a lowly Whisperer, her power to commune with animals means that her place is serving in the royal stables until the day her magic runs dry. All that changes when the ailing ruler invokes the Crossing. A death-defying race across the desert, in which the first of his heirs to finish--and take the life of a human sacrifice at the journey's end--will ascend to the throne. With all of the kingdom abuzz, Zahru leaps at the chance to change her fate if just for a night by sneaking into the palace for a taste of the revelry. But the minor indiscretion turns into a deadly mistake when she gets caught up in a feud between the heirs and is forced to become the Crossing's human sacrifice. Now Zahru's only hope for survival hinges on the impossible: somehow figuring out how to overcome the most dangerous people in the world.