A clever illustrated ode to the breakout star of Scooby-Doo, exploring the life lessons this iconic nerd girl teaches us and why we should all aim to be the Velma of our friend group From the moment Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! premiered in 1969 and through the many Scooby movies and shows since, it has cemented its place as one of the greatest cartoons of all time. But there is one character in particular who has risen to icon status: a smarty-pants who can't see without her glasses named Velma Dinkley. As the nerdiest member of the Mystery, Inc. gang, Velma might have been a wallflower or an underdog. Instead, she's become a fan favorite, a fashion legend, a standout role for Linda Cardellini in the live-action movies, the inspiration for countless Halloween costumes, and the star of her own animated series from Mindy Kaling. But why, exactly, do we love this brainiac so much? What Would Velma Do? explores the answers to that question, as well as the many inspiring takeaways we can learn from her, the history of the character, and enough fun facts and trivia to make you say Jinkies!

It's the classic girl detectives like you've never seen them before! Daphne Blake and Velma Dinkley have a terrifying new mystery to solve - and this time, the culprit is far more frightening than any man in a mask... Popular Daphne Blake and uber-nerd Velma Dinkley are not friends. They aren't enemies either, but they don't have any reason to speak to each other, and that's how they prefer it. The two girls grew up together - they'd been best friends since pre-K - but when they hit middle school, Daphne dropped Velma and never looked back. These days, Daphne's deep in the popular crowd, daughter of the richest family in town, while Velma's an outsider, hiding from the world behind her thick glasses. When they run into each other in the halls of Crystal Cove High, they look the other way. But then Daphne's best friend, Marcy - who happens to be Velma's cousin - goes missing. A century ago, there was a wave of disappearances in Crystal Cove, and many local people believe that supernatural forces were behind it. Now the whole town believes those same forces are back . . . and up to no good. Daphne and Velma may be the only ones who can solve the mystery and save Marcy-if they can trust each other enough to try. Especially since the truth might be stranger-and scarier-than either girl can imagine . . .

Explores black women writers’ treatment of the ancestor figure. The Grasp That Reaches beyond the Grave investigates the treatment of the ancestor figure in Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters, Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow, Phyllis Alesia Perry’s Stigmata and A Sunday in June, Toni Morrison’s Beloved,Tananarive Due’s The Between, and Julie Dash’s film, Daughters of the Dust in order to understand how they draw on African cosmology and the interrelationship of ancestors, elders, and children to promote healing within the African American community. Venetria K. Patton suggests that the experience of slavery with its concomitant view of black women as “natally dead” has impacted African American women writers’ emphasis on elders and ancestors as they seek means to counteract notions of black women as somehow disconnected from the progeny of their wombs. This misperception is in part addressed via a rich kinship system, which includes the living and the dead. Patton notes an uncanny connection between depictions of elder, ancestor, and child figures in these texts and Kongo cosmology. These references suggest that these works are examples of Africanisms or African retentions, which continue to impact African American culture.

In 1928, ten-year-old Lenvil O'Loughlin and his two younger brothers are picked up off the squalid streets of New York City and put on an orphan train headed west. Scared and fearful of what the future holds, Lenvil only hopes the three of them can stay together. When the train screeches to a halt in Lebanon, Missouri, Lenvil's brothers are selected by a childless couple. However, Lenvil is left to agonize over the separation and is put back on the train to go farther west. In Springfield, he is taken by Eldon Detherage, a cruel taskmaster who wants a boy for no other reason than to work on his farm. Fortunately, Lenvil has a champion in Eldon's wife, Velma, who treats him with the kindness he desperately needs. As the impact of the Great Depression spreads, everyone is struggling just to survive. As the years pass, Lenvil copes with the hardships of life on the farm as best he can, but he also makes himself a promise: someday he will find his brothers and make a better life for them all.

Anthony (Tony) Larson and his twin brother, Mark, have been asked to marry one of the two unfortunate women who are in need of a husband. One woman is Velma Murdoch and the other is Natalie Harper. Tony falls in love with Velma as soon as he meets her, and he’s excited when Mark tells him she’s chosen him to marry. What he doesn’t realize until he marries Velma is that she thought she was marrying Mark. But Mark tricked both of them into marrying each other so he could be with Natalie. While he’s upset with Mark for deceiving him, he’s even more upset to find out Velma had wanted to marry Mark instead of him. Velma is just as upset with Mark as Tony is. A marriage to Tony isn’t going to work out well at all. He’s a farmer who lives in a sod house, and she doesn’t know the first thing about housework or cooking. She was much more suited for Mark who owned a business. Just how are two people who are a bad match going to find common ground? She can’t cook anything right, she's scared of bugs and snakes, and there’s no way she can make clothes. She was brought up to help her future husband entertain guests at dinner parties, not help out on a farm. Can a man who feels rejected and a woman who doesn’t feel competent on a farm find something as wonderful as love?