Preparing for the time your teens leave home.

Giving Her Wings is an account from a mother's perspective about sending her fifteen-year-old daughter to the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy to pursue her dreams of studying music and becoming an oboist. The book is formatted as a diary and contains accounts of the events leading to the decision to attend Interlochen Arts Academy, visits to Interlochen, concerts, being suspended from school, and the need to prepare a fifteen-year-old for the future. Parenting includes loving, nurturing, and preparing children for becoming responsible adults. The urgency to prepare her daughter for the future is magnified when the mother is diagnosed with breast cancer. Giving Her Wings includes many joys, sorrows, and interactions shared between the mother and daughter. This book should be of interest to a wide range of readers. Any parent who is considering sending a child to Interlochen's summer camp, Interlochen Arts Academy, or any boarding school would find the book helpful and interesting. Students planning to attend or who have already attended camps or boarding school would enjoy this book. In addition, Giving Her Wings should be of great interest to breast cancer survivors or any cancer survivor. Raising a child while dealing with the physical and emotional aspects of cancer can be overwhelming. Most parents diagnosed with a life-threatening disease will relate to this book, realizing the need for preparing a child to be self-sufficient and to prepare that child for the future.

Award winning entrepreneur and author Connie Rankin challenges the concept that God is Dead in her stunning tell-all stories of God Gave Us Wings. Her focus in writing this book is to demonstrate by example–anything is possible if you believe in the power of I AM. While focusing on her core mission to empower others through faith, Connie shares ten true stories from Oprah’s amazing journey to a Wounded Warrior’s heroic battle. Each woman in this book has defined her own word for success, and you can too. In her new book, Connie provides you with inspirational stories of success from different life experiences to help you see that at any moment, GOD can ultimately change your life, if you believe HE can. All readers, not just women or entrepreneurs, will benefit from Connie’s ability to share the wisdom from various life’s journeys to help you finish strong. As these stories testify, you can fly higher than you ever imagined...if you believe.

Lauren Sullivan shares her own story and the wisdom of Seven Stepping Stones to guide you on a soul-satisfying journey to new beginnings and a rich and robust quality of life.

In this Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book, Children's Literature Legacy Award-winner Nikki Grimes explores though her celebrated poetry how a supportive teacher can be the key to unlocking a dreamer's imaginative power through creative writing. Gabby's world is filled with daydreams. However, what began as an escape from her parents' arguments has now taken over her life. But with the help of a new teacher, 'Gabby the dreamer' might just become 'Gabby the writer' and the words that once carried her away might allow her to soar. Written in vivid, accessible poems, this remarkable verse novel is a celebration of imagination, of friendship, of one girl's indomitable spirit, and of a teacher's ability to reach out and change a life. Coretta Scott King Author Honor book NCTE Notable Children's Books in the English Language Arts Kirkus Reviews Best Book

Changing minds one song at a time. The 1800s were a dangerous time to be a black girl in the United States, especially if you were born a slave. Ella Sheppard was such a girl, but her family bought their freedom and moved to Ohio where slavery was illegal; they even scraped enough money together to send Ella to school and buy her a piano. In 1871, when her school ran out of money and was on the brink of closure, Ella became a founding member of a traveling choir, the Jubilee Singers, to help raise funds for the Fisk Free Colored School, later known as Fisk University. The Jubilee Singers traveled from Cincinnati to New York, following the Underground Railroad. With every performance they endangered their lives and those of the people helping them, but they also broke down barriers between blacks and whites, lifted spirits, and even helped influence modern American music: the Jubilees were the first to introduce spirituals outside their black communities, thrilling white audiences who were used to more sedate European songs. Framed within Ella's inspiring story, Give Me Wings! is narrative nonfiction at its finest, taking readers through one of history's most tumultuous and dramatic times, touching on the Civil War, Emancipation, and the Reconstruction Era. Click here to listen to the Publishers Weekly KidsCast: A Conversation with Kathy Lowinger.

Relatable, heartbreaking, and real, this is a story of resilience--the perfect novel for readers of powerful contemporary fiction like Girl in Pieces and Every Last Word. Before, I was a million things. Now I'm only one. The Burned Girl. Ava Lee has lost everything there is to lose: Her parents. Her best friend. Her home. Even her face. She doesn't need a mirror to know what she looks like--she can see her reflection in the eyes of everyone around her. A year after the fire that destroyed her world, her aunt and uncle have decided she should go back to high school. Be "normal" again. Whatever that is. Ava knows better. There is no normal for someone like her. And forget making friends--no one wants to be seen with the Burned Girl, now or ever. But when Ava meets a fellow survivor named Piper, she begins to feel like maybe she doesn't have to face the nightmare alone. Sarcastic and blunt, Piper isn't afraid to push Ava out of her comfort zone. Piper introduces Ava to Asad, a boy who loves theater just as much as she does, and slowly, Ava tries to create a life again. Yet Piper is fighting her own battle, and soon Ava must decide if she's going to fade back into her scars . . . or let the people by her side help her fly. "A heartfelt and unflinching look at the reality of being a burn survivor and at the scars we all carry. This book is for everyone, burned or not, who has ever searched for a light in the darkness." --Stephanie Nielson, New York Times bestselling author of Heaven Is Here and a burn survivor