In 2012, Mohammad fled his Syrian village along with his wife and four sons, escaping to Jordan through the wilderness. Four years later he sat across from Shawn Smucker in a small conference room in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Though neither of them knew it, Mohammad had arrived in Shawn's life just in time. This is the … Continue reading ONCE WE WERE STRANGERS: WHAT FRIENDSHIP WITH A SYRIAN REFUGEE TAUGHT ME ABOUT LOVING MY NEIGHBOR, by Shawn Smucker, Fleming H. Revell Company/Baker Publishing Group
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DAMNATION ISLAND, POOR, SICK, MAD, & CRIMINAL IN THE 19TH-CENTURY NEW YORK, by Stacy Horn, Algonquin Books
DESCRIPTION: Today it is known as Roosevelt Island. In 1828, when New York City purchased this narrow, two-mile-long island in the East River, it was called Blackwell’s Island. There, over the next hundred years, the city would send its insane, indigent, sick, and criminal. Told through the gripping voices of Blackwell’s inhabitants, as well as … Continue reading DAMNATION ISLAND, POOR, SICK, MAD, & CRIMINAL IN THE 19TH-CENTURY NEW YORK, by Stacy Horn, Algonquin Books
THE BRIDGE, by Peter J. Tomasi, Illustrated by Sara Duvall, Abrams Comicarts/Abrams Books, Hachette Book Group
More than 130 years after its completion, the Brooklyn Bridge remains one of the most extraordinary landmarks and symbols of Brooklyn and New York City—and the story behind this architectural marvel is just as extraordinary. The Brooklyn Bridge was originally designed by John Augustus Roebling, but it was his son, Washington, and his daughter-in-law, Emily, … Continue reading THE BRIDGE, by Peter J. Tomasi, Illustrated by Sara Duvall, Abrams Comicarts/Abrams Books, Hachette Book Group
AN UNSUITABLE MATCH, Joanna Trollope, Publishers Group Canada, Pan Macmillan
Rose Woodrowe is getting married to Tyler Masson—a wonderful, sensitive man who is head-over-heels in love with her. The only problem? This isn’t the first time for either of them. And when you marry later in life there are a lot more people to consider. Like Rose’s daughter, Laura, who remembers her mom’s first marriage … Continue reading AN UNSUITABLE MATCH, Joanna Trollope, Publishers Group Canada, Pan Macmillan
American Heart, by Laura Moriarty, Harper Teen, Book Review
Description: Imagine a United States in which registries and detainment camps for Muslim-Americans are a reality.Fifteen-year-old Sarah-Mary Williams of Hannibal, Missouri, lives in this world, and though she has strong opinions on almost everything, she isn’t concerned with the internments because she doesn’t know any Muslims. She assumes that everything she reads and sees in … Continue reading American Heart, by Laura Moriarty, Harper Teen, Book Review
