Family History Month

Inspired in part by long-ago stories from her own family's history, this masterful story follows the Cassars over seven decades (from 1940-2010), starting with patriarch Gaston and his wife Lucienne, whose myth of perfect love sustains them, and ending with Chloe, who believes telling her family's buried stories will bring them all peace.

"Bettye Kearse -- a descendant of an enslaved cook and, according to oral tradition, President James Madison -- shares her family story and explores the issues of legacy, race, and the powerful consequences of telling the whole truth."-- Provided by publisher. For thousands of years, West African griots and griottes have recited the stories of their people. Because of this, Kearse learned she is a descendant of President James Madison and his slave--...

"Imagine an America very similar to our own. It's got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream. There are some differences. This America has been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and...

Embarrassed about gathering watercress from a roadside ditch, a girl learns to appreciate her Chinese heritage after learning why the plant is so important to her parents.

"This book is a work of fiction based on true events. It reflects the author's present recollections of experiences over time. Some names and characteristics have been changed or invented, some events have been compressed, and dialogue has been re-created." -- title page verso.