Looks at what life is like for children of different countries and how each child can fulfill his or her hopes and ambitions no matter how little or much their human rights are infringed.

A young pop star traces the story of his unlikely rise to fame and his struggles with his father's suicide, sharing philosophical, darkly whimsical observations about the clash between celebrity and the human condition.

"Alanna has been plagued by tragedy. So it should come as no surprise that in the beauty that surrounds Charleston, all is not as it seems. When her husband is killed by a car bomb while their band is on tour in Charleston, Alanna doesn't know where to turn. Her father-in-law is threatening to take custody of the baby she carries, but the one thing she knows for sure is that she can't lose the last piece of Liam she has left. Their manager offers...

"Cinnamon Haynes has fought hard for a life she never thought was possible--a good man by her side, a steady job as a career counselor at a local community college, and a cozy house in a quaint little beach town. It may not look like much, but it's more than she ever dreamed of or what her difficult childhood promised. Her life's mantra is to be good, quiet, grateful. Until something shifts and Cinnamon is suddenly haunted by a terrifying question:...

Sasha Stone knows her place--first-chair clarinet, top of her class, and at the side of her oxford-wearing boyfriend. She's worked her entire life to ensure that her path to Oberlin Conservatory as a star musician is perfectly paved. But suddenly there's a fork in the road in the shape of Isaac Harver. Her body shifts toward him when he walks by, and her skin misses his touch even though she's never known it. Why does he act like he knows her so well--too...

Discusses what life was like for the boys who worked in America's coal mines in the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and shares the story of a young coal miner who endeavors to save miners trapped in a collapsed tunnel.

"During the German occupation of the Netherlands, 1940 to 1945, all Jews were ordered to register the religion of their grandparents. The Reichskommissar appointed the young lawyer Hans Calmeyer to adjudicate "doubtful cases." Calmeyer used his assignment to save at least 3,700 Jews from deportation and death, dwarfing the number saved by Schindler's famous rescue operation."--Back cover.

"When her brother dies in a fire, Sasha Harless has no one left, and nowhere to turn. After her father died in the mines and her mother ran off, he was her last caretaker. They'd always dreamed of leaving Caboose, West Virginia together someday, but instead she's in foster care, feeling more stuck and broken than ever. But then hen Sasha discovers family she didn't know she had, and she finally has something to hold onto, especially sweet little Mikey,...

"A penetrating collection by Alexandrea Kleeman, the celebrated author of YOU TOO CAN HAVE A BODY LIKE MINE, these short stories perplex and delight, populated with characters seeking to understand the somehow lacking world around them"--

"When the body of well-liked and respectable Glenda Roberts is discovered at the bottom of a former slate mine--now a busy tourist attraction--pandemonium erupts in the North Wales town of Llanelen. Penny Brannigan finds herself drawn into the investigation when jars of her house-brand hand cream are found among counterfeit inventory Glenda and her sister were selling. Police are convinced that the mine operator--whose asthmatic son suffered an almost-fatal...