Junebug
by Alice Mead
from Yearling
Reeve McLain, Jr.--Junebug--has a big dream that keeps him going. He dreams that someday he and his younger sister and mother will move from the awful housing project where drugs, gangs, and guns are part of everyday life. Junebug's tenth birthday is coming up, and he knows the gangs and drug dealers will be after him to join them. But he has a big birthday plan to keep his hope alive. He's going to launch his glass-bottle collection filled with notes of his dreams and wishes. Maybe some way, somehow, Junebug's dream will come true.
Crossing the Starlight Bridge (Aladdin Fiction)
by Alice Mead
from Aladdin
Girl of Kosovo
by Alice Mead
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
"How was it that foreigners could come take pictures of us when we were dead, but couldn't come to help us stay alive?" Eleven-year-old Zana Dugolli doesn't understand how the rest of the world can send reporters to record the violence that is inflicted daily on Kosovo-born Albanians by the brutal Serbian military, yet do nothing to stop it. In the late 1990s, Zana's rural village is targeted when the Serbian ruling class steps up its efforts to completely wipe out ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Unbelievingly, she watches as a bomb explodes right in front of her, killing her father and two brothers. Zana's own leg is shattered by the blast, and the physical pain added to the grief of losing half her family is almost more than she can bear. Sick with fear, Zana wonders how much longer she, her mother, and her remaining brother can face the demoralizing effects of so much hate. "All I knew was that I was slowly losing my life. I felt betrayed by everyone and everything. I couldn't trust the ground itself. If a bomb fell on it, it could swallow me whole."
Alice Mead, author of the much-lauded Adem's Cross, continues to draw attention to the horrific Serbian-Albanian conflict with Girl of Kosovo. Brutal and moving, this novel is sure to stir the activist that lives in the heart of every teen and propel young readers to a greater understanding of race, war, and politics. (Ages 10 and older) --Jennifer Hubert
Dawn and Dusk
by Alice Mead
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
The story of how one boy’s world was turned upside down in 1987 Iran is a timely and memorable introduction to the conflicts in the Middle East.
Junebug and the Reverend
by Alice Mead
from Yearling
Junebug is set to leave all his old problems behind when his family moves from the projects to a better neighborhood. But new problems crop up when he runs into school bullies and has trouble making new friends. His younger sister, Tasha, quickly fits in and makes friends with the tenants in their building, a group home for the elderly that their mama supervises.
When summer vacation starts, Junebug's lazy-day plans are squashed when Mama tells him to take walks with cranky old Reverend Ashford every day and play soccer with the very same school bullies that beat him up. Is this any way to spend summer vacation? Little does Junebug know that there are some lessons you don't learn in school.
Junebug in Trouble
by Alice Mead
from Yearling
It’s been several busy months since Junebug and his family moved away from their old housing project. Now Junebug is ecstatic about seeing his best friend Robert again at the beach on Labor Day weekend. But Robert’s with Trevor, another project pal, who happens to be a gang member with a gun. Junebug’s scared of Robert joining Trevor’s gang and wonders if he can stop him.
At home, Junebug thinks about the father he hardly knows. He has been in prison for over six years. Maybe he’s really innocent, but if not, will people think that Junebug will grow up to be like him?
Adem's Cross
by Alice Mead
from BookSurge Publishing
Junebug
Recorded at a 10-15% slower pace to help readers. Paperback book is included. From School Library Journal Grade 3-6. Junebug is the story of risks taken and goals achieved by a small nuclear family struggling against a harsh environment. Nearly 10-year-old Reeve McClain, Jr. (Junebug) says, "For my birthday wish I would like to sail a boat." Hardly an ordinary request for a black kid living in the projects of New Haven. Especially since the other big topics on the boy's mind are how to avoid the pressure to join a gang, the sense of abandonment once his 16-year-old friend flees town to escape a drug lord, and ways he can help make his mother's tough life a little easier. The characters are fresh and vivid: self-involved, fast-traveling Aunt Jolita; little sister, Tasha, remarkably sensitive and shy; and Mama, who finally steps off the treadmill of daily survival when her job provides a chance to move away. Junebug himself is quite clear about who he is and where he should be going. Told in the first person, the narrative is immediate and casual, the setting starkly revealed. The book is engaging and suspenseful, with enough scary characters and situations to keep most readers engrossed. The youngster, by the way, gets his wish in the end via a message placed in each of 50 bottles and set to sea. The ultimate message, however, is that change is possible when responsibility is an individual obligation. Mead's writing approaches the power of Walter Dean Myers's novels about inner-city life, but is for a younger audience.?Carolyn Noah, Central Mass. Regional Library System, Worcester, MA Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Year of No Rain
In the dry spring of 1999, eleven-year-old Stephen Majok watches as his friend Wol joins a circle of dancers. Wol is celebrating – only fourteen, he is engaged to Stephen’s sister. Wol wants to marry because he might join the guerrillas in southern Sudan and fight the northern government soldiers. He wants a wife to remember him. Stephen thinks Wol is crazy. Children should study. But because of the civil war, there has been no school in their village for over a year. All Stephen has left from his student days is his books and one precious pencil, and the hunger for knowledge. Then, suddenly – but not unexpectedly – exploding bombs are heard in the tiny village. Stephen’s mother tells him to hurry, pack his bag, and hide beyond the forest with Wol and their friend Deng. Stephen grabs his geography book, his pencil, and little else. He does not want to leave his mother and sister. He does not want to leave the life he loves.
In her latest portrayal of “children caught in the cultural crossfire” (School Library Journal), Alice Mead emphasizes the attachment all humans have to the small place on earth we call home, and our resistance to being displaced, even when our very lives are threatened.
Swimming to America
by Alice Mead
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
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