In 1939 Hangerstown, Maryland, eleven-year-old Frankie faces suspicion that her German-born father is a Nazi spy.

In 1939 Hagerstown, Maryland, eleven-year-old Frankie faces suspicion that her German-born father is a Nazi spy.

THE SUMMER STORY OF THREE SISTERS, ONE RESTAURANT, AND A (POSSIBLE) GERMAN SPY World War II is coming in Europe. At least that’s what Frankie Baum heard on the radio. But from her small town in Maryland, in the wilting summer heat of 1939, the war is a world away. Besides, there are too many other things to think about: first that Frankie’s father up and bought a restaurant without telling anyone and now she has to help in the kitchen, peeling potatoes and washing dishes, when she’d rather be racing to Wexler’s Five and Dime on her skates. Plus her favorite sister, Joanie Baloney, is away for the summer and hasn’t been answering any of Frankie’s letters. But when some people in town start accusing her father of being a German spy, suddenly the war arrives at Frankie’s feet and she can think of nothing else. Could the rumors be true? Frankie must do some spying of her own to try to figure out her father’s secrets and clear his good name. What she discovers about him surprises everyone but is nothing compared to what she discovers about the world. In a heartfelt, charming, and insightful novel that is based on true events, Shawn K. Stout weaves a story about family secrets, intolerance, and coming of age that will keep readers guessing until the end. Praise for A Tiny Piece of Sky: “Through warm, funny characters, Shawn Stout builds a riveting bridge from the past that sheds light on today. Wholly memorable.”—Rita Williams-Garcia, Coretta Scott King Author Award winner for P.S. Be Eleven “Shawn Stout's Frankie Baum is that rare creation: a character so real, so true, we don't just feel we know her—we are her. Irrepressible Frankie meets issues like prejudice and loyalty head on, in a story both highly entertaining and deeply thought-provoking. She may be #3 in her family, but she'll be #1 in the hearts of all who read this book.”—Tricia Springstubb, author of What Happened on Fox Street “At turns hilarious, at turns heartbreaking, Shawn Stout’s story shows us the damage that a whisper campaign can do to a family and a community, and at the same time shows us, each of us, a way to find our hearts. Frankie Baum is a hero from a distant time and yet a hero for all times, the kind of hero who never gets old. I loved this book from the very beginning to the very end.”—Kathi Appelt, author of the National Book Award finalist & Newbery Honor book The Underneath "Stout uses an archly chummy direct address at several points, successfully and humorously breaking up tension in this cleareyed look at bad behavior by society....Successfully warmhearted and child-centered."—Kirkus Reviews "Through Frankie's thoughtful insights, Stout addresses injustices such as racism and xenophobia without turning didactic...the conclusion is a realistic mix of bittersweet and heartwarming."—Publishers Weekly "Fans of Augusta Scattergood’s Glory Be as well as those of Jeanne Birdsall’s Penderwicks series will enjoy this slice of history. A solid piece of historical fiction to add to middle grade collections."—School Library Journal "Tackling race, social justice, and even death, this well-paced novel will find the right audience among readers wanting fairness with their historical fiction."—BCCB "Young teens will enjoy Frankie’s spirit and humor while learning a little bit about people and prejudice along the way."—VOYA "In this coming-of-age story, Frankie sees people for who they really are, despite skin color or nationality. Readers who enjoy historical fiction will gravitate to this story."—School Library Connection

A poignant, powerful debut that combines the deep emotion of The House on Mango Street with uniquely creative storytelling, painting a story of survival and healing. Unfolding in a series of vignettes, A Little Piece of Sky introduces an endearing new novelist and a truly unforgettable main character--Song Byrd, a young girl who keenly reports on the world around her. She is African American in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood and the unwanted product of an adulterous affair. While she is poor in the material sense, Song is extraordinarily rich in spirit and it is that inner strength which saves her. In piercingly insightful prose, Nicole Bailey-Williams takes readers on Song’s journey through life as she struggles with feeling like an outsider and intense guilt over her mother’s murder. Behind it all, places of pure joy, “dreaming the hurt away,” and glorious little pieces of sky shine through. Song’s tales--and Bailey-Williams’s narrative gift--are truly words to treasure.

The word Holocaust, to many people, brings images of concentration camps. Indeed much has been written and documented about those brutal places. Less documented however, are the thousands of Jews who escaped the death camps and hid from Nazi tormentors in the hills, riverbanks, sheds, sewers and holes they dug in the earth of forests. They were forced to seek help from people they hoped would not betray them. In Poland, well known for its fierce anti-Semitism even before Hitlers rhetoric, many Jews sentenced themselves to death by believing they could trust their neighbors, friends or even strangers. David Symchowicz, born in Krakow, Poland, had traveled to Berlin and other European cities during these turbulent times. He understood from scenes in those conurbations that the train of virulent hatred was speeding eastward. Determined to keep his family together, David, his wife Hela and his daughter, Hania hid in a lean-to for two and a half years. This book tells of their harrowing existence, deprivations and dangers and of the courage and peril faced by the people who hid them. Of course, anti-Semitism, hammered into the soul for so long cannot be turned off like a stream of water from a faucet. After the war, the Symchowicz family tried to start anew in a small Polish town only to be saved again from a pogrom that killed dozens of Jewish families. They made their way to a Displaced Person camp and eventually to America.

Winner of the 2016 Whiting Award One of Publishers Weekly's "Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2016" One of Lit Hub's "10 must-read poetry collections for April" “Reading Vuong is like watching a fish move: he manages the varied currents of English with muscled intuition. His poems are by turns graceful and wonderstruck. His lines are both long and short, his pose narrative and lyric, his diction formal and insouciant. From the outside, Vuong has fashioned a poetry of inclusion.”—The New Yorker "Night Sky with Exit Wounds establishes Vuong as a fierce new talent to be reckoned with...This book is a masterpiece that captures, with elegance, the raw sorrows and joys of human existence."—Buzzfeed's "Most Exciting New Books of 2016" "This original, sprightly wordsmith of tumbling pulsing phrases pushes poetry to a new level...A stunning introduction to a young poet who writes with both assurance and vulnerability. Visceral, tender and lyrical, fleet and agile, these poems unflinchingly face the legacies of violence and cultural displacement but they also assume a position of wonder before the world.”—2016 Whiting Award citation "Night Sky with Exit Wounds is the kind of book that soon becomes worn with love. You will want to crease every page to come back to it, to underline every other line because each word resonates with power."—LitHub "Vuong’s powerful voice explores passion, violence, history, identity—all with a tremendous humanity."—Slate “In his impressive debut collection, Vuong, a 2014 Ruth Lilly fellow, writes beauty into—and culls from—individual, familial, and historical traumas. Vuong exists as both observer and observed throughout the book as he explores deeply personal themes such as poverty, depression, queer sexuality, domestic abuse, and the various forms of violence inflicted on his family during the Vietnam War. Poems float and strike in equal measure as the poet strives to transform pain into clarity. Managing this balance becomes the crux of the collection, as when he writes, ‘Your father is only your father/ until one of you forgets. Like how the spine/ won’t remember its wings/ no matter how many times our knees/ kiss the pavement.’”—Publishers Weekly "What a treasure [Ocean Vuong] is to us. What a perfume he's crushed and rendered of his heart and soul. What a gift this book is."—Li-Young Lee Torso of Air Suppose you do change your life. & the body is more than a portion of night—sealed with bruises. Suppose you woke & found your shadow replaced by a black wolf. The boy, beautiful & gone. So you take the knife to the wall instead. You carve & carve until a coin of light appears & you get to look in, at last, on happiness. The eye staring back from the other side— waiting. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, Ocean Vuong attended Brooklyn College. He is the author of two chapbooks as well as a full-length collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds. A 2014 Ruth Lilly Fellow and winner of the 2016 Whiting Award, Ocean Vuong lives in New York City, New York.