Ruby and Grace have grown up in the poorest slums of Hull. Friends since early childhood, they have supported each other in bad times and good. But their families are bound together by more than friendship, and secrets from the past threaten to make their lives even more difficult. The local cotton mill has provided work for Ruby and Grace since they were nine years old, and now years later both girls find themselves the object of attention from the mill owner's sons. As times grow harder, and money ever scarcer, Grace becomes involved in campaigns against poverty and injustice, while Ruby is tempted into prostitution. The two girls are searching for something that could take them far away . . . But what price will they pay to find it? If you like Katie Flynn and Dilly Court, you'll love this heartwarming story of triumph over adversity. --------------------------- Praise for Val Wood: 'A heart-warming story filled with compelling action' Rosie Goodwin 'Hull's answer to Catherine Cookson' BBC Radio 4's Front Row 'Wonderfully fully-fleshed characters are the mainstay of [Val Wood's] stories' Peterborough Telegraph

Ruby and Grace grew up in the slums of Middle Court, the poorest place in Hull. Addicted to opium, Ruby's ma tried hard to be a good mother, but without much success, while Grace's parents looked after Ruby and their own family. But secrets from the past threaten to make their lives more difficult.

To boost soldiers’ morale and remind them of the stakes of victory, the American military formalized a recreation program that sent respectable young women, along with famous entertainers, overseas. This history of the women who talked and listened, danced and sang, adds an intimate chapter to the story of war and its ties to life in peacetime.

An accusation of rape upsets a utopian island community in this “provocative, fiercely intelligent” Italian novel (Daily Mail, UK). When “The Crash” brough entire nations to their knees, the island society of Miden—a place dedicated to fairness and equality—rose like a phoenix from the wreckage. While on vacation in this oasis, a seemingly aimless woman meets an attractive man, and moves to the island to start a new life with him. Now six months pregnant, the woman is just beginning to feel comfortable in her lover’s space. But all that changes when a girl arrives to accuse the man of rape. Slight and pretty, the girl discloses a drawn out and violent affair she’s had with her professor, the father of the woman’s child. In alternating perspectives, the professor and his girlfriend reflect upon their own lives, each other, and their interloper. As their idyllic society grapples with the scandal, boundaries blur and alliances shift as reputation, truth, and self-preservation threaten to upend their relationship. Provocative and unnerving, The Girl at the Door explores the bureaucracy of a scandal, and the thin line between lust and possession.

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the author of Survive the Night and Final Girls comes a tense and twisty thriller about a summer camp that’s impossible to forget—no matter how hard you try. Two Truths and a Lie. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and Emma played it all the time in their cabin at Camp Nightingale. But the games ended the night Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out into the darkness. The last she—or anyone—saw of the teenagers was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.... Fifteen years later, Emma is a rising star in the New York art scene, turning her past into paintings—massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches over ghostly shapes in white dresses. When the paintings catch the attention of the wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale, she implores Emma to come back to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor. Despite her guilt and anxiety—or maybe because of them—Emma agrees to revisit her past. Nightingale looks the same as it did all those years ago, haunted by a midnight-dark lake and familiar faces. Emma is even assigned to the same cabin she slept in as a teenager, although the security camera pointed at her door is a disturbing new addition. As cryptic clues about the camp's origins begin to surface, Emma attempts to find out what really happened to her friends. But her closure could come at a deadly price.

A new history of school desegregation in America, revealing how girls and women led the fight for interracial education The struggle to desegregate America's schools was a grassroots movement, and young women were its vanguard. In the late 1940s, parents began to file desegregation lawsuits with their daughters, forcing Thurgood Marshall and other civil rights lawyers to take up the issue and bring it to the Supreme Court. After the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, girls far outnumbered boys in volunteering to desegregate formerly all-white schools. In A Girl Stands at the Door, historian Rachel Devlin tells the remarkable stories of these desegregation pioneers. She also explains why black girls were seen, and saw themselves, as responsible for the difficult work of reaching across the color line in public schools. Highlighting the extraordinary bravery of young black women, this bold revisionist account illuminates today's ongoing struggles for equality.

The words used to describe girls and define traditional roles can set unintentional limits for girls. It's time for a change! In Empower Our Girls the authors collaborate with a strong cast of contributors to shine a light on simple, meaningful changes that need to take place in schools and society at large to help girls achieve more.