A dark fable set five years after the end of the Spanish Civil War. Eleven-year-old Ofelia comes face to face with the horrors of fascism when she and her pregnant mother are uprooted to the countryside, where her new stepfather, a sadistic captain in General Franco's army, hunts down Republican guerrillas who refuse to give up the fight. The violent reality in which she lives merges seamlessly with a fantastical interior world when Ofelia meets a...

"It's the summer of 1978 and most people think Elvis Presley has been dead for a year. But eleven-year-old Truly knows Elvis is alive and well and living in her trailer park. It's a busy summer. Though Truly's mother is constantly drinking, smoking, and juggling new boyfriends, Truly is determined to raise money for herself through her lemonade stand, and to prove that her cool new neighbour is the King of Rock 'n' Roll. And when she can't find motherly...

My Mom Had an Abortion is a unique coming-of-age tale told by a self-described dyslexic-asexual-lesbian-feminist teenager and illustrated by body-positive comic artist Tatiana Gill. We follow our protagonist Beezus B. Murphy as she chronicles her evolving understanding of menstruation, reproduction, and abortion and finds her place in a confusing world. Initially influenced by harmful narratives in pop media such as the "the pregnant teenager" cliche,...

"Ever since her dad died, 11-year-old Jerry Blum and her mom have bounced around dead-end towns, staying in a series of rundown motels where her mother picks up housekeeping work and Jerry can get around in her wheelchair. But the Slumbering Giant motel is different. Lights blink on and off in the surrounding trees, a mysterious radio station plays only at midnight, and people disappear into the woods, never to been seen again. Not to mention that...

"Willow loves the woods near her house. They're calm and quiet, so different from her own turbulent emotions, which she keeps locked away. When her emotions get the better of her one day, she decides to run away into the woods. There, she meets Pilu, a lost tree spirit who can't find her way back home--which turns out to be the magnolia grove Willow's mom used to take her to. Willow offers to help Pilu, and the two quickly become friends. But the...

Zainab Salbi was eleven years old when her father was chosen to serve as Saddam Hussein's personal pilot, her family often forced to spend weekends with Saddam. As a palace insider, she offers a glimpse of life under a dictator and provides an intimate portrait of the man she was taught to call "uncle". She was asked to erase her memory as she heard of crimes she was not supposed to hear of, and witnessed her mother hiding her tears lest it upset...

Set amid the bustle of 19th-century Philadelphia is a sweeping saga of three generations of strong, indomitable women. At its center is young Lilly Armstrong, a beauty on the brink of womanhood, too brave and fearless to settle for the status quo. Lilly aspires to carve out lives of independent freedom for herself and her women kin--lives not dependent on men. But one man would move heaven and earth to help Lilly realize her dreams

"A mother's account of her experience as the only Black child in school serves as an empowering message to her daughter"--