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Biography & True StoriesMarch 2024Barbara Comyns
A savage innocence
by Avril Horner
The extraordinary twentieth-century writer Barbara Comyns led a life as captivating as the narratives she spun. This pioneering biography reveals the journey of a woman who experienced hardship and single-motherhood before the age of thirty but went on to publish a sequence of novels that are unique in the English language. Comyns turned her hand to many jobs in order to survive, from artist's model to restoring pianos. Hundreds of unpublished letters reveal an occasionally desperate but resourceful and witty woman whose complicated life ranged from enduring poverty when young to mixing with spivs, spies and high society. While working as a housekeeper in her mid-thirties, Comyns began transforming the bleak episodes of her life into compelling fictions streaked with surrealism and deadpan humour. The Vet's Daughter (1959), championed by Graham Greene, brought her fame, although her use of the gothic and macabre divided readers and reviewers. This biography not only excavates Comyns's life but also reclaims her fiction, providing a timely reassessment of her literary contribution. It sheds new light on a remarkable author who deftly captured the complexities of human life.
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Children's & YANyiragitwa: Daughter of Sacyega
by Mr Ndamyumugabe (Author), Jerome Irankunda (Author), Erin Jessee (Author), Christian Mugarura (Illustrator)
This graphic novel tells the story of Nyiragitwa, a Rwandan woman who is believed to have lived in the seventeenth century. It is based on an oral tradition that was shared by a man named Ndamyumugabe with the Belgian historian Jan Vansina in 1958 and raises important questions about how Rwandan women might have lived and contributed to their communities in the past.
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Children's & young adult fiction & true stories2018The New Girl Code
by Niki Smit
Tumi Letsatsi is a 13-year old melanin kween living in Rondebosch, Cape Town. Her favourite colour is yellow, she's still trying to figure out how not to dent her afro on the bus, and how one goes about (ahem!) “french kissing”. She’s a little awkward and a lot uncertain about her future, friendships and how to put together a cool outfit! But then she stumbles across the magic of coding and creates an app called “Project Prep” that goes viral and rockets her and her friends to fame. Then everything starts to fall apart, as she deals with a catfish who befriends her and steals her code, nasty rumours at school and the newfound attention of a crush. The New Girl Code (by Niki Smit, locally edited by Buhle Ngaba) is about the wonders of working in tech, aimed at girls and young women aged 9-15. The project is an initiative of Inspiring Fifty and based on an idea by Janneke Niessen.
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February 2020Marshal's Daughter
by He Jiesheng
This book is a documentary work based on He Jiesheng's legendary childhood and adolescent experiences as the main narrative clues. It is also the first biographical literature where she uses herself as the protagonist to focus on her childhood and teenage experiences. As the daughter of Marshal He Long, as the youngest Red Army soldier, He Jiesheng's growth experience also reflects the difficult course of the Chinese revolution.
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Children's & YAChetaah Summer
by Katja Brandis
When a travel adventure becomes a journey to yourself! For all readers who long to follow the wide world’s call to freedom. Especially for all the WOODWALKERS fans who have grown up. An unforgettable experience is waiting for Lily: she is off to work on a farm in Namibia where they work to protect endangered cheetahs. The German vet’s daughter will help care for injured big cats, raise orphaned young animals and assist with field research in the bush. A dream comes true for her! Lily’s trip goes well until she falls in love with Eric, the son of a neighbouring farmer. His strange family and their secrets plunge her life into chaos. Katja Brandis, whose WOODWALKERS series regularly conquers the bestseller lists by storm, is back with an environmental novel about the protection of cheetahs in Namibia. Authentic, sympathetic and completely devoid of kitsch sunset pathos.
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Personal & social issues: self-awareness & self-esteem (Children's/YA)Picture Books about Emotion Management for Girls
by Le Fan, Liu Chanjuan, Liu Jiaxi
While growing up, girls are more likely than boys to receive contradictory expectations from different aspects of their lives: parents, teachers, peers, society, and themselves. They could be rebellious but at the same time remain "good girls". They could express anger against bullies at school while simultaneously meeting teachers' expectations of nonaggressive behavior. They could be powerful and competitive at the same time that they worry about being considered "unfeminine". Girls struggle with these conflicting messages in their everyday lives, trying to please all these other people and losing track of themselves. Writer Le Fan, who has experienced the same contradictions as growing up, hopes that girls could love themselves, put themselves first a little more. So here comes the Picture Books about Emotion Management for Girls. The series contains five stories of five courageous little girls who were experiencing confusion in their lives. Little Le Fan in I am not Just a Good Girl tried to find the balance between two sides of herself—a cool girl and a good girl. Xiaoxiao in I love myself learned to be more confident and accepted her new look after her baby teeth fell out. Jiang in I'm so Jealous learned to deal with jealousy towards her best friend. A timid girl Xiao in I can Say No strived to express herself and stop the little boy's bullies. Feng in I Really Want to Win embraced her inner "tomboy" with daddy's encouragement. All the five little girls, though struggling, broke out of cultural and societal stereotypes swirling around them and became their true selves.
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Humanities & Social SciencesSeptember 2024Empire's daughters
Girlhood, whiteness and the colonial project
by Elizabeth Dillenburg
Girlhood and whiteness in the British empire traces the interconnected histories of girlhood, whiteness, and British colonialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through the study of the Girls' Friendly Society. The society functioned as both a youth organisation and emigration society, making it especially valuable in examining girls' multifaceted participation with the empire. The book charts the emergence of the organisation during the late Victorian era through its height in the first decade of the twentieth century to its decline in the interwar years. Employing a multi-sited approach and using a range of sources-including correspondences, newsletters, and scrapbooks-the book uncovers the ways in which girls participated in the empire as migrants, settlers, laborers, and creators of colonial knowledge and also how they resisted these prescribed roles and challenged systems of colonial power.
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Picture booksThe Lilac Girl
by Ibtisam Barakat (author), Sinan Hallak (illustrator)
Inspired by the life story of Palestinian artist, Tamam Al-Akhal, The Lilac Girl is the sixth book for younger readers by award-winning author, Ibtisam Barakat. The Lilac Girl is a beautifully illustrated short story relating the departure of Palestinian artist and educator, Tamam Al-Akhal, from her homeland, Jaffa. It portrays Tamam as a young girl who dreams about returning to her home, which she has been away from for 70 years, since the Palestinian exodus. Tamam discovers that she is talented in drawing, so she uses her imagination to draw her house in her mind. She decides one night to visit it, only to find another girl there, who won’t allow her inside and shuts the door in her face. Engulfed in sadness, Tamam sits outside and starts drawing her house on a piece of paper. As she does so, she notices that the colors of her house have escaped and followed her; the girl attempts to return the colors but in vain. Soon the house becomes pale and dull, like the nondescript hues of bare trees in the winter. Upon Tamam’s departure, she leaves the entire place drenched in the color of lilac. As a children’s story, The Lilac Girl works on multiple levels, educating with its heart-rending narrative but without preaching, accurately expressing the way Palestinians must have felt by not being allowed to return to their homeland. As the story’s central character, Tamam succeeds on certain levels in defeating the occupying forces and intruders through her yearning, which is made manifest through the power of imaginary artistic expression. In her mind she draws and paints a picture of hope, with colors escaping the physical realm of her former family abode, showing that they belong, not to the invaders, but the rightful occupiers of that dwelling. Far from being the only person to have lost their home and endured tremendous suffering, Tamam’s plight is representative of millions of people both then and now, emphasizing the notion that memories of our homeland live with us for eternity, no matter how far we are from them in a physical sense. The yearning to return home never subsides, never lessens with the passing of time but, with artistic expression, it is possible to find freedom and create beauty out of pain.
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Relationships2019Daughter
by Tamara Horikha Zernia
The events of the novel unfold in the spring and summer of 2014 in Donetsk. Donbas is a zeroing out point; it’s a place of strength where the country’s most important questions have sounded. And only there are the necessary answers hidden. It was here that the novel’s nameless heroine lost her family, home, job, and illusions, and it was here that she gathered up the fragments of her life and discovered new meaning and new support. Step by step the reader observes the process of transformation, the metamorphosis of a crop-sower into a warrior. Because war is when you eat the earth. So what’s more important than feeding the earth?
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Children's & young adult: general non-fiction2021Anna of Kyiv, the Daughter of Yaroslav the Wise
by Yevhenia Nazaruk
The history of Ukraine in the times of the Kyiv Rus' is full of mysteries. One of them is the figure of Anna of Kyiv, the daughter of Yaroslav the Wise. She was famous not only for her beauty, but also for her education. No woman in Europe could match her. And… She also became the Queen of France. However, this book is not about the queen. It is about the girl who passionately loved her homeland, was proud of her parents, her ancestry and was always reading books. It was from books that she drew the wisdom of life and pleasure for her soul. Turning the pages of the book, readers will meet historical figures like a beautiful Princess Lybid or Svyatoslav and Volodymyr, the kings of Kyiv Rus'. There will be some imaginary characters too, for instance, a funny merman who will tell the readers how the Styr River got its name. Olha Medynska, a fine arts teacher and a fabulous artist, illustrated the book. Olha Medynska, a native of Lutsk, has more than 30 illustrated books in her creative portfolio. Olha has loved painting as long as she can remember herself and she learned it from her mother. Olha greates memorable, fun and quirky characters that delight children. The book is suitable for primary school pupils and early teens.
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June 2020The Clam Girl
by Yang Yongqing
"The Clam Girl" tells a story that a young boy Bai Hai fishing in the East China Sea rescued a baby girl who turned into a clam. Later, the baby girl brought her sisters-- other clam girls to visit him. Around a string of pearls that the Clam girl gave to Bai Hai, the book presents a confrontation story between kind people like Bai Hai and the greedy and brutal emperor. It also tells the story how seaweed can help cure some disease. It is a typical legend story of "origins of creatures".
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The Painting Series of Chinese Folk Tales: The Mouse Marries its Daughter to the Cat
by The Editorial Board
This series contains 31 titles of picture books. It is a collection of traditional Chinese classic tales, including fables, myths, idioms and folk legends. It’s playful and readable with attractive illustrations and concise text.
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Children's & YALa memoria del bosque (The memory of the forest)
by Sara Bertrand, Elizabeth Builes
The memory of the forest tells two stories. One, that of a little girl and her mother, and the other story told by the mother to her daughter: a princess who has seen her village burn, a princess who has known fire and violence up close, a princess who hides, turns into a ball; but she is discovered by another - a cat - who makes her remember, questions her. It is a story that is permeated by the dialogues between mother and daughter around the story being told. Elizabeth Builes’ illustrations, with their gestural strokes, her impeccable handling of a palette of soft tones, her skill in the handling of nature and the creation of intimate scenes, give life to a story that goes beyond what is narrated in words.
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December 2018The Computer Girl
by Yang Peng
Yang Peng's Award-winning Novels are a collection of the award-winning works of Yang Peng's many outstanding stories. Not only are the selected articles humorous, but also rich in imagination. They are also rich in profound educational philosophy that can enlighten the mind and help readers to reflect on themselves. A girl A-xue is an intelligent program written by Dawei, which is materialized because of the lightning strike on the computer. Accompanied by A Xue, Dawei’s life has undergone earth-shaking changes. However, the good days are very short, a virus with intelligence - "monsters" built a computer empire in a very short time, in an attempt to control humans... Dawei and A Xue decided to enter the computer world, with "monsters" start a life and death contest!
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Children's & YAThe Girl and the Goat
by Wang Yimei
It is the story about county and city. The girl XiaoYue met a goat who was chasing the dandelion seed in the woods of the street garden. This is the only goat in the city, he had never left this woods, cause he couldn’t cross the road. He wanted XiaoYue to bring him to see the fields, so XiaoYue held his horns and made him left the woods, and also encouraged him to pass through the zebra crossings. They arrived at XiaYue’s grandma’s house and spent a very good day. In fact that this goat is very stubborn, he didn’t want to leave the original place where he lived, so he turned into a statue in this city. When they came back to the street garden this day, all the streetlights had been turned on, and the only goat dispeared in the streetlights.
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Children's & YA2017Dance of the Wild
by Richa Jha and Ruchi Mhasane
Little Shilu loves to dance around naked. She wants to be like the animals; like Pirate, her cat. When her grandmother Nannu says she can’t because she is now a big girl, Shilu gets down to understanding why she can’t. Peppered with Nannu’s loving chiding, intimate grandma-granddaughter bonding over conversations, and a heart-to-heart between the mother and this little inquisitive daughter, this book is a reflection of the wild and free nature of childhood. Rhuchi Mhasane’s soft evocative illustrations rendered in pencil with watercolour, and put together digitally, create a dreamlike charm. Richa Jha’s gentle, affectionate and lyrical text takes the reader into the mind of the little girl who can’t wait to get the answers to her ‘Why can’t I?’
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Classic fiction (pre c 1945)2019The Girl with a Teddy Bear. Doctor Seraficus
by V. Domontovych
This book contains two of the most famous works of V. Domontovych. One of them is an engaging and somewhat extravagant novel The Girl with a Teddy Bear that describes the love of a sagacious teacher and his rebellious student. The novel is also a brilliant example of intellectual prose about the changing cultural orientations and the tragic personal conflict of a person destined to live in the time of change. The second one is Doctor Seraficus. It is the story of a strange and infantile ascetic professor who preaches a peculiar sort of “Don Juanism in reverse”: the desire to love all women and denounce all of them simultaneously.
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The Painting Series of Chinese Folk Tales: The Snail Girl
by The Editorial Board
This series contains 31 titles of picture books. It is a collection of traditional Chinese classic tales, including fables, myths, idioms and folk legends. It’s playful and readable with attractive illustrations and concise text.
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Children's & YAApril 2021Aai and I
by Mamta Nainy and Sanket Pethkar
Aadya looks just like her mother (Aai)—same little nose, same delicate ears, same big eyes, and identical thick, long hair. But one day, Aai goes away to a big hospital with a promise to return before Aadya learns her next Math lesson. The long-awaited return shocks Aadya because now her mother looks completely unlike her. She wonders if Aai will ever greet her with her usual, cheery, ‘Hello! Mini-me.’ Or will Aadya have to take matters into her own hands just to hear that again?With lyrical prose and a tender touch, Aai and I is an empowering story of the bond between a mother and a daughter, and of the little one finding her own identity as she finds herself no longer 'looking' the same as her mother. Mamta Nainy captures with elan Aadya’s innocence, impatience, and dilemma, and Sanket Pethkar’s vibrant, gorgeous artwork brings to life a typical Indian household in the state of Maharashtra.
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Children's & YABrena the Girl with No Hair
by Watiek Ideo
There is a tale in the village about a cursed girl who lives in the house at the corner of the road. The girl has no hair, and people say that if she gets close, people will also lose their hair. One day, three bestfriends play hide and seek. One of them accidentally hides in the cursed girl's house. What will happen to him?
