biography

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biography

The story of Civil War hero Robert Smalls

2020
"The biography of Robert Smalls, a slave steamboat wheelman who navigated past Confederate forts in South Carolina and became one of the Civil War's greatest heroes. Includes text from Seven Miles to Freedom and additional sidebars"--Provided by publisher.

No escape

the true story of China's genocide of the Uyghurs
"A powerful memoir by Nury Turkel lays bare China's repression of the Uyghur people. Turkel is cofounder and board chair of the Uyghur Human Rights Project and a commissioner for the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. In recent years, the People's Republic of China has rounded up as many as three million Uyghurs, placing them in what it calls "reeducation camps," facilities most of the world identifies as concentration camps. There, the genocide and enslavement of the Uyghur people are ongoing. The tactics employed are reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution, but the results are far more insidious because of the technology used, most of it stolen from Silicon Valley. In the words of Turkel, "Communist China has created an open prison-like environment through the most intrusive surveillance state that the world has ever known while committing genocide and enslaving the Uyghurs on the world's watch." As a human rights attorney and Uyghur activist who now serves on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Turkel tells his personal story to help explain the urgency and scope of the Uyghur crisis. Born in 1970 in a reeducation camp, he was lucky enough to survive and eventually make his way to the US, where he became the first Uyghur to receive an American law degree. Since then, he has worked as a prominent lawyer, activist, and spokesperson for his people and advocated strong policy responses from the liberal democracies to address atrocity crimes against his people. The Uyghur crisis is turning into the greatest human rights crisis of the twenty-first century, a systematic cleansing of an entire race of people in the millions. Part Anne Frank and Hannah Arendt, No Escape shares Turkel's personal story while drawing back the curtain on the historically unprecedented and increasing threat from China."--Publisher's website.

In Order to Live

a North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom
"Park has told the harrowing story of her escape from North Korea as a child many times, but never before [now] has she revealed the most intimate and devastating details of the repressive society she was raised in and the enormous price she paid to escape"--Amazon.com.

The impossible city

a Hong Kong memoir
"In a place where time is running out, sometimes the most radical act is remembrance. Hong Kong has long been known as a city of extremes: a former colony of the United Kingdom that today exists at the margins of an authoritarian, ascendant China; a cityrocked by mass protests, where residents take to the streets to rally against encroaching threats on their democracy and freedoms. But it is also misunderstood and often romanticized, its history and politics oversimplified in Western headlines. Drawing richly from her own experience, as well as countless interviews with the artists, protestors, students, and writers who have made Hong Kong their home, journalist Karen Cheung gives us an insider's view of this remarkable city, making the case along the way that we should look to Hong Kong as a warning sign for what lies ahead for other global democracies. Coming of age in the wake of Hong Kong's reunification with China in 1997, Cheung traverses the multifold identities available to her in childhood and beyond, whether that was at her English-speaking international schools, where her classmates were often the children of diplomats or corporate officers, or within her deeply traditional family. Along the way, Cheung gives a personal account of what it's like to seek out affordable housing and mental healthcare in one of the world's most expensive cities. She also takes us into Hong Kong's vibrant indie music and literary scenes--youth-driven spaces of creative resistance. Inevitably, Cheung brings us withher to the protests, where her understanding of what it means to belong to Hong Kong finally crystallized"--.

Omega farm

a memoir
"In March 2020, Martha McPhee, her husband, and their two almost-grown children set out for her childhood home in New Jersey, where she finds herself grappling simultaneously with a mother slipping into severe dementia and a house that's been neglected of late. As Martha works to manage her mother's care and the sprawling, ramshackle property . . . she is pulled back into her childhood, almost against her will. Martha grew up at Omega Farm with her four sisters, five stepsiblings, mother, and stepfather, in a house filled with art, people, and the kind of chaos that was sometimes benevolent, sometimes more sinister. Caring for her mother and her children, struggling to mend the forest, the past relentlessly asserts itself--even as Martha's mother, the person she might share her memories with or even try to hold to account, no longer knows who Martha is"--Provided by publisher.

Joe Biden

"How much do you know about President Joe Biden? Find out the facts you need to know about the 46th president of the United States. You'll learn about Joe's early life, challenges he overcame, and the accomplishments of this American leader"--Provided by publisher.

Areli es una dreamer

una historia real
"In the first picture book written by a DACA dreamer Areli Morales tells her own . . . immigration story of moving from a quiet town in Mexico to the bustling and noisy metropolis of New York City"--Provided by publisher.

We're better than this

my fight for the future of our democracy
Part memoir, part call-to-action, this young readers' edition chronicles the life of the late U.S. Representative who utilized the momentum of the Civil Rights Movement to effect change at a time when the country so badly needed it.

Deb Haaland

2023
Biography of New York City's first Puerto Rican librarian Pura Belpr?.

The life of Tecumseh

2024
"Shawnee chief Tecumseh was a brilliant orator who spent most of his life traveling around the country, convincing other Native Americans to form an alliance against the European colonizers. With his brother, who was known as the Prophet, Tecumseh formed a religious and political movement that gained steam until he was killed during the War of 1812. When he died, the resistance died with him. Historical photographs augment the accessible main text to present young readers with a picture of Tecumseh's life and the remarkable feats he accomplished for his people"--Provided by publisher.

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