Plot
Hugh Chance, known as Papa by his children, is a former MLB pitcher who has settled down with his wife in the mill town of Camas, Washington. They have six children. Everett Chance, the eldest, is a natural politician and powerful speaker whose passionate opposition to the Vietnam war creates much of the family tension in the book. He spends much time and effort pursuing a young Russian literature student named Natasha and finally wins her heart from draft exile in British Columbia by sending her an epic letter/novel. Everett does not have great natural athletic gifts but is a scrappy competitor. Second oldest, Peter Chance, is the intellectual brother who will study at Harvard and then in India. Though a natural athlete, Peter spends most of the book having renounced gifts of the body in his dogged pursuit of spiritual growth. After being kidnapped by con artists on an Indian train he finds enlightenment and he returns to the family in their hour of need. Irwin is an innocent, possessing a childlike devotion to faith. He is sent to the war in Vietnam, where he is changed forever. Kincaid Chance, the youngest brother, narrates the book yet is the member of the family we finally learn the least about.
Priscilla Denise Levertov was a British-born naturalised American poet. She was heavily influenced by the Black Mountain Poets and by the political context of the Vietnam War, which she explored in her poetry book The Freeing of the Dust. She was a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry.
The Brothers Karamazov, also translated as The Karamazov Brothers, is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing The Brothers Karamazov, which was published as a serial in The Russian Messenger from January 1879 to November 1880. Dostoevsky died less than four months after its publication. It has been acclaimed as one of the supreme achievements in world literature.
Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE FRSL was an English author and poet, best known for children's books and detective stories.
Jamaica Kincaid is an Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer. She was born in St. John's, Antigua. She lives in North Bennington, Vermont and is Professor of African and African American Studies in Residence at Harvard University during the academic year.
John H. Ritter is an American novelist, short story writer, teacher, and lecturer. He has written six novels and numerous short stories spanning the historical, sports, and sociopolitical genres in the young adult field of literature. His first novel, Choosing Up Sides, published in 1998, won the 1999 International Reading Association Children's Book Award for Older Readers and was designated an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults. Kirkus Reviews praised Choosing Up Sides, which attacked the once-prevalent views of religious fundamentalists toward left-handed children, as, "No ordinary baseball book, this is a rare first novel." In 2004 Ritter received the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People for his third novel, The Boy Who Saved Baseball."What was it he really wanted is to play baseball that is all he wanted to do and guess what he got to too."
Annie John, a novel written by Jamaica Kincaid in 1985, details the growth of a girl in Antigua, an island in the Caribbean. It covers issues as diverse as mother-daughter relationships, same-sex attraction, racism, clinical depression, poverty, education, and the struggle between medicine based on "scientific fact" and that based on "native superstitious know-how".
Dobry is a book by Monica Shannon first published in 1934 that won the Newbery Medal for most distinguished contribution to American literature for children in 1935. Bulgarian-born sculptor Atanas Katchamakoff illustrated the book.
Double Fudge is a 2002 children's novel by Judy Blume and the fifth and final entry in the Fudge series. The Hatcher family goes to Washington, D.C. where they spend time with their extended family, and Fudge finds out that his cousin is also named Farley Drexel Hatcher. His interest in money is a common theme throughout the story.
Miracles on Maple Hill is a 1956 novel by Virginia Sorensen that won the 1957 Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature. The book was illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush.
Fudge-a-Mania is a 1990 children's novel by Judy Blume and the fourth entry in the Fudge series.
Percival Everett is an American writer and Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. He has described himself as "pathologically ironic" and has played around with numerous genres such as western fiction, mysteries, thrillers, satire and philosophical fiction. His books are often satirical, aimed at exploring race and identity issues in the United States.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is a 1995 American made-for-television children's film based on E.L. Konigsburg's novel of the same name. The story is about a girl and her brother who run away from home to live in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and discover what they think is a lost treasure. The children, Claudia and Jamie, are transfixed with the treasure and won't leave without knowing what its secret is. Lauren Bacall stars in the title role.
The Book Thief is a historical fiction novel by the Australian author Markus Zusak, set in Nazi Germany during World War II. Published in 2005, The Book Thief became an international bestseller and was translated into 63 languages and sold 17 million copies. It was adapted into the 2013 feature film, The Book Thief.
Purple Hibiscus is a novel written by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Her debut novel, it was first published by Algonquin Books in October of 2003.
Mockingbird is a young adult novel by American author Kathryn Erskine about a girl with Asperger's syndrome coping with the loss of her brother. It won the 2010 U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature. In 2012, it was awarded the Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award.
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate is a 2009 historical young adult novel by Jacqueline Kelly that received a 2010 Newbery Honor Award. It is the story of a young girl growing up in Texas.
The Beginning of Spring is a 1988 novel by the British author Penelope Fitzgerald. Set in Moscow in 1913, it tells the story of a Moscow-born English-educated print shop owner whose English wife has suddenly abandoned him and their three children. The novel was shortlisted for the 1988 Booker Prize.
A Gift of Magic is a 1971 novel by Lois Duncan about a grandmother who gives her grandchildren distinct gifts. Brendon is given the gift of music, Kirby is given the gift of dance, and Nancy is given the gift of magic. Nancy's gift gives her extrasensory perception (ESP), which allows her to sense events that are happening in places she is not physically present and to read other people's minds. The novel explores some of the benefits, problems and responsibilities Nancy's gift gives her.
Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is an American children's and young adult book author. In 2016, her children's book The War That Saved My Life received the Newbery Honor Award and was named to the Bank Street Children's Book Committee's Best Books of the Year List with an "Outstanding Merit" distinction and won the Committee's Josette Frank Award for fiction.
So Much Blue is a novel by American writer Percival Everett first published in 2017 by Graywolf Press.
