Showing results by publisher "Greenleaf Book Group" in Coming of Age

Ten-year-old Luz sets out on an overnight camping trip, accompanied by her spiritual mentor. Peering through a canopy of California redwoods, Luz witnesses a council of animals confronting the menace of climate change. Led by a lustrous—and talkative—American Crow named Koro, the animals weigh their options. Some, like Koro, want to collaborate with humans. Others doubt humanity’s good intentions. The conversation compels young Luz, innately in tune with the natural world, to fight passionately in its defense.

The year was 1997. For Brian “Legs” Hamilton and his friends, it was the summer that followed graduation from college, the summer before life as an adult actually began—back when they were still invincible. Legs and his friends embark upon one last road trip before they must face the real world. They set their sites on rafting amidst the canyons of the Rio Grande River along the Mexican border as their final chaotic drug-fueled exploit. A five-day adventure that was supposed to be the best time in these young men’s lives ends as a nightmare that will haunt them forever.

It’s hot, Texas, and the year 1977. Jimmy Carter is in office. Family patriarch and fanatic preacher, Victor Black, knows many things for sure, including the fact that abortion is murder and should be punishable by death—a position he defends live in a televised debate. Black’s youngest granddaughter, Stephanie Walters, sits in the front row wearing her frilly Sunday dress, listening carefully to every word. But it doesn't take long for cracks to appear in the Walters upstanding family façade.

Custis—a gifted, Black, ten-year-old boy orphaned and left for dead—is discovered by a young White girl. Sarah Tennison hasn’t spoken a word since her mother died. Nursed back to health and raised by Sarah’s widowed father, Custis is sheltered from community biases and anti-literacy laws. In the safety of the Tennison home, his bright mind has room to flourish and he strives to advance to his potential. Along the way, Custis' curiosity and quiet compassion help Sarah find her voice. Sarah and Custis develop an unbreakable bond, but intolerance and bigotry prohibit marriage.