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Adopted by Caucasian parents, biracial teen Lizzie feels like she never belonged. After the death of her father, Lizzie starts acting out — dating, staying away from home for days and giving up her plans to continue her education. When Lizzie discovers she is pregnant, she is faced with the difficult choice of having a child or getting an abortion. This leads Lizzie to want to find her own birth mother. After running away from home, Lizzie ends up in Kingston, where she tracks down an older woman named Ruth who sheds light on the circumstances surrounding Lizzie's birth.
When 15-year-old Kanika falls for Danny, an older guy she has always had a crush on, she becomes his "ride or die chick". Soon after establishing that she will do anything for him, Danny sells her into the sex trade. Kanika is drugged and taken to Toronto where she finds her friend has also been a victim of the sex trafficking plot. With the help of an older sex worker, Kanika manages to survive and escape the people abusing her. Based on true events, Ride or Die tells the story of how a young Black girl from a small town is lured into the sex trade by an older boy.
The Black Loyalists were the first large group of people of African ancestry to settle in Halifax, in 1782. In 1796 the Jamaican Maroons arrived. Then in 1813, Black refugees fleeing the United States came. These Loyalists, Maroons, and refugees settled in the Preston area, and although some subsequently left for Sierra Leone, many stayed and established the largest community of African Nova Scotians in the province. Since then, the Preston township--comprising North Preston, East Preston, and Lake Loon/Cherry Brook--has become a web of vibrant neighbourhoods with a rich and complex history. With care and precision, award-winning writer Wanda Lauren Taylor delves into the history and development of this area, the organizations and churches that helped bolster the population, and the struggles, successes, and personal stories of several Preston-area residents. Through interviews and archival documents, Taylor shows how a resilient group of marginalized people built a thriving community that generations of African Nova Scotians can be proud of. Contains seventy-five images, both contemporary and archival, of the people and places around Preston.
From Wanda Taylor, a delicious new novel about food, friendship and the power of poetry. For fans of Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan's A Place at the Table and Jessica Kim's Stand Up, Yumi Chung! When Darla Cooper finds her grandmother's old recipe book in the attic, it is as if her grandmother is speaking to her from beyond the grave. Food is memory. And no one knows this foodie truth better than Darla and her friends. United by a love of food and a passion for words, Darla and the Food Poets meet at Carol's Café every week. There they exchange poetry inspired by community and cookery and share these poems with Carol's customers. As the group drifts through lazy summer days, sharing poem af...
A true-to-life story about the pains and triumphs of growing up, perfect for readers of Renée Watson and Lisa Moore Ramée Arlaina Jefferson is eager to prove herself. Tasked with caring for her cousin’s rabbit, Obeena, Arlaina knows all that stands between her and the grown-up world of middle school is one year of staying out of trouble and making sure to clean up Obeena’s turds. It would be easy—if growing up didn’t also mean growing wiser. Having faced thoughtless comments from fellow students, Arlaina is already struggling to explain the hurt she feels to her best friend, Tina. But when their teacher, Mr. Matthews, asks an ignorant question about classmate Nadia’s headscarf, A...
This novel is based on real-life experiences and events in small town Nova Scotia and Toronto. The story recounts how a 15-year-old Black girl finds herself beaten, emotionally abused, sold to a pimp, and working in the sex trade. 15-year-old Kanika lives a sheltered life with her aunt in Guysborough, a small town in Nova Scotia. But that all changes when her best friend disappears after hanging out with some older boys. While trying to find out what happened, Kanika gets the attention of Danny, an older teen she has always found attractive. After establishing that Kanika is his "ride or die chick" and will do anything for him, Danny sells her into the sex trade. Kanika is raped and taken to Toronto, where she finds her friend has been a victim of the same sex trafficking plot. The two girls experience the hard and dangerous life of sex workers. Kanika never gives up her plans to escape. With help and strength given by an older girl who is a sex worker by choice, Kanika gets away from the people abusing her and makes her way home.
The Routledge Handbook of Black Canadian Literature offers a comprehensive overview of the growing and increasingly significant field of Black Canadian literary studies. Including historical and contemporary analysis, this volume is an essential text that maps the field over the almost 200 years of its existence across a range of genres from slave narratives to prose fiction, poetry, theatre, and dub and spoken word. It presents Black Canadian literature as encompassing a diverse set of viewpoints, approaches, and practices, touching every aspect of Canadian territory and life, and as deeply influencing debates and understandings of Black peoples far beyond its borders. This Handbook employs...
Adopted by Caucasian parents, biracial teen Lizzie feels like she never belonged. After the death of her father, Lizzie starts acting out — dating, staying away from home for days and giving up her plans to continue her education. When Lizzie discovers she is pregnant, she is faced with the difficult choice of having a child or getting an abortion. This leads Lizzie to want to find her own birth mother. After running away from home, Lizzie ends up in Kingston, where she tracks down an older woman named Ruth who sheds light on the circumstances surrounding Lizzie's birth.
“A history and a testimonial towards healing” of the hundreds of African-Nova Scotian orphans who suffered abuse and neglect at the government’s hands (The Coast). In 1921, prominent lawyer and Nova Scotia Black leader James R. Johnston’s vision of a place welcoming of Black children came to reality. In an era of segregation and overt racism that saw most orphanages refuse to take in Black children, the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children fulfilled an important role. But despite its good intentions, today the Home is mostly known for a troubling past. Former residents launched a class action lawsuit alleging sexual and physical abuse suffered at the Home over a period of several de...
An empowering picture book from South Africa about a young girl who overcomes endless teasing. Skipping Stones Honor Award Winner 2021 Meet Wanda, with her beautiful head full of hair. She is brave and strong, but she's unhappy because of the endless teasing by the boys at school for her "thorn bush" and "thunderstorm cloud." Through Grandma Makhulu's hair secrets and stories she finds the courage to face her fears and learn to appreciate that her hair is a crown‚ "not a burden‚" and it is something to be proud of. This book is about identity and beauty, celebrating how cultural pride is learned and passed on over generations.