Bøger udgivet af Gemma Open Door

Dr. Tarak Kapoor cannot sleep. He has just taken a job as a telemedicine doctor in Texas. Garnet is two days and five airports away from his home in Mumbai. Tarak is so tired, but his body thinks it's lunchtime in India. By 2:30 a.m. he is wandering the empty streets. To his surprise, he finds a brightly lit pay telephone next to a set of broken traffic lights. Even though it's the middle of the night, people drive up one by one and make calls. Why on earth are they here at this hour? Who are they calling?The mystery deepens when Tarak retraces his steps the next day. All he finds is an empty lot covered with dirt and trash. Perhaps he has made a mistake. His jet lag is pretty bad. But when he returns that night, the phone booth is back in its spot, glowing brightly. Tarak picks up his courage when an old man stops his car to make a call. Tarak questions him about the phone. The man asks, "e;Is there someone you want to call?"e; and drives away into the empty night. As Tarak looks at the phone, it begins to ring. Will he answer the night telephone?

Billy is an average-looking sixteen-year-old who lives in an ordinary house in an ordinary neighborhood on the north side of Dublin. Jesus, on the other hand, is a beautiful boy with continental manners, from the most sophisticated part of Barcelona. As an exchange student, Jesus comes to live with Billy's family for three weeks during the summer. At the end of his stay - according to The Plan - Billy will go back with Jesus on a return visit to Spain. And then, the best laid plans go awry. A riveting look at growing up in two cultures by the author of nine critically acclaimed novels. The Open Door Series: Originally designed to promote adult literacy in Ireland, these original stories from best-loved authors and new voices showcase some of our best writing in short fiction.

A story of false friendship and following one's heart - Melissa and Sophie have been friends all of their lives. Or that's what Sophie likes to think. Sophie is a giver; Melissa is a taker. Their friendship is put to the test on vacation in Spain. When the gorgeous Paulo appears on the scene, Melissa drops Sophie like a hot potato. Hurt and furious, Sophie thinks the trip is a disaster. But things change for Sophie when she lends a little help to an old man and a small girl. Melissa can only watch in a jealous rage as her quiet friend finally comes into her own. Part of successful Open Door series, originally designed to help adult literacy in Ireland. Original stories from best-selling authors and important new voices, never published in the States before now.

Jessica Vasquez had worked hard to get where she was. Though some in her family had despaired of her future, she put herself through cosmetology school and landed her dream job: overseeing the beauty department for a chain of drugstores. But her fortune abruptly changes. A manager's daughter, on a mission of her own, puts stolen makeup and perfume in Jessica's bag. The girl lies to her dad about what happened, and Jessica is fired. It seems that Jessica's life is over.But is it really?Needing to pay the bills, Jessica begins driving for a ridesharing company. It's scary at first, and she doesn't make a lot of money. But soon she gets the hang of it. Follow Jessica as her father and her new friends at the airport cell phone lot help her to find a new life-and, just maybe, get some of her old life back.

Training for adulthood is not for wimps. When you are eleven years old, is there anything more humiliating, or bound to cause a fight, than shopping with your mother when your body is in full-throttle warp? Yes, there is: picking out the school-required underwear. Or worse, your mother's male co-worker shows up at the scene. Or even worse: your brother wants to TALK about it at the dinner table. Rites-of-passage are difficult for any young girl, and Jun-li Lin is no exception. The grown-ups in her life are completely unpredictable, and probably out of control. She knows it will take detective-work to figure out her family's secrets and erratic ways. It's up to her to find a way to bring the family together before everyone drifts apart. Training to be an adult, Jun-li discovers, is hard work.

Growing up without a mother is hard. Worse is having a stepmother who controls Dad. Brittany Myerson is so ready for high school to end. She knows that life is going to get a whole lot better when she gets her driver's license, the car she's always wanted and a ticket to college away from home. But her new stepmother has decided what's good enough for Brittany: a beat-up, mustard-colored piece of junk and enrollment in the local community college. Brittany thinks it can't get much worse until she learns that her father has changed his will leaving everything to Lynn. Suddenly, Brittany's father dies and the police suspect...murder.

In 1878, two years after the Greasy Grass Fight that some called Custer's Last Stand, U.S. soldiers and government contractors rounded up 270 Arapaho people. From the very young to the very old, they were forced to walk from Fort Robinson in western Nebraska across half of what is now the state of Wyoming. Their destination: the Shoshone Indian Reservation. The new home of the Northern Arapaho was a wilderness, but it was theirs and they were glad. Then came a second and tragic event.Within weeks, the Takers arrived to capture confused and terrified Indian children. The young were shipped to boarding schools back east where they were to be stripped of their tribal identities and assimilated into white culture. Families were torn apart.Against this historical backdrop, A Full Circle gives a fictional account of several generations of Arapaho and their experience during this time. Horse-whisperers, a green-eyed girl, brave young men and women, and fierce grandmothers are among the characters that reveal glimpses of a people and a culture that survive today, and a part of American and native history that has long been hidden. A Full Circle is a story that needs to be told.

The American writer Suzanne Kamata had lived in Japan for more than half of her life, yet she had never explored the small nearby islands of the Inland Sea. The islands, first made famous by Donald Richie's The Inland Sea 50 years ago, are noted for displaying artwork created by prominent, and sometimes curious, international artists and sculptors: Naoshima's wealth of museums, including one devoted to 007, Yayoi Kusama's polka dot pumpkins, Kazuo Katase's blue teacup, and a monster rising out of a well on the hour in Sakate, called "e;Anger at the Bottom of the Sea"e;-to name a few. Spurred by her teen-aged daughter Lilia's burgeoning interest in art and adventure, Kamata sets out to show her the islands' treasures. Mother and daughter must confront several barriers on their adventure. Lilia is deaf and uses a wheelchair. It is not always easy to get onto -- or off of -- the islands, not to mention the challenges of language, culture, and a generation gap. A Girls' Guide to the Islands takes the reader on a rare visit by a unique mother and daughter team.

Rollo is tired of humans. Their cities are dirty, and their gizmos are dumb. He knows mankind is wrecking the planet. Rollo's dream is to escape to the Sierra Nevada Mountains where he can live alone and be free of other people. There's just one problem with his scheme: Rollo's hungry human stomach. No matter how much food he carries in his backpack, he always runs out. Inevitably, Rollo has to come back to the "e;messed-up, man-made world"e; or starve. All this changes when Rollo finds an old, dusty, bear suit in a costume shop. He's got a plan! But what seems like the perfect solution at first will bring unexpected results and change Rollo's life forever-in ways he could never have imagined.

Young Jaimie, a high school senior, holes himself up in an isolated cabin on a New Hampshire lake to mourn the tragic death of his girlfriend. He expects to be alone. So who is that swimmer he sees through the mist, out on the lake? What is the wailing he hears as night falls...the cry of the loon? Maybe Jannie had something else in mind when she made him promise they would be together forever. After all, hadn't they been voted The Couple Most Likely to Stay Together?

Brilliant, homeless and nearly invisible, a young man wanders through Boston, looking for meaning and hope. Extreme mood swings and an unusual outlook on life make it impossible for him to thrive in mainstream society. He finds comfort in laundromats, where he calms himself by watching clothes tumble round and round and round. And in the streets he finds other people like himself, below the radar, laboring to survive. Poignant and buoyant, Spin Cycles is a story of loss, discovery, and, just possibly, redemption.

A family tale for new readers, from a New York Times Notable author in her stride. A young girl leaves Tokyo with her mother in 1979, carrying her pink suitcase to a new home, a new father and sister, on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. Thirty-three years later, her mother's belongings are found packed into boxes, her furniture draped in white sheets. Without so much as a note, she has left the two sisters connected by history, by some idea of family, to look for her. What happens when people lose their way home? Like a little barn cat, they grab onto a second family. . . and start again.

Modern travelers on foot follow wisdom along the Ulster Way. Storytellers, said Walter Benjamin, are descended from one of two tribes: the mariners or the peasants. We revel in the stories of the sailors, with their lure of exotic places and the treasures a mariner brings home. We hearken to the stories of the peasants for a glimmer of the past, best revealed to natives and landed people. Brian Bouldrey, professional vagabond, and his very organized friend Garth, two unlikely mariners, hit dry land with backpacks and point their hiking boots down the Ulster Way. Along the more than 600 miles of Northern Irish mountains, moors, and monuments, they pursue a quest. Among the causeways and caves and publicans' cups, they seek faraway places revealed by the wisdom that only the peasant can offer.

Louis's sister, Emily, is blind. She's also in the marching band, sculpts, and has the biggest bedroom in the house to accommodate her Braille machine. Everyone thinks her accomplishments are extraordinary, and most think that she can do no wrong. The single person who doesn't feel awe--or pity--for her is Louis, who wishes people would just stop comparing them. He wants his own life. Only a family tragedy can begin to bridge the widening gap between brother and sister. Part of the Gemma Open Door Series, originally designed for new readers, these books confirm the truth that a story doesn't have to be big to change ?the world. The Transcriber is specifically created for young adult readers.

Sam Peterson is your average high school student?until he falls through a portal in time and space and lands in the studio of Leonardo da Vinci. This is worse than algebra! Da Vinci was a futurist. He imagined the airplane, the helicopter, submarine, and more-long before anyone else. Who better to design a time machine to get Sam home? Our time-traveler gets hooked on art and science as he gets to know Leonardo. Meanwhile, da Vinci is fascinated by the common items of 21st century life. Yellow highlighters are a revelation! There's plenty of intrigue along the way. Leonardo da Vinci's patron wants to keep the boy from the future, with all his knowledge, right in his court. And since time travel depends on being at the right place at the right moment, a breathless dash ensues with soldiers in hot pursuit.Sam would like to stay with his new friend, and Leonardo would like to see the future. But the artist and man of science knows that each of us must make our world our own.

What do you do when something magical happens...in your own backyard? Linda and Earl are a happy couple. Although married for many years, they have never had children. Still, they are content being together, and watching reruns of "e;I Love Lucy"e; keeps them close. That, and a magical garden that never seems to grow what they plant. One day Earl finds a set of infant toes in the loam. He and Linda plant them and watch in amazement as the garden produces an enormous baby. Now Earl and Linda have to figure out how to be parents-if they are parents-and what to do about the giant baby who eats everything and cries for his mama.

The Charles River divides Boston and Cambridge, and the Red Line ties the citiestogether, traveling through an expanseof class and cultures along its route. When an unlikely combination of riders share an afternoon train, they are surprised todiscover what'scommon in their American experience.Part of the prestigious Open Door Series, originally designed for adult literacy in Ireland, these books confirm the truth that a story doesn't have to be big to change our world. Yankee Doodle is part of the US launch of Open Door books written by North American authors.

Lizzie is dead - she just doesnt know it. Why does everyone ignore her when she needs a little sympathy? She has been in an accident, after all. The next day, Lizzie goes to work as usual and meets two unusual people, spirits who have been sent to break the bad news. But our Lizzie is not ready to go anywhere. She has yet to say her goodbyes. Help is at hand with Jan and Jim, messengers who have seen it all before. Before Lizzie crosses to the other side, she'll get her chance to stage the closing scene of a lifetime.

While organizing a community interfaith Thanksgiving event, a pastor discovers that people of all religious traditions laugh in the same language.He explores the connections between faith and laughter, examining his own holy heritage in dialogue with followers of other faiths.The story culminates with Interfaith Laughter Night, with an open mike that encourages participants of all the faiths gathered to laugh with each other and at themselves.Come along on a journey of ecumenical silliness! "

When Mark Buehrle threw his perfect game against Tampa Bay, it was DeWayne Wise, the ninth inning White Sox defensive sub who made the leaping, back against the wall catch of a fly ball, robbing Gabe Kapler of a home run and preserving Buehrle's achievement. Until that moment, Wise was virtually anonymous. Yet for that one moment in July, Wise moved into the spotlight and The Los Angeles Times called his one of the top ten moments in sports for 2009. But when the season ended, Wise was a free agent, able to sign only a minor league deal. He went to Toronto. The history of baseball is filled with players like Wise-players who are good enough to reach the top of the sport but who, for any number of reasons, hang at the edges of the game. Some manage to spend only a week or two in the major leagues and then disappear back into the minors. Many leave the sport. These are the tales of one-season wonders. Here are stories of the brief moments when, for an afternoon, a week, a couple of months, they stood on the field with the best of the best in the game