Freedom Boy

The breathtaking memoir by a member of "Nicky's family", a group of 669 Czechoslovakian children who escaped the Holocaust through Sir Nicholas Winton's Kindertransport project. My Train to Freedom relates the trials and achievements of award-winning humanitarian and former Episcopal priest Ivan Backer.

Ben Mattlin lives a normal, independent life. Why is that interesting? Because Mattlin was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a congenital weakness from which he was expected to die in childhood. Not only did Mattlin live through childhood, he became one of the first students in a wheelchair to attend Harvard, from which he graduated and became a professional writer. His advantage?

In this short story by the masterful Tobias Wolff, a teenage boy learns the joys—and struggles—of adult life. Eager for independence and adult-like freedom, a teenage boy takes a summer job baling hay on a rural farm. Savoring the farm wife's attention and the extra change in his pocket, the...

A must-read for fans of Morgan Matson and Kasie West, this YA novel in verse and conversation—cowritten by bestselling authors Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro—follows a girl trying to outrun her problems and a boy just discovering the outside world as they embark on a life-changing road...

As a boy, Frank Mederos’ grandfather teaches him to fish, to navigate the seas, and to think for himself, much-needed skills under the new Castro regime. When Frank is drafted into the army, he is soon promoted to the Special Forces, where he is privy to top military secrets. But young Frank has no sympathy for Fidel. He thirsts for freedom and longs to join his girlfriend who has left Cuba for America. Frank yearns to defect, but his timing couldn’t be worse. Frank’s true story, a tale of love, loss, and courage, will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

“With a dispassionate but tender eye, Thompson captures the ache, fizz, yearning and frustration of being the father of adolescent boys—and of adolescence itself, observed and remembered.” —Michael Chabon What makes a good father, and what makes one a failure? Does less-is-more parenting...

In this first book of her series, Addy Walker’s family is planning a dangerous escape from slavery during the summer of 1864. But before they can leave, the most terrible thing Addy can imagine happens—her Poppa and her brother, Sam, are sold! Addy and her Momma decide they must head out on...

In Those Turbulent Sons of Freedom, Christopher S. Wren overturns the myth of Ethan Allen as a legendary hero of the American Revolution and a patriotic son of Vermont and offers a different portrait of Allen and his Green Mountain Boys. Based on original archival research, this is a groundbreaking account of an important and little-known front of the Revolutionary War, of George Washington (and his good sense), and of a major American myth.  

Gemma Fiore can't decide what's worse: sharing a forbidden kiss with a stranger on her wedding day or her husband being murdered before the marriage has even been consummated. Matteo Santarossa never planned to steal a kiss from a married woman... it just happened. He hadn't planned to kidnap her either, but when gunshots are fired, decisions get made fast. And Gemma Fiore? She's the kind of woman he's ready to make risky decisions for. The heat between Gemma and Matteo is nothing either of them can seem to control. 

In the 1820s, few Americans could imagine a viable future for black children. Even abolitionists saw just two options for African American youth: permanent subjection or exile. Educated for Freedom tells the story of James McCune Smith and Henry Highland Garnet, two black children who came of age and into freedom as their country struggled to grow from a slave nation into a free country. 

Richard Wright's powerful and unforgettable memoir of his journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. At once an unashamed confession and a profound indictment, Black Boy is a poignant record of struggle and endurance—a seminal literary work that illuminates our own time. When...

Freedom’s Slave is the exhilarating end to Heather Demetrios’s Dark Caravan Cycle—a modern jinni fantasy-adventure trilogy, which Publishers Weekly called “an intricate and smartly written story,” perfect for fans of Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke & Bone series and Leigh Bardugo's...

This powerful Cold War novel tells the story of two cousins, one German and the other an American Army brat, as they navigate the political and social turmoil that threatens their friendship and ends in the abrupt rise of the Berlin Wall–which may separate them forever. Drew is an army brat, a...

Set against the burgeoning Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and then just before the outbreak of the Civil War, The Freedom Maze explores both political and personal liberation, and how the two intertwine. In 1960, thirteen-year-old Sophie isn’t happy about spending the summer at her...

Doug Wood has helped over 300,000 people transform their lives. Will yours be next? His incredible transformation journey began with himself. In 2009, he was broke in over 200 thousand dollars of debt, 65 pounds overweight, and on the brink of suicide. In this motivational book, he shares exactly what an average guy like him did to lose the debt, the weight, and overcome depression to change his life forever. Best of all, he offers a playbook for how you can, too.

Debut author Amina Luqman-Dawson pens a lyrical, accessible historical middle-grade novel about two enslaved children’s escape from a plantation and the many ways they find freedom. Under the cover of night, twelve-year-old Homer flees Southerland Plantation with his little sister Ada...

Millions of Africans were enslaved during the transatlantic slave trade, but few recorded their personal experiences. Olaudah Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is perhaps the most well known of the autobiographies that exist. Using this narrative as a primary...

A SIBERT INFORMATIONAL BOOK MEDAL HONOR BOOK Discover the power of youth activism in this moving memoir about the Civil Rights Movement, ideal for young readers interested in America’s fight for equality. “A testament to the power we each have within us to stand up for what is right and...

Rod Brown and Julius Lester bring history to life in this profoundly moving exploration of the slave experience. From the Middle Passage to the auction block, from the whipping post to the fight for freedom, this book presents not just historical facts, but the raw emotions of the people who...

Some call it Freedom Day; some call it Emancipation Day; some call it Juneteenth. Learn more about this important holiday that celebrates the end of chattel slavery in the United States in this Step 3 History Reader. On June 19, 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, a group of...