Books with author Alice Mead

In the spring of 1999, hunger and thirst are constant companions to 11-year-old Stephen and his family and friends in their southern Sudan village. Stephen wants to go back to his books, but the village school is closed due to civil war between the northern soldiers and the southern rebels. When bombs explode in their small village, Stephen’s mother tells him and his friends to quickly pack, and they run and hide before they’re caught by the enemy soldiers. Stephen leaves with a few precious possessions, wondering if each step will bring him closer to water, food, and freedom—and maybe home again someday.“Mead puts civil war in human terms through the eyes of one young boy. In the context of an artfully told story, much is told about how war works. . . . The history, the land, and the determination of a band of refugees to care for each other are vividly evoked in this important work.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred“Mead conveys the particulars of the place and the desperate longing of a displaced child for home, education, and peace.”—Booklist

"An artfully told story . . . The history, the land, and the determination of a band of refugees to care for each other are vividly evoked in this important work." -- Starred review, Kirkus ReviewsIn the dry spring of 1999, eleven-year-old Stephen Majok watches as his friend Wol joins a circle of dancers. Wol is celebrating – only fourteen, he is engaged to Stephen’s sister. Wol wants to marry because he might join the guerrillas in southern Sudan and fight the northern government soldiers. He wants a wife to remember him. Stephen thinks Wol is crazy. Children should study. But because of the civil war, there has been no school in their village for over a year. All Stephen has left from his student days is his books and one precious pencil, and the hunger for knowledge. Then, suddenly – but not unexpectedly – exploding bombs are heard in the tiny village. Stephen’s mother tells him to hurry, pack his bag, and hide beyond the forest with Wol and their friend Deng. Stephen grabs his geography book, his pencil, and little else. He does not want to leave his mother and sister. He does not want to leave the life he loves.In her latest portrayal of “children caught in the cultural crossfire” (School Library Journal), Alice Mead emphasizes the attachment all humans have to the small place on earth we call home, and our resistance to being displaced, even when our very lives are threatened.

Jasmyn Williams is shocked and angry when her mother, a member of the Army Reserve, is called up for service during the Persian Gulf War. While Jas comes to understand that her mother has to do her job, she wonders, should a mother have a job that might require abandoning her children? "Jasmyn's ready for her big seventh-grade season in basketball . . . when her home life bounces out of control . . . There's an emotional impact here that will resound with other youngsters making sacrifices." – The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

A single parent is suddenly called to serve in the Persian Gulf War.In early August 1990, eleven-year-old Jasmyn Williams is shocked when her mother, a member of the Army Reserve, is called to active service. Within thirty-six hours, she is gone. Jas and Andrew, her baby half brother, are left in the care of her mother's boyfriend, Jake, who has never been responsible for Andrew, much less Jas. At first Jas is filled with anger. Then, despite the sacrifices she must make, including precious basketball practice, Jas comes to understand that her mother has to do her job. Still, she wonders, should a mother have a job that might require abandoning her children? Alice Mead, always an advocate for children, takes a firm stand on their behalf even as she creates a heroine who could probably adjust to anything.

The quandary of the illegal immigrantLinda Berati, an eighth grader in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, knows that her parents are Albanian and her little sister American. But what is she? And how did she get to New York? Her parents evade her questions, fueling Linda's uneasiness about her identity. Only Ramón, a Cuban immigrant her age, seems to understand. Together, they escape to the hideout she and Ramón built. Then a strange, foreign man appears at the hideout, and right away Linda feels connected to him. She soon discovers that Ramón's wayward brother knows the man, and learns that immigrants - even illegal ones - come to the United States for many reasons. She determines to confront her mother and find out the truth about herself at last.The author, known for her empathic portrayals of children, shows what it's like to live the American dream in dread of losing it.

In September 1993, when Adem is fourteen, his homeland of Kosovo has been under Serb military domination for four and a half years. Adem is ethnic Albanian. His people, the great majority of the Kosovo population, share with their Serb neighbors only one thing- an ancient hatred. Adem is sick of living with oppression, sick of the unresisted terrorizing, teargassing, beatings, killings. How he would love to fight back. But the power belongs to the Serbs, and anyway, the Albanians have adopted a policy of non-violent resistance. Clearly, this affords them no protection. And when Adem's beloved sister Fatmira confesses in the strictest confidence that she plans to read a protest poem in public, Adem is heartsick. Fatmira's attempt to speak up sets in motion a chain of events that brings Adem's family closer together, yet separates them.

The story of a girl whose mother has a chronic illnessBeanie's mom used to be a lot of fun. She still is, when she pretends to be the amazing fortune-teller, Madame Squidley. But Beanie knows it's a strain. Mrs. Kingsley has been sick for months, and doctors can't say exactly what's wrong. They don't seem to take the illness very seriously, though. Beanie does. She worries about her mom, and wonders what will happen to her and Jerm, her little brother, if their mother doesn't get well. Beanie's friend Charles Sprague has a problem, too -- scoliosis, and divorced parents who fight about it. Beanie begins to long for a new mother and a whole new set of friends. Then she discovers that she already has the best family, and the best friend, and that there's plenty she can do to help them. This is perhaps the most personal story written by Alice Mead, herself a mother with a chronic illness.