Books with author Barra Michael

Alek Khederian should have guessed something was wrong when his parents took him to a restaurant. Everyone knows that Armenians never eat out. Why bother, when their home cooking is far superior to anything "these Americans" could come up with? Between bouts of interrogating the waitress and criticizing the menu, Alek's parents announce that he'll be attending summer school in order to bring up his grades. Alek is sure this experience will be the perfect hellish end to his hellish freshmen year of high school. He never could've predicted that he'd meet someone like Ethan. Ethan is everything Alek wishes he were: confident, free-spirited, and irreverent. When Ethan gets Alek to cut school and go to a Rufus Wainwright concert in New York City's Central Park, Alek embarks on his first adventure outside the confines of his suburban New Jersey existence. He can't believe a guy this cool wants to be his friend. And before long, it seems like Ethan wants to be more than friends. Alek has never thought about having a boyfriend—he's barely ever had a girlfriend—but maybe it's time to think again. Michael Barakiva's One Man Guy is a romantic, moving, laugh-out-loud-funny story about what happens when one person cracks open your world and helps you see everything—and, most of all, yourself--like you never have before.

Poppy Haviland & The Secret of the Lively Widow is the first book in a series featuring twelve-year-old aspiring actress Poppy Petunia Haviland and her adventuresome friends. Simply being twelve years old is tough enough, but try being twelve AND the daughter of the world’s most famous movie star. Yeah... exactly. In The Secret of the Lively Widow, Poppy’s family relocate to a small town where the appearance of superstar Holly Haviland takes the community by storm. Even when Poppy discovers a treasure map carefully tucked within their historic lodgings, she can’t seem to capture anyone’s attention for very long. She recruits her best friend, Annie Kim, and her strange new neighbour Rick Reyes (a rapper and inventor), to explore the history of the map and of their new community. The trio learns that the town that they are living in was a key terminal on the Underground Railroad – the illegal passageway to freedom that played a major role in the termination of slavery in America – and that Poppy’s family played an important role in that history. Will their efforts result in the discovery of a long-rumoured historical treasure, or will someone else get to it first?

A 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist. It's the fall of 2002, and Skyler Bram is bracing herself for another year of torture from her half-sister Kina Dunlap. But when a family emergency strikes, the girls are forced to live under the same roof. Instead of drawing a line down the middle of their bedroom and letting the war wage on, Skyler and Kina make what they believe to be the mature decision to call a truce and put their past behind them. Together, they'll break each other out of their comfort zones, rise through the ranks of a secret society, and...lose friends along the way?Turns out, their decision to play nice has ramifications for all of their closest friends.Little Bram is a comedy about the bonds we form, the friends we lose, and what we'll do to get them back.

Written by Michael Serra, the best selling author of Discovering Geometry, Patty Paper Geometry contains 12 chapters of guided and open investigations. Open investigations encourage students to explore their own methods of discovery, and guided investigations provide more direction to students. Use Patty Paper Geometry as a supplement to your geometry program or even as a major course of study. Author: Michael Serra, Pages: 262, paperback, Publisher: Playing It Smart, ISBN: 978-1559530723

There are terrible secrets from generations past buried at Maidenwood. Medical student Julie Newcomb has returned to her family's decaying plantation—the site of so many painful childhood memories—to tend to her tyrannical grandmother, felled by a stroke. The fire of malevolence still burns in the cruel, despotic matriarch's eyes—yet, for Julie, a faint spark of redemption and second chances flickers in this hated, haunted place. But her hope—and her life—are seriously threatened by a nightmare reborn . . . and by the grim discovery on the lonely road to Maidenwood of the earth-browned skeletons of a mother and child.

This colorful 32-page book offers a collection of fun, easy-to-use detective cases for Grades 4 - 12+. Some cases may be more challenging for younger students, but teachers and parents can always provide hints when needed. The cases develop critical thinking skills by requiring students to read carefully and analyze and synthesize information to guide their decision-making. The cases also develop observation skills, reading comprehension, deductive and inductive thinking skills. The ability to identify and evaluate evidence is the very heart of critical thinking.

My name is Skyler Bram, and I naïvely thought I had everything figured out at the end of my freshman year of high school. My half-sister, Kina Dunlap, and I went from arch enemies to the best of friends, I stood up to my bullies, and I even caught the eye of Regent High’s most eligible bachelor, Bradley Harrison. However, my dates with Bradley haven’t gone so well, and I can’t stop thinking about my new friend Becca Cohen. Guess I still have a lot left to figure out. Praise for Little Bram: "Little Bram is an absolutely enriching, heart-warming story for young readers." -Reader Views. "Michael C. Barrett weaves convincing dialogue and plot progression in this YA story of social drama so characteristic of today's youth." -Readers’ Favorite

Read on the blues musicians that shaped The Blues genre in volume one from our series “Blues Biographies”. Volume one cover some of the Chicago based blues musicians from Willie Dixon who wrote most of Muddy Waters’ songs and hits. He has been called “the poet laureate of the blues” as well as “the father of modern Chicago Blues.” Legendary bluesmen like Elmore James and Sonny Boy Williamson II to those who were part of Chess Records where the Rolling Stones flew to Chess Studios from The UK just record in the 1960’s where The Great Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Etta James, as well as session guitarist at the time who went on to find success in later years such as Buddy Guy. They were considered the pre curser to Rock n' Roll...All in one great book.

“Vagabonds in France" is a lighthearted book about an unexpected travel adventure to France. Find out how life threw a lemon at us with losing our home, and our attempt to make lemonade. Putting all our furniture in storage, we left everything behind to experience an adventure of a lifetime. With no mortgage or rent to pay, we left with no return date or home to come back to. We traveled from Florida (Tampa and Key West), to Portugal (Funchal, Madeira), to Spain (Malaga, Cartagena, and Barcelona), to the Côte d'Azur in the south of France (Antibes, Nice, Eze, St. Paul de Vence), to Provence (Arles, Avignon), then a month in Paris. Come with my wife and me and see this country’s amazing beauty, along with all the humorous cultural differences and "what the hell" moments you'll get a kick out of. Climb mountains, descend into the Paris Metro, dodge pickpockets, endure nasty weather and illness, and witness the flood of the century with us. Experience some wonderful and not-so-wonderful people. Chuckle with me as we live among the French and try to learn their ways and language. Then make it back home to an empty home we found online. Readers say they feel like they are right there with us on the journey, and laugh out loud, especially from the "Bathroom Reports". This book, with its 75 photograph illustrations, is available now on Amazon in both paperback (black and white illustrations) and Kindle (color illustrations)!

The "Losses and Claims" series is a day by day account of the Aircraft losses of the German Air force in World War II, Main sources are the GQM (General Quartiermeister Akten) files where all aircraft damaged or lost reported daily to the RLM (Reichsluftfahrt Ministerium) what reason ever. This files are not complete, the year 1944 is missing also the year 1945 is not complete, in the GQM files names of the aircrews only noted when killed, missing or wounded. Second source the NVM (Namentliche Verlustmeldung) Loss report of the unit, in the NVM report it’s about the personal loss, mostly the aircraft, Serial No., Markings also noted but not always. This reports are also not complete a lot them been destroyed in the last days of the war. I also used as source hundreds of "Flugbücher" flight logs of former Luftwaffe crew members, allied reports like "crashed enemy aircraft reports", etc. Basic sources are the GQM and NVM files, but for example the GQM report say as location "area London" in other sources had a report with photos and the exact crash side, this location is used, if not absolutely clear the original GQM source is used. Finally to say it`s not a complete loss register there are still lots of missing reports - specially in 1944 and 1945 but also in any other years, but one of near completest register about losses and claims of the Luftwaffe in World War II which covers more than 122000 losses and more than 68000 claims.It shall be a source for all the people seriously interested in the history or the war in the Air in Europe. Part 35-I covers the Losses and Claims 1. – 15. August 1944.