Books with author Jo Knowles

Starting middle school brings all the usual challenges - until the unthinkable happens, and Fern and her family must find a way to heal.Twelve-year-old Fern feels invisible. Her dad is always busy planning how to increase traffic to the family business. Her Mom is constantly going off to meditate. Her sister Sarah, who's taking a "gap year" after high school, is too busy finding ways not to work; and her brother Holden is too focused on his new "friend" to pay attention to her. And then there's Charlie: three years old, a "surprise" baby, and the center of everyone's world. If it wasn't for Ran, Fern's best and oldest friend, there would be nowhere to turn. Ran is always calm, always positive. His mantra "All will be well" is soothing in a way that nothing else seems to be. And when Ran says it, Fern can almost believe. But when their lives are unexpectedly turned upside down, Fern feels more alone than ever, and responsible for the event that wrenches the family apart. All will not be well. Or at least, all will never be the same.

Starting middle school brings all the usual challenges - until the unthinkable happens, and Fern and her family must find a way to heal.Twelve-year-old Fern feels invisible. It seems as though everyone in her family has better things to do than pay attention to her. Mum helps Dad run "Harry's," the family restaurant; Sarah is taking a gap year after high school, and Holden pretends that Mum and Dad and everyone else don't know he's gay, even as he fends off bullies at school. If it wasn't for Ran, Fern's calm and positive best friend, there'd be nowhere to turn. Ran's mantra, "All will be well," is soothing in a way that nothing else seems to be. And when Ran says it, Fern can almost believe it's true. But then tragedy strikes – and Fern feels not only more alone than ever, but also responsible for the accident that has wrenched her family apart. All will not be well. Or at least all will never be the same.

Bean (née Pearl) and Henry, misfits and best friends, have the strangest mothers in town. Henry’s mom Sally never leaves the house. Bean’s mom Lexie, if she is home, is likely nursing a hangover or venting to her friend Claire about Bean’s beloved grandfather Gus, the third member of their sunny household.Gus’s death unleashes a host of family secrets that brings them all together. And they threaten to change everything—including Bean’s relationship with Henry, her first friend, and who also might turn out to be her first love.

Bean (née Pearl) and Henry, misfits and best friends, have the strangest mothers in town. Henry's mom Sally never leaves the house. Bean's mom Lexie, if she is home, is likely nursing a hangover or venting to her friend Claire about Bean's beloved grandfather Gus, the third member of their sunny household.Gus's death unleashes a host of family secrets that brings them all together. And they threaten to change everything―including Bean's relationship with Henry, her first friend, and who also might turn out to be her first love.

An unflinching story of a troubled friendship — and one girl’s struggle to come to terms with secrets and shame and find her own power to heal.Leah Greene is dead. For Laine, knowing what really happened and the awful feeling that she is, in some way, responsible set her on a journey of painful self-discovery. Yes, she wished for this. She hated Leah that much. Hated her for all the times in the closet, when Leah made her do those things. They were just practicing, Leah said. But why did Leah choose her? Was she special, or just easy to control? And why didn’t Laine make it stop sooner? In the aftermath of the tragedy, Laine is left to explore the devastating lessons Leah taught her, find some meaning in them, and decide whether she can forgive Leah and, ultimately, herself.

An American classic and great bestseller for over thirty years, A Separate Peace is timeless in its description of adolescence during a period when the entire country was losing its innocence to the second world war. Set at a boys boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world. A bestseller for more than thirty years, A Separate Peace is John Knowles crowning achievement and an undisputed American classic. Goodreads

“Joe” Knowles' story needs no introduction to New England readers. Knowles (1869-1942), the famous Boston artist, entered the wilderness of Maine on August 4, 1913, naked, without firearms, matches, or even a knife, and lived for two months as a primitive man, relying wholly on his own resources. In this book he tells what he did and how he did It.He describes why he undertook the experiment, and tells in detail how he lived: how he made his fires, what he ate and how he got it, how he caught fish and killed animals with his hands alone, how he sheltered and clothed himself; he narrates his wanderings and adventures, describes his physical and mental sensations, shows the scientific value of the primitive lite, and outlines his plans for the future along primitive lines.At last the dream of a thoroughgoing return to nature has been realized. A self-tutored artist (formerly a wilderness guide), Mr. Knowles went into the woods of northern Maine in August, 1913, naked, without so much as a match or a knife, and, after living for the stipulated two months in total independence of the advantages of civilization, emerged tanned and bearded, clad in bearskin and deerskin, carrying bow and arrows and a deer-horn knife. His life in the woods the author habitually views in two aspects, the physical and the mental. He entered the woods on a rainy day, and, being unable to make a fire, he spent two nights resting and running alternately at short intervals in order to keep warm. Afterwards he enjoyed the warmth of a fire and the shelter of a lean-to, save for one miserable night which resulted in a fever. His food consisted of berries, bark, fish, partridges, squirrels, and some venison and bear meat. The hear he trapped, and killed by clubbing him on the nose; the deer he killed by breaking his neck by main force. Mr. Knowles apparently did not suffer through the absence of salt from his diet, nor from the extreme irregularity of his eating. as regards both quantity and time. Nor was be rendered uncomfortable through giving up suddenly the habit of smoking cigarettes. His physical life, in brief, though not without tribulations, seemed to him of almost trifling importance in comparison with his mental life.“My suffering," he writes, “was purely mental and a hundredfold worse than any physical suffering I experienced." It had never occurred to him that he might be lonely, but the thought of his isolation and of his friends and his past life tortured him so relentlessly, especially at twilight, that he vowed again and again that he would return next day to the camp whence he had entered upon his wanderings. Seeking diversion from his thoughts of civilized life, he drew, on birch bark, with burnt sticks from his fires, a number of sketches, first-rate examples of which illustrate his book; and he found further diversion in cultivating the friendship of a chipmunk, a flock of partridges, and a deer and fawn, to all of whom he spoke as to human beings.His story was an “exclusive ’’ for one newspaper, but all New Englanders followed his adventure with amused interest which has not yet lagged, because another paper has made a promising attempt to discredit his story. But it seems to have failed, and Mr. Knowles continued appearing before the public describing the delights of primitive life. Whatever the extent of his influence, he certainly attracted in New England a. considerable public attention of a cap-flinging kind, which is well illustrated by a photograph showing “a portion of the crowd that greeted Joseph Knowles on his arrival in Boston." Originally published in 1913; reformatted for Kindle; may contain occasional imperfection; original spellings have been kept in place.

The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights is a collection of legends and myths about legendary British King Arthur, his castle and court Camelot, his Noble Knights of the Round Table, and many more. King Arthur is a legendary British ruler who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defense of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention.The Prophecies of Merlin, and the Birth of ArthurThe Miracle of the Sword and Stone, and the Coronation of King Arthur — The Sword Excalilur — The War with the Eleven KingsThe Adventure of the Questing Beast — King Arthur drives the Saxons from the Realm — The Battles of Celidon Forest and Badon HillKing Arthur Conquers Ireland and Norway, Slays the Giant of St. Michael's Mount, and Conquers Gaul — The Adventures of Sir BalinSir Balin Smites the Dolorous Stroke, and Fights with his Brother, Sir BalanThe Marriage of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, and the Founding of the Round Table — The Adventure of the Hart and HoundKing Arthur and Sir Accolon of GaulKing Arthur conquers Rome, and is crowned EmperorThe Adventures of Sir Lancelot du LakeAdventures of Sir Beaumains or Sir GarethThe Adventures of Sir Tristram of LyonesseThe Quest of the Sangreal, and the Adventures of Sir Percival, Sir Bors, and Sir GalahadSir Lancelot and the Fair Maid of AstolatThe War between King Arthur and Sir Lancelot and the Death of King Arthur

Gene was a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas was a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happened between them at school one summer during the early years of World War II is the subject of A Separate Peace. A great bestseller for over thirty years--one of the most starkly moving parables ever written of the dark forces that brood over the tortured world of adolescence.