Books with author Kimberley Heuston

When political upheaval forces her family to flee and separate, Antonia takes her brother's advice to heart as she journeys through Italy and France with her father, the poet Dante Alighieri. She becomes a pilgrim who also embraces interior journeys: she struggles with her difficult, inattentive father; with her heart's desire to paint as her father writes; and with her first tastes of young love. All the while Antonia harbors dreams that others tell her women are not entitles to dream. Dante's Daughter portrays a life in full, one that beautifully answers Antonia's own questions: "Had my journey made me wise? Had my secret griefs made me strong?" This highly imagined story--based on the few known facts of Antonia's life--is set against the dramatic background of pre-Renaissance Europe, rendered in rich detail by storyteller and historian Kimberley Heuston.

It's hard to imagine any fictional villain half as fiendish as the real-life warlords, tyrants, and pirates in these new Wicked biographies. Bet you can't read just one! He presented himself as a man of the people and promised to turn the most populous country on earth into a worker's paradise. But the reality of life in Mao Zedong's Communist China was a different story entirely, marked by widespread famine and inhumane policies that cost tens of millions of lives.

A brilliant young woman's fight against a debilitating psychological illness is set against the historical events of the Prague Spring and the anti-Soviet struggles in Czechoslovakia. When Jude's mother gets a fellowship to go to Prague to study, Jude's world is thrown into chaos. The teenage girl feels threatened and isolated. It turns out her whole family is going, but still Jude feels adrift. When she arrives in Prague and discovers that their life in the embassy compound is closely circumscribed by rules and regulations and that they are closely watched at all times, she begins to suffer even more. Desperate to break out of the constraints imposed on her and her family, Jude sneaks out one night only to encounter a security crackdown on students and dissenters. Although she makes it home safely, her consciousness continues to deteriorate as she fluctuates in and out of rationality. Only when Jude steals a friend's car and drives into the countryside does the true seriousness of her condition become apparent to her family. Then the long road to recovery begins. The violence of our parting flays the skin from my body, shredding muscle and splintering bone. But the worst is that my shattered vessel can no longer hold the rhythm and order of that lovely deep music. I feel it leave me, leaking away, drop by drop, until all that is left is emptiness that jerks, hardens, and blazes into pain.I open my eyes. I am lying in the street, my cheek held fast by the grit of asphalt, support for which I am grateful. Lexy is there, and Merry, but no order, no sense. Sirens. Jostling. Pain like a knife at my heart. —FROM THE BOOK

After twelve-year-old Naomi loses her parents in a fire and learns of her aunt’s plan to send her to work in a mill, she and her siblings seek refuge in a Shaker village. Because Naomi has some knowledge of herbs and doctoring from her mother, the Shakers assign her to an apprenticeship with the village herbalist in order to develop her skills as a healer. As Naomi matures, she senses that something big is missing in her life, but she doesn’t know what it is. At sixteen she leaves the Shakers to go out into the world. Eventually she establishes a career as an herbalist within a community that offers comfort and security. But that, too, fails to satisfy her growing need for something more. When she meets Joseph Fairbanks, she thinks that perhaps she has found what she was seeking.

- Opening quote by or about the featured villain/villainess- Historical map, annotated with key locations from person's life- A Wicked Web featuring allies and enemies- Historical photos and etchings- Boxes with additional information- Photo documentaries: six to eight pages of photos and captions telling the person's life- Timeline, glossary, additional sources- Engaging narrative nonfiction written at a very accessible reading level

When Naomi and her remaining siblings take refuge in a Shaker village after their parents and younger brother are killed in a fire, she begins to train with the village herbalist and develops extraordinary healing powers, causing her to leave the village and move to another community, where she becomes engaged, sets up her own medical practice, and encounters Mormonism--a discovery that leads her on a new journey. Reprint.

- Opening quote by or about the featured villain/villainess- Historical map, annotated with key locations from person's life- A Wicked Web featuring allies and enemies- Historical photos and etchings- Boxes with additional information- Photo documentaries: six to eight pages of photos and captions telling the person's life- Timeline, glossary, additional sources- Engaging narrative nonfiction written at a very accessible reading level

After twelve-year-old Naomi loses her parents in a fire and learns of her aunt’s plan to send her to work in a mill, she and her siblings seek refuge in a Shaker village. Because Naomi has some knowledge of herbs and doctoring from her mother, the Shakers assign her to an apprenticeship with the village herbalist in order to develop her skills as a healer. As Naomi matures, she senses that something big is missing in her life, but she doesn’t know what it is. At sixteen she leaves the Shakers to go out into the world. Eventually she establishes a career as an herbalist within a community that offers comfort and security. But that, too, fails to satisfy her growing need for something more. When she meets Joseph Fairbanks, she thinks that perhaps she has found what she was seeking.