Books published by publisher SD Editions

Always free with Kindle Select!Originally published in 1904, this book was different from most books of its type in its warm and compassionate portrayal of the Jews of Ottoman Palestine. In her original preface, the author points out that you will meet Jews “in whatever direction you may travel.” The reason, she says, is that Jews have no home of their own, “for they are homeless... For many centuries they have been scattered far and wide.”Today, this is no longer true. Almost since the book was written, Jews have begun coming home to Israel, and to Jerusalem, “the city they love best in the whole world.” The city has changed a great deal since Mary Hazelton Wade wrote those words: it has grown and become a modern capital. Yet the spirit has not.This book treats the inhabitants of Jerusalem, like the main character Esther (a young child) lovingly and with respect. The author points out that, “It is their religion, and their religion alone” that sustains the Jews as a people.Esther’s story, as told in this book, is worth reading and sharing as a portrait of Jewish life in early 1900s Ottoman Palestine, but it is also worth reading and sharing as a memento of the timeless Jewish impulses that have kept us going throughout the ages.FEATURING a new introduction and commentary, along with high-quality imagesImages include gorgeous photochrome coloured photographs and other images from the period from 1890-1910 when the fictitious Esther was a girl in Jerusalem. I hope these add to your enjoyment of the story!

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is a novel by American writer Herman Melville, published in 1851 during the period of the American Renaissance. Sailor Ishmael tells the story of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the white whale which on an earlier voyage destroyed his ship and severed his leg at the knee. The novel was a commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891, but during the 20th century its reputation as a Great American Novel was established. William Faulkner confessed he wished he had written it himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world", and "the greatest book of the sea ever written". "Call me Ishmael" is among world literature's most famous opening sentences.The product of a year and a half of writing, the book draws on Melville's experience at sea, on his reading in whaling literature, and on literary inspirations such as Shakespeare and the Bible. The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God. In addition to narrative prose, Melville uses styles and literary devices ranging from songs, poetry, and catalogs to Shakespearean stage directions, soliloquies, and asides.Dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne, "in token of my admiration for his genius", the work was first published as The Whale in London in October 1851, and under its definitive title in New York in November. Hundreds of differences, mostly slight and some important, are seen between the two editions. The London publisher censored or changed sensitive passages and Melville made revisions, as well, including the last-minute change in the title for the New York edition. The whale, however, appears in both editions as "Moby Dick", with no hyphen. About 3,200 copies were sold during the author's life.

Always free to borrow with KDP select!Ruth is a princess who seems to have it all... until one day, everything is lost: her husband, her home, her riches. Will she stay in Moav with her family, or accompany her beloved mother-in-law as she travels back to Bethlehem, where nothing but a life of poverty awaits? This ancient princess story with a powerful message comes to life for today's children through the masterful storytelling of Jewish children's writer Jennifer Tzivia MacLeod.

The Wind in the Willows is a children's novel by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animals in a pastoral version of England. The novel is notable for its mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie and celebrated for its evocation of the nature of the Thames valley.In 1908, Grahame retired from his position as secretary of the Bank of England. He moved back to Berkshire, where he had lived as a child and spent his time by the River Thames doing much as the animal characters in his book do—namely, as one of the phrases from the book says, "simply messing about in boats"— and expanding the bedtime stories he had earlier told his son Alistair into a manuscript for the book.The novel was in its thirty-first printing when playwright A. A. Milne adapted a part of it for the stage as Toad of Toad Hall in 1929. In 2003, The Wind in the Willows was listed at number 16 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.

Fiction. INVINCIBLE SUMMERS explores the agony of family. The story begins with the death of Claudia Goodwin's father, and then plunges into the murkier emotional trouble that follows for years. Through the 1960s and 70s, the world around Claudia moves on. But her loss walks along with her. Gaines deftly manages that loss and the way it floats through time—not shrinking but morphing, not fading but fusing to all of Claudia's experiences. As the chapters progress through two tumultuous decades, they show how parents fumble their own children, how siblings abandon one another, and how people become itinerant and self-destructive. This is no simplistic tale of self- discovery, nor is it a dirge. It is, in Claudia's own words, a restless search for nowhere fueled by moments of whimsy, humor, and hope. I am glad to have read Gaines's fine debut novel and look forward to her next.

Get ready to Laugh Out Loud!Feel like laughing out loud? Here are 100 of the corniest, funniest, latke-est jokes around. From potatoes and oil to Maccabees and gelt, it's all crammed in here. Grab someone who loves a good joke and start sharing these laughs... out loud.From the author of more than 12 books for Jewish kids comes something a little lighter. A holiday gift for you and your family. Enjoy!

Dorothy and her canine pal Toto live a quiet life on a Kansas farm with Uncle Henry and Aunt Em. But one day, the little girl and her dog find themselves spirited away from the fields of Kansas, to the magical land of Oz! Dorothy and Toto meet many friends on the yellow-brick road to Emerald City, where she hopes to find a way home to Kansas-- but when she arrives, the city's mysterious ruler, the Wizard of Oz, is not what she expects! English language dub on all 52 episodes!

The novel Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative of the title character. The novel is set somewhere in the north of England, during the reign of George III (1760–1820), and goes through five distinct stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead Hall, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she acquires friends and role models but suffers privations and oppression; her time as governess at Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward Rochester; her time with the Rivers family, during which her earnest but cold clergyman cousin, St. John Rivers, proposes to her; and her reunion with, and marriage to, her beloved Rochester. During these sections the novel provides perspectives on a number of important social issues and ideas, many of which are critical of the status quo (see the Themes section below). Literary critic Jerome Beaty opines that the close first person perspective leaves the reader "too uncritically accepting of her worldview", and often leads reading and conversation about the novel towards supporting Jane, regardless of how irregular her ideas or perspectives are.

This epistolary novel, an early complete work that the author never submitted for publication, describes the schemes of the main character—the widowed Lady Susan—as she seeks a new husband for herself and one for her daughter. Although the theme, together with the focus on character study and moral issues, is close to Austen's published work (Sense and Sensibility was also originally written in the epistolary form), its outlook is very different, and the heroine has few parallels in 19th-century literature. Lady Susan is a selfish, unscrupulous and scheming woman, highly attractive to men, who tries to trap the best possible husband while maintaining a relationship with a married man. She subverts all the standards of the romantic novel: she has an active role, she is not only beautiful but intelligent and witty, and her suitors are significantly younger than she is (in contrast with Sense and Sensibility and Emma, which feature marriages by their female protagonists to men who are 16 years older). Although the ending includes a traditional reward for morality, Lady Susan herself is treated more leniently than the adulteress in Mansfield Park, who is severely punished.