Books published by publisher Second Story Press

An adventure story based on true events, real characters and legends. This historical-fiction novel features two girls, separated in time by thousands of years, who are forced to leave their homes and make a dangerous journey to an unknown land. The story starts with Aleesha in 961 BCE as she and her family, descendants from the House of Israel, are sent from Jerusalem to join the Queen of Sheba in Ethiopia. Aleesha's story is connected to that of Debritu’s, her distant descendant, by the tale of an emerald stolen from the ancient Holy Ark in King Solomon’s Temple and brought to Ethiopia. Passed on from generation to generation the precious stone comes under the care of Debritu. Debritu's story takes place in 1984, as she journeys with her two brothers through the treacherous mountains of Ethiopia and the deserts of the Sudan. They must deal with bandits and famine before they reach Jerusalem, their new as well as ancestral home. Daughters of the Ark weaves these tales together to create a suspenseful and meaningful novel.

A unique and much-needed collection, The Smart Princess takes readers inside the fantasies, dreams and disappointments of young people who are deaf. This book is written and illustrated by winners of the Ladder Awards, organized by the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf. In one tale a princess runs away when her intolerant aunt forbids her to sign. Another story looks at the experience of being a deaf child at a hearing school. Two strangers, one giant and one tiny, become friends despite their difficulties in seeing each other. In another, a spaceship lands on a planet of the Deaf, forcing hearing astronauts to reconsider their ways. And in a poetic adventure, an imaginary tiger wreaks havoc.

Lisa and Sol board the luxury ship St. Louis in Hamburg, Germany, on May 13, 1939. Lisa and her family are in first class; Sol and his parents are below in tourist class. The children have mixed feelings―they're excited to be beginning this voyage to a better life and sad to be leaving their old lives behind. They are Jewish, as are almost all of the 937 passengers on board, and although war has not been officially declared in Europe, the Nazis have been persecuting Jews for years. As they set sail for Cuba, the atmosphere on the ship is optimistic, led by the German captain Gustave Shröder, who is determined to see his passengers to safety. But as they learn that Hitler's propaganda has turned the country against them, the mood changes to despair. They are turned away―first from Cuba, then the United States, and then Canada. The story of Lisa and Sol is set against the tragic true history of the St. Louis. Denied entry from port after port, the captain was forced to return his Jewish passengers to Europe, where many died in the Holocaust. Through the eyes of Sol and Lisa, we see the injustice and heartbreak that were caused by the prejudice and hatred of so many.

This true story follows the Gold family and the oldest daughter, Shoshana. The book begins with the Jewish family’s idyllic prewar life in Poland. It then follows their journey during the war years, when they were forced to hide in a cramped, secret enclosure for twenty-six months, facing appalling conditions, starvation and fear of imminent betrayal and capture. A heart-stopping testament to the human spirit.

She hadn’t told anyone. Not a single soul. Not one word about that night and what had been done to her had ever passed Maddy Malone’s lips. She’d thought about it at first - had been desperate, even frantic, to tell. But then had come the shame, and the intimidation from the boys who raped her - and the one who held her down. Now it’s the beginning of a new school year and Maddy is hoping that she can continue to hide, making herself as quiet and small as possible. She is consumed with keeping the memories at bay, forcing them down through small cuts and the burn from the end of a cigarette. But when her English class is given the assignment of writing a collaborative novel about a fifteen-year-old girl, The Pain Eater, fact and fiction begin to meet up. When the boys spread rumors about Maddy, she realizes that continuing to hide the truth will only give them more control, and she slowly gains the courage to confront them.

In March 2000, a suitcase arrived at a children's Holocaust education center in Tokyo, Japan from the Auschwitz museum in Germany. Fumiko Ishioka, the center's curator, was captivated by the writing on the outside that identified its owner: "Hana Brady, May 16, 1931, Waisenkind (the German word for orphan)." Children visiting the center were full of questions. Who was Hana Brady? Where did she come from? What was she like? What happened to her? Inspired by their curiosity and her own need to know, Fumiko began a year of detective work, scouring the world for clues. Her search led her from present-day Japan, Europe and North America back to 1938 Czechoslovakia to learn the story of Hana Brady, a fun-loving child with wonderful parents, a protective big brother, and a passion for ice skating, their happy life turned upside down by the invasion of the Nazis.

It is the end of the First World War, and thirteen-year-old Meredith yearns to become a teacher. But she must leave school to help support her family, moving to the city to work as a maid in a wealthy doctor's home. As the deadly Spanish Flu sweeps across the city, members of the household fall ill one by one. With the doctor working night and day at the hospital, only Meredith and the doctor's children, Maggie and Jack, are left to care for them. Every day the newspapers’ lists of “Yesterday’s Dead” add to Meredith’s growing fears. When Jack becomes gravely ill, Meredith must stop fighting with Maggie so they can work together to save him. As Meredith wrestles with questions of duty and responsibility, she opens the door to a future that she thought had been closed forever.

Rachel Fletcher is nine years old when she, her mother and sister are crammed on board the Exodus, a dilapidated vessel smuggling 4500 refugees of the Holocaust to their biblical homeland, Israel, known as Palestine. Since the end of the war, Rachel has been shuffled between a series of displaced persons camps, in many ways still a prisoner. Desperate, the refugees are willing to risk their lives again for a home free from hatred and oppression. But Jewish immigration to Palestine was very limited at this time, and they are surrounded by war ships. Nonetheless, Rachel and the other refugees refuse to give up hope. Their fight, and the world-wide attention it brought, influenced the UN to vote for the creation of the state of Israel. Made famous by the Paul Newman film Exodus, this is the first book for young people about the famous ship.

Ciel is excited to start high school. A gender non-conforming trans kid, Ciel has a YouTube channel and dreams of getting a better camera to really make a mark. Ciel can always rely on their best friend, Stephie, a trans girl who also happens to be a huge nerd, but their friendship begins to feel distant when Stephie makes it clear she wants the fact that she’s trans to be more invisible in high school. While navigating this new friendship dynamic, Ciel is also trying to make a long-distance relationship work with their boyfriend Eirikur, who just moved back to Iceland. When Ciel befriends Liam, a new trans boy at school, things become more complicated by the minute.

Cass and her mom have always stood on their own against the world. Then Cass learns she had a grandmother, one who was never part of her life, one who has just died and left her and her mother the first house they could call their own. But with it comes more questions than answers: Why is her Mom so determined not to live there? Why was this relative kept so secret? And what is the unusual mask, forgotten in a drawer, trying to tell her? Strange dreams, strange voices, and strange incidents all lead Cass closer to solving the mystery and making connections she never dreamed she had.

In 1943, the Second World War is raging, and the Nazis have taken control of most of Europe―including Athens, where Princess Alice of Greece lives. Princess Alice is kind and accepting of different types of people. Something the Nazis are not. Born deaf, she knows what it is like to be discriminated against.With the arrival of the Nazis, all the Jews living in Greece are in danger, including young Tilde Cohen and her mother.. On the run, they must find a safe place to hide. When they arrive, unannounced, on Princess Alice's doorstep and beg her to hide them, the princess's kindness is put to the test. Will she risk her own life to save theirs.Includes a special section, with photographs, about Princess Alice. A real-life hero, Alice was the mother of the United Kingdon's Prince Philip, grandmother of Prince Charles, and the great-grandmother of Princes William and Harry.