Books published by publisher SMI International

The Last Banana began when the author visited his university friend Marios Ghikas, whose family farmed in Tanzania. Anticipating nationalization, Marios invited Tucker to visit again to help him spend 'the last banana' of his 'unremittable fortune', and Tucker returned in 1972. These were the first of 16 African trips spanning 43 years. There were 180 Greeks in Chaggaland, but Nyerere's policy of returning land to the watu people destroyed this community. Three stayed on; Marios was one. In this absorbing and elegantly written book, Tucker recalls conditions in equatorial Africa before the European scramble for colonies. He reminds us of Livingstone's vision of ending the slave trade by bringing 'the 3 Cs' (Commerce, Christianity and Civilization) to the interior of Africa and suggests that Greek settlement in Africa was an important, part of fulfilling this vision - a story previously untold in English. Tucker contrasts the moral force and fruits of the pioneer missionaries and explorers who brought Christianity to Africa with the triviality of modern travel and the surrealism of democracy and freedom expounded in Africa today.

The year is 1936. Reports circulate that the Russian government workers are moving from village to village, seizing anything of value for the motherland. Would they come to Brothers' Village and take everything? What would be left to eat the coming winter? In Bread for the Winter, eight-year-old Pavel learns from his godly parents what Jesus meant when He said, "Love your enemies..."

This wonderfully illustrated education book, part of the award-winning SAE International- A World In Motion program, teaches engineering principles to primary-age children through an imaginative and exciting story. Malarkey was a lazy cat. But he was a hungry cat, too. To catch some mice, he built a trap. Will his trap work in time for dinner? Malarkey certainly hopes so-but the mice may have other plans of their own. In Malarkey and the Big Trap, readers will follow this crazy cat s antics while he tries to build a better mousetrap. During the fun, readers will explore the behaviors of different components and how launch position can affect the whole process, similar to a pinball machine with ball traps and bumpers. Proceeds of book sales benefit the SAE Foundation and its pre-college educational programs.

"Full of action, intrigue, and adventure,The Mod Code is a story that stays with you and makes you yearn for more!" - Carrie Jones, New York Times bestselling author of the Need series.---------------Sage has trust issues.She's never been in love, and she's not going to start now, especially not with her new farm neighbor—no matter how good-looking he is, no matter how much his parents want to help her family.Beckett is hurting in a way he'd never show anyone.He doesn't plan on falling for Sage. He knows it would be easier if he didn't care about her at all—because of his secret, because of the truth about who sent him to her small Kansas town.But when Sage's family farm is threatened with financial ruin, Beckett can't stand back and watch. As Vasterias forces mount against them, Beckett is desperate to tell Sage the truth—before Vasterias gets to her first.This is the story of Sage & Beckett's three years on the farm before The Mod Code Book #1. This story is told in alternating perspectives: Letters from Beckett, written to Sage and Sage's Journal/Diary Entries.---------------From author Heidi Tankersley comes a thrilling new teen and young adult science fiction romance series, a thriller packed with action adventure and an unforgettable love triangle.To add even more drama to this hit YA series, Heidi Tankersley offers a FREE Mod Code Prequel Novella available for download from her website at HeidiTankersley.com/TheIslandBook. Go check it out!

While Paul Sinclair uses the life of Reverend Al Sharpton as the foundation for his cutting political commentary, his message isn’t about a single person. Instead, Sinclair examines Sharpton’s tragi-comedic relationship with the black community and uses it as an example of greater issues—the psychosis of deficiencies and dissonance of identities formed in oppression that gives rise to exploitation by charlatan politicians, preachers, and activists.Sinclair, who has spent his life championing diversity in the workplace and fighting racism in his own life, warns you against believing in charlatans, demagogues, and conmen bearing rhetorical gifts of waging “issues” campaigns on behalf of the oppressed and victimized in society. He uses examples from Sharpton’s life as lessons in identifying and avoiding narcissists, megalomaniacs, and sanctioned hustlers. In doing so, Sinclair addresses controversial events, including Sharpton’s extensive history of bartering black votes for endorsement cash in local New York City mayoral races, his “rent-a-protests” attempts at corporate shakedowns, and his national presidential campaign in 2004 that was financed and managed by visceral Republican opponents of the Democratic Party, seeking to weaken it. Sharpton’s propensity for inventions and self-aggrandizement through association with the famous are also cited. This includes placing himself in Kinshasa, Zaire, for the famed 1974 Muhammad Ali-George Foreman boxing matchup when Sharpton was really sixty-four hundred miles away in New York City. Dropping himself in the midst of Shirley Chisholm’s historic 1972 presidential campaign is also cited, among many equally doubtful examples.Most importantly, Sinclair shows how the black leadership and the Democratic Party have been insidiously weakened from within by a man who subordinated the former by blackmailing the latter. His shocking indictment of Sharpton stems from Sharpton’s own words. Sinclair tracks events, claims, and characters through Sharpton’s own publications and points out the falsity of words and events Sharpton has written about.Throughout, Sinclair stresses the need for a new generation of courageous, morally untainted, and transparent black leaders. He points out the hypocrisy of Sharpton and others as a powerful warning of the perils of ignoring history and accepting anything at face value. In the end, he suggests that only black America can arrest its own exploitation and negation, the start of which is the removal of men like Reverend Sharpton from center stage.

Sometimes referred to as a book without a genre, 'The Woman Warrior' has been described as a memoir, an autobiography, a novel, a manifesto; yet none of these labels really apply. Kingston herself says that to write autobiography is to stand at the borderline between memory and invention. hroughout the five chapters of The Woman Warrior, Kingston blends autobiography with old Chinese folktales. What results is a complex portrayal of the 20th century experiences of Chinese-Americans living in the U.S in the shadow of the Chinese Revolution. The Woman Warrior has been reported by the Modern Language Association as the most commonly taught text in modern university education. It has been used in disciplines as far reaching as American literature, anthropology, Asian studies, composition, education, psychology, sociology, and women's studies. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named one of Time Magazine's top nonfiction books of the 1970s.