Books published by publisher Second ACT Press

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.

A businessman with a dark secret, a Russian assassin and a provincial journalist are caught up in a terrifying deception orchestrated by a sociopathic MI6 operative. 1984: Ronald Reagan has announced the Strategic Defence Initiative (otherwise known as Star Wars) plunging the British Government into a state of shock. With the Cold War in its death throes, the UK has neither the funds nor the technology to match its allies. However MI6 has always known that it doesn’t matter if you actually have the gun or not, so long as your enemy thinks that you do. Covert operative Colin Medlin is tasked with orchestrating a credible deception regarding the UK’s own Missile Defence programme. Medlin’s bloody business has far-reaching consequences: entrepreneur Paul Jones discovers his lucrative contract with the government comes with strings attached; KGB assassin, Sofia Petrovna, believes herself to have been abandoned by her country and left to rot in suburban Britain - until she is given a list of names and a gun; disillusioned local hack Tom Riggs stumbles upon the conspiracy, but can barely hold down his lowly job at a provincial newspaper. This perilous game, where one lie hides another, stretches across two decades and seven countries. In the maelstrom that Medlin unleashes, not everyone will get out alive.Damaged States is the first in a planned trilogy of novels featuring Colin Medlin: a man reluctant to die for his country, but who won't think twice about killing for it...

A story of encouragement and triumph of the human spirit! A diagnosis of heart failure can be a crushing blow to a person’s reality. The condition brings with it uncertainty and many challenges for the individual and their loved ones. The journey of the decline in the health of this decorated combat military veteran and his will to survive is eloquently told. This is a true account of a spouse who becomes a caregiver to her husband during his critical illness. The veteran’s journey from a devastating prognosis through implantation of a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) is told on the pages of the book. The couple's life after the LVAD open-heart surgery brings health and promise, but additional medical challenges for both threaten the resolve and faith of this hopeful couple. This memoir by the spouse of the veteran takes the reader through this strong-willed man’s heart failure diagnosis, medical treatments, surgeries, and multiple recovery periods. The life-saving gift of a donor's heart becomes the ultimate blessing for this man and his family. The hope is this book provides encouragement to anyone affected.

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.

This little boy wants to know what he will be when he grows up. An astronaut or maybe the President? One thing he knows for sure, he can't be a "Little Prince," if his mommy's not a Queen. What will he be when he grows up?This story is written in simple rhyme and filled with sweet illustrations of a “Little Prince” with a big imagination and a lot of questions. Young boys will enjoy hearing how one “Little Prince” discovers a world of possibilities.

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.