Valu-Books Search

:

Clear
Clear
Clear all
12 products found
Products: 1–12 of 12
Show:45
Sort by:Recommended
    • 30% off

    Dear Dad: Growing Up with a Parent in Prison And How We Stayed Connected (Graphic)

    A stunning graphic novel memoir about growing up with an incarcerated parent.

    " ...Your dad is coming back home."

    As far back as nine-year-old Jay Jay Patton can remember, her dad, Antoine has been in prison. Growing up in Buffalo, New York with her mom and younger brother, she's only been to visit him twice. Instead, the two have sent each other numerous letters -- Jay Jay's letters can take weeks or months to reach her dad, and some never even get delivered. What's it going to be like having Dad home?

    This powerful coming-of-age graphic novel memoir tells Jay Jay Patton's life of growing up with a dad in -- and out of -- prison. How she and her dad were able to develop a powerful father/daughter bond and create Photo Patch -- a life-changing application that connects children to incarcerated parents. Because no child should have to grow up unable to engage with their parents. As Jay Jay says: "it's not a privilege for a kid to be able to talk to their parent. It's a right."

    Target age group 8-12
      • 30% off
      Cover price:$14.99 you save $4.50
    • $10.49
    Sorry, we only have 16 of that item available
    • 67% off

    My Lost Freedom: A Japanese American World War II Story

    A moving, beautifully illustrated true story about growing up in Japanese American incarceration camps during World War II -- from the iconic Star Trek actor, activist, and author of the New York Times best-selling graphic memoir THEY CALLED US ENEMY.

    February 19, 1942. George Takei is four years old when his world changes forever. Two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares anyone of Japanese descent an enemy of the United States.

    George and his family were American in every way. They had done nothing wrong. But because of their Japanese ancestry, they were removed from their home in California and forced into camps with thousands of other families who looked like theirs.

    Over the next three years, George had three different "homes" the Santa Anita racetrack, swampy Camp Rohwer, and infamous Tule Lake. But even though they were now living behind barbed wire fences and surrounded by armed soldiers, his mother and father did everything they could to keep the family safe.

    In MY LOST FREEDOM, George Takei looks back at his own memories to help children today understand what it feels like to be treated as an enemy by your own country. Featuring powerful, meticulously researched watercolor paintings, this is a story of a family's courage, a young boy's resilience, and the importance of staying true to yourself in the face of injustice.

    A New York Times Bestseller
    A Caliba Golden Poppy Award Winner

    Target age group 6-9
      • 67% off
      Cover price:$19.99 you save $13.49
    • $6.50
    Sorry, we only have 250 of that item available
    • 68% off

    My Brother Is Away

    In this moving picture book, a young girl reflects on the emotions and challenges of growing up with a brother who is incarcerated. This touching story is filled with vivid illustrations and is based on the author's childhood experiences.

    With her older brother in prison, a young girl copes with the confusing feelings his absence creates. At times she remembers the way her brother would carry her on his shoulders or how he would make up stories to tell her at bedtime. Other times she feels angry and wants to fly so far away that she can forget what happened.

    When her Mama and Daddy take her on the 500-mile journey to visit him, a trip she knows not all families are able to make, the girl is excited but also nervous. But the nerves turn to joy when she sees him -- everything is different, but everything is the same too. Her brother is not home, but his love hasn't changed.

    With words that are spare, gentle, and reassuring, this picture book will help young readers with similar stories feel less alone and give other readers a window into the struggles some children face.

    An NCTE Charlotte Huck Award Honor Book
    NPR Best Book of the Year
    A Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book

    Target age group 5-8
      • 68% off
      Cover price:$18.99 you save $12.99
    • $6.00
    Sorry, we only have 161 of that item available
    • 68% off

    Mi Hermano Está Lejos (My Brother Is Away)

    In this moving picture book, a young girl reflects on the emotions and challenges of growing up with a brother who is incarcerated. This touching story is filled with vivid illustrations and is based on the author's childhood experiences.

    With her older brother in prison, a young girl copes with the confusing feelings his absence creates. At times she remembers the way her brother would carry her on his shoulders or how he would make up stories to tell her at bedtime. Other times she feels angry and wants to fly so far away that she can forget what happened.

    When her Mama and Daddy take her on the 500-mile journey to visit him, a trip she knows not all families are able to make, the girl is excited but also nervous. But the nerves turn to joy when she sees him -- everything is different, but everything is the same too. Her brother is not home, but his love hasn't changed.

    With words that are spare, gentle, and reassuring, this picture book will help young readers with similar stories feel less alone and give other readers a window into the struggles some children face.


    En este conmovedor libro ilustrado, una joven reflexiona sobre las emociones y los desafíos de crecer con un hermano encarcelado. Esta conmovedora historia está llena de vívidas ilustraciones y se basa en las experiencias de la infancia del autor.

    Con su hermano mayor en prisión, una joven se enfrenta a los sentimientos confusos que crea su ausencia. Por momentos recuerda la forma en que su hermano la cargaba en hombros o cómo le inventaba cuentos para contarle a la hora de dormir. Otras veces se enoja y quiere volar tan lejos que pueda olvidar lo sucedido.

    Cuando su mamá y su papá la llevan en un viaje de 500 millas para visitarlo, un viaje que ella sabe que no todas las familias pueden hacer, la niña está emocionada pero también nerviosa. Pero los nervios se convierten en alegría cuando lo ve: todo es diferente, pero también todo es igual. Su hermano no está en casa, pero su amor no ha cambiado.

    Con palabras sobrias, amables y tranquilizadoras, este libro ilustrado ayudará a los lectores jóvenes con historias similares a sentirse menos solos y brindará a otros lectores una ventana a las luchas que enfrentan algunos niños.

    An NCTE Charlotte Huck Award Honor Book
    NPR Best Book of the Year
    A Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book

    Spanish Language Edition
    Target age group 5-8
      • 68% off
      Cover price:$18.99 you save $12.99
    • $6.00
    Sorry, we only have 147 of that item available
    • 67% off

    Harbor Me

    Jacqueline Woodson's first middle-grade novel since National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming celebrates the healing that can occur when a group of students share their stories.

    It all starts when six kids have to meet for a weekly chat -- by themselves, with no adults to listen in. There, in the room they soon dub the ARTT Room (short for "A Room to Talk"), they discover it's safe to talk about what's bothering them -- everything from Esteban's father's deportation and Haley's father's incarceration to Amari's fears of racial profiling and Ashton's adjustment to his changing family fortunes. When the six are together, they can express the feelings and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world. And together, they can grow braver and more ready for the rest of their lives.

    Target age group 10 and up
      • 67% off
      Cover price:$8.99 you save $5.99
    • $3.00
    Sorry, we only have 543 of that item available
    • 30% off

    Missing Daddy

    A little girl who misses her father because he's away in prison shares how his absence affects different parts of her life. Her greatest excitement is the days when she gets to visit her beloved father. With gorgeous illustrations throughout, this book illuminates the heartaches of dealing with missing a parent.

    Mariame Kaba is an educator and organizer based in New York City. She has been active in anti-criminalization and anti-violence movements for the past thirty years.

    "This book is a crucial tool for parents, educators, and anyone who cares about the well-being of children who, through no fault of their own, are forced to bear the consequences of our country's obsession with incarceration. For children who desperately miss their parents, feel confused, or are teased at school, this book can go a long way in letting them know that they are not alone and in normalizing their experiences." --Eve L. Ewing

    Selected as one of Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Books 2019

    Target age group 3-7
      • 30% off
      Cover price:$16.95 you save $5.08
    • $11.87
    Sorry, we only have 32 of that item available
    • 65% off

    Dear Justyce (Paperback)

    The stunning sequel to the critically acclaimed, #1 New York Times bestseller DEAR MARTIN.

    An incarcerated teen writes letters to his best friend about his experiences in the American juvenile justice system. An unflinching look into the tragically flawed practices and silenced voices in the American juvenile justice system.

    Vernell LaQuan Banks and Justyce McAllister grew up a block apart in the Southwest Atlanta neighborhood of Wynwood Heights. Years later, through, Justyce walks the illustrious halls of Yale University... and Quan sits behind bars at the Fulton Regional Youth Detention Center.

    Through a series of flashbacks, vignettes, and letters to Justyce -- the protagonist of DEAR MARTIN -- Quan's story takes form. Troubles at home and misunderstandings at school give rise to police encounters and tough decision. But then there's a dead cop and a weapon with Quan's prints on it. What leads a bright kid down a road to a murder charge? Not even Quan is sure.

    "A powerful, raw, must-read told through the lends of a Black boy ensnared by our broken criminal justice system." --Kirkus, Starred Review

    An NPR Best Book of the Year

    Target age group 14 and up
      • 65% off
      Cover price:$9.99 you save $6.49
    • $3.50
    Sorry, we only have 29 of that item available
    • 82% off

    On Air with Zoe Washington (Zoe Washington)

    An empowering and big-hearted sequel to the best-selling and critically acclaimed FROM THE DESK OF ZOE WASHINGTON by Janae Marks!

    Two years ago, Zoe Washington helped clear Marcus' name for a crime he didn't commit. Now her birth father has finally been released from prison and to an outpouring of community support, so everything     should be perfect.

    When Marcus reveals his dream of opening his own restaurant, Zoe becomes determined to help him achieve it -- with her as his pastry chef of course. However, starting a new place is much more difficult than it looks, and Marcus is having a harder time re-entering society than anyone expected.

    Set on finding a solution, Zoe starts a podcast to bring light to the exonerees' experiences and fundraise for their restaurant. After all, Zoe knows full well the power of using her voice. But with waning public interest in their story, will anyone still be listening?

    An Instant New York Times Bestseller

    Target age group 8-12
      • 82% off
      Cover price:$19.99 you save $16.49
    • $3.50
    Sorry, we only have 116 of that item available
    • 79% off

    Sentence

    In this New York Times best-selling novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich creates a wickedly funny ghost story, a tale of passion, of a complex marriage, and of a woman's relentless errors. Louis Erdrich's latest novel, THE SENTENCE, asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book.

    A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls' Day, but she simply won't leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading "with murderous attention," must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning.

    THE SENTENCE begins on All Souls' Day 2019 and ends on All Souls' Day 2020. Its mystery and proliferating ghost stories during this one year propel a narrative as rich, emotional, and profound as anything Louise Erdrich has written.

    "Dazzling... A hard-won love letter to readers and to booksellers, as well as a compelling story about how we cope with pain and fear, injustice and illness. One good way is to press a beloved book into another's hands. Read THE SENTENCE and then do just that." --USA Today, Four Stars

    Target age group 15 and up
      • 79% off
      Cover price:$19.00 you save $15.00
    • $4.00
    Sorry, we only have 1 of that item available
    • 89% off

    Hotlanta (Hotlanta)

    Twins Sydney and Lauren Duke attend Atlanta's finest school and live in the most exclusive neighborhood. After their estranged father is released from prison and a murder is committed, their lives are plunged into a whirlwind of tabloid scrutiny, vicious gossip, and shocking revelation.

    Target age group 14 and up
      • 89% off
      Cover price:$8.99 you save $7.99
    • $1.00
    Sorry, we only have 219 of that item available
    • 30% off

    Visiting Day

    In this moving picture book from multi-award winning author Jacqueline Woodson, a young girl and her grandmother prepare for a very special day -- the one day a month they get to visit the girl's father in prison. Only on visiting day is there chicken frying in the kitchen at 6 AM, and Grandma in her Sunday dress, humming soft and low.

    As the little girl and her grandmother get ready, her father, who adores her, is getting ready, too, and readers get to join the community of families who make the trip together, as well as the triumphant reunion between father and child, all told in Woodson's trademark lyrical style, and beautifully illustrated by James Ransome.

    Target age group 5-7
      • 30% off
      Cover price:$8.99 you save $2.70
    • $6.29
    Sorry, we only have 148 of that item available
    • 81% off

    Born Behind Bars

    The author of the award-winning THE BRIDGE HOME brings readers another gripping novel set in Chennai, India, featuring a boy who's unexpectedly released into the world after spending his whole life in jail with his mom.

    Kabir has been in jail since the day he was born, because his mom is serving time for a crime she didn't commit. He's never met his dad, so the only family he's got are their cellmates, and the only place he feels the least bit free is in the classroom, where his kind teacher regales him with stories of the wonders of the outside world.

    Then one day a new warden arrives and announces Kabir is too old to stay. He gets handed over to a long-lost "uncle" who unfortunately turns out to be a fraud, and intends to sell Kabir. So Kabir does the only thing he can -- run away as fast as his legs will take him. How does a boy with nowhere to go and no connections make his way? Fortunately, he befriends Rani, another street kid, and she takes him under her wing. But plotting their next move is hard -- and fraught with danger -- in a world that cares little for homeless, low caste children. This is not the world Kabir dreamed of -- but he's discovered he's not the type to give up. Kabir is ready to show the world that he -- and his mother -- deserve a place in it.

    "Venkatraman has never met a heavy theme she did not like... Borrowing elements of fable, it's told with a recurring sense of awe by a boy whom the world, for most of his life, has existed only in stories." --New York Times Book Review

    Target age group 10-14
      • 81% off
      Cover price:$17.99 you save $14.49
    • $3.50
    Sorry, we only have 354 of that item available