Lesléa Newman

Relates, from various points of view, events from the night of October 6, 1998, when twenty-one-year-old Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was lured out of a Wyoming bar, savagely beaten, tied to a fence, and left to die.

On the night of October 6, 1998, in Laramie, Wyoming, Matthew Wayne Shepard (1976-1998) was brutally killed solely because he was gay. It was a shocking murder that was nationally covered in the media, and it became a rallying cry for the LGBTQ+ rights movement. In 2009, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was signed by President Barack Obama, expanding the federal hate crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's...

"Moshe Cotel was a composer who lived in a noisy building on a noisy street in a noisy city. But Moshe didn't mind. Everything he heard was music to his ears. One day, while out for a walk, he heard a small, sad sound that he'd never heard before. It was a tiny kitten! "Come on, little Ketzel, " Moshe said, "I will take you home and we will make beautiful music together." And they did--in a most surprising way. Inspired by a true story, Lesléa Newman...

Inside the house, a boy prepares for the Passover ritual of welcoming Elijah--meanwhile, outside the house, a kitten lingers in the cold.

Professor Ueno's loyal Akita, Hachiko, waits for him at the train station every afternoon, and even after the professor has a fatal heart attack while at work, Hachiko faithfully continues to await his return until the day the dog dies. Based on a true story; includes an author's note and glossary of Japanese words.

Sharing candid interviews with 13 top children's and young adult authors who discuss why their books have faced censorship, a historian and critic puts First Amendment challenges into historical context and examines the support network that protects and defends young people's rights.