Bøger af Antoinette Truglio Martin

Lily has to do EVERYTHING. She bakes Daily Bread, minds her thumb-sucking little sister, hangs laundry on the roof, and keeps up with home chores her big sisters list. She even fetched a nurse from the Henry Street Settlement to save Mama and the new baby. Now the bossy public health nurse, who visits each day to attend to somber Mama and the bawling baby, sends Lily on errands throughout the Little Italy streets. Things turn around when Lillian Ward, the Henry Street Settlement head nurse, hears Lily's powerful voice, she invites Lily to sing in the Children's Choir. Lily sneaks to the choir and the forbidden play yard with tag-along Gigi on Wednesday afternoons. Her schemes unfold when she needs permission to sing with the choir at the New York Highlanders Fourth of July baseball game at Hilltop Park. The Yanks need a morale booster, and Lily and the choir may be the ticket to keep fans cheering and buying beer, Cracker Jack and ice cream. More trouble arises when a mean girl wants Lily's solo, and the "e;Black Hand"e; terrorizes the neighborhood.Another excellent read. Great historical fiction should take the reader back in time and let the story unfold as if the reader is there, worrying about every challenge and sharing the joy of every success. It should be a vivid representation of the time, allowing the reader to learn just by enjoying the story.The characters should be as real as any normally flawed good or bad person might be.As a homeschool father, I would put The Dreams of Singers and Sluggers into the hands of my children and teens. Just like the first book, The Heart of Bakers and Artists, the story depicts what it was like living through the time of the story while developing a great love of reading. The imagery of the story can so easily settle into the readers' DNA and become almost as real as any other memory.Gary A Wilson, AuthorIn The Dreams Sluggers and Singers, nine-year-old Lily Taglia has a secret. The child of Italian immigrants, she's discovered a paradise in the lower east side tenements of 1911; a place where she can sing her heart out and her little sister Gigi can play in safety, the Henry Street Settlement. When the opportunity to perform with the chorus in public presents itself, Lily has to find a way to get her parents' permission and risks losing the dream of her lifetime.As in its predecessor, The Heart of Bakers and Artists, the author uses rich description and well-researched details to bring the dangers and challenges of Lily's world on the lower east side to life. It is a story of hardships, hopes and growing up.Jacqueline Goodwin, MFA AuthorWhat do you sacrifice to follow your dream? That's the challenge Lily, a young girl growing up in New York's Lower East Side faces in The Dreams of Singers and Sluggers. The story is set in 1911, where being a child of a poor immigrant family makes it difficult to have a dream because it interferes with daily survival and her parents' expectations.Today's young readers are offered the opportunity to step back in time and observe how difficult it was to grow up in an era that was common for young children to attend to school, while also having jobs and helping with family responsibilities. Despite a grueling schedule, Lily, and other children, have dreams and hopes, and they struggle to achieve them, despite the odds.Pat Black-Gould PhD Clinical Psychologist

Antoinette Martin believed herself to be a healthy and sturdy woman-that is, until she received a Stage 1 breast cancer diagnosis. Cancer is scary enough for the brave, but for a wimp like Martin, it was downright terrifying. Martin had to swallow waves of nausea at the thought of her body being poisoned, and frequently fainted during blood draws and infusions. To add to her terror, cancer suddenly seemed to be all around her. In the months following her diagnosis, a colleague succumbed to cancer, and five of her friends were also diagnosed. Though tempted, Martin knew she could not hide in bed for ten months. She had a devoted husband, daughters, and a tribe of friends and relations. Along with work responsibilities, there were graduations, anniversaries, and roller derby bouts to attend, not to mention a house to sell and a summer of beach-bumming to enjoy. In order to harness support without scaring herself or anyone else, she journaled her experiences and began to e-mail the people who loved her-the people she called My Everyone. She kept them informed and reminded all to 'hug everyone you know' at every opportunity. Reading the responses became her calming strategy. Ultimately, with the help of her community, Martin found the courage within herself to face cancer with perseverance and humor.