FICTION · CHILDREN
Anne E. Schraff
Also known as: Anne Schraff, Anne E Schraff
The Bluford Series is a collection of contemporary American young adult novels set in the fictional inner-city high school of Bluford High in Southern California. Bluford is named after Guion "Guy" Bluford, the first African-American astronaut. The series was created and published by Townsend Press and was co-distributed by Scholastic. As part of an effort to promote reading in underfunded school districts, Townsend Press originally made the Bluford Series available to schools for a dollar each. As of 2018, over 11 million copies of Bluford Series novels have been sold.
Cindy Gibson tripped over a stack of magazines in the middle of the living room, bumped her knee against the sharp corner of the coffee table, and dropped a can of cat food on the floor.
— from Someone to Love Me (Bluford Series, Number 4), 2001
Most acclaimed
Jackie Robinson
2008
Traces the life of the talented and determined athlete who broke the color barrier in major league baseball in 1947 by joining the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Unbroken
1999
On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War. The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.
Frederick Douglass
1970
"We are deeply honored to announce that Thornwillow Press is working with renowned literary critic, historian, filmmaker, and Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. to publish an exquisite letterpress, hand-bound edition: Frederick Douglass: Portrait of a Free Man. This exciting publication brings together the powerful Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, with two monographs by Professor Gates, which offer readers new and profound insights. In many ways, Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s scholarship has defined the field of African American studies. He is one of the foremost public intellectuals of our day. "As any biographer of Douglass knows," says Gates, "there was not a Frederick Douglass; there were many Douglasses. And that, for him, was his ultimate claim on being fully and equally and complexly human." In Frederick Douglass: Portrait of a Free Man, Gates brings us the monograph "Binary Opposition in Douglass' Narrative", which explores the literary conventions and binary oppositions Douglass used, and gives the reader a deeper insight into the narrative. Gates second monograph, "Camera Obscura", examines the vital power photos have on public opinion, both in terms of abolition and contemporary society, and brings to light the fact that Frederick Douglass was the most photographed American of the 19th century. In a time when caricatures in mainstream media portrayed Black people as naturally subjugated and unintelligent, Douglass knew that art, in the hands of racist whites, did not depict reality. Photography, on the other hand, gave a true "likeness" and as a tool for social change, could be key in altering long-held stereotypes and prejudices about Black people. Douglass posed for 160 photographs over the course of his lifetime, and in doing so, gave people a new image: that of a dignified, intelligent, free Black man. Because how we see things, says Henry Louis Gates Jr. in Frederick Douglass: Portrait of a Free Man is how we view them. The edition contains fine art photographs throughout to illustrate this salient point. The timing of the publication of Frederick Douglass: Portrait of a Free Man is particularly poignant because Thornwillow Press calls Newburgh, NY home, and in 1870, Frederick Douglass visited our city to commemorate the passage of the Civil Rights Act that enforced the terms of the 15th Amendment. In honor of his visit to Newburgh and his legacy of voter rights, a city-wide commemoration is being planned for 2020. We are exceptionally pleased to bring this publication into being at such an auspicious moment."--Publisher's kickstarter prospectus (viewed 2019 May 13).