{"title":"Christina Collins","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"town-with-no-mirrors-book-christina-collins-9781492655350","title":"The Town with No Mirrors","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn a modern-day utopian community where mirrors, photos, and even words like \u003ci\u003ebeautiful\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eugly\u003c\/i\u003e are forbidden, a girl who has never seen her own face harbors a guilty curiosity about the outside world. A thoughtful exploration of self-image in a world familiar to readers of \u003ci\u003eThe Giver\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe List\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eZailey has never seen her own face. She's never seen her reflection, or a photo of herself, or even a drawing. In the special community of Gladder Hill, cameras and mirrors are forbidden- it's why everyone's happier here. Nobody talks about anyone else's appearance. You're not supposed to even think about what other people look like, or what you look like.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e But Zailey does.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e She knows her superficial thoughts are wrong, and her sketchbook, filled with secret portraits of her classmates and neighbors, could get her in trouble. Yet she can't help but think those thoughts, and be curious about the outside world where she once lived, years ago. Most of all, she wonders what it's like to see herself-her own face.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e When Zailey suddenly finds herself beyond the gates of her town, she has a chance to see if what she's been taught about the outside world is true and search for the mother she barely remembers. Only then will she find out the real story about Gladder Hill. But is she prepared for the truth?","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49587853656337,"sku":"GOR013395308","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50052059005201,"sku":"CIN149265535XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51030167159057,"sku":"NIN9781492655350","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51717672796433,"sku":"CIN149265535XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ LIKE_NEW \/ SBYB","offer_id":52995384017169,"sku":"CIN149265535XLN","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/149265535X.jpg?v=1751148148"},{"product_id":"girl-wakes-book-christina-collins-9780692656259","title":"The Girl Wakes","description":"Dark, strange, lyrical, and full of frustrated desire and whimsy, Carmen Lau's debut collection of stories paints a vivid picture of femininity in the clutches of fantasy, reflecting the brutality of growing up a girl and challenging readers to rethink fairy tales as they've always known them. Within, you'll find a tender heart, a painful core, and a paradoxically disastrous and beautiful coming-of-age of every and any girl, told through fairy tales that mirror real life and are at once contemporary and timeless. Joining the ranks of Angela Carter, Kate Bernheimer, and Allyse Near, Lau weaves tales of a girl who is too fantastical to be real and too real to be fantasy. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWinner of the Electric Book Award \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEach story is fully illustrated by Christina Collins. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA beautifully vicious first collection of retrofitted fairy tales, with whip-smart swerves, darkly funny moments, and razor-sharp language. Like Angela Carter meets Let the Right One In with a dash of Lady Vengeance tossed in for good measure.\u003cbr\u003e-Brian Evenson, author of Windeye and ALA-RUSA Award-winner Last Days \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eYou think you know these stories of wolves and witches, wicked parents and wicked children, devils and vampire boyfriends. No, you do not. Here is storytelling that is deft and dangerous. Tales that seem to hold back over a great roiling. Then they don't. They get you.\u003cbr\u003e-Lucy Corin, author of One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses and The Entire Predicament \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHaunting and beautiful, Carmen Lau's collection reads like a fever-dream of all your familiar childhood tales. These stories are at once contemporary and timeless, intertwining modernity and the world of the ever-after with deliriously powerful prose. Readers may need a trail of breadcrumbs or a ball of twine to find their way back to reality-The Girl Wakes is mesmerizing.\u003cbr\u003e-Eric Shonkwiler, author of Above All Men and Moon Up, Past Full \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe 'girl' in Carmen Lau's fictions is a kind of shifter, moving in and out of cracked fairy tales, would-be knock-knock jokes, and scenes that run on the weird but persistent logic of certain dreams. Lau's debut is rich, surprising, assured. Let's take a moment to recognize the emergence of a remarkable new writer.\u003cbr\u003e-Scott Garson, author of Is That You, John Wayne? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA warning as you set out on the enchanted path Carmen Lau has created: These sharp, surprising stories beckon like the wolf's unhinged jaw; they will delight you, devour you, transform you.\u003cbr\u003e-Elise Winn, Iowa Review Fiction Award and Fairy Tale Review Prose Award Winner \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFind out more about Alternating Current Press at http: \/\/alternatingcurrentarts.com.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49602530738449,"sku":"GOR013393671","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50356723974417,"sku":"CIN0692656251VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53450581672209,"sku":"NIN9780692656259","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0692656251.jpg?v=1750784052"},{"product_id":"after-zero-book-christina-collins-9781492697350","title":"After Zero","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis award winning book offers kids an authentic depiction of selective mutism and a story of the experience of middle school interactions and mental illness.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eElise carries a notebook full of tallies, each page marking a day spent at her new public school, each stroke of her pencil marking a word spoken. A word that can't be taken back. Five tally marks isn't so bad. Two is pretty good. But zero? Zero is perfect. Zero means no wrong answers called out in class, no secrets accidentally spilled, no conversations to agonize over at night when sleep is far away.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBut now months have passed, and Elise isn't sure she could speak even if she wanted to--not to keep her only friend, Mel, from drifting further away--or to ask if anyone else has seen her English teacher's stuffed raven come to life. Then, the discovery of a shocking family secret helps Elise realize that her silence might just be the key to unlocking everything she's ever hoped for...\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA 2019 Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts (NCTE)\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA 2018 Cybils Nominee\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA Texas Lone Star Reading List title\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Powerful and poetic.\"--John David Anderson, author of Posted and Ms. Bixby's Last Day\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"This tender and truthful book stays with you long after the words have gone.\"--Patricia Forde, author of The List\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"A must read. After Zero reminds us of so many loved ones of those suffering from anxiety or depressive disorders. 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