Bøker utgitt av Astra Publishing House

"In 1980's Brooklyn, Key is enchanted with her world, glowing with her dreams. A charming and tender doula serving the Black women of her East New York neighborhood, she lives, like her mother, among the departed and learns to speak to and for them. Her untimely death leaves behind her mother Audrey, who is on the verge of losing the public housing apartment they once shared. Colly, Key's grieving son, soon learns that he too has inherited this sacred gift and begins to slip into the liminal space between the living and the dead on his journey to self-realization. In the present, an expulsion from school forces Colly across town where, feeling increasingly detached and disenchanted with the condition of his community, he begins to realize that he must, ultimately, be accountable to the place he is from. After college, having forged an understanding of friendship, kinship, community, and how to foster love in places where it seems impossible, Colly returns to East New York to work toward addressing structural neglect and the crumbling blocks of New York City public housing he was born to; discovering a collective path forward from the wreckages of the past."--Publisher marketing.

"The People Who Report More Stress is a collection of connected stories examining issues of parenting, systemic and interpersonal racism, and class conflict in gentrified Brooklyn"--

"In the wake of a personal tragedy, a novelist goes back home in the Korean countryside to take care of her gentle father and learns, through the testimonies of his loving family and friends, how his lifelong kindness belies a past wrought in both private and national trauma"--

Follow a year in the life of Volans, a flying squirrel, as she glides in the night air to hunt for food, deftly avoids danger from a raccoon, and gives birth to three tiny pups before preparing once again for the coming winter.Emerging at night from a cozy nest high in a tree, Volans the flying squirrel glides down. Although called a “flying” squirrel, she actually doesn’t fly—she glides using fur-covered flaps. Her instincts lead her to her hidden cache of food. She is also looking for a roomier hiding place because she is ready to give birth. When her pups are born she stays close to home, giving them milk and keeping them safe from predators until they can venture out on their own. Filled with intriguing facts and gorgeous illustrations, readers will be fascinated by the story of these remarkable rodents. This latest title in the Secret Life series has been vetted by a flying squirrel expert and includes back matter with more in-depth information, a glossary, and further resources.

A "novel in verse of loss, longing, and identity crises following a poet who resurrects pop star Selena from the dead"--Publisher marketing.

A multifaceted globe-spanning exploration of identity, family, belonging, and the meaning of home.In this singular and intimate memoir of identity and discovery, Vanessa A. Bee explores the way we define "home" and "belonging" - from her birth in Yaoundé, Cameroon, to her adoption by her aunt and her aunt's white French husband, to experiencing housing insecurity in Europe and her eventual immigration to the US. After her parents' divorce, Vanessa traveled with her mother to Lyon and later to London, eventually settling in Reno, Nevada, as a teenager, right around the financial crisis and the collapse of the housing market. At twenty, still a practicing evangelical Christian and newly married, Vanessa applied to and was accepted by Harvard Law School, where she was one of the youngest members of her class. There, she forged a new belief system, divorced her husband, left the church, and, inspired by her tumultuous childhood, pursued a career in economic justice upon graduation. Vanessa's adoptive, multiracial, multilingual, multinational, and transcontinental upbringing has caused her to grapple for years with foundational questions such as: What is home? Is it the country we're born in, the body we possess, or the name we were given and that identifies us? Is it the house we remember most fondly, the social status assigned to us, or the ideology we forge? What defines us and makes us uniquely who we are? Organized unconventionally around her own dictionary-style definitions of the word "home," Vanessa tackles these timeless questions thematically and unpacks the many layers that contribute to and condition our understanding of ourselves and of our place in the world.

"Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep is weird in all the best ways possible . . . These tales are plucked from bizarre worlds, from the blood of shadow creatures, from the tears of angels. Let them haunt you." -Gabino Iglesias, author of The Devil Takes You HomeA collection of short stories moving through time and place, exploring the spaces where we haunt each other and ourselves through our choices, our institutions, and our dreams.Adam Soto, author of the debut novel This Weightless World, which Robin Sloan called "The social novel for the 21st century," returns with Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep. In the title story, a one-armed Harlem Hellfighter goes in search of his specially altered military uniform while Influenza ravages Philadelphia. In "Sleepy Things," a man is bound to the bedside of his comatose girlfriend who haunts his mother's dreams. In "Wren & Riley," a couple travels to Wyoming to visit a childhood friend who killed her abusive husband. And in "The Vegetable Church," a pair of Syrian sisters, refugees of the civil war, find themselves at a crossroads in the home of their European hosts while their dead father whispers to them words of comfort and guidance.The stories in Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep, strange and unsettling, explore the quiet spaces where the living and the dead alike haunt one another through their choices, dreams, and institutions.

"This nonfiction book takes young readers on a journey into the lives of wolves, the largest of all wild mammals who have lived in the Northern Hemisphere for millions of years. Kids will learn how wolves use their powerful jaw muscles and sharp teeth to hunt their prey, how a wolf pack forms, and the meaning of different wolf howls. This book explores every aspect of these fascinating canines and even corrects erroneous myths and lore about them."--

In 1879, after the U.S.S. "Jeannette" becomes locked in ice while attempting to find a route to the North Pole, George Washington De Long and his crew begin a treacherous journey in extreme polar conditions to find help. Includes excerpts from De Long's extensive journals, newspapers from the time, and photos and sketches by the men on the expedition.

"In this dramatic Civil War story, a courageous enslaved fugitive teams with a cunning Union general to save a Union fort from the Confederates--and triggers the end of slavery in the United States. This is the first children's nonfiction book about a Black unsung hero who remains relevant today and to the Black Lives Matter movement."--Publisher marketing.

"A nonfiction "biography" of the light bulb from the electric precursors like the arc lamp to Thomas Edison's invention and beyond to current innovations in light bulb technology"--

After a storm knocks out the power, Sammi cooks an anniversary dinner for her parents using a solar oven.

After a summer of too much zucchini, Gabe and his sister are determined to keep that vegetable out of their garden, but something monstrous is hiding under the leaves. Includes facts about zucchini and gardening.

This riveting nonfiction picture book biography explores both the failures and successes of self-taught engineer Emma Lilian Todd as she tackles one of the greatest challenges of the early 1900s: designing an airplane.Emma Lilian Todd's mind was always soaring--she loved to solve problems. Lilian tinkered and fiddled with all sorts of objects, turning dreams into useful inventions. As a child, she took apart and reassembled clocks to figure out how they worked. As an adult, typing up patents at the U.S. Patent Office, Lilian built the inventions in her mind, including many designs for flying machines. However, they all seemed too impractical. Lilian knew she could design one that worked. She took inspiration from both nature and her many failures, driving herself to perfect the design that would eventually successfully fly. Illustrator Tracy Subisak's art brings to life author Kirsten W. Larson's story of this little-known but important engineer.

Emma is excited about the new Rocket Club at school, until she is paired with Lily, whose projects are always bright and glittery, for the final launch.

Leo has his own slime-making business, but will that help bring his science grade up?

When Arun and Keya find a beehive that's caving in, they ask their neighbor Dr. Chen, who's a beekeeper, for help.

Gia and her father's camping trip is nearly ruined by his forgetfulness, but her sewing skills help to save the day.

Human civilization didn't just fall. It was pushed. The Krakau came to Earth in the year 2104. By 2105, humanity had been reduced to shambling, feral monsters. In the Krakau's defense, it was an accident, and a century later, they did come back and try to fix us. Sort of. It's been four months since Marion "Mops" Adamopoulos learned the truth of that accident. Four months since she and her team of hygiene and sanitation specialists stole the EMCS Pufferfish and stopped a bioterrorism attack against the Krakau homeworld. Four months since she set out to find proof of what really happened on Earth all those years ago. Between trying to protect their secrets and fighting the xenocidal Prodryans, who've been escalating their war against everyone who isn't Prodryan, the Krakau have their tentacles full. Mops' mission changes when she learns of a secret Krakau laboratory on Earth. A small group under command of Fleet Admiral Belle-Bonne Sage is working to create a new weapon, one that could bring victory over the Prodryans … or drown the galaxy in chaos. To discover the truth, Mops and her rogue cleaning crew will have to do the one thing she fears most: return to Earth, a world overrun by feral apes, wild dogs, savage humans, and worse. (After all, the planet hasn't been cleaned in a century and a half!) What Mops finds in the filthy ruins of humanity could change everything, assuming she survives long enough to share it. Perhaps humanity isn't as dead as the galaxy thought.

"When a famous author who writes about evil aliens comes to the school, Grace is prepared to explain how aliens, like Spork, aren't always bad guys"--