App Store

Google Play

BG - Details page - Device banner - 894x1036

Открийте безкрайна вселена от истории

Слушайте и четете

Greta Gorsuch

Meet Queen. She drives a garbage truck in Garnet, way out on the plains of West Texas. Tall and beautiful, Queen wonders what will become of her life. Her marriage did not work out. Her cold husband locked her out. He dumped her boxes in front of the house with a note. She had few job skills.

Yet like a tender plant after a terrible winter, Queen puts down roots and grows. Her ex-brother-in-law gets her a job with the City of Garnet Solid Waste Department. Her boss and coworkers are all men. They tell lots of third-grade jokes, but they’ve got her back. When she makes enough money to buy a house, they help her move in.

Even better, she gets to live across the street from her eighty-seven-year-old grandmother. Betty Cope needs assistance with small day-to-day things. Queen is happy to help, unlike Betty’s three daughters. This includes Queen’s own mother, Lila.

When Betty makes a sudden trip to the hospital, Queen finds herself up against Lila and her Aunt Reba. Reba is an awful rich woman from Dallas. While Queen struggles to stay serene, her mother and aunt do something unbelievable. It’s up to Queen to put things right.

Gemma Open Door

Queen Serene

Laurie Foos

In many ways, the Hamilton children are like any other kids. Eleven-year-old Mia and ten-year-old Will love playing Minecraft, eating pizza, and playing in the yard. But Mia knows that because Will is on the autism spectrum, some things are different for him. For starters, he doesn’t like things to change. Pizza has to be just so crispy, or he won’t eat it. He uses lines from movies to answer most questions. If his toast is too dark, Will could have a total meltdown.

When Mom and Dad announce they’re getting a babysitter for the first time, Mia is alarmed. What will happen if the babysitter doesn’t understand the unusual things Will does? Her parents know that she is Will’s “translator” because she always understands him. Can they manage a whole night with a brand-new person in charge? Is it always Mia’s job to worry, or can she find a way to rely on other people? Toast explores the tender, scary, funny, and always complex relationship between a girl and her autistic brother.

Taylor Meskimen

Toast

An inspiring Hi-Lo story for emerging readers from the Gemma Open Door Series.

In Japan, nothing is more familiar than the neighborhood post office with its bright, welcoming windows and big red box in front. The post office has been Siya’s favorite place since she was a child. Now a young woman, she is delighted to have a job at the Shindori Post Office in Shizuoka City, even though it is temporary.

But her boss is a jerk. Born in Japan of a Japanese father and an Indian mother, Siya looks just a little different. The boss won’t believe she is a native speaker and gives her a hard time every day! To add to her worries, a motorbike bandit is stealing money from elderly customers who use post offices to do their banking.

Shindori Post Office is right on the Tokaido Road, an ancient path that follows the sea. As Siya explores her new home in Shizuoka City, she finds history hidden away in this modern city. She is strong, and she notices things. One day, as she stands on the old road with modern cars zooming by, the motorbike bandit strikes. And what Siya does next surprises everyone…even herself!

The Gemma Open Door Series features storytelling by best-selling authors and important voices for new readers. A story doesn’t have to be big to change ‎our world‎. ‎ ‎

Post Office on the Tokaido

R. Timothy Rush

An inspiring Hi-Lo story for emerging readers from the Gemma Open Door Series.

Set in the rugged western United States, American Lion presents true stories of the majestic North American cougar told by people who experienced the mountain lion up close. From the Rock Creek Canyon battle of the killer lion and shepherd dog to the invisible guest in the hay loft, these encounters are terrifying, heartwarming and at all times as thrilling as the native cats themselves.

The Gemma Open Door Series features storytelling by best-selling authors and important voices for new readers. A story doesn’t have to be big to change ‎our world‎. ‎ ‎

Steven Mendel

American Lion

Charles Coe

An inspiring Hi-Lo story for emerging readers from the Gemma Open Door Series.

Brilliant, homeless and nearly invisible, a young man wanders through Boston, looking for meaning and hope. Extreme mood swings and an unusual outlook on life make it impossible for him to thrive in mainstream society. He finds comfort in laundromats, where he calms himself by watching clothes tumble round and round and round. And in the streets he finds other people like himself, below the radar, laboring to survive. Poignant and buoyant, Spin Cycles is a story of loss, discovery, and, just possibly, redemption.

“Spin Cycles reminds us, as the best fiction always does, that every person has a story to tell. Touching and beautiful. ” William Martin, Back Bay and The Lincoln Letter

The Gemma Open Door Series features storytelling by best-selling authors and important voices for new readers. A story doesn’t have to be big to change ‎our world‎. ‎ ‎

Spin Cycles

Marta Maretich

An inspiring Hi-Lo story for emerging readers from the Gemma Open Door Series.

The McCall family should be thrilled to be back in California, after what happened to them in Africa. Forced to flee their home in Nigeria by the violence of the Biafran Civil War, they turn up in a small town in the San Joaquin Valley, and everyone assumes they must be delighted to be back in their own country. But while life in the States may be safe, it’s also foreign to this unlikely family of refugees. They dream of the day they’ll return to their real home in Africa—a prospect that seems more remote as they watch the brutal progress of “their” war on television.

Fortunately, relief comes in the suave form of Anatole Hachette and Roland, his lion. Like the McCalls, Anatole has been thrown out of Africa. Unlike them, he has solved the problem of losing his native land. His plan is to recreate a piece of it in California by establishing a wild animal park, Safariland, on the dry plains outside of town. But will the cautious locals embrace the possibility of lions? And can two such different worlds really be brought together in one place?

"Marta Maretich has a fine and witty imagination. Her novella presents an entertaining and thought-provoking romp in Central California, complete with otiose lions and irritable oilmen, all seen through the eyes of a sensitive and precocious young girl." Tony Eprile, The Persistence of Memory

“Marta Maretich knows that the world is both more various and more wonderful than it may appear. The Possibility of Lions looks at feelings that cannot easily be named, and reveals hidden lives behind the bleached out colors of the California heartland. Maretich writes in a clear, sharp voice edged through with humor and compassion. She knows what it means to be displaced, and the unexpected friendships forged between the lost. ” Catherine Temma, The Priest Fainted

Trish O'Hare

The Possibility of Lions

An inspiring Hi-Lo story for emerging readers from the Gemma Open Door Series. 

Jessica Vasquez had worked hard to get where she was. Though some in her family had despaired of her future, she put herself through cosmetology school and landed her dream job: overseeing the beauty department for a chain of drugstores. But her fortune abruptly changes. A manager’s daughter, on a mission of her own, puts stolen makeup and perfume in Jessica’s bag. The girl lies to her dad about what happened, and Jessica is fired. It seems that Jessica’s life is over.

But is it really?

Needing to pay the bills, Jessica begins driving for a ridesharing company. It’s scary at first, and she doesn’t make a lot of money. But soon she gets the hang of it. Follow Jessica as her father and her new friends at the airport cell phone lot help her to find a new life. And, just maybe, get some of her old life back.

The Gemma Open Door Series features storytelling by best-selling authors and important voices for new readers. A story doesn’t have to be big to change ‎our world‎. ‎ ‎