105 results for “by Len Verwey”

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  • IN PERSON AUTHOR TALK: Decent People with De'Shawn Charles Winslow & Kiese Laymon-January 18 @ 7PM CST
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    Join us to celebrate the release of Decent People with Center for Fiction First Novel Prize winner, De'Shawn Charles WInslow & MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow, Kiese Laymon. 

    EVENT DEETS

    When: January 18 at 7PM CST

    Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden, 2304 Stuart Street, Houston, TX 77004

    How: RSVP for a free ticket or RSVP with book to support the author and our programming. 

    ABOUT DECENT PEOPLE

    From prizewinning author De’Shawn Charles Winslow, a sweeping and unforgettable novel of a Black community reeling from a triple homicide, and the secrets the killings reveal.

    In the still-segregated town of West Mills, North Carolina, in 1976, Marian, Marva, and Lazarus Harmon—three enigmatic siblings—are found shot to death in their home. The people of West Mills— on both sides of the canal that serves as the town’s color line—are in a frenzy of finger-pointing, gossip, and wonder. The crime is the first reported murder in the area in decades, but the white authorities don’t seem to have any interest in solving the case.

    Fortunately, one person is determined to do more than talk. Miss Josephine Wright has just moved back to West Mills from New York City to retire and marry a childhood sweetheart, Olympus “Lymp” Seymore. When she discovers that the murder victims are Lymp’s half-siblings, and that Lymp is one of West Mills’s leading suspects, she sets out to prove his innocence. But as Jo investigates those who might know the most about the Harmons’ deaths, she starts to discover more secrets than she’d ever imagined, and a host of cover-ups—ranging from medical misuse to illicit affairs—that could upend the reputations of many.

    For readers of American Spy and Bluebird, Bluebird, Decent People is a powerful new novel about shame, race, money, and the reckoning required to heal a fractured community.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    De'Shawn Charles Winslow is the author of In West Mills, a Center for Fiction First Novel Prize winner, an American Book Award recipient, a Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction winner, and a Los Angeles Times Book Award, Lambda Literary Award, and Publishing Triangle Award finalist. He was born and raised in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

    ABOUT CONVERSATION PARTNER

    Kiese Laymon is a Black southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is the Libby Shearn Moody Professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University. Laymon is the author of Long Division, which won the 2022 NAACP Image Award for fiction, and the essay collection, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, named a notable book of 2021 by the New York Times critics. Laymon’s bestselling memoir, Heavy: An American Memoir, won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, the Barnes and Noble Discovery Award, the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media, and was named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by The New York Times. The audiobook, read by the author, was named the Audible 2018 Audiobook of the Year. Laymon is the recipient of 2020-2021 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard. Laymon is at work on the books, Good God, and City Summer, Country Summer, and a number of other film and television projects. He is the founder of “The Catherine Coleman Literary Arts and Justice Initiative,” a program based out of the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University, aimed at aiding young people in Jackson get more comfortable reading, writing, revising and sharing on their on their own terms, in their own communities. Kiese Laymon was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2022.
  • Virtual Author Talk: Weightless with Evette Dionne & Morgan Jerkins-December 7 @ 7PM CST
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    Join us on a screen near you to celebrate the release of Weightless with author, Evette Dionne and Morgan Jerkins.


    EVENT DEETS: 

    When: December 7 at 7 PM CST

    Where: Virtual via Crowdcast

    How: Grab a free ticket or support the author and the store by purchasing a ticket with book. You can self register here or we will send you a link before the event. 

    About the Book

    My body has not betrayed me; it has continued rebounding against all odds. It is a body that others map their expectations on, but it has never let me down.

    In this insightful, funny, and whip-smart book, acclaimed writer Evette Dionne explores the minefields fat Black woman are forced to navigate in the course of everyday life. From her early experiences of harassment to adolescent self-discovery in internet chatrooms to diagnosis with heart failure at age twenty-nine, Dionne tracks her relationships with friendship, sex, motherhood, agoraphobia, health, pop culture, and self-image.

    Along the way, she lifts back the curtain to reveal the subtle, insidious forms of surveillance and control levied at fat women: At the doctor’s office, where any health ailment is treated with a directive to lose weight. On dating sites, where larger bodies are rejected or fetishized. On TV, where fat characters are asexual comedic relief. But Dionne’s unflinching account of our deeply held prejudices is matched by her fierce belief in the power of self-love.

    An unmissable portrait of a woman on a journey toward understanding our society and herself, Weightless holds up a mirror to the world we live in and asks us to imagine the future we deserve.

    About Author

    Evette Dionne is a journalist, editor, and pop culture critic. She is the National Book Award–nominated author of Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box, a middle-grade nonfiction book about Black women suffragists, and the former editor in chief of Bitch Media. Her work has appeared in Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Time, the New York Times, the Guardian, Teen Vogue, and elsewhere. A graduate of Bennett College, Dionne is based in Los Angeles, where she works at Netflix.

    About Conversation Partner 

    Morgan Jerkins is the author of Caul Baby, Wandering in Strange Lands and the New York Times bestseller This Will Be My Undoing and a Senior Culture Editor at ESPN’s The Undefeated. Jerkins is a visiting professor at Columbia University and a Forbes 30 Under 30 leader in media, and her short-form work has been featured in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Elle, Esquire, and the Guardian, among many other outlets. She is based in Harlem. 

  • IRL AUTHOR TALK: City Summer, Country Summer with Kiese Laymon - April 6 @ 2PM

    Kiese Laymon

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    Celebrate the release of City Summer, Country Summer with Kiese Laymon!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Sunday, April 6 @ 2PM

    Where: 2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004

    How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    A lyrical picture book from the award-winning author of Heavy, about three Black boys who form a deep connection during a transformative summer trip down South to visit family.

    On the ground of that garden, covered in vegetables and dirt, coated in laughter, I want to say that the Mississippi and New York in our Black boy bodies were indistinguishable.

    Three Black boys spend one special summer exploring the Mississippi woods and woulds and coulds of sharing the kind of freeing friendship that is love.

    Watched over and given space to discover by Grandmama and Mama Lara, New York, Country, and little C find camaraderie in their contrasts and all the unspoken things between them while playing games of marco polo in the thick garden and sledding on cardboard by the underpass. 

    With text brimming with love by award-winning author Kiese Laymon and deeply evocative illustrations by Ashley Franklin, City Summer, Country Summer illuminates the tenuous and tender bonds of friendship Black boys forge with one another.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Kiese Laymon is a Black southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University. Laymon is the author of Long Division, which won the 2022 NAACP Image Award for fiction, and the essay collection, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, named a notable book of 2021 by the New York Times critics. Laymon’s bestselling memoir, Heavy: An American Memoir, won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, the Barnes and Noble Discovery Award, the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media, and was named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by The New York Times. The audiobook, read by the author, was named the Audible 2018 Audiobook of the Year. Laymon is the recipient of 2020-2021 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard. Laymon is at work on the books, Good God, and City Summer, Country Summer, and a number of other film and television projects. He is the founder of The Catherine Coleman Literary Arts and Justice Initiative, a program based out of the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University, aimed at aiding young people in Jackson get more comfortable reading, writing, revising and sharing on their on their own terms, in their own communities. He is the co-host of Reckon True Stories with Deesha Philyaw. Kiese Laymon was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2022.

  • Kindred Stories + Murder By The Book Presents All the Sinners Bleed with S.A. Cosby-June 14 at 6:30 PM CST
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    We're joining forces with our friends from Murder By The Books to celebrate the release of All the Sinners Bleed with author, S.A. Cosby.
    EVENT DEETS
    When: Wednesday, June 14 at 6:30 PM CST
    Where: Murder By The Book ( 2342 Bissonnet Street, HTX, 77005)
    How: RSVP ONLY to grab your free ticket OR RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your copy and support our store's programming. 
    ABOUT THE BOOK
    After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus Crown returns home to Charon County, land of moonshine and corn bread, fistfights and honeysuckle. Seeing his hometown struggling with a bigoted police force inspires Titus to run for sheriff. He wins and becomes the first Black sheriff in the history of the county.

    Then, a year to the day after his election, a young Black man is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies.

    Titus pledges to follow the truth wherever it leads. But no one expected he would unearth a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon.

    Now Titus must pull off the impossible: stay true to his instincts, prevent outright panic, and investigate a shocking crime in a small town where everyone knows everyone yet secrets flourish—all while breaking up backroad bar fights and being forced to protect racist Confederate pride marchers.

    For a Black man wearing a police uniform in the American South, that’s no easy feat. But Charon is Titus’s home and his heart, and he won’t let the darkness overtake it. Even as it threatens to consume him.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    S. A. Cosby is an Anthony Award–winning writer from southeastern Virginia. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Razorblade Tears, which won two ITW Thriller Awards and was named to more than thirty Best of the Year lists, and Blacktop Wasteland, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was a New York Times Notable Book named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, The Guardian, and Library Journal, among others
  • IRL AUTHOR TALK: Communication Skills for Healthier Boundaries with Dr. LaToya S. Gilmore - May 8 @ 7PM
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    Celebrate the release of Communication Skills for Healthier Boundaries with Dr. LaToya S. Gilmore!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Thursday, May 8 @ 7PM

    Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

    How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    Stop People-Pleasing and Start Setting Healthier Boundaries Now

    Do you feel resentful because you didn’t speak up? Do find yourself saying yes when you really mean no, only to burn out later? Or maybe frustration builds, leading to blowups that push people away? In Communication Skills for Healthier Boundaries, licensed psychotherapist Dr. LaToya S. Gilmore addresses the struggles many face when they can’t express their needs, often resorting to either giving in or losing control.

    This book provides essential tools to break free from these patterns and communicate with clarity and confidence. Learn how to set firm, healthy boundaries without guilt and honor yourself without fear of conflict. Tackling either people-pleasing or explosive reactions, Dr. Gilmore’s practical guidance will help you build and maintain fulfilling relationships without compromising your well-being.

    Communication Skills for Healthier Boundaries includes:

    * Verbal and nonverbal communication skills and activities. Attain lifelong skill sets to build assertiveness, confidence, and self-awareness.
    * Real-life dialogue scripts. Practice setting and asserting boundaries at your own pace while finding your communication style.
    * Easy implementation in two parts. Learn core communication skills in the first part of the book, and then apply these skills in the second part, which features common scenarios where boundaries are challenged in everyday life, rela

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Dr. LaToya S. Gilmore is a licensed therapist, educator, consultant, writer, and speaker. She inspires those she works with to intentionally integrate self-care and healthy boundaries in their daily lives and is an advocate for ending the stigma related to seeking therapy. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Prairie View A&M University and a doctorate in counselor education from Texas Southern University. Her master’s degree in marriage and family therapy was earned at Fuller Theological Seminary. She resides in Houston, Texas.

    ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

    Kandice Ewing is a lifelong Houston resident and a dedicated co-leader at the Fellowship of Love Church for over 20 years. Recently, Kandice earned a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Houston Christian University and is now a Licensed Professional Counselor-Associate. Believing that therapy is her true calling, Kandice is committed to supporting individuals, groups, and couples experiencing mental distress, emotional dysregulation, and life stressors.

    With expertise in areas such as grief and loss, depression, suicidal ideation, anxiety, spiritual struggles, relationships, boundaries, assertiveness, and self-esteem, Kandice takes an eclectic therapeutic approach and tailors’ treatment to meet each client's unique needs.

    Passionate about guiding others on their wellness journey, Kandice is dedicated to fostering healing and personal growth in a compassionate and supportive environment.

  • In My Book Era - Enamel Pin
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    Celebrate your bookish era in style with our exclusive “In My Book Era” enamel pin. Thoughtfully designed for readers who take pride in their stories, this pin perfectly captures the joy, calm, and confidence of getting lost in a good read.

    This vibrant pin adds a joyful pop to totes, jean jackets, lanyards, or your favorite book bag. Its sturdy backing ensures it stays secure through every bookstore visit, author event, and cozy reading session.

    Whether you’re gifting it to a fellow reader or treating yourself, this pin is a charming reminder to stay unapologetically in your book era—today and always.

    A must-have accessory for book lovers, Kindred fam, and nyone who believes in the magic of representation on the page and beyond.

    Size: 1.5 " 

  • IN PERSON AUTHOR TALK: The House of Eve with Sadeqa Johnson-April 23 @5PM CST
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    Come meet Sadeqa Johnson, author of Yellow Wife and The House of Eve! 

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Sunday, April 23, 2023 at 5PM CST

    Where: Hogan Brown Gallery (2310 Elgin St, Houston, TX 77004)

    How: RSVP ONLY for TICKET or RSVP WITH BOOK to get your copy of THE HOUSE OF EVE!

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    “A triumph of historical fiction” (The Washington Post) set in 1950s Philadelphia and Washington, DC, that explores what it means to be a woman and a mother, and how much one is willing to sacrifice to achieve her greatest goal.

    1950s Philadelphia: fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college, in spite of having a mother more interested in keeping a man than raising a daughter. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright.

    Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hails from one of DC’s elite wealthy Black families, and his par­ents don’t let just anyone into their fold. Eleanor hopes that a baby will make her finally feel at home in William’s family and grant her the life she’s been searching for. But having a baby—and fitting in—is easier said than done.

    With their stories colliding in the most unexpected of ways, Ruby and Eleanor will both make decisions that shape the trajectory of their lives.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Sadeqa Johnson is the award-winning author of four novels, including Yellow Wife. Her accolades include the National Book Club Award, the Phillis Wheatley Book Award, and the USA Best Book Award for Best Fiction. She is a Kimbilio Fellow, former board member of the James River Writers, and a Tall Poppy Writer. Originally from Philadelphia, she currently lives near Richmond, Virginia, with her husband and three children. To learn more, visit SadeqaJohnson.net.


  • IRL AUTHOR TALK: Into the Light with Mark Oshiro & N.E. Davenport-April 22 at 6 PM CST
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    Come talk mystery and fantasy with Mark Oshiro & N.E. Davenport!
    EVENT DEETS
    When: April 22 at 6PM CST
    Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden
    How: RSVP ONLY to grab a free ticket or RSVP WITH BOOK to support store programming and that author

    ABOUT THE BOOK
    KEEP YOUR SECRETS CLOSE TO HOME
    It’s been one year since Manny was cast out of his family and driven into the wilderness of the American Southwest. Since then, Manny lives by self-taught rules that keep him moving—and keep him alive. Now, he’s taking a chance on a traveling situation with the Varela family, whose attractive but surly son, Carlos, seems to promise a new future.

    Eli abides by the rules of his family, living in a secluded community that raised him to believe his obedience will be rewarded. But an unsettling question slowly eats away at Eli’s once unwavering faith in Reconciliation: Why can’t he remember his past?

    But the reported discovery of an unidentified body found in the hills of Idyllwild, California, will draw both of these young men into facing their biggest fears and confronting their own identity—and who they are allowed to be.

    For fans of Courtney Summers and Tiffany D. Jackson, Into the Light is a ripped-from-the-headlines story with Oshiro's signature mix of raw emotions and visceral prose—but with a startling twist you’ll have to read to believe.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    MARK OSHIRO is the award-winning Latinx queer author of Anger Is a Gift, Each of Us a Desert, as well as their middle grade books The Insiders and You Only Live Once, David Bravo. They are the coauthor (with Rick Riordan) of the upcoming Nico di Angelo adventure book. When not writing, they are trying to pet every dog in the world.

    ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

    N. E. Davenport is the Science Fiction/Fantasy author of the Blood Gift duology. She attended the University of Southern California and studied Biological Sciences and Theatre Arts. She also has an M.A. in Secondary Education. She teaches English and Biology to amazing students. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys vacationing with her family, skiing, and being a huge foodie. She’s an advocate for diverse perspectives and protagonists in literature. You can find her on Twitter @nia_davenport, or on Instagram @nia.davenport, where she talks about binge-worthy TV, killer movies, and great books. She lives in Texas with her husband and kids

  • Contend: Standing Boldly for Biblical Truth While Winning the War Within cover image
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    The call to follow Christ was never a call to passive belief.

    In Contend, Philip Anthony Mitchell, founder and lead pastor of 2819 Church in Atlanta, unpacks Jude's urgent letter—a warning written to a Church under siege from false teachers, compromise, and spiritual laziness—and proves it's still our reality today.

    Countless Believers are still sitting on the sidelines, assuming they'll have another day to get serious about the Faith.

    But the days of casual Christianity are running out.

    Mitchell refuses to let the Church stay passive, and he reminds every Believer that the same Christ who saved you has also equipped you to fight. Through Contend, you will be inspired to:

    * Rediscover the passion and purpose of your Faith.
    * Trade spiritual complacency for a vibrant relationship with Jesus.
    * Boldly proclaim the Gospel with love and grace.
    * Find freedom from sin, disbelief, insecurities, and unforgiveness.
    * Disciple and prepare the next generation to stand firm and press on.

    Each chapter ends with a "Takeaway Truth" to anchor you in Scripture and a "Contender's Charge" to move you into action—because Faith isn't just believing but living out the Gospel.

    The question isn't whether the Faith is worth fighting for.

    The question is whether you will contend!

  • IRL AUTHOR TALK: Black Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood & Myth with Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton & Delita Martin- March 7@ 7PM CST
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    Join us for the official launch event of Black Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood & Myth with author, Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton and artist, Delita Martin. 

    Event DEETS

    When: March 7, 2023 at 7PM CST

    Where: Project Row House Community Gallery (2521 Holman Street, HTX 77004)

    How: Please RSVP reserve your spot. Checkout for RSVP with Book to support our store and the author/artists. 

    About Black Chameleon

    In the literary tradition of Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, and Jesmyn Ward’s Men We Reaped, this debut memoir confronts both the challenges and joys of growing up Black and making your own truth.

    Growing up as a Black girl in America, Deborah Mouton felt alienated from the stories she learned in class. She yearned for stories she felt connected to—true ones of course—but also fables and mythologies that could help explain both the world and her place in it. What she encountered was almost always written by white writers who prospered in a time when human beings were treated as chattel, such as the Greek and Roman myths, which felt as dusty and foreign as ancient ruins. When she sought myths written by Black authors, they were rooted too far in the past, a continent away.

    Mouton writes, “The phrases of my mother and grandmother began to seem less colloquial and more tied to stories that had been lost along the way. . . . Mythmaking isn’t a lie. It is our moment to take the privilege of our own creativity to fill in the gaps that colonization has stolen from us. It is us choosing to write the tales that our children pull strength from. It is hijacking history for the ignorance in its closets. This, a truth that must start with the women.”

    Mouton’s memoir is a song of praise and an elegy for Black womanhood. With a poet’s gift for lyricism and poignancy, Mouton reflects on her childhood as the daughter of a preacher and a harsh but loving mother, living in the world as a Black woman whose love is all too often coupled with danger, and finally learning to be a mother to another Black girl in America. Of the moment yet timeless, playful but incendiary, Mouton has staked out new territory in the memoir form.

    About Deborah DEEP Mouton

    Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton is an internationally known writer, educator, activist, and performer and the first Black poet laureate of Houston, Texas. She was formerly ranked the #2 Best Female Performance Poet in the World (PSI). Her recent poetry collection, Newsworthy, garnered her a Pushcart nomination, was named a finalist for the 2019 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award, and received an honorable mention for the Summerlee Book Prize. Its German translation, under the title Berichtenswert, was released in Summer 2021 by Elif Verlag. The opera Marian’s Song, for which she wrote the libretto, debuted in 2020. 

    About Delita Martin

    Delita Martin is an artist currently based in Huffman, Texas. She received a BFA in drawing from Texas Southern University and an MFA in printmaking from Purdue University. Formerly a member of the fine arts faculty at UA Little Rock in Arkansas, Martin currently works as a full-time artist in her studio, Black Box Press. Martin’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Most recently Martin’s work was included in the State of the Arts: Discovering American Art Now, an exhibition that included 101 artists from around the United States. Her work is in numerous portfolios and collections.

  • Kindred Stories Friendsgiving Dinner - INVITE ONLY
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    Join us for a special dinner that's all about thanking you!  We’re so grateful for your continued support and the beautiful community we’ve built together.

    Please join us for a Friendsgiving Dinner as a token of our appreciation.

    EVENT DEETS:

    When: Sunday, November 16 @ 7 - 9 PM

    Where: Kindred Stories - 2310 Elgin St. Houston, tX 77004

    How: RSVP to let us know you are coming. 

  • Worthy Girl: Believing in God's BIG Purpose for You cover image
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    For all the girls in your life who are inspired, deserving, and worthy, bestselling author Marshawn Evans Daniels’ debut picture book Worthy Girl offers a lyrical, inspirational message about believing in yourself and realizing God’s higher purpose for your life.

    From early on, young girls seek to find their place and voice in a complex world that tells them who they’re supposed to be. Worthy Girl uses soaring language to combat the forces trying to keep girls small and instead awaken their ambition and instill in them an unshakeable sense of self-worth, confidence, and identity bathed in possibility. This beautifully illustrated picture book anchors girls in God’s promises and challenges them to believe—even at a young age—that God made them for such a time as this.

    Worthy Girl is perfect for:

    * Any girl at any time, but especially for birthdays, graduations, and milestones that celebrate a girl’s life and potential.
    * Parents desiring to inspire their daughters to embrace their uniqueness.
    * Reassuring girls that God has a plan for their lives and there are limitless possibilities ahead of them.

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