Picture 1 of 2
Picture 1 of 2
This Thing Called the Future: A Novel, Powers, J.L.
US $7.69
Condition:
2 available
Shipping:
Located in: Montgomery Illinois, United States
Delivery:
Estimated between Thu, May 16 and Mon, May 20 to 43230
Returns:
Payments:
Special financing available. See terms and apply now- for PayPal Credit, opens in a new window or tab
Earn up to 5x points when you use your eBay Mastercard®. Learn moreabout earning points with eBay Mastercard
Shop with confidence
Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.
eBay item number:314834010899
Item specifics
- Condition
- ISBN
- 1933693959
- EAN
- 9781933693958
- Publication Name
- N/A
- Type
- Hardback
- Release Title
- This Thing Called the Future: A Novel
- Artist
- Powers, J.L.
- Brand
- N/A
- Colour
- N/A
- Publication Year
- 2011
- Format
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- Book Title
- This Thing Called the Future
- Publisher
- Lee & Low Books, Incorporated
- Genre
- Young Adult Fiction, Juvenile Fiction
- Topic
- Fantasy / Contemporary, Family / Parents, People & Places / Africa, Social Themes / Dating & Sex, People & Places / United States / African American, General, Health & Daily Living / Diseases, Illnesses & Injuries, Health & Daily Living / General
About this product
Product Information
Khosi lives with her beloved grandmother Gogo, her little sister Zi, and her weekend mother in a matchbox house on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. In that shantytown, it seems like somebody is dying all the time. Billboards everywhere warn of the disease of the day. Her Gogo goes to a traditional healer when there is trouble, but her mother, who works in another city and is wasting away before their eyes, refuses even to go to the doctor. She is afraid and Khosi doesn't know what it is that makes the blood come up from her choking lungs. Witchcraft? A curse? AIDS? Can Khosi take her to the doctor? Gogo asks. No, says Mama, Khosi must stay in school. Only education will save Khosi and Zi from the poverty and ignorance of the old Zulu ways. School, though, is not bad. There is a boy her own age there, Little Man Ncobo, and she loves the color of his skin, so much darker than her own, and his blue-black lips, but he mocks her when a witch's curse, her mother's wasting sorrow, and a neighbor's accusations send her and Gogo scrambling off to the sangoma's hut in search of a healing potion. J.L. Powers holds an MA in African history from State University of New York-Albany and Stanford University. She won a Fulbright-Hays grant to study Zulu in South Africa, and served as a visiting scholar in Stanford's African Studies Department. This is her second novel for young adults.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Lee & Low Books, Incorporated
ISBN-10
1933693959
ISBN-13
9781933693958
eBay Product ID (ePID)
99640882
Product Key Features
Book Title
This Thing Called the Future
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Topic
Fantasy / Contemporary, Family / Parents, People & Places / Africa, Social Themes / Dating & Sex, People & Places / United States / African American, General, Health & Daily Living / Diseases, Illnesses & Injuries, Health & Daily Living / General
Publication Year
2011
Genre
Young Adult Fiction, Juvenile Fiction
Dimensions
Item Length
9in
Item Height
0.9in
Item Width
6in
Item Weight
17.5 Oz
Additional Product Features
Number of Volumes
1 Vol.
Lc Classification Number
Pz7.P883443thi 2011
Grade from
Ninth Grade
Grade to
Twelfth Grade
Reviews
* "This is a fascinating glimpse into a worldview that, while foreign to many readers, is made plausible through Khosi's practical and conflicted perspective." -- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books , starred review "This novel takes a loving, clear-eyed look at the clash of old and new through the experience of one appealing teenager... A compassionate and moving window on a harsh world." -- Kirkus Reviews "[A] compelling, often harrowing portrait of a struggling country, where old beliefs and rituals still have power, but can't erase the problems of the present. Readers will be fully invested in Khosi's efforts to secure a better future." -- Publishers Weekly "Despite pervasive HIV and the specter of rape, as well as the restrictions on girls' freedom that are her society's only response, Khosi manages to find her power, refuse to be a victim, and carve out a future for herself that embraces both the modern and the traditional." -- The Horn Book "This is a powerfully gripping, eye-opening novel that doesn't pull any punches, and readers will long remember Khosi and the trials and tribulations facing South Africans as they venture forth into the modern world while desperately holding onto their heritage." -- School Library Journal "[T]he tense story builds skillfully to an anguished revelation readers will want to discuss." -- Booklist Best Children's Books of the Year, Bank Street College of Education Best Teen Books, Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction for Young Adults, American Library Association (ALA) Best Book for Young Adults, Texas Institute of Letters (TIL) 60 Years, 60 Great Books, Delta College Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College Social Justice in Children's/YA Reading List, * "This is a fascinating glimpse into a worldview that, while foreign to many readers, is made plausible through Khosi's practical and conflicted perspective." -- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books , starred review "This novel takes a loving, clear-eyed look at the clash of old and new through the experience of one appealing teenager... A compassionate and moving window on a harsh world." -- Kirkus Reviews "[A] compelling, often harrowing portrait of a struggling country, where old beliefs and rituals still have power, but can't erase the problems of the present. Readers will be fully invested in Khosi's efforts to secure a better future." -- Publishers Weekly "Despite pervasive HIV and the specter of rape, as well as the restrictions on girls' freedom that are her society's only response, Khosi manages to find her power, refuse to be a victim, and carve out a future for herself that embraces both the modern and the traditional." -- The Horn Book "This is a powerfully gripping, eye-opening novel that doesn't pull any punches, and readers will long remember Khosi and the trials and tribulations facing South Africans as they venture forth into the modern world while desperately holding onto their heritage." -- School Library Journal "[T]he tense story builds skillfully to an anguished revelation readers will want to discuss." -- Booklist Best Children's Books of the Year, Bank Street College of Education Best Teen Books, Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction for Young Adults, American Library Association (ALA) Best Book for Young Adults, Texas Institute of Letters (TIL) 60 Years, 60 Great Books, Delta College Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College Social Justice in Children's/YA Reading List, St. Catherine University, * "This is a fascinating glimpse into a worldview that, while foreign to many readers, is made plausible through Khosi's practical and conflicted perspective." -- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books , starred review "This novel takes a loving, clear-eyed look at the clash of old and new through the experience of one appealing teenager... A compassionate and moving window on a harsh world." -- Kirkus Reviews "A compelling, often harrowing portrait of a struggling country, where old beliefs and rituals still have power, but can't erase the problems of the present. Readers will be fully invested in Khosi's efforts to secure a better future." -- Publishers Weekly "Despite pervasive HIV and the specter of rape, as well as the restrictions on girls' freedom that are her society's only response, Khosi manages to find her power, refuse to be a victim, and carve out a future for herself that embraces both the modern and the traditional." -- The Horn Book "This is a powerfully gripping, eye-opening novel that doesn't pull any punches, and readers will long remember Khosi and the trials and tribulations facing South Africans as they venture forth into the modern world while desperately holding onto their heritage." -- School Library Journal "Captures the local conflicts as well as the universal coming-of-age themes. Teens will sympathize with Khosi's weariness at hearing about her parents' heroic role in the past 'struggle,' and the tense story builds skillfully to an anguished revelation readers will want to discuss." -- Booklist Best Fiction for Young Adults, American Library Association (ALA) Best Children's Books of the Year, Bank Street College of Education Best Teen Books, Kirkus Reviews Best Book for Young Adults, Texas Institute of Letters (TIL) 60 Years, 60 Great Books, Delta College Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College Social Justice in Children's/YA Reading List, St. Catherine University, Publisher's Weekly: For 14-year-old Khosi, life has become far more complicated than she would like. She lives with her mother, her grandmother "Gogo," and her younger sister, Zi, in a Zulu shantytown in South Africa, where conditions are dismal: no one has money, and there are weekly funerals for AIDS victims. On top of everything, a neighbor accuses her mother (who becomes violently ill) of stealing, and Khosi's developing body is drawing unwanted attention, particularly from a drunken neighborhood man who attacks Khosi on multiple occasions. Despite her circumstances, Khosi is resilient; her passions are science and her unshakable connection to the spirit world. "Science is important," she reflects. "So are the old ways. But because they are so stubborn, it makes it really difficult to navigate a path between them to be my own person." Through the eyes of a conflicted teenager, Powers ( The Confessional ) composes a compelling, often harrowing portrait of a struggling country, where old beliefs and rituals still have power, but can't erase the problems of the present. Readers will be fully invested in Khosi's efforts to secure a better future. Ages 13-17. (May) Kirkus: Set in an impoverished South African shantytown where post-Apartheid freedom is overshadowed by rampant AIDS and intractable poverty, this novel takes a loving, clear-eyed look at the clash of old and new through the experience of one appealing teenager. Khosi, 14, lives in an all-female household with her sister, Zi, and frail grandmother, Gogo, subsisting on Gogo's pension and Mama's salary as a teacher in the city (she comes home on weekends). Everyone in Khosi's world is poor. Where the struggle to survive is all-consuming, family loyalty trumps community. Clashes between Zulu customs and contemporary values further erode cultural ties and divide families. A scholarship student, Khosi loves science, but getting to school means dodging gangs and rapists hunting AIDS-free virgins. After a witch curses Khosi's family and Mama falls ill, Khosi and Gogo seek aid from a traditional Zulu healer, which Mama dismisses as superstition while fear and poverty keep her from accessing modern medicine. As stresses mount, Khosi's ancestors speak, offering her guidance. Supported by them, her family and classmate Little Man, Khosi vows to create a better future by synthesizing old and new ways, yet the obstacles she faces--some inherited, others newly acquired--are staggering. A compassionate and moving window on a harsh world. (glossary of Zulu words) (Paranormal fiction. 12 & up), "The traumas that weave through Khosi's life and by extension many areas of South Africa are both harrowing and insightful. This Thing Called the Future is well written and researched." Holly Johnson, Worlds of Words, * "This is a fascinating glimpse into a worldview that, while foreign to many readers, is made plausible through Khosi's practical and conflicted perspective." -- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books , starred review "This novel takes a loving, clear-eyed look at the clash of old and new through the experience of one appealing teenager. . . A compassionate and moving window on a harsh world." -- Kirkus Reviews "A compelling, often harrowing portrait of a struggling country, where old beliefs and rituals still have power, but can't erase the problems of the present. Readers will be fully invested in Khosi's efforts to secure a better future." -- Publishers Weekly "Despite pervasive HIV and the specter of rape, as well as the restrictions on girls' freedom that are her society's only response, Khosi manages to find her power, refuse to be a victim, and carve out a future for herself that embraces both the modern and the traditional." -- The Horn Book "This is a powerfully gripping, eye-opening novel that doesn't pull any punches, and readers will long remember Khosi and the trials and tribulations facing South Africans as they venture forth into the modern world while desperately holding onto their heritage." -- School Library Journal "Captures the local conflicts as well as the universal coming-of-age themes. Teens will sympathize with Khosi's weariness at hearing about her parents' heroic role in the past 'struggle,' and the tense story builds skillfully to an anguished revelation readers will want to discuss." -- Booklist Best Fiction for Young Adults, American Library Association (ALA) Best Children's Books of the Year, Bank Street College of Education Best Teen Books, Kirkus Reviews Best Book for Young Adults, Texas Institute of Letters (TIL) 60 Years, 60 Great Books, Delta College Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College Social Justice in Children's/YA Reading List, St. Catherine University
Copyright Date
2011
Lccn
2010-037399
Dewey Decimal
Fic
Intended Audience
Young Adult Audience
Number of Pages
208 Pages
Item description from the seller
Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.
eBay item number:314834010899
Shipping and handling
Item location:
Montgomery Illinois, United States
Ships to:
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan Republic, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde Islands, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon Republic, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Croatia, Republic of the Congo, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City State, Vietnam, Wallis and Futuna, Western Samoa, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Excludes:
American Samoa, Barbados, Belarus, British Virgin Islands, Comoros, Cook Islands, Dominica, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), French Guiana, French Polynesia, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Iraq, Jersey, Libya, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mayotte, Micronesia, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, Niue, Palau, Puerto Rico, Reunion, Russian Federation, Saint Helena, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Somalia, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Tuvalu, Ukraine, Venezuela, Virgin Islands (U.S.), Western Sahara
| Shipping and handling | Each additional item | To | Service | Delivery*See Delivery notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free shipping | Free | United States | Economy Shipping (USPS Media MailTM) | Estimated between Thu, May 16 and Mon, May 20 to 43230 |
| US $4.95 | US $4.95 | United States | Standard Shipping (DGM SmartMail Expedited) | Estimated between Thu, May 16 and Tue, May 21 to 43230 |
| US $10.95 | US $10.95 | United States | Expedited Shipping (USPS Priority Mail®) | Estimated between Tue, May 14 and Fri, May 17 to 43230 |
| Handling time |
|---|
| Will usually ship within 1 business day of receiving cleared payment. |
| Taxes |
|---|
| Taxes may be applicable at checkout. Learn moreLearn more about paying tax on eBay purchases. |
Return policy
| After receiving the item, contact seller within | Refund will be given as | Return shipping |
|---|---|---|
| 30 days | Money Back | Seller pays for return shipping |
Refer to eBay Return policyopens in a new tab or window for more details. You are covered by the eBay Money Back Guaranteeopens in a new tab or window if you receive an item that is not as described in the listing.
Payment details
Payment methods
Popular categories from this store
Seller feedback (235,805)
m***6 (75)- Feedback left by buyer.
Past 6 months
Verified purchase
The book was priced fairly, arrived when it was scheduled to and was exactly as described. The packing the book came is protected it perfectly from any damage. This was a vary easy transaction. I would buy from this seller again. A+++
n***e- Feedback left by buyer.
Past 6 months
Verified purchase
⭐⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ EXCELLENT SELLER!! Arrived today, lightning fast! Great condition! Packaged very well, shipped super fast, Identical to listing and photos, much better in person!!! Well described! I highly recommend this seller! Great communication! Perfect all around, and a really nice seller to deal with... I am very happy! THANK YOU !!! TOP NOTCH SELLER!!
1***7 (2172)- Feedback left by buyer.
Past 6 months
Verified purchase
Excellent transaction. Fantastic seller who is very responsive to inquiries. Packaged/protected item well for shipping and item was just as described. I would definitely buy from again! Thank you! A++++
Product ratings and reviews
More to explore :
- L. J. Smith Fiction Fiction & Books,
- L. J. Smith Nonfiction Fiction & Books,
- Future Publishing Magazines,
- Fiction Hardcover L. J. Smith & Books,
- L. J. Smith Fiction Fiction & Books in English,
- Future Publishing Magazines in English,
- Future Publishing Monthly Magazines,
- Nonfiction Futurism Fiction & Nonfiction Books,
- L. J. Smith Fantasy Fiction Fiction & Nonfiction Books,
- Special Issue Future Publishing Magazines