Ya’ak & Yesh. Ten-year old Ya’ak lives in a country under military occupation, a land seething with rebellion and political and religious strife, but all he wants to do is tend his goats and learn carpentry from his father. He idolizes his twelve-year old brother, Yesh, until Yesh begins to change, doing and saying things that strain belief and may endanger their family. It’s the story of two brothers asking, “What is more important than family?” and coming up with very different answers.

Red Stitches, White Leather. ​Yu Lawrence Lysses is an 11-year old Japanese-American boy who’s nuts about baseball. He is dealing with his mother’s recent death and his father’s descent into alcoholism when his Little League team wins a tournament in Troy, New York. Yu and his teammates start their journey home to Ithaca, New York. Along the way he must deal with a vindictive executive, a one-eyed giant, a high-tech wizard, his mother's ghost, one really bad restaurant, a legendary monster, and his own betrayal of his best friends.

Hum. Allen’s parents died of illness while on a humanitarian mission when he was not quite four. He has lived with his grandmother ever since. Now 11 years old, Allen has trouble connecting with people and is tortured by a recurring nightmare. They move to a small town in northern New York, where a chance encounter reveals that much of what he’s been told about his early life is a lie, and sends him on a trek to learn the truth through the snow-covered Adirondack Mountains.

What I'm writing

William David Thomas