Books by Andi Cumbo-Floyd

Esmont, Virginia is a community woven from many vibrant threads of history and story. From the Monacan Indians who first traveled the hills to the plantation owners who created their wealth on this land and the African American people whose labor was used to build that wealth to the stone-quarrying industries and the commercial communities that surrounded them, the story of Esmont is rich and very much ongoing.In this book, you will discover some of the stories that make this quiet community so important, and you may just find yourself inclined to make a visit to this rural place with roots that go deep in the stone of its land.∩╗┐For further information about how to help support the work to preserve and recover the history of Esmont, please visit FriendsOfEsmont.com.

A cryptic map. An evasive gift-giver, and a gathering of powers. When a mysterious peddler shows up at the Wilson's vacation cabin, Jed, Charlie, and Mavis are thrust into an adventure through history. Tasked with unraveling the secrets in map the peddler gave Mavis, the three friends and the community of magic people they know must decide if saving a town is worth the risks involved. Is changing the past reason enough to risk the future? The Map That Can Twist Time is magical realism for the young and young at heart. If you love time travel, a dose of historical justice, and winsome, quirky characters, you'll love the second book in The Magic People series.

A tree that sends people through time. A 12-year-old boy with powers. His adventure could mean freedom . . . Jedidiah Wilson has always wanted to get out of his hometown, but time traveling with his imaginary friend Mavis hadn't been part of the plan. When the anxious, brilliant kid and his 63-year-old friend meet a village of people with special powers, they are whisked into an adventure across time and space to help save the village's children from a man who wants to control them. Using his ability to see secrets and his talent for the classic bait-and-switch, Jed helps the villagers set their plan for freedom in motion. . . with Mavis's assistance of course. Will Jed and Mavis be a help to their new friends, or will they just get in the way? The Boy Who Can See Secrets is magical realism for adults and young readers alike. If you like magical stories, love a good adventure, and appreciate a bit of justice, then you'll love the first book in the Magic People series

They lived with professors and waited on former presidents. They were masons and nurses, school teachers and field hands, 246 people owned by a man who struggled with the institution of slavery. Yet, almost no one knows their names. When a white woman begins to study the history of the plantations these people built, the plantations where she was raised, she discovers that the silence around these people's lives speaks of a silence in her country's history . . . and in her own life. A creative nonfiction, history book about American slavery and its legacy in the United States."In the late afternoons sometimes, I walk up and talk to the folks who are buried in the undulating earth, most of their graves are unmarked by any stone except, perhaps, two pieces of slate stuck vertically in the ground, one at head and one at foot, and long worn down or washed clean of names. But three stones bear words, gifts cut into rock - Ben Creasy, the carpenter, Jesse Nicholas, the stonemason, and Primus, the foreman. Ben and Jesse's stones are clear - with their names and dates marked deeply in the sandstone. I can find them in the records - know for sure who they are. Primus's stone is harder to know. The tradition here on the farm is that Primus the foreman at Upper Bremo is buried here, but I cannot be sure. The stone reads "Prams - 12," and I'm not sure that it refers to this Primus. It may be his grandson, also Primus, or some person I don't know yet. It's the 12 that throws me - the Primus I know lived to be an old man, long past 1812 - his death date is noted - 1849. That date seems right according to the records, but then, the records are so sparse; it's hard to know. I don't know how to solidify - to give storied flesh - to these rough marks hewn deep into stone."