Books published by WiDo Publishing

Gold Medal Winner in Non-fiction Cultural, Readers Favorite, 2021One hot June afternoon in Durban, South Africa, a child is born. Doctors and nurses marvel because the birth is one of the rarest in the world. The child, Gillian August, is born still shrouded in her amniotic sac. She is a caul baby, and in 1970s South Africa, this heralds greatness.Or it might have, had August''s caul not been stolen within hours of her birth.A belief in predetermined outcomes looms large in Thorp''s family, culture, and her perception of the world. After all, a lifetime of loss seems to confirm the misery promised by the theft of her caul.Gillian is a Coloured girl born under Apartheid who overcomes unimaginable tragedy, loss, and abuse to find her voice and to help others find theirs.This is her story, one where thieves give more than they take, and where something great comes from places where nothing at all is expected.

Nine-year-old Susanna Hutchison witnessed the massacre of her mother and seven siblings before being taken captive by the tribe who slaughtered her family and burned their home to the ground. Eventually, she found a place and a family in the Indian village.When a group of Dutch discovered her years later, she begged to stay with the Indians. But they and the Dutch traded goods for the white girl, and Susanna was forced to leave the village.Returned to Boston and to her brother, Susanna finds everything strange. Now fifteen, she is an outsider among her own people. John Winthrop and the other local authorities are watching her and her brother closely. They have determined that Susanna will conform to the strict society and not become like her outspoken, renegade mother Anne Hutchison.Susanna is not even sure she wants acceptance back into Puritan society, where she feels like an object of pity and scorn. And she certainly does not welcome the attentions of their tall young neighbor, John Cole.Caught between two worlds and belonging to neither, Susanna wonders how she can possibly build a new life out of the ashes of what went before.

Wisconsin family physician, Dr. James Damos, knows firsthand what rural practice can contribute to the body of medicine and to the communities they serve.While most of today's medical students will choose specialized fields of care in a city environment, James Damos bucked the trend. For the past few decades, medical schools have steered their students toward specialization and away from the option of serving as a doctor in a small community. Damos would like to see this changed.Using real-life examples and illustrations from his own experience practicing in a small town, Dr. Damos provides a glimpse into the exciting challenges these doctors face day to day.Damos also describes the health challenges his own family has endured, detailing their struggles with childhood cancer and Alzheimer's Disease. These traumatic events and others described in this heartfelt memoir drive home the benefits of a close-knit community.From the viewpoint of a doctor, a husband and a father, Jim Damos illustrates how genuine personal relationships and a connection with others is sometimes the best medicine.

In 1960, the Badre family emigrates from Beirut, Lebanon to the United States, a dream come true for fourteen-year-old Nasib.Nasib struggles to assimilate as a teen in Albany, New York. With limited English skills, he attempts to learn new customs, make friends, and adapt to a different culture. In Beirut, the Badre family was well-known and socially privileged. In America, they are unknown nobodies. Nasib adopts his father's name "Albert," and to further Americanize his name, young Albert becomes "Al."Despite the many frustrations and difficulties, Al's ultimate goal is to become a successful American. The new anonymity actually inspires the young man. Excited by the opportunities available to him in his new country, he determines to make a potent contribution to society.As he strives to adapt, Al reads voraciously, becoming increasingly interested in religion and philosophy. Books become his "American friends," and reading soon prompts him to ask deep theological questions about his family's Lebanese Protestant roots, his mother's conversion to Catholicism, and the contrast between the Protestant and Catholic faiths. This ultimately leads to his Catholic conversion.Al's search for meaning in life leads him to social activism among New York City's poorest. And, in time, to graduate studies, where his desire is to improve the human condition through information technology.Al Badre- like many other American immigrants-works his way through hardship to achieve a meaningful place in his adopted nation.

The Junior class of the Prairie Winds School of Flight has flown over two hundred miles to compete in the annual South Dakota competition for red-tailed hawks.Two days later with the competition completed, they depart for home despite threatening weather. The happy young flyers eagerly take to the air, their youthful hearts beating as one. But eight hours into their twelve-hour flight, they disappear without a trace.When Kate Flannery, a friend of the hawks since the age of twelve, learns the class has gone missing, she launches a rescue mission. Heading off into the teeth of the South Dakota storm, Kate is determined to find the missing young red-tailed hawks.However, Kate finds herself facing much worse than the dangers of the blizzard. Once again, hawks and humans must unite to help save those they love.

The lives of one highly educated red-tailed hawk named Orville and Kate, a 12-year-old girl, intersect one day on South Dakota ranchland. Orville has a slight vision problem due to faulty DNA, and Kate needs a friend. When Orville crash lands into the side of the Flannery's home, Kate and her parents rescue him and take him to the local vet for treatment.With Orville's broken leg nearly healed, he and Kate go fishing. Orville flies back, carrying the fishing pole in his talons, as part of his physical therapy, while Kate walks alone across the vast prairie. Only she does not arrive.Her parents gone for the Labor Day Weekend, leaving a slightly addled grandmother at home, now creates a desperate situation for Kate. Orville and his schoolmates, the county sheriff's department, and a police dog named Deputy Grace must combine forces to find Kate before it's too late.

It is 1951. Young Jake Conner gets on a bus to visit his cousins in the Mississippi Delta. But when the body of an unknown man is found in the Mississippi River, Jake's summer vacation gets a little more adventurous as he and his cousins snoop around in a mystery that is better left to the grown-ups. "Jake Conner, protagonist and narrator of this coming of age novel, reminds me of Mattie in True Grit and Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. Sharp eyes tempered with childhood simplicity." Delta Magazine "First time novelist, Paul H. Yarbrough, masterfully transports readers deep into the world of Mississippi Cotton, where life is not as simple as it seems." Julie Cantrell, editor, Southern Literary Review; author, Into the Free "Paul H. Yarbrough has painted wonderful images with his words. His writing brings back so many memories. Even if you didn't grow up in Mississippi, you will enjoy Mississippi Cotton." Mary Ann Mobley Collins Former Miss America, Miss Mississippi