Honestly Elliott


Book Description

Schneider Family Book Award: Best Middle Grade Honor Book! Highly-acclaimed author of Caterpillar Summer, Gillian McDunn explores boyhood in a funny, big-hearted story about a kid trying to find the best way to be his best self. Elliott isn't sure where he fits in. Ever since his best friend moved away and his dad and stepmom announced the arrival of their new baby, he's been feeling invisible. Plus his dad just doesn't seem to understand what having ADHD really feels like, or why cooking is the one activity where Elliott's mind clicks into place. When he's paired with the super smart and popular Maribel for a school project, Elliott worries she'll be just another person who underestimates him. But Maribel is also looking for a new way to show others her true self and this project could be the chance they've both been waiting for. Sometimes the least likely friends help you see a new side to things . . . and sometimes you have to make a few mistakes before you figure out what's right. Acclaim for Caterpillar Summer An Indies Introduce Pick A Texas Bluebonnet Selection A Parents Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year An Amazon Best Book of the Year




Golden Gulag


Book Description

Since 1980, the number of people in U.S. prisons has increased more than 450%. Despite a crime rate that has been falling steadily for decades, California has led the way in this explosion, with what a state analyst called "the biggest prison building project in the history of the world." Golden Gulag provides the first detailed explanation for that buildup by looking at how political and economic forces, ranging from global to local, conjoined to produce the prison boom. In an informed and impassioned account, Ruth Wilson Gilmore examines this issue through statewide, rural, and urban perspectives to explain how the expansion developed from surpluses of finance capital, labor, land, and state capacity. Detailing crises that hit California’s economy with particular ferocity, she argues that defeats of radical struggles, weakening of labor, and shifting patterns of capital investment have been key conditions for prison growth. The results—a vast and expensive prison system, a huge number of incarcerated young people of color, and the increase in punitive justice such as the "three strikes" law—pose profound and troubling questions for the future of California, the United States, and the world. Golden Gulag provides a rich context for this complex dilemma, and at the same time challenges many cherished assumptions about who benefits and who suffers from the state’s commitment to prison expansion.




These Unlucky Stars


Book Description

From the highly acclaimed author of Caterpillar Summer comes a sweet and heartfelt story of a girl's unexpected friendship that changes her forever, perfect for fans of Lynda Mullaly Hunt. Ever since her mother left a few years ago, Annie has felt like the odd one out in her family. Her dad and brother are practical and organized--they just don't understand the way she thinks, in lines and color. Everywhere she turns, she feels like an outsider, even at school, so she's been reluctant to get close to anyone. When a "Ding-Dong-Ditch" attempt goes wrong, Annie finds herself stuck making amends with Gloria, the eccentric elderly lady she disturbed. As she begins to connect with Gloria and her weird little dog, it becomes clear that Gloria won't be able to live on her own for much longer. But it's this brief and important friendship that gives Annie the confidence to let people in, and see how rich life can be when you decide to make your own luck and chart your own path to happiness. In this heartwarming novel, acclaimed author Gillian McDunn shows us that even the most unexpected friendship has the power to change us forever. Acclaim for Caterpillar Summer An Indies Introduce Pick A Texas Bluebonnet Selection A Parents Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year An Amazon Best Book of the Year




Introduction to Business


Book Description

Introduction to Business covers the scope and sequence of most introductory business courses. The book provides detailed explanations in the context of core themes such as customer satisfaction, ethics, entrepreneurship, global business, and managing change. Introduction to Business includes hundreds of current business examples from a range of industries and geographic locations, which feature a variety of individuals. The outcome is a balanced approach to the theory and application of business concepts, with attention to the knowledge and skills necessary for student success in this course and beyond. This is an adaptation of Introduction to Business by OpenStax. You can access the textbook as pdf for free at openstax.org. Minor editorial changes were made to ensure a better ebook reading experience. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.




The Educational Imagination


Book Description

This paperback reprint of the 1994 edition is a highly regarded curriculum development book by one of the most prominent figures in the field. It is designed to help readers understand the major approaches to curriculum planning and the formation of educational goals. In this edition, Eisner provides a conceptual framework that shows learners the different ways in which the aims of education can be regarded...and, describes their implications for curriculum planning and teaching practices. Coverage is grounded in the belief that the appropriateness of any given educational practice is dependent upon the characteristics and context of the school program, and the values of the community that program serves. Chapter titles include: Schooling in America: Where Are We Headed; Some Concepts, Distinctions, and Definitions; Curriculum Ideologies; The Three Curricula That All Schools Teach; Educational Aims, Objectives, and Other Aspirations; Dimensions of Curriculum Planning; On the Art of Teaching; The Functions and Forms of Evaluation; Reshaping Assessment in Education; Some Examples of Educational Criticism; and A Criticism of an Educational Criticism. For teachers and anyone else involved in planning educational curriculums.




Caterpillar Summer


Book Description

This beautifully written, emotional debut perfect for fans of Lynda Mullaly Hunt or Ali Benjamin tells the story of a girl, her special needs brother, and the summer they will never forget. "An engaging, honest book." --Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Newbery Honor-winning author of The War That Saved My Life "A beautiful story of family, forgiveness, life on an island, and growing up.”--Kate Messner, author of Breakout and The Seventh Wish Cat and her brother Chicken have always had a very special bond--Cat is one of the few people who can keep Chicken happy. When he has a "meltdown" she's the one who scratches his back and reads his favorite story. She's the one who knows what Chicken needs. Since their mom has had to work double-hard to keep their family afloat after their father passed away, Cat has been the glue holding her family together. But even the strongest glue sometimes struggles to hold. When a summer trip doesn't go according to plan, Cat and Chicken end up spending three weeks with grandparents they never knew. For the first time in years, Cat has the opportunity to be a kid again, and the journey she takes shows that even the most broken or strained relationships can be healed if people take the time to walk in one another's shoes. An Indies Introduce Pick A Parents Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year An Amazon Best Book of the Year




The Strategic Teacher


Book Description

Are you looking for high-impact, research-based strategies to transform your students into high-achieving and inspired learners? In The Strategic Teacher, you'll find a repertoire of strategies designed and proven to meet today's high standards and reach diverse learners. Twenty reliable, flexible strategies (along with dozens of variations) are organized into these groups of instruction: *mastery style to emphasize the development of student memory; *understanding style to expand students' capacities to reason and explain; *self-expressive style to stimulate and nourish students' imaginations and creativity; *interpersonal style to help students find meaning in the relationships they forge as partners and team members, united in the act of learning; and *four-style strategies that integrate all four styles. To guide teachers in delivering content to students, the authors started with the best research-based teaching and learning strategies and created a tool called the Strategic Dashboard. The dashboard provides information about each teaching strategy in a concise, visual profile; it is also designed to document how you incorporate current, highly respected research into your instructional plans. For each strategy, you'll find the following information: *a brief introduction to the strategy; *an example of a teacher using the strategy in the classroom; *the research base supporting the strategy and how the strategy benefits students; *how to implement the strategy using a list of clear steps; *guidance through the planning process, providing steps, examples, and suggestions for designing superior lessons; and *additional tools, strategies, and resources for adapting and expanding the use of each strategy. The authors have combined their years of research and practice to deliver reliable, high-impact, flexible teaching and learning strategies grounded in current, highly regarded research to teachers at all levels of experience.




The Queen Bee and Me


Book Description

From the highly acclaimed author of Caterpillar Summer and Honestly Elliott comes a heartfelt story about the sweetness and stings of tween friendship. Meg has always found comfort in her best friend Beatrix's shadow. Self-assured Beatrix is the one who makes decisions, and the girls have been a pair since kindergarten. But starting middle school brings new changes in Beatrix, especially when Meg tries to step outside her role as sidekick. When Meg becomes fast friends with the quirky new girl Hazel who also loves science, Beatrix is quick to stake her claim on Meg. Meg doesn't know why Beatrix is being so mean to Hazel--or why it's so difficult it is to stand up to her friend. And Meg starts to wonder: Is being Beatrix's best friend worth turning down the possibility of finding her own voice? This pitch-perfect exploration of middle-school friendship dynamics brims with heart and hope, and will resonate with readers of all ages. Acclaim for Caterpillar Summer An Indies Introduce Pick A Texas Bluebonnet Selection A Parents Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year An Amazon Best Book of the Year




Dreamtime


Book Description

Essays in which happiness becomes a magic carpet, lifting readers above momentary fret and making the ordinary appears wondrous.




Antebellum Posthuman


Book Description

From the eighteenth-century abolitionist motto “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” to the Civil Rights-era declaration “I AM a Man,” antiracism has engaged in a struggle for the recognition of black humanity. It has done so, however, even as the very definition of the human has been called into question by the biological sciences. While this conflict between liberal humanism and biological materialism animates debates in posthumanism and critical race studies today, Antebellum Posthuman argues that it first emerged as a key question in the antebellum era. In a moment in which the authority of science was increasingly invoked to defend slavery and other racist policies, abolitionist arguments underwent a profound shift, producing a new, materialist strain of antislavery. Engaging the works of Douglass, Thoreau, and Whitman, and Dickinson, Cristin Ellis identifies and traces the emergence of an antislavery materialism in mid-nineteenth century American literature, placing race at the center of the history of posthumanist thought. Turning to contemporary debates now unfolding between posthumanist and critical race theorists, Ellis demonstrates how this antebellum posthumanism highlights the difficulty of reconciling materialist ontologies of the human with the project of social justice.