Nut Job


Book Description

Every three minutes, a food allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency room. Each year in the United States, 200,000 people require emergency medical care for allergic reactions to food. Approximately 90% of food allergy reactions occur to one of eight common foods in the U.S. called "The Big 8". These foods include Milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, crustacean shellfish, wheat, and soy. And while 1 in 10 adults have a food allergy, nearly twice as many adults think that they are allergic to foods while their symptoms may suggest food intolerance or other food-related conditions. It's time to wake up to the fact that food in the United States is killing us. I am one of over 32 million Americans who suffer from severe food allergies, environmental allergies, and asthma since the age of three. As a first-generation American, I was the "broken child" of parents from hailed from India and had never heard the words "food allergy" before. My entire life had been focused on one thing: making sure my body could withstand another attack. Because there is no cure for food allergies in Western medicine, for four decades, I became a test subject, was poked and prodded to determine the best way to manage my allergies. After I found myself almost dead on the emergency room table (for the fourth time) in 2008, I knew that it might be the last chance I would get to find another way. I felt like I was doing everything wrong. I was doing life wrong. Apparently, I wasn't managing my food allergies well because I wouldn't have been back in the hospital. It was yet another traumatic event in my life due to food, and I had officially hit rock bottom. It was during that time that I made a pact: I whispered into the Universe that if it allowed me to survive that day, I would change everything. With a fire finally lit in my soul, I completely dissected and overhauled my life created the Three to Be(TM) Program, a holistic health, and well-being program that guides people with food allergies and food restrictions to Be Healthy, Be Safe + Be Well(TM) (my mantra), in order to thrive. I needed a program that I could follow daily, using small steps to reclaim my health. None of the existing health and wellness programs on the market really catered to someone in my situation, so I created my own having dealt with severe food allergies for four decades. In facing the demons that had been with me for so long, with conviction, I took charge, I worked my program, and I eliminated my food allergies. In reclaiming my health, I transformed my life. And this is how I did it.




Who Is Sonia Sotomayor?


Book Description

The truly inspiring story of the first Latina Supreme Court Justice. Outspoken, energetic, and fun, Sonia Sotomayor has managed to turn every struggle in life into a triumph. Born in the Bronx to immigrant parents from Puerto Rico, Sonia found out at age nine that she had diabetes, a serious illness now but an even more dangerous one fifty years ago. How did young Sonia handle the devastating news? She learned to give herself her daily insulin shots and became determined to make the most out of her life. It was the popular sixties TV show Perry Mason that made Sonia want to become a lawyer. Not only a lawyer, but a judge! Her remarkable career was capped in 2009 when President Barack Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court, only the third woman and first Hispanic justice in the court's history. Stories of Sotomayor's career are hardly dry legal stuff—she once hopped on a motorcycle to chase down counterfeiters and was the judge whose ruling ended the Major League baseball strike in 1995.




Speak of Me As I Am


Book Description

A moving story of grief, honesty, and the healing power of art — the ties that bind us together, even when those we love are gone. Melanie and Damon are both living in the shadow of loss. For Melanie, it's the loss of her larger-than-life artist mother, taken by cancer well before her time. For Damon, it’s the loss of his best friend, Carlos, who took his own life. As they struggle to fill the empty spaces their loved ones left behind, fate conspires to bring them together. Damon takes pictures with Carlos’s camera to try to understand his choices, and Melanie begins painting as a way of feeling closer to her mother. But when the two join their school’s production of Othello, the play they both hoped would be a distraction becomes a test of who they truly are, both together and on their own. And more than anything else, they discover that it just might be possible to live their lives without completely letting go of their sadness. Praise for Speak of Me As I Am: "Debut author Belasco adeptly captures the tribulations of high school life while also celebrating art's ability to help clarify and contextualize its joys and sorrows. . . . The novel's most intriguing character . . . is grief itself, which the author illuminates, examines, and dissects with a surgeon's precision and the gentle touch of an artist. A stirring account of the trials of adolescence." —Kirkus Reviews "This book will undoubtedly be compared to Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park. . . . Teens seeking a quieter but no less moving story will find this book a perfect read." —Booklist "Never maudlin, always authentic, the portrayal of their struggles to deal with grief and with love will resonate with many teens." —VOYA "A good purchase for realistic fiction collections and for readers looking for books about survivor’s guilt and healing." —School Library Journal "Belasco’s novel sends a powerful message about the complicated nature of grief. . . . This powerful, emotional work should be earmarked to be a favorite with teen readers." —BookPage




Just Ask!


Book Description

Justice Sonia Sotomayor and award-winning artist Rafael Lopez create a kind and caring book about the differences that make each of us unique. A #1 New York Times bestseller! Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award! Feeling different, especially as a kid, can be tough. But in the same way that different types of plants and flowers make a garden more beautiful and enjoyable, different types of people make our world more vibrant and wonderful. In Just Ask, United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor celebrates the different abilities kids (and people of all ages) have. Using her own experience as a child who was diagnosed with diabetes, Justice Sotomayor writes about children with all sorts of challenges--and looks at the special powers those kids have as well. As the kids work together to build a community garden, asking questions of each other along the way, this book encourages readers to do the same: When we come across someone who is different from us but we're not sure why, all we have to do is Just Ask. Praise for Just Ask: * "Addressing topics too often ignored, this picture book presents information in a direct and wonderfully child-friendly way." --Booklist, *STARRED REVIEW* "An affirmative, delightfully diverse overview of disabilities." --Kirkus Reviews "A hopeful and sunny exploration of the many things that make us unique [with] dynamic and vibrant illustrations [that] emphasize each character’s unique abilities. . . . A thoughtful and empathetic story of inclusion." --SLJ




Sonia Sotomayor


Book Description

Biography of Sonia Sotomayor from her childhood near Yankee Stadium to Ivy League universities to her rise in the legal profession.




Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx


Book Description

Pura Belpre Honor winner for The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano and one of America's most influential Hispanics--'Maria' on Sesame Street--delivers a beautifully wrought coming-of-age memoir. Set in the 1970s in the Bronx, this is the story of a girl with a dream. Emmy award-winning actress and writer Sonia Manzano plunges us into the daily lives of a Latino family that is loving--and troubled. This is Sonia's own story rendered with an unforgettable narrative power. When readers meet young Sonia, she is a child living amidst the squalor of a boisterous home that is filled with noisy relatives and nosy neighbors. Each day she is glued to the TV screen that blots out the painful realities of her existence and also illuminates the possibilities that lie ahead. But--click!--when the TV goes off, Sonia is taken back to real-life--the cramped, colorful world of her neighborhood and an alcoholic father. But it is Sonia's dream of becoming an actress that keeps her afloat among the turbulence of her life and times. Spiced with culture, heartache, and humor, this memoir paints a lasting portrait of a girl's resilience as she grows up to become an inspiration to millions.




Just Boris


Book Description

A major and controversial new biography of one of the most compelling and contradictory figures in modern British life. Born Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, to most of us he is just ‘Boris’ – the only politician of the age to be regarded in such familiar, even affectionate terms. Uniquely, he combines comedy with erudition, gimlet-eyed focus with jokey self-deprecation, and is a loving family man with a roving eye. He is also a hugely ambitious figure with seemingly no huge ambitions to pursue – other than, perhaps, power itself. In this revealing biography, written from the vantage point of a once close colleague, Sonia Purnell examines how a shy, young boy from a broken home became our only box-office politician – and most unlikely sex god; how the Etonian product fond of Latin tags became a Man of the People – and why he wanted to be; how the gaffe-prone buffoon charmed Londonders to win the largest personal mandate Britain has ever seen; and how the Johnson family built our biggest – and blondest – media and political dynasty. The first forensic account of a remarkable rise to fame and power, Just Boris unravels this most compelling of political enigmas and asks whether the Mayor who dreams of crossing the Thames to Downing Street has what it takes to be Prime Minister.




Sonia's Legacy: The Lycan Squad Chronicles - Prologue


Book Description

Sonia's Legacy: The Lycan Squad Chronicles - Prologue A Teen Female Lycanthrope Werewolf Romance Fantasy Book Series 1712 A family tree, however long and with whatever ramifications, would scarcely seem to need an introduction or a forward. Its use and purpose must be clear to whoever reads its contents. Yet there are events and details in this family tree that do call for some words of explanation and comment. It's also not a genealogy at all unless the genealogist goes back further. It's the story of the Sonia Lycan legacy, stretching from the 18th to the 21st centuries, from England to Barbados to North America, but with an emphasis on North America and the birth of a country, and particularly of those with a romantic past as revolutionaries and fighters for freedom and social justice. The story began in 1712 on the island of Barbados. It took another 292 years to bring her lineage to Degray. Sonia was born in Barbados on the 17th of March 1696, her mother died during childbirth and from there she was raised by her grandmother. While she did not know her father at the time she was born, she did not have an uncommon amount of siblings to contend with. There was an Uncle Muncie, and two cousins named Bascombe and Julian, the last of whom died before Sonia reached her 15th birthday. She did not remember these people. Her life changed radically when she was forced to join the local brothel as a virgin or whore, at the time at the rate of six pounds a year. This is the way many of the genteel and poorer inhabitants of the island lived. It was there that her lineage began: December 12, 1712 2019 The Sonia bloodline will rule through the female, not the male. The firstborn of the union between James and Nancy is expected to be the most powerful female of pure blood in the Sonia line. Her name will be Jamie. Purity is rare within the Sonia bloodline, which is why the ultimate union of James and Nancy is essential for the survival of the Sonia bloodline. The union must be pure in every way, and if Jamie fails in her birthright then the Sonia bloodline will fall, perhaps for good. That is why, when Jamie was born, James and Nancy left Degray. The risk of jeopardizing Jamie's future is too great; she could very well be the last pureblood descendant of the Sonia bloodline. That is when the true battle for the Sonia bloodline begins. Many humans will oppose her at every turn. Some will hate her for being a Sonia bloodline. Others will want to own her in hopes of finding a way to harness the powerful and alluring blood that flows in her veins. It doesn't matter what human thinks or feels for Jamie. She will be forced to defend herself and others from all human threats and forces. Her destiny will be to protect and lead the Sonia bloodline into their highest and most powerful realms. ***** The Lycan Squad Chronicles follows Jamie Ramsay, the only female Lycan at Degray High School through her junior year of high school as she faces the challenges and victories of romance, cheerleading, friendship, and being the girlfriend of the starting quarterback. Jamie and the Lycan Squad confront many social and family issues being faced by teens and young adults including dating & sex, bullying, death, family, friendship, prejudice & racism, self esteem, physical & emotional abuse, violence, peer pressure, siblings, depression, class differences, and new experiences.




Sonia's Feeling Sad


Book Description

Sonia is a young woman with learning disabilities. She is very sad and avoids her friends and family. At home, she unhappily retires to bed. Sonia's GP says that she is depressed and suggests that she see a therapist. Regular visits to the therapist help Sonia to feel better, and we see that she starts to enjoy life a game.




Sonia's Digital World


Book Description

"We are all connected in so many ways! Find out how with a bird's-eye view as Sonia, her friends, and her community chat, create, and play together with digital tools. Follow the virtual trail at home, at school, and all around the world as Sonia, friends, and families make discoveries and connections. Whether face to face or far away, find out how Sonia-and you!-are part of the digital world! Created in collaboration with ISTE and authored by award-winning superstar librarian Shannon McClintock Miller (ISTE Making IT Happen Recipient, Future Ready Librarians Spokesperson, Follett Thought Leader, AASL Leadership Luminary Social Media Superstar, and more!), this delightful picture book celebrates the many digital opportunities for kids and launches Capstone's Explore with ISTE series. Full-color illustrations and back matter supporting ISTE standards for Digital Age Learning provide even more for children, teachers, and parents to explore"--