A Cheer For The Year

A Cheer for the Year offers a poetic calendar of holiday treats, the feeling you get when a friend presses a box of decadent chocolates in your hands, and you didn't even know that's what you were missing. Author/poet Raven Howell lights sparklers, flips pancakes and dances us merrily through the year while illustrator Meredith Fern's paper cut-outs create the friendly, imaginative, and expressive home for each verse.

Think cheerleading is just pom-poms, "gimme an 'R,'" and pleated skirts? Not anymore. Take an exhilarating trip through the rough-and-tumble world of competitive college cheerleading....College cheerleaders are extreme athletes who fly thirty feet in the air, build pyramids in which a single slip can send ten people crashing to the ground, and compete in National Championships that are won by hundredths of a point.Cheer!is a year-long odyssey into their universe, following three squads from tryouts to Nationals.Meet the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjack cheerleaders from Nacogdoches, Texas, whoseem destined to win their fifth National Championship in a row -- until they are shaken by the departure of their longtime coach. Fall in love with the Southern University Jaguars from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, an African-American team hoping to raise the $17,000 needed to travel to Nationals and transform their near win several years ago into a Cinderella victory. Root for the University of Memphis All-Girl cheerleaders from Tennessee -- a team that continually struggles for the same respect Coed teams get -- when their quest for a national title is threatened by injuries and dropouts.Along the way, meet unforgettable characters like Sierra, a cheerleading prodigy who has never lost a competition; Doug, who is in his eighth year as a college cheerleader; and Casi, one of the few female bases who can lift anothercheerleader on her own. These are people who risk horrifying injuries on a daily basis, battle demons like eating disorders and steroid use, and form intense bonds.In the immersive tradition ofFriday Night Lights,Cheer!is a captivating, all-access journey into a deeply absorbing world.

Roxy is like every other high school senior––she loves her friends, her car and hanging on the sidelines of her boyfriend's football games. She lives a picturesque life. But every night her world gets turned upside down––Roxy dreams of a fantastic past she can't remember ever living. In her dreams, Roxy is a warrior, incredible on the battlefield. But the dreams usually end the same way––a mysterious man not only finds her but kills her, and she wakes up screaming. Who is this man that stalks her nightmares? It isn't until Adam, a mysterious, handsome newcomer at Titan Valley High, barges into her life that Roxy starts putting together the clues of her past life, and the demons she must still face down.