After The Dancing Days

A forbidden friendship with a badly disfigured soldier in the aftermath of World War I forces thirteen-year-old Annie to redefine the word hero and to question conventional ideas of patriotism.

This unit, designed for use with intermediate and junior high school students, centers on the colonial period in U.S. history and contains literature selections, poetry, writing ideas, curriculum connections to other subjects, group projects and more. The literary works included are: World War I / by Peter Bosco -- After the Dancing Days / by Margaret I. Rostkowski.

A forbidden friendship with a badly disfigured soldier in the aftermath of World War I forces thirteen-year-old Annie to redefine the word "hero" and to question conventional ideas of patriotism.

The magic continues in a new series from the author of the bestselling Magic Kitten! Adorable black and white spotted bunny Arrow is the keeper of the magic key that keeps Moonglow Meadow lush and beautiful so that many bunnies can live there happily. But the key is under threat and so Arrow must flee the meadow to keep it safe and hide in our world. Can Arrow find a little girl to look after him and be a special friend?

Part poignant cancer memoir and part humorous reflection on a motherless life, this debut graphic novel is extraordinarily comforting and engaging. From before her mother's first oncology appointment through the stages of her cancer to the funeral, sitting shiva, and afterward, when she must try to make sense of her life as a motherless daughter, Tyler Feder tells her story in this graphic novel that is full of piercing--but also often funny--details. She shares the important post-death firsts, such as celebrating holidays without her mom, the utter despair of cleaning out her mom's closet, ending old traditions and starting new ones, and the sting of having the "I've got to tell Mom about this" instinct and not being able to act on it. This memoir, bracingly candid and sweetly humorous, is for anyone struggling with loss who just wants someone to get it.

In late 2004, Vivian Chong’s life was changed forever when a rare skin disease, TEN (Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis), left her with scar tissue that would eventually blind her. As she was losing her sight, she put down as many drawings on paper as she could to document the experience. In Dancing After TEN, Chong teams up with cartoonist Georgia Webber ― whose graphic autobiography, Dumb, chronicled her own disability ― to trace her journey out of the darkness and into the spotlight. Chong now expresses her art through singing, stand-up, drumming, running, and dancing. This graphic novel is an inspirational tale and a powerful work of graphic medicine.

So much had changed in one year.... One year ago, I believed my mother knew everything and that I would never have cause to disobey her. I knew my father could heal anyone .... And I thought Uncle Paul had died in glory. Thirteen-year-old Annie waits at the train station for her father, a doctor. It is 1919, the Great War is over, and the wounded are returning to a small town near Kansas City from the battlefields of France. When her father decides to continue his work at the veterans' hospital, Annie finds she is drawn to the place for reasons she doesn't understand. There she meets Andrew, a horribly burned young veteran who is bitterly withdrawn from all around him. Acting against the express wishes of her strong-willed mother, Annie continues to visit the hospital, helping Andrew come out of his shell. Together they discover the devastating truth about Uncle Paul's death. Then Annie must confront her mother's anger and the ironies of heroism. AFTER THE DANCING DAYS is a timeless first novel about a young girl's first steps into the complex world of adulthood.

The long-awaited memoir from one of the most celebrated modern dancers of the past fifty years: the story of her own remarkable career, of the formative years of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and of the two brilliant, iconoclastic, and forward-thinking artists at its center—Merce Cunningham and John Cage. From its inception in the l950s until her departure in the l970s, Carolyn Brown was a major dancer in the Cunningham company and part of the vibrant artistic community of downtown New York City out of which it grew. She writes about embarking on her career with Cunningham at a time when he was a celebrated performer but a virtually unknown choreographer. She describes the heady exhilaration—and dire financial straits—of the company’s early days, when composer Cage was musical director and Robert Rauschenberg designed lighting, sets and costumes; and of the struggle for acceptance of their controversial, avant-garde dance. With unique insight, she explores Cunningham’s technique, choreography, and experimentation with compositional procedures influenced by Cage. And she probes the personalities of these two men: the reticent, moody, often secretive Cunningham, and the effusive, fun-loving, enthusiastic Cage. Chance and Circumstance is an intimate chronicle of a crucial era in modern dance, and a revelation of the intersection of the worlds of art, music, dance, and theater that is Merce Cunningham’s extraordinary hallmark.