Against Tall Odds

Anyone who watched part three in the Star Wars movie trilogy, Return of the Jedi, saw Matt Roloff. His handicap helped land him a part as one of the diminutive, furry Ewoks. In Matt's biography Against Tall Odds, readers view a world of fast-walking giants, where common obstacles for most are mountains for little people, and stares from strangers are the norm. Through perseverance and faith, Matt shows that success comes not by trying to be what you're not, but by being what God has made you.

This landmark volume is the first to trace the exciting developments in the field of dwarfism research and treatment over the past century—particularly during the past fifty years. Dr. Betty M. Adelson, a psychologist, has unearthed and synthesized the most significant information about dwarfing conditions, from articles written a century ago to current books and specialized databases. Highlighting the outstanding contributions of Dr. Victor McKusick and several of his colleagues, Dr. Adelson reveals how dwarfism specialists have helped redefine the nature of medical care—transforming it from an authoritarian enterprise into a holistic, collaborative venture among physicians, affected individuals, and their families. The parent of an adult dwarf daughter, Adelson examines the social forces that affect the dwarfism community. She offers personal descriptions of the day-to-day challenges dwarf individuals face and portrays their accomplishments. Insightful and accessible, this work will prove a valuable resource for affected individuals, their families, and medical professionals—physicians, nurses, genetic counselors, social workers, psychologists, and medical students.

Does our current system for dealing with young offenders -- which focuses on punishment -- work? Not according to the authors of this compelling and thought-provoking book. It simply ensures that we jail more youth than any other country, including the United States. Green and Healy argue that a new approach is needed and offer ample evidence from around the world, and our own back yard, to make the case for a shift to restorative justice. The voices of their young clients illustrate the very real human costs of doing nothing. Topics covered include: causes of youth crime; special circumstances facing Aboriginal youth; fetal alcohol syndrome and effect; restorative justice techniques; innovations used in England, Australia, and New Zealand; Quebec -- an example of restorative justice in practice, as well as other innovative approaches including the Calgary Community Conferencing program; theories about crime and punishment; and the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. This book is a must read for anyone -- including counselors, social workers, lawyers, judges, educators -- who is concerned about youth crime and justice. In an easy to read format this book presents the development and current state of Canadian law, as well as different approaches that have been used in dealing with youth crime. Regardless of one's view on youth crime, this book is packed with useful information, viewpoints, and statistics on young people and the law.

In fulfillment of an old Dahomeyan prophesy, the 7th generation of the lineage must return to the place of ancestral birth; to the beginning of an uneasy journey. Nearly two centuries later, the `Anchor' who is the 7th Amazon, must respond to that internal call despite the rigorous demands of modern living. To find her own 'place', she must complete the cycle of her 'mothers' and make an oar for the next generation. AGAINST ALL ODDS is the tale of 7 generations of a royal line whose strong women stand their ground; defying social norms and tribal stereotypes; defending forbidden love and unwittingly fulfilling the predictions of the ancient oracle. This fictional biography takes flight from the pre-colonial campaigns of the Amazons of Dahomey (female warriors whose codes defined a matriarchal society) through the years of slavery in the Americas, leading to the Abolition and subsequent `return'; into unfolding socio-economic drama and evolving religious beliefs, all the way to the harsh realities of modern day West Africa. Written with a poetic tone, this book will take you on a journey across the many cultures and different experiences that come together to define today's African.

This brilliant analysis of the nature of democracy draws on the hard-earned lessons of the ancient Greeks.

In Fighting for Dignity, Sarah S. Willen explores what happened when the Israeli government launched an aggressive deportation campaign targeting newly arrived migrants from countries as varied as Ghana and the Philippines, Nigeria, Colombia, and Ukraine. Although the campaign was billed as a solution to high unemployment, it had another goal as well: to promote an exclusionary vision of Israel as a Jewish state in which non-Jews have no place. The deportation campaign quickly devastated Tel Aviv's migrant communities and set the stage for even more aggressive antimigrant and antirefugee policies in the years to come. Fighting for Dignity traces the roots of this deportation campaign in Israeli history and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and shows how policies that illegalize and criminalize migrants wreak havoc in their lives, endanger their health, and curtail the human capacity to flourish. Children born to migrant parents are especially vulnerable to developmental and psychosocial risks. Drawing on nearly two decades of ethnographic engagement in homes and in churches, medical offices, advocacy organizations, and public spaces, Willen shows how migrants struggle to craft meaningful, flourishing lives despite the exclusions and vulnerabilities they endure. To complement their perspectives, she introduces Israeli activists who reject their government's exclusionary agenda and strive to build bridges across difference, repair violations of migrants' dignity, and resist policies that violate their own moral convictions. Willen's vivid and unflinching ethnography challenges us to reconsider our understandings of global migration, human rights, the Middle East— and even dignity itself.

Harold Ford Jr. has long distinguished himself as a charismatic, results-oriented politician with fresh ideas. His career began at age 26 after he won his father’s Congressional seat, serving his Tennessee district for ten years. He stepped into the national spotlight with his electric keynote at the 2000 Democratic National Convention, and in 2006 his reputation was further shaped during the closest Senate race in Tennessee’s history, which he lost. Ford feels passionately that our country’s best days are ahead, and in More Davids Than Goliaths, he presents his mission statement for America. Reflecting on what he’s learned from his extended political family, the slings and arrows of the campaign trail, and those across our nation who inspire him, More Davids Than Goliaths explains Ford’s conviction, “At its best, leadership in government can solve, inspire, and heal.” Along the way, Ford reminds us that in America, there are more Davids than Goliaths, more solutions than problems, more that unites us than divides us.

In the early morning of February 17, 1991, a nineteen-year-old Yale student on his way home from a party was shot through the heart on a New Haven street by a single bullet from a .22-caliber handgun. His wallet, with forty-six dollars inside, was left intact beside him. As murders go, it was senseless, motiveless, and as random as a blindly flung stone. The boy was white, privileged, and widely loved, a scholar and athlete, with a future that seemed assured. The boy accused in his killing, a sixteen-year-old gang member from the inner city, was an angry, desperate youth whose life careened almost daily--as ghetto lives often do--between the never-distant prospects of jail and death. Dead Opposite is the story of these two boys--and of the boys and men, fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, and friends who peopled their lives. Geoffrey Douglas tells the story of hope and hopelessness, ignorance and rage; of waste and courage and loss. But above all, it is the story of the chasm that divides us one from the other: black from white; rich from poor; the suburbs of Chevy Chase, Maryland, from the squalor and despair of New Haven's meanest streets. You will see and hear both stories. And by the end, you not only will have touched the differences of race, wealth, education, and hope, but will have seen and heard also the commonness that links us all--the love of a parent, the dreams of a child--that joins us, one to the other, as the humans we finally, sometimes sadly, are.