Calvin The Catfish

I wanted to write a book from a fish's perspective of survival amid the uncertainty of everyday life. Calvin's survival depends on his ability to deal with the situations that he can control and coping with man-made disasters . I finished this book during the B. P. Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This was the worst man-made disaster in history. The Horizon oil spill had a devastating effect on sea life, plant life, water quality, not counting the loss of billions of dollars and livelihoods for millions of people for years and years to come. We need clean air, clean water, food, and sunshine to survive. Let's listen to the fish! Thanks, Calvin the Catfish

On a humidly hot day, Joshua and Pip are geared up and ready for a great day of fishing. On the way to Ogeechee Lake, they see a sign that challenges them to catch Calvin the Catfish. Pip is ready and willing to accept the challenge. However, Pip and Joshua soon find out that catching any fish, let alone the great CALVIN THE CATFISH, takes lots of patience and a little luck.

An orphaned eleven-year-old Calvin looks to the Great Tensas River Bottom as a means to escape the pressures of the real world. Located in Northeast Louisiana, the Tensas River Bottom is now an eighty-thousand-acre national refuge. A book of fiction that also records some actual events that have taken place in this magical part of North Louisiana. This is a heartwarming story of Calvin, an eleven-year-old orphan boy and his dog""the larger-than-life 140-pound Catahoula Cur/Great Dane mix. They have made the Tensas River Bottom their home. The boy and his five-year-old sister are sent to the Pooles' foster home near Tallulah, Louisiana, in the year 1944. Their father enlisted in the army and was sent overseas, leaving his pregnant wife and young Calvin behind near the end of World War II. Then only a short time after arriving in Dutch New Genie, he was listed as missing in action. Their mother died from medical complications after giving birth to his baby sister. On his mother's deathbed, she made him promise never to let him and his sister be separated. Over the next few years, many couples wanted to adopt the cute little girl but not the eleven-year-old Calvin, who was now too old. The only chance for his little sister to ever have a family in his eleven-year-old mind was for him to break his promise and run away to the great swamp to live. The big dog is harnessed to a goat cart with a canvas top, which becomes his miniature covered wagon. When the weather is cold and rainy, he sleeps in the wagon. Together, they learned to survive off the land, as his ancestors once did, in the Great Tensas River Bottom.

Improve confidence in reading for struggling readers and children with dyslexia with this decodable chapter book collection filled with fun and exciting adventures; featuring six separate stories all in one big book! Follow the Plott family on a series of fun and exciting adventures in this series of chaptered stories perfect for independent reading practice or shared reading. For Ash and Mel, two 10-year-old twin girls, there is always fun to be had in their small town of Longbranch. Whether they are on a camping trip with their parents or scaring their mischievous little brother, Calvin, the twins are always up to something. Follow them as they travel, learn new things, and take on challenges together. This engaging collection contains six decodable stories for building reading fluency, stamina and comprehension. This phonics-first text is written for students who have mastered sounding out words with short vowels, closed syllables, and blends. It is written with principles based in the science of reading by two educators who have made teaching students with dyslexia their passion. The six stories are written in a format specifically designed to foster a love of reading, even in reluctant readers, and include adventures such as: A Trip to the Spring The Big Catfish The Camping Trip And more!

A captivating memoir of a biracial boy growing up in Washington, D.C., abandoned by his birth parents, and lovingly raised by a woman with deep emotional scars from her upbringing in the segregated South. The unforgettable memoir Black Sheep opens with a middle-aged Ray Studevent returning to Washington, D.C., to his “momma,” Lemell Studevent. She didn’t give birth to him, but she is the woman who raised him. She is the woman who stood by him through thick and thin. She is the woman who saved his life. But now in her late 80s, Lemell is lost to her Alzheimer’s disease. On most days, she has no idea who she is, no recollection of the remarkable life she has lived. Every once in a while, she remembers small fragments of people, places, and things but she doesn’t know how all of these pieces fit together. At night, she is often haunted by nightmares of growing up in the segregated South, of evil men with blue eyes peering through slits in their hooded robes. Frightened by Ray, this stranger, this white man with his piercing blue eyes, she threatens to shoot him. Trying not to get swept up in his own buried, decades-old feelings of abandonment, Ray knows he must work to regain her trust as he thinks back to how far they both have come. Ray Studevent grew up between two worlds. Born to a white, heroin-addicted mother and a black, violent, alcoholic father, the odds were stacked against him from day one. When his parents abandoned him at the age of five, after living in a world no child should experience, he was saved from the foster-care system by his father’s uncle Calvin, who offered him stability and a loving home. When Calvin tragically died two years later, it was up to his widow Lemell to raise Ray. But this was no easy task. Lemell grew up in the brutality of segregated Mississippi, emotionally scarred and justifiably resenting white people. Now, she must confront these demons as she raises a mixed-race child—white on the outside, black on the inside—on the eastern side of the Anacostia River, the blackest part of the blackest city in America. This is a time of heightened racial tension, not long after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the D.C. race riots. There are guidelines if you are black, different rules if you are white, but only mixed messages for mixed-race children who must fight for acceptance as they struggle to find their identity. As Dr. My Haley, the widow of Roots author Alex Haley, wrote in the Foreword for Black Sheep, “Ray’s pathway to manhood came not through the people who taught him what to do, but through the woman who taught him how to be, even as she learned for herself how to be.” At a time when we are all reexamining the complex issues of race, identity, disenfranchisement, and belonging, this compelling true story shows us what is possible when we trust our hearts and follow the path of love.

Explore the unconventional, otherworldly life of psychic waitress Sookie Stackhouse in this companion to the bestselling series that takes a closer look at Sookie and her family, friends, enemies, adventures, and—of course—the lovers who set her world on fire... Visit Bon Temps, the small Louisiana town that Sookie calls home, with a detailed map created by Charlaine herself, and learn the characteristics of the supernaturals who live there: vampires, two-natured, and fae. Examine all the branches of Sookie’s family tree. And eavesdrop on the private conversations between rival vampires Eric and Bill. Also, enjoy the compelling novella “Small-Town Wedding,” in which Sookie accompanies her shapeshifting boss, Sam, to his brother’s wedding in Texas, where happily-ever-after seems very far away.... Exclusive interviews with True Blood creator Alan Ball and author Charlaine Harris—compiled from fan questions—will satisfy your craving for all things Sookie, as will trivia questions, recipes (including Caroline Bellefleur’s famous chocolate cake!), and a concordance to the Sookie Stackhouse novels.

In The Edge of Extinction, Jules Pretty explores life and change in a dozen environments and cultures across the world, taking us on a series of remarkable journeys through deserts, coasts, mountains, steppes, snowscapes, marshes, and farms to show that there are many different ways to live in cooperation with nature. From these accounts of people living close to the land and close to the edge emerge a larger story about sustainability and the future of the planet. Pretty addresses not only current threats to natural and cultural diversity but also the unsustainability of modern lifestyles typical of industrialized countries. In a very real sense, Pretty discovers, what we manage to preserve now may well save us later.Jules Pretty's travels take him among the Maori people along the coasts of the Pacific, into the mountains of China, and across petroglyph-rich deserts of Australia. He treks with nomads over the continent-wide steppes of Tuva in southern Siberia, walks and boats in the wildlife-rich inland swamps of southern Africa, and experiences the Arctic with ice fishermen in Finland. He explores the coasts and inland marshes of eastern England and Northern Ireland and accompanies Innu people across the taiga’s snowy forests and the lakes of the Labrador interior. Pretty concludes his global journey immersed in the discrete cultures and landscapes embedded within the American landscape: the small farms of the Amish, the swamps of the Cajuns in the deep South, and the deserts of California.The diverse people Pretty meets in The Edge of Extinction display deep pride in their relationships with the land and are only willing to join with the modern world on their own terms. By the examples they set, they offer valuable lessons for anyone seeking to find harmony in a world cracking under the pressures of apparently insatiable consumption patterns of the affluent.

Brighter Child Math for Grade 2 helps students master mathematics skills. Practice is included for addition and subtraction, place value, multiplication, counting money, shapes, and more. School success starts here! Workbooks in the popular Brighter Child series are packed with plenty of fun activities that teach a variety of essential school skills. Students will find help for math, English and grammar, handwriting, and other important subject areas. Each book contains full-color practice pages, easy-to-follow instructions, and an answer key.