Stumptown Kid

This dramatic and moving story set in the days of the Negro Leagues illustrates the true meanings of friendship, prejudice, and heroism Twelve-year-old Charlie Nebraska wants two things he can’t get: to make the local Wildcats Baseball team and to have life to return to the way it was before his father died two years earlier in the Korean War. Then Charlie meets Luther Peale, a stranger who quietly and mysteriously arrives in the small town of Holden, Iowa, and sets up camp near the river. Luther is a former Negro Baseball League player, and Charlie loves baseball. The two strike up a friendship and Luther agrees to coach Charlie’s fledgling neighborhood baseball team for a game against the Wildcats. But many of Holden’s white residents are suspicious of Luther because of his skin color. And when Charlie inadvertently reveals a secret of Luther’s, violence erupts in the town and both Luther and Charlie are drawn into serious danger. Authors Carol Gorman and Ron J. Findley have created two highly memorable, emotionally complex characters in this dramatic story that illustrates the meanings of friendship, prejudice, and heroism.

Created in consultation with teachers and public librarians, this fantastic collection of 101 ready-to-use book lists provides invaluable help for any educator who plans activities for children that involve using literature. Nancy J. Keane is the author of the award-winning website Booktalks—Quick and Simple (nancykeane.com/booktalks), as well as the creator of the open collaboration wiki ATN Book Lists. With 101 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Children, she provides another indispensable resource for librarians and teachers. The lists in this book are the result of careful consultation with teachers and public librarians, and from discussions on professional email lists. These indispensable reading lists can be used in many ways—for example, as handouts to teachers as suggested reading, to create book displays, or as display posters in the library. This collection will help educators support the extended reading demands of today's children.

Although many Americans think of Jackie Robinson when considering the story of segregation in baseball, a long history of tragedies and triumphs precede Robinson's momentous debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. From the pioneering Cuban Giants (1885-1915) to the Negro Leagues (1920-1960), black baseball was a long-standing staple of African American communities. While many of its artifacts and statistics are lost, black baseball figured vibrantly in films, novels, plays, and poems. In Invisible Ball of Dreams: Literary Representations of Baseball behind the Color Line, author Emily Ruth Rutter examines wide-ranging representations of this history by William Brashler, Jerome Charyn, August Wilson, Gloria Naylor, Harmony Holiday, Kevin King, Kadir Nelson, and Denzel Washington, among others. Reading representations across the literary color line, Rutter opens a propitious space for exploring black cultural pride and residual frustrations with racial hypocrisies on the one hand and the benefits and limitations of white empathy on the other. Exploring these topics is necessary to the project of enriching the archives of segregated baseball in particular and African American cultural history more generally.

The 50 States is a state-by-state guide to the USA featuring historical timelines, famous trailblazers, natural wonders and much more, all bursting from colourful, infographic maps and fact boxes.

Step into the kitchen and stir up a batch of storybook treats with literary recipes based on the books and lives of 50 of your favorite children's authors and illustrators, including Eric Carle, Mary Casanova, Keiko Kasza, Steven Kellogg, Yuyi Morales, Janet Stevens, and Jane Yolen and 40 others. Whip up a heavenly coconut cream cake enjoyed in Jacqueline Briggs Martin's recent story, On Sand Island; savor the spicy pumpkin pie inspired by Toni Buzzeo's Sea Chest. You'll also learn some fascinating facts about each author and read anecdotes and stories connected with the recipes. Biographical details, author photographs, book lists, and reading connections make this a perfect resource for library, classroom, and home. A great gift for booklovers. What a delicious way to learn about authors and their books! Step into the kitchen and stir up a batch of storybook treats with 50 literary recipes based on the books and lives of 50 of your favorite children's authors and illustrators, including Eric Carle, Mary Casanova, Keiko Kasza, Steven Kellogg, Yuyi Morales, Janet Stevens, and Jane Yolen and 40 others. Whip up a heavenly coconut cream cake enjoyed in Jacqueline Briggs Martin's recent story, On Sand Island; savor the spicy pumpkin pie inspired by Toni Buzzeo's Sea Chest. You'll also learn some fascinating facts about each author and read anecdotes and stories connected with the recipes. Biographical details, author photographs, book lists, and reading connections make this a perfect resource for library, classroom, and home. A great gift for booklovers. What a delicious way to learn about authors and their books! Grades K-6.

The Midwest has produced a robust literary heritage. Its authors have won half of the nation’s Nobel Prizes for Literature plus a significant number of Pulitzer Prizes. This volume explores the rich racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity of the region. It also contains entries on 35 pivotal Midwestern literary works, literary genres, literary, cultural, historical, and social movements, state and city literatures, literary journals and magazines, as well as entries on science fiction, film, comic strips, graphic novels, and environmental writing. Prepared by a team of scholars, this second volume of the Dictionary of Midwestern Literature is a comprehensive resource that demonstrates the Midwest’s continuing cultural vitality and the stature and distinctiveness of its literature.

An irreverent full-length tale based on the popular Twitter feed follows the adventures of a spunky 12-year-old who traverses the railroads in search of freedom, adventure and Justin Bieber tickets.