The Boy Who Searched For Silence

Follow the adventure of our hero, The Boy, as he hopes to escape from the noises of life that trouble him. This story was written after a 4 day silent retreat and will help you and your child fall into silence together.This charming story for ages 3 to 8 follows the adventures of the hero, The Boy, as he runs from the noises and busyness of life, hoping to find Golden, Peaceful, Blissful Silence. Luminously illustrated, this book, which is part of the Conscious Bedtime Story Club collection, is a sure-fire winner for parents seeking conscious parenting tools. This one-of-a-kind book will help children to use meditation and gratitude to help with the stress and constant stimulation of the outside world. The book ends with The Gratitude Spiral, a short exercise to help children to raise their awareness of help children change their perspective and also to relax and sleep.

The renowned novelist and critic’s private journals, spanning from his years as a high school student in the Bronx to early adult life in San Francisco. For fifty years Samuel Delany has cultivated a special relationship with language in works of fiction, criticism, and memoir that have garnered critical praise and legions of fans. The present volume—the first in a series—reveals a new dimension of his genius. In Search of Silence presents over a decade’s worth of Delany’s private journals, commencing in 1957 when he was still a student at the Bronx High School of Science, and ending in 1969 when he was living in San Francisco and on the verge of reconceiving the novel that would become Dhalgren. In these pages, Delany muses on the writing of the stories that will establish him as a science fiction wunderkind, the early years of his marriage to the poet Marilyn Hacker, performances as a singer-songwriter during the heyday of the American folk revival, travels in Europe, experiences in a New York City commune, and much more—and crosses paths with artists working in many genres, including poets such as Robert Frost, W. H. Auden, and Marie Ponsot, and science fiction writers such as Arthur C. Clarke, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, and Joanna Russ. Delany scholar Kenneth R. James presents the journal entries alongside generous samplings of story outlines, poetry, fragments of novels and essays that have never seen publication, and more; James also provides biographical synopses and an extensive set of endnotes to supply contextual information and connect journal material to Delany’s published work. “This is a tremendously significant and vital addition to the oeuvre of Samuel Delany; it clarifies questions not only of the writer’s process, but also his development—to see, in his juvenilia, traces that take full form in his novels—is literally breathtaking.” —Matthew Cheney, author of Blood: Stories “Traversing Delany’s youth, we see a precocious mind grappling with his own talent he lives on two registers, participating in the world and also observing it, living simultaneously as a kid in NYC and, ‘a writer of genius.’” —Robert Minto, New Republic “Mesmerizing . . . a true portrait of an artist as a young Black man . . . already visible in these pages are the wit, sensitivity, penetration, playfulness and the incandescent intelligence that will characterize Delany and his extraordinary work.” —Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

...Skinny, trembling fingers, children seeking for a star to hold on to in the dark, a sun ray to warm them up. Rania got scared and angry. How badly she wanted to shout, 'Enough is enough! There's enough light and sky for everyone'. She bit her lips, until they started to bleed. She hesitated. Who would listen to her, after all? She no longer ha d anything to expect from a society that laid everything waste... Five children are each laden with a bag on the back, full of unfulfilled dreams and desires, left in the lurch in orphanages, like unasked-for commodity. Their eyes well up with tears, as they are covered in the dusk, full of hands stretched begging ...short skirts...high heels faces bereft of hope and with a question always hanging from their lips. Where shall they turn their look? What horizon may hide future's truth? How much salt there is in a child's tear!!! Elsi Christofia, First Lady of the Cypriot Democracy: 'A book which contributes to awareness-raising of people and society, at large. It conveys the message that prostitution of children, drugs and all forms of violence and exploitation are the results of lack of ideals and visions created by international consumerist system'. Sotiroula Charalambous, Minister of Employment and Social Insurance: 'A torrent of emotion imparted in the author's eloquent style, with an artful and terse narrative, which keeps the reader spiritually and emotionally alert'. Aristos Tsiartas, Chief of Mission Authority against Discriminations: 'True, stirring story articulated by an author possessing undeniable writing skills'.

In this memoir, Walter Ziffer, a Holocaust survivor born in Czechoslovakia in 1927, recounts his boyhood experiences, the Polish and later German invasions of his hometown, the destruction of his synagogue, his Jewish community’s forced move into a ghetto, and his 1942 deportation and ensuing experiences in eight Nazi concentration and slave labor camps. In 1945, Ziffer returned to his hometown, trained as a mechanic and later emigrated to the US where he converted to Christianity, married, graduated from Vanderbilt University with an engineering degree, worked for General Motors before becoming a Christian minister. He taught and preached in Ohio, France, Washington DC and Belgium. He later returned to Judaism and considers himself a Jewish secular humanist. “The compelling story of an unfolding life carried by an insatiable search for meaning.” — Mahan Siler, retired Baptist minister “In Walter Ziffer’s beautifully written new book, you will learn of Walter’s complex life journey, and you may experience, thanks to his skillfully told story and clearly articulated questions and insights, a sense of his presence, the presence of a great man who finds in his own story lessons important for the rest of us, especially now.” —Richard Chess, Director, The Center for Jewish Studies at UNC Asheville “A powerful and unique addition to the literature of the Holocaust. Walter Ziffer’s memoir not only recounts his own personal resilience and survival of the camps, but also his own unusual spiritual journey in which he both becomes a Christian minister while retaining his quintessential Jewish identity. This is a learned, well-crafted, and fascinating new dimension to this literature.” — Michael Sartisky, President Emeritus, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities “The Holocaust portion [of this memoir]... is as true and chilling as a parent’s last words. His tale-telling prowess makes as strong a mental impression as it makes a factual one.” — Rob Neufeld, Asheville Citizen-Times

This beautifully written book argues that educators need to understand the social worlds and complex literacy practices of African-American males in order to pay the increasing educational debt we owe all youth and break the school-to-prison pipeline. Moving portraits from the lives of six friends bring to life the structural characteristics and qualities of meaning-making practices, particularly practices that reveal the political tensions of defining who gets to be literate and who does not. Key chapters on language, literacy, race, and masculinity examine how the literacies, languages, and identities of these friends are shaped by the silences of societal denial. Ultimately, A Search Past Silence is a passionate call for educators to listen to the silenced voices of Black youth and to re-imagine the concept of being literate in a multicultural democratic society.