The Scenic Route

Reflections on autism, parenting, and embracing destinations unknown. In The Scenic Route, Leigh Merryday Porch offers insight into how parents of children with autism can redefine hope in a world that often has a narrow view of what hope is supposed to look like for their kids. As an educator and expert on autism spectrum disorders as well as the mother of a son who is autistic, Porch knows well the pressure parents of special needs children feel to overcome any and all challenges their children face. But not all disabilities result in heartwarming viral stories. According to Porch, we must write our own stories about what is possible for our kids and love them just as they are. A chronicle of one family’s journey from the shock and uncertainty of a severe autism diagnosis to acceptance and advocacy, in this beautifully written book Porch shares the lessons she has learned about charting your own course. From learning to cope with sleepless, worry-filled nights to asking friends and family for the help and support you actually need, she offers readers a road map for helping our children thrive while still taking the time to stop and enjoy the beauty in life’s unforeseen detours.

In this spellbinding short story, join Akata Witch’s Sunny and Sasha on an adventure through the unexpected. During a quick jaunt to the United States, Sunny and Sasha embark on a tour of Chicago that is unlike any other! From the bottom of Lake Michigan to the top of the city’s most famous skyscraper, their wild ride reveals mystical secrets of the city that are only viewable to those in the know. In The Scenic Route, award-winning writer Nnedi Okorafor weaves an enthralling short story starring the beloved Nsibidi Scripts characters from Akata Witch, Akata Warrior, and the upcoming Akata Woman, available in January 2022.

Divorced, alone, and unexpectedly unemployed, Sylvia Landsman flees to Italy, where she meets Henry, a wistful, married, middle-aged expatriate. Taking off on a grand tour of Europe bankrolled with his wife's money, Henry and Sylvia follow a circuitous route around the continent—as Sylvia entertains Henry with stories of her peculiar family and her damaged friends, of dead ducks and Alma Mahler. Her narrative is a tapestry of remembrances and regrets...and her secret shame: a small, cowardly sin of omission. Yet when the opportunity arises for Sylvia and Henry to do something small but brave, the refrain "if only" returns to haunt her, leaving Sylvia with one more story of love lived and lost.

A first edition, Scenic Driving Atlantic Canada features nearly thirty separate drives through the beautiful Canadian coastline, from Nova Scotia up to Newfoundland. An indispensable highway companion, Scenic Driving Atlantic Canada includes route maps and in-depth descriptions of attractions.

In the summer of 1999, a forgotten age before smartphones and the wisdom of Wikipedia, two friends trek from the Rocky Mountains to the Louisiana bayous in search of a cure for their postcollege let-down blues. Ready to fail for the sake of change, Jon Colefield signs on to a doomed mission for his company just to be near a girl he's only met once-at the New Orleans airport bar. Jon sets out for the bayou like a knight on quest, hoping the girl will be his Holy Grail. Len had just come off his latest business failure and finds himself living on Jon's couch. He's got nothing better to do than ride along with Jon until he has a stoned epiphany (a "Lenpiphany") while watching Smokey and The Bandit. Instead of loading Jon's furniture into the moving truck, he sells it, and buys 400 cases of Courz [SIC] hoping to make a quick buck down south. Jon won't find out until they've driven halfway to their destination. Len won't find out that Courz IS sold east of Texarkana until they reach Louisiana. The drive becomes an odyssey wrought with near disasters and populated with everything from the KKK to Chupacabras. When the worst is thought to be over, Len loses the trailer hauling Jon's car on the highway in Dallas. Or so he thinks... After Jon throws a left hook to Len's jaw and a tire blows on the moving truck, the two separate outside Shreveport. It will take a truckload of Creoles, the Voodoo King of New Orleans, a fishing contest, and an alligator to bring the friends back together. All that they have endured culminates in a new and final mission: saving the family marina of Jon's new love interest from foreclosure.

Travel across miles of Pennsylvania road without stop lights -- long stretches of scenic farmlands and forest. Pennsylvania's Scenic Route 6 shows you how to enjoy the ride. From the natural bird haven on Presque Isle to the Allegheny National Forest and the Pine Creek Gorge (Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon) to the Delaware River, this book portrays this route as one of the most beautiful in the United States.Readers are given insight into twenty major historic and natural sites, including the War of 1812 U.S. Brig Niagara and giant locomotives at the Steamtown National Historic Site. The author and photographer portray many of their own discoveries along the way in towns and in the countryside. The book also features photographs and descriptions of three spectacular bridges -- the Kinzua Bridge, the Tunkhannock Viaduct, and the Roebling Bridge, which once carried canal water.