The Trouble With Jeremy Chance

In 1919, following a disagreement with his father and his first whipping by a belt, twelve-year-old Jeremy hops a train to Boston to meet his older brother, a soldier returning from World War I.

It's 1935 and from a child's eye view, the hard times of the Depression era are becoming more and more real. Each day, coming home from school, there is something else missing. First the sow pig, then the cow, then the truck. On one wrenching day the beloved hunting dog is sold. Finally the whole family packs up in the car and leaves--the children wonder where, but their parents are silent. Suddenly, the car stops at the edge of the road and Mother leans into the back seat, giving Mary Jake a handkerchief with something tied inside and the instructions to walk down the path into the forest, take the LEFT fork into town, and present the handkerchief at the stone house. So begins the adventure of a girl who chooses her own in path (neither left fork nor right), dyes herself in a stump full of walnut-colored water and disguises herself as a boy. "Jake" Smith soon meets Miz Bennett and hires on to help with her garden and animals. In this rags-to-riches story, rich with descriptions of Alabama during the Depression a strong female character copes with abandonment with courage and resilience.

Depicting with humor and insight the pressure to be outwardly perfect, this novel for ages 10-13 shows how one girl develops compassion for her own and others’ imperfections. For 13-year-old Isabelle Lee, whose father has recently died, everything's normal on the outside. Isabelle describes the scene at school with bemused accuracy--the self-important (but really not bad) English teacher, the boy that is constantly fixated on Ashley Barnum, the prettiest girl in class, and the dynamics of the lunchroom, where tables are turf in a all-eyes-open awareness of everybody's relative social position. But everything is not normal, really. Since the dealth of her father, Isabelle's family has only functioned on the surface. Her mother, who used to take care of herself, now wears only lumpy, ill-fitting clothes, cries all night, and has taken every picture of her dead husband and put them under her bed. Isabelle tries to make light of this, but the underlying tension is expressed in overeating and then binging. As the novel opens, Isabelle's little sister, April, has told their mother about Isabelle's problem. Isabelle is enrolled in group therapy. Who should show up there, too, but Ashley Barnum, the prettiest, most together girl in class.

Twelve-year-old Donovan's summer with his aunt and uncle on Puget Sound becomes a test of his own convictions when he suspects his uncle's involvement in a local racist group.

Since its beginnings in Australia in the 1890s, the Alexander Technique has become renowned as a powerful and effective antidote to the stresses and strains that modern life places upon our bodies. This introductory guide presents readers with a definitive overview of the Alexander technique which teaches us how to co-ordinate mind and body effectively so that our thinking is clarified and our movements become naturally lighter. Encompassing everything from teaching lineages to how the method works to how to find a practitioner, the book provides all the key information on the topic. It also includes a chapter on how to practise the technique at home as well as a useful resources section. Written in an engaging style and full of illustrations and photographs that demonstrate the technique, this book will be of interest to anyone considering options for treatment, as well as anyone wanting to know more about the Alexander Technique.

Written with a focus on the English Language Arts Common Core Standards, this book provides a complete plan for developing a literacy program that focuses on boys pre-K through grade 12. Despite the fact that reading and literacy among boys has been an area of concern for years, this issue remains unresolved today. Additionally, the emphasis and focus have changed due to the implementation of the English Language Arts Common Core Standards. How can educators best encourage male students to read, and what new technologies and techniques can serve this objective? The Common Core Approach to Building Literacy in Boys is an essential resource and reference for teachers, librarians, and parents seeking to encourage reading in boys from preschool to 12th grade. Providing a wide array of useful, up-to-date information that emphasizes the English Language Arts Common Core Standards, the bibliographies and descriptions of effective strategies in this book will enable you to boost reading interest and performance in boys. The chapters cover 16 different topics of interest to boys, all accompanied by a complete bibliography for each subject area, discussion questions, writing connections, and annotated new and classic nonfiction titles. Information on specific magazines, annotated professional titles, books made into film, websites, and apps that will help you get boys interested in reading is also included.

A woman's body, a smashed Packard, a half-empty bottle of booze, a dark rainy night sixty years ago. The police said it was a case of drunk driving. But things weren't always as they seemed in Florida's sleepy little capital. The woman-Jo Ellen-had a past and enemies. No one wanted to ask the hard questions. The case went as cold as winter in North Florida, filed away in the dusty basement of the Tallahassee courthouse-until, Jo Ellen's father, Milo Harbert, began receiving photographs from his daughter's past. He demands the case be investigated properly. He goes to a brand-new agency: the Sheriff's Bureau, a shack of an office where he meets Special Agent True Fulton. Fulton's investigation takes him through the storefronts and back alleys and smoke-filled rooms of the little capital, to shady barrooms near Jacksonville s waterfront to the lonely prehistoric woods near Thirteen Mile, all in search for the truth-something that certain well-connected people in Tallahassee do not want revealed. Will Jo Ellen's family ever know the truth, or will justice be as elusive as the streamlined Gulf Wind disappearing into the night?