The Warlord S Puzzle

A MAY/JUNE 2000 BOOKSENSE '76 SELECTIONACCELERATED READER PROGRAM SELECTION"The use of foreshortening and a wide variety of camera angles makes each page a visual surprise. The emotions so clearly portrayed on each character's face echo those of the reader, who will finish this book with a broad smile."--Children's Literature "This handsome picture book will be useful for encouraging children to play around with geometry at home or in the classroom."--Booklist In China, a beautiful ceramic tile lies shattered on the ground, and the artist who dropped it is sentenced to the land's worst punishment. The fierce warlord will execute the artist unless some wise person can put the seven pieces back together. That person will then be invited to live in the castle. Both locals and strangers from far away wait their turns for a chance to solve the warlord's puzzle. After learning why these people are waiting to enter the castle, a peasant boy convinces his poor but wise father to join the line. This little boy starts them off on the first step to solving the puzzle--entering the contest.

Hoping to avoid punishment for breaking a beautiful tile that was his gift to a Chinese warlord, an artist suggests that the warlord hold a contest to see if anyone can mend it.

Introduce your little reader to numbers with this tale of a boy in ancient China crafting an abacus to help his father count a warlord’s treasure. Young Chuan lives with his father in the beautiful palace of a powerful Chinese warlord. As a reward for his cleverness in solving the warlord’s puzzle, Father is given the job of tallying the warlord’s treasure—brilliant jewels, rich brocades, and spices from a thousand lands. Life at the palace is luxurious but filled with so many interruptions Father often loses count! The varying totals lead the suspicious warlord to accuse him of stealing, and Father is about to lose hope. Just in time, Chuan discovers a special use for the warlord’s lovely jade beads—a use that will help Father keep an accurate tally and cause the warlord to pronounce Chuan as clever as his Father. Often used by teachers of the primary grades to illustrate the powerful concept of “base ten,” various types of counting frames appeared in China during the Middle Ages. The Warlord’s Beads is a valuable tool for introducing young readers to the wonder of numbers as well as the beauty and mystery of ancient China. Praise for The Warlord’s Beads A November/December 2001 Booksense 76 Selection Accelerated Reader Program Selection “Debon’s distinctive artwork adds to the fairy tale feeling of this story.” —Children’s Literature “Debon evocatively depicts court dress and decorative details . . . Capped with a diagram for a modern version of Chuan’s counting frame made of cardboard, pipe cleaners, and o-shaped breakfast cereal.” —Kirkus Reviews “Debon’s well-composed, often dramatic, and sometimes comical paintings bring the story to life. With or without the math lesson, a good picture book for reading aloud.” —Booklist “Helpful to children learning how to count, add, and subtract and is a good choice for most collections.” —School Library Journal “Children will not be disappointed in this sequel to the award-winning The Warlord’s Puzzle.” —JoAnn Lum, Hipfish Magazine

Clever young Chuan comes to the rescue of his father and in the process invents the abacus. Illustrations.

In 2010, U.S. special operations forces (SOF) in Afghanistan began a new and innovative program to fight the Taliban insurgency using the movement's structure and strategy against it. The Village Stability Operations/Afghan Local Police initiative consisted of U.S. Army Special Forces and U.S. Navy SEAL teams embedding with villagers to fight the Taliban holistically. By enlisting Afghans in their own defense, organizing the local populace, and addressing their grievances with the Afghan government, SOF was able to defeat the Taliban’s military as well as its political arm. Combining the traditions of U.S. Army Special Forces with the lessons learned in the broader SOF community from years of counterinsurgency work in Iraq and Afghanistan, this new approach fundamentally changed the terms of the conflict with the Taliban. However, little has been written about this initiative outside of the special operations community until now. In this first-hand account of how the Village Stability Operations program functioned, Daniel R. Green provides a long-term perspective on how SOF stabilized the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, the site of the Pashtun uprising against the Taliban in 2001 led by Hamid Karzai, future president of Afghanistan. In the Warlords’ Shadow offers a comprehensive overview of how SOF adapted to the unique demands of the local insurgency and is a rare, inside look at how special operations confronted the Taliban by fighting a “better war” and in so doing fundamentally changed the course of the war in Afghanistan.

While traveling back to their warlord's palace in ancient China, Chuan and the artist to whom he is apprenticed join a troupe of puppeteers and Chuan learns about puppet proportions. Includes instructions for making a simple sock puppet.

The incredible true story of Chucky Taylor, the only American ever convicted of torture. Chucky Taylor was an average American teenager, until he got a call from his father, a man who would become the infamous dictator of Liberia. Arriving in West Africa and reunited with his father, Chucky soon found himself leading a murderous militia group tasked with carrying out the president’s vendettas. Young and drunk on power, and with no real training beyond watching action films, Chucky spiraled into a binge of drugs, violence, and women, committing crimes that stunned even his father. A work of astonishing journalism, American Warlord is the true story of those dark years in Liberia, cutting right to the bone of humanity’s terrifying and unknowable capacity for cruelty to show just how easily a soul can be lost amid the chaos of war.

When a hostile army attacks the warlord's palace in ancient China, Chuan and his friend, Jing Jing, find an ingenious way to scare them off using simple kites.