What Stories Does My Son Need

In an annotated list including movies such as High Noon and Glory, and books such as The Giving Tree and To Kill a Mockingbird, therapist and educator Gurian highlights the particular ethical lessons two hundred great stories can impart to boys and young men.

In an annotated list including movies such as High Noon and Glory, and books such as The Giving Tree and To Kill a Mockingbird, therapist and educator Gurian highlights the particular ethical lessons two hundred great stories can impart to boys and young men.

Things My Son Needs To Know About The World is a tender and funny series of letters from a new father to his son about one of life's most daunting experiences: parenthood From the 13 million copy internationally bestselling author of A Man Called Ove ________ 'You can be whatever you want to be, but that's nowhere near as important as knowing that you can be exactly who you are' In between the sleep-obsessed lows and oxytocin-fuelled highs, Backman takes a step back to share his own experience of fatherhood and how he navigates such unchartered territory. Part memoir, part manual, part love letter to his son, this book relays the big and the small lessons in life. As he watches his son take his first steps into the world, he teaches him how to navigate both love - and IKEA - and tries to explain why, sometimes, his dad might hold his hand just a little bit too tightly. This is an irresistible and insightful collection from one of the world's most beautiful storytellers - the bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and Beartown. ________ Praise for Fredrick Backman: 'A mature, compassionate novel' Sunday Times 'Will, funny, and almost unbearably moving' Daily Mail 'You'll love this engrossing novel' People 'Backman is a masterful writer' Kirkus Review

Funny and fresh, Jennifer Honeybourn's Just My Luck follows a teen who has to get her good luck back by returning items she stole—all while falling for a hotel guest. Marty has terrible luck and she knows exactly why. While working as a housekeeper at the ritzy Grand Palms hotel in Maui, Marty made it a habit to steal small items from the guests. What better way to stick it to the rich snobs they have to clean up after? Marty knows how to turn her luck around—she just has to return all of the items she stole. When Marty meets Will, a new guest who is staying for the summer, she does the one thing she always promised herself she'd never do—fall for an out-of-towner. But Will's special, different from the other guests at the hotel. Maybe Marty's luck is finally turning around. After a string of misunderstandings and accidents threaten Will and Marty's relationship, Marty has to find a way to fix her luck for good—or say goodbye to Will forever.

The Giver, the 1994 Newbery Medal winner, has become one of the most influential novels of our time. The haunting story centers on twelve-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community. This movie tie-in edition features cover art from the movie and exclusive Q&A with members of the cast, including Taylor Swift, Brenton Thwaites and Cameron Monaghan.

Hunter S. Thompson, “smart hillbilly,” boy of the South, born and bred in Louisville, Kentucky, son of an insurance salesman and a stay-at-home mom, public school-educated, jailed at seventeen on a bogus petty robbery charge, member of the U.S. Air Force (Airmen Second Class), copy boy for Time, writer for The National Observer, et cetera. From the outset he was the Wild Man of American journalism with a journalistic appetite that touched on subjects that drove his sense of justice and intrigue, from biker gangs and 1960s counterculture to presidential campaigns and psychedelic drugs. He lived larger than life and pulled it up around him in a mad effort to make it as electric, anger-ridden, and drug-fueled as possible. Now Juan Thompson tells the story of his father and of their getting to know each other during their forty-one fraught years together. He writes of the many dark times, of how far they ricocheted away from each other, and of how they found their way back before it was too late. He writes of growing up in an old farmhouse in a narrow mountain valley outside of Aspen—Woody Creek, Colorado, a ranching community with Hereford cattle and clover fields . . . of the presence of guns in the house, the boxes of ammo on the kitchen shelves behind the glass doors of the country cabinets, where others might have placed china and knickknacks . . . of climbing on the back of Hunter’s Bultaco Matador trail motorcycle as a young boy, and father and son roaring up the dirt road, trailing a cloud of dust . . . of being taken to bars in town as a small boy, Hunter holding court while Juan crawled around under the bar stools, picking up change and taking his found loot to Carl’s Pharmacy to buy Archie comic books . . . of going with his parents as a baby to a Ken Kesey/Hells Angels party with dozens of people wandering around the forest in various stages of undress, stoned on pot, tripping on LSD . . . He writes of his growing fear of his father; of the arguments between his parents reaching frightening levels; and of his finally fighting back, trying to protect his mother as the state troopers are called in to separate father and son. And of the inevitable—of mother and son driving west in their Datsun to make a new home, a new life, away from Hunter; of Juan’s first taste of what “normal” could feel like . . . We see Juan going to Concord Academy, a stranger in a strange land, coming from a school that was a log cabin in the middle of hay fields, Juan without manners or socialization . . . going on to college at Tufts; spending a crucial week with his father; Hunter asking for Juan’s opinion of his writing; and he writes of their dirt biking on a hilltop overlooking Woody Creek Valley, acting as if all the horrible things that had happened between them had never taken place, and of being there, together, side by side . . . And finally, movingly, he writes of their long, slow pull toward reconciliation . . . of Juan’s marriage and the birth of his own son; of watching Hunter love his grandson and Juan’s coming to understand how Hunter loved him; of Hunter’s growing illness, and Juan’s becoming both son and father to his father . . .

I need a new bum! Mine's got a crack. I can see in the mirror a crack in the back. What to do when you need a new bum? Should you get one that's blue or yellow spotted? A Chevy bum, a rocket bum that's all fire and thrust, or a robo-bum? The options are endless - but wait, Dad's bum crack is showing too? Maybe this is contagious.

The little ones will have so much fun listening and reading this funny rhyme story that takes place right before sleep. Milo and Cat have a very effective sleep routine, but this night, it just doesn't work! They even know a few tricks that helped them quickly fall asleep before. When these tricks won't work - at least not for Milo - it takes a lot of creativity, Cat's magic whiskers, the Know It All book, and a drop of exaggeration to lead Milo to dreamland. ★ Who's going to fall asleep first? Milo, Cat or you? ★ Short extract from the story It was right before sleep, it was already night, But for Milo and Cat, something wasn't quite right! ... "We tried counting sheep and we counted the stars, We even tried counting the distance to Mars." ... "We'll be sleeping in no time; without any doubt. Trust my whiskers," said Cat. "We will figure it out!" ... "This should have some clues, so let's go have a look There's always advice in the KNOW IT ALL book." ...