When trainer Frank Black Machine Whaley of View Point, Texas, dies of a heart attack in 1946, Elegant Raines, an eighteen-year-old black prizefighter, must find a new trainer. Raines calls on Leemore Pee-Pot Manners, a boxing trainer who lives in Longwood, West Virginia. Any honest man would say Pee-Pot knows more about boxing than anyone alivewhether that man is black or white. Rainess goal is to become the heavyweight champion of the world. Under Pee-Pots tutelage Raines wins not only the middleweight championship, but the light heavyweight championship, marking him as one of the greatest fighters of his time. During his quest for the title, Raines falls in love with Gem Loving, a pastors daughter whose father, Pastor Embry O. Loving, maintains a dim view of fighters. Gem must fight for Raines in ways her father will condemn. A Bigger Prize tells a fictional story of the boxing world in the 1940s and what the sport meant to both blacks and whites of the time. It considers the question of whether Elegant Rainess bigger prize is the worlds heavyweight championshipor something outside the ring more violent than boxing and its reward.

Co-winner of the 2015 Salon London Transmission Prize Get into the best schools. Land your next big promotion. Dress for success. Run faster. Play tougher. Work harder. Keep score. And whatever you do -- make sure you win. Competition runs through every aspect of our lives today. From the cubicle to the race track, in business and love, religion and science, what matters now is to be the biggest, fastest, meanest, toughest, richest. The upshot of all these contests? As Margaret Heffernan shows in this eye-opening book, competition regularly backfires, producing an explosion of cheating, corruption, inequality, and risk. The demolition derby of modern life has damaged our ability to work together. But it doesn't have to be this way. CEOs, scientists, engineers, investors, and inventors around the world are pioneering better ways to create great products, build enduring businesses, and grow relationships. Their secret? Generosity. Trust. Time. Theater. From the cranberry bogs of Massachusetts to the classrooms of Singapore and Finland, from tiny start-ups to global engineering firms and beloved American organizations -- like Ocean Spray, Eileen Fisher, Gore, and Boston Scientific -- Heffernan discovers ways of living and working that foster creativity, spark innovation, reinforce our social fabric, and feel so much better than winning.

Students read a high-interest nonfiction article, strengthen comprehension skills by responding to follow-up questions, study a primary source document, and demonstrate critical-thinking skills through document-based questions.

This is the story of a little girl in a small Appalachian mountain town during the depression. She had no relatives in the area except her mother and dad, yet she captivated an entire community with her comic and precocious antics. There was never a dull moment in Hayesville, North Carolina, when this little Pixie was Winding Round the Square. Go with her to meet the people she loved, and travel back to another time and place. It was the hardest of times, and yet the best of times because the spirit of the mountain people made it so. You will feel that you have lived these times with them.

A collection of humorous remarks by famed humorist, Bill Nye.