Are stories ever simply stories? Suraya is a girl with a big imagination, who loves making up little stories. When a surprise visitor brings her a very special gift, she is thrilled. Her stories are about to get much more interesting! But Suraya soon realizes that her writing may be more powerful than she thinks. Is it just her imagination? Or are things really not what they seem?

Story is the heart of language. Story moves us to love and hate and can motivate us to change the whole course of our lives. Story can lift us beyond our individual borders to imagine the realities of other people, times, and places. Storytelling — both oral tradition and written word — is the foundation of being human. In this powerful book, Christina Baldwin, one of the visionaries who started the personal writing movement, explores the vital necessity of re-creating a sacred common ground for each other's stories. Each chapter in Storycatcher is carried by a fascinating narrative — about people, family, or community — intertwined with practical instruction about the nature of story, how it works, and how we can practice it in our lives. Whether exploring the personal stories revealed in our private journals, the stories of family legacy, the underlying stories that drive our organizations, or the stories that define our personal identity, Christina's book encourages us all to become storycatchers — and shows us how new stories lay the framework for a new world.

From the author of the “wonderfully crafted” (San Francisco Book Review) Ghost on Black Mountain comes a haunting gothic novel set in the Depression-era South about two young women who form an unlikely alliance when the spirit of a dead woman takes up residence in their home. Shelly Parker never much liked Faith Dobbins, the uppity way that girl bossed her around. But they had more in common than she knew. Shelly tried to ignore the haints that warned her Faith’s tyrannical father, Pastor Dobbins, was a devil in disguise. But when Faith started acting strange, Shelly couldn’t avoid the past—not anymore. Critically acclaimed, award-winning author Ann Hite beckons readers back to the Depression-era South, from the saltwater marshes of Georgia’s coast to the whispering winds of North Carolina’s mystical Black Mountain, in a mesmerizing gothic tale about the dark family secrets that come back to haunt us.

For generations of children, including a young Oprah Winfrey, opening a Lois Lenski book has meant opening a world. This was just what the author wanted: to help children “see beyond the rim of their own world.” In Lois Lenski: Storycatcher, historian and educator Bobbie Malone takes us into Lenski’s own world to tell the story of how a girl from a small Ohio town became a beloved literary icon. Author and illustrator of the Newbery Award–winning Strawberry Girl and numerous other tales of children from America’s diverse regions and cultures, Lenski spent five decades creating stories for young readers. Lois Lenski: Storycatcher follows her development as a writer and as an artist, and it traces the evolution of her passionate belief in the power of empathy conveyed in children’s books. Understanding that youngsters responded instinctively to narratives rich in reality, Lenski turned her extensive study of hardworking families into books that accurately and movingly depicted the lives of the children of sharecroppers, coal miners, and migrant field workers. From Bayou Suzette to Blue Ridge Billy, Corn-Farm Boy to Houseboat Girl, and Boom Town Boy to Texas Tomboy, Lenski’s books mirrored the cultural energy and concerns of the time. This first full-length biography tells how Lenski traveled throughout the country, gathering the stories that brought to life in words and pictures whole worlds that had for so long been invisible in children’s literature. In the process, her work became a source of delight, inspiration, and insight for generations of readers.

The THORNTON BURGESS Ultimate Collection is a compilation of 37 children's books and bedtime stories brimming with whimsical characters and moral lessons. Written in a simple and engaging style, the stories encourage a love for nature and animal life. With original illustrations that bring the adventures to life, each tale is a delightful journey through the natural world, perfect for young readers and bedtime readings. Thornton Burgess's storytelling captivates through charming dialogue and vivid descriptions, making it a timeless addition to any child's library. His work reflects the early 20th-century conservation movement, emphasizing the importance of respecting and protecting wildlife. Through his books, Burgess inspires a deeper connection to the environment and its inhabitants. The THORNTON BURGESS Ultimate Collection is a must-read for anyone seeking enchanting stories that instill values of kindness, friendship, and environmental stewardship.

Examines the intense interactions of parents and children. From Dr. G's preface:" Parents receive a lot of advice from many people. Popular magazines and books offer a continuous stream of conflicting advice. Professionals have a variety of opinions about child-rearing that range from helpful suggestions to misleading and even bizarre ideas. Child psychology is an eclectic assembly of ideas, miscellaneous observations, opinions, fears and irrational beliefs. Confusion prevails in education about what children should learn and how they should learn it. Parents receive a lot of advice from many people. Popular magazines and books offer a continuous stream of conflicting advice. If psychologists, physicians, and educators are confused, what about parents? The best parents are pragmatic and not theorists. They stay involved with their children, follow some basic guidelines they learned and tend to do whatever works. Good parents improvise childcare with a combination of innate generosity, common sense, love and concessions to the demands of modern life. In this book, I develop a perspective based on understanding human nature. The deep lineage for every human lies in the interaction of many layers of biological determinants. The culture of parents, schools and community impose a second lineage on a child that sets limits on the form and content of learning. A family is any combination of adults and children that creates a home. The essence of family is caring and nurturing. We are social creatures. Children are innately social, but need to learn what we are doing these days. The learning requirement is greater than ever before, because we now depend on complicated technologies and must learn to interact with a great number of other humans who will be different from us in many ways. To include more humans in the family of man as constructive peaceful contributors, each child must receive loving care, the right food, sophisticated education, opportunities for employment and the freedom to express his or her version of humanity. Thoughtful, well-educated and affluent parents have the opportunity to understand their responsibilities, to plan and allocate resources for an unborn child. A good parent faces a continuous series of challenges and problems that need solution. Parenting is not an easy job. A realistic understanding of human nature will help parents to guide their children toward a successful adult life.

This third book in the four-book Children's Book Corner set provides a complete program for those starting a read-aloud program in their classroom, their school or public library, or their home. This volume focuses on read-alouds for children in grades 3 and 4. It provides book lists, book selection ideas, as well as pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading questions and activities. Parent Pull-Out Pages with helpful tips are provided for duplication. Helpful appendices and an index furnish additional aides to structure a great read-aloud program. New in this book is a section, Up Close and Personal, of personal notes from children's authors discussing their books featured in the read-aloud section. Also new to the section is Write Away, providing writing tips and activities. This third book in the four-book Children's Book Corner set provides a complete program for those starting a read-aloud program at home, in their classroom or school, or their public library. This volume focuses on read-alouds for children in grades 3 and 4. It provides book lists, book selection ideas, as well as pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading questions and activities. Parent Pull-Out Pages with helpful tips are provided for duplication. Helpful appendices and an index furnish additional aides to structure a great read-aloud program. New in this book, is a section, Up Close and Personal, of personal notes from children's authors discussing their books featured in the read-aloud section. Also new to the section is Write Away, providing writing tips and activities. Grades 3 and 4.

A Practical Approach to Trauma: Empowering Interventions provides trauma counselors with effective guidelines that enhance skills and improve expertise in conducting empowering therapeutic interventions. Taking a practitioner's perspective, author Priscilla Dass-Brailsford focuses on practical application and skill building in an effort to understand the impact of extreme stress and violence on the human psyche. provides trauma counselors with effective guidelines that enhance skills and improve expertise in conducting empowering therapeutic interventions. Taking a practitioner's perspective, author Priscilla Dass-Brailsford focuses on practical application and skill building in an effort to understand the impact of extreme stress and violence on the human psyche.

The last thirty years have witnessed one of the most fertile periods in the history of children's books. A fascinating reference guide to the world of children's literature, this volume covers every genre from fairy tales to chapbooks; school stories to science fiction; comics to children's hymns

Reading, however fundamental the task may seem to everyday life, is a complex process that takes years to master. Yet, learning to read in the early stages is not an overwhelming problem for most children, especially when their classroom learning is coupled with a nurturing home environment in which reading is cherished, and pencil and paper are always available and fun to use. In fact, studies have shown that children score higher in reading if their parents support and encourage them at home. Unfortunately, though many parents want to involve themselves actively in their children's education, very few know just what to do. Now Dr. Harvey S. Wiener, author of the classic Any Child Can Write, provides an indispensable guide for parents who want to help their children enter the magic realm of words. In Any Child Can Read Better, Second Edition, Dr. Wiener offers practical advice on how to help children make their way through the maze of assignments and exercises related to classroom reading. In this essential book, parents learn how to be "reading helpers" without replacing or superseding the teacher--by supporting a child's reading habits and sharing the pleasures of fiction, poetry, and prose. Home learning parents also will find a wealth of information here. Through comfortable conversation and enjoyable exercises that tap children's native abilities, parents can help their child practice the critical thinking and reading skills that guarantee success in the classroom and beyond. For example, Dr. Wiener explains how exercises such as prereading warm-ups like creating word maps (a visual scheme that represents words and ideas as shapes and connects them) will allow youngsters to create a visual format and context before they begin reading. He shows how pictures from a birthday party can be used to create patterns of meaning by arranging them chronologically to allow the party's "story" to emerge, or how they might by arranged by order of importance--a picture of Beth standing at the door waiting for her friends to arrive could be displayed first, Beth blowing out the birthday cake placed toward the middle of the arrangement, and the pictures of Beth opening her gifts, especially the skates she's been begging for all year, would surely go toward the end of the sequence. Dr. Wiener shows how these activities, and many others, such as writing games, categorizing toys or clothes or favorite foods, and reading journals, will help children draw meaning out of written material. This second edition includes a new chapter describing the benefits of encouraging children to keep a journal of their personal reactions to books, the value of writing in the books they own (underlining, writing in the margins, and making a personal index) and a variety of reading activities to help children interact with writers and their books. Dr. Wiener has also expanded and updated his fascinating discussion of recommended books for children of all ages, complete with plot summaries. Written in simple, accessible prose, Any Child Can Read Better offers sensible advice for busy parents concerned with their children's education.