Poems of nationalism, patriotism, and honor await readers in the new book A Soldier’s Son. Authored by David Hotchkiss, PhD, this book is dedicated to all brave men and women that unselfishly and steadfastly serve in the United States Armed Forces. A Soldier’s Son looks at the greatness of America through the eyes of a career soldier who comes from a long line of soldiers; this makes him a soldier ́s son. Life in the military for both the military member and family are highlighted. Historical events such as the attack on the World Trade Center ́s twin towers, the Iraq War, the history of the Ft. McHenry flag, Pearl Harbor, and the Normandy invasion are all addressed in detail in Hotchkiss ́s poetic style. Life in America and things known as Americana such as family reunions, Christmas, backyard barbecues, and county fairs are also addressed. This book will make you laugh and cry, reflect, and reminisce and instill a sense of patriotic pride for America and the US military. Hotchkiss invites readers to reflect with his poems on liberty, democracy, the American way of life, and the men and women who fight for it.

John Hodgkins was eight years old when his father was drafted into the army and left for Europe for fight in WWII. After his return, his father never spoke much of the war. After his father's death, John opened his father's diary and two boxes of memorabilia.

The intense heat of the Indian day was over, and Captain and Mrs. Gidley, with their little son, Dick, were seated on the verandah of their bungalow, enjoying the comparative coolness of the evening. Captain Gidley was a tall, handsome man, whose spare form and tanned skin told of many years lived beneath an eastern sun; his wife was a very pretty woman, and though she had lost the pink roses from her cheeks which she had brought to India with her as a bride, ten years previously, she had not grown languid and idle, but was as bright and cheerful as she had been in her English home, so that her little son, now eight years old, always had a friend and playmate in the mother, who loved him, next to her husband, better than all the world...FROM THE BOOKS.

The story of D.C. Caughran Jr., Mrs. Cordie's son, could be that of almost any soldier in World War II. He left the comfort of home and family to become part of one of the defining conflicts of modern times. The letters he wrote home tell his story from the day he received his draft notice in the summer of 1942 through battle, capture, wounding, imprisonment, and his eventual return home for recuperation and discharge. Author Rocky R. Miracle, the son-in-law of D.C. Caughran, tells not only Caughran's story, but at the same time the story of "the home folks" who anxiously watched for letters from their "soldier boy" and wrote faithfully of their love and prayers for his safety. This home-front narrative also stands as an important and deeply personal record of life in wartime. Taken prisoner during the German breakout of December 1944 that led to the Battle of the Bulge, D.C. was force-marched past corpses lining the road into Germany, loaded with other American prisoners into boxcars, and held in a prison camp during the coldest European winter of the century. He suffered starvation rations and hepatitis and was hospitalized after his liberation, though doctors were doubtful that he would recover. However, with time and care, he returned to health, was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army, and lived a long, productive life. This intimate portrait of an American family--at home and at war--during a time of world upheaval is at once heartwarming, sobering, and entertaining. Mrs. Cordie's Soldier Son is highly recommended for readers interested in World War II, the POW experience, and home-front literature.

New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice; Real Simple Best of the Month; Library Journal Editors’ Pick In the spirit of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Bringing up Bébé, and The Smartest Kids in the World, a hard-hitting exploration of China’s widely acclaimed yet insular education system that raises important questions for the future of American parenting and education When students in Shanghai rose to the top of international rankings in 2009, Americans feared that they were being "out-educated" by the rising super power. An American journalist of Chinese descent raising a young family in Shanghai, Lenora Chu noticed how well-behaved Chinese children were compared to her boisterous toddler. How did the Chinese create their academic super-achievers? Would their little boy benefit from Chinese school? Chu and her husband decided to enroll three-year-old Rainer in China’s state-run public school system. The results were positive—her son quickly settled down, became fluent in Mandarin, and enjoyed his friends—but she also began to notice troubling new behaviors. Wondering what was happening behind closed classroom doors, she embarked on an exploratory journey, interviewing Chinese parents, teachers, and education professors, and following students at all stages of their education. What she discovered is a military-like education system driven by high-stakes testing, with teachers posting rankings in public, using bribes to reward students who comply, and shaming to isolate those who do not. At the same time, she uncovered a years-long desire by government to alleviate its students’ crushing academic burden and make education friendlier for all. The more she learns, the more she wonders: Are Chinese children—and her son—paying too high a price for their obedience and the promise of future academic prowess? Is there a way to appropriate the excellence of the system but dispense with the bad? What, if anything, could Westerners learn from China’s education journey? Chu’s eye-opening investigation challenges our assumptions and asks us to consider the true value and purpose of education.

Nevare Burvelle is the second son of a second son, destined from birth to carry a sword. The wealthy young noble will follow his father—newly made a lord by the King of Gernia—into the cavalry, training in the military arts at the elite King's Cavella Academy in the capital city of Old Thares. Bright and well-educated, an excellent horseman with an advantageous engagement, Nevare's future appears golden. But as his Academy instruction progresses, Nevare begins to realize that the road before him is far from straight. The old aristocracy looks down on him as the son of a "new noble" and, unprepared for the political and social maneuvering of the deeply competitive school and city, the young man finds himself entangled in a web of injustice, discrimination, and foul play. In addition, he is disquieted by his unconventional girl-cousin Epiny—who challenges his heretofore unwavering world view—and by the bizarre dreams that haunt his nights. For twenty years the King's cavalry has pushed across the grasslands, subduing and settling its nomads and claiming the territory in Gernia's name. Now they have driven as far as the Barrier Mountains, home to the Speck people, a quiet, forest-dwelling folk who retain the last vestiges of magic in a world that is rapidly becoming modernized. From childhood Nevare has been taught that the Specks are a primitive people to be pitied for their backward ways—and feared for their indigenous diseases, including the deadly Speck plague, which has ravaged the frontier towns and military outposts. The Dark Evening brings the carnival to Old Thares, and with it an unknown magic, and the first Specks Nevare has ever seen . . .