Shake the magic globe to help make Ernie's wish come true.

An investing story that provides insights into dealing with your money and finding financial security Making the right investment decisions and executing an effective financial plan can be difficult, especially in today’s markets. But with the right guidance you can achieve this goal. Now, in The Story of Rich, leading wealth manager John David “J.D.” Joyce shows you how. Based on his real-world experiences with investors throughout his successful career, this book offers meaningful advice about financial planning and investing. Designed for those with significant assets who are nearing or recently retired, as well as individuals who have recently come into new money through business or inheritance, The Story of Rich skillfully explains financial planning and investing through a fable of a man who sells a business he’s worked so hard to build, and now finds himself with more money then he’s ever had to deal with. Along the way, this book teaches you about important investment concepts and presents you with tools to consider your options and choose an appropriate investment strategy. Chronicles the fictional story of a recently retired businessman who is worried about making the most of his money now that he's no longer generating regular income Presents lessons about investing, sometimes through comparisons to topics like marathon running or wine making, in the quest to make sense of fundamental investment concepts Author John David “J.D.” Joyce has been named a Top Financial Advisor by Barron’s in 2009, 2010 and 2011 Engaging and informative, The Story of Rich is the perfect guide for those concerned about protecting their hard-earned money and investing it wisely.

The bestselling author of The One-in-a-Million Boy has crafted a story collection that “illuminates the grace in the average and everyday” of a small town (San Francisco Chronicle). In ten interlinking stories, the town of Abbot Falls reacts as Ernie Whitten, pipefitter, builds a giant ark in his backyard. Ernie was weeks away from a pension-secured retirement when the union went on strike. Now his wife Marie is ill. Struck with sudden inspiration, Ernie builds the ark as a work of art for his wife to see from the window; a vessel to carry them both away; or a plea for God to spare Marie, come hell or high water. As the ark takes shape, the rest of the town carries on. There’s Dan Little, a building-code enforcer who comes to fine Ernie for the ark and makes a significant discovery about himself; Francine Love, a precocious thirteen-year-old who longs to be a part of the family-like world of the union workers; and Atlantic Pulp & Paper CEO Henry John McCoy, an impatient man wearily determined to be a good father to his twenty-six-year-old daughter. The people of Abbott Falls will try their best to hold a community together, against the fiercest of odds . . . Few writers can capture the extraordinary within seemingly ordinary lives as does Monica Wood. An unforgettable tapestry of love, loneliness—and neighbors. “Like Elizabeth Strout, her fellow chronicler of small-town Maine life, Monica Wood imbues her characters with the complexity and humanity of real people. Ernie’s Ark is as true as life.” ?Christina Baker Kline, New York Times bestselling author

This textbook is a comprehensive resource for teaching multicultural children’s literature. Providing foundational information on how and why to integrate diverse children’s literature into the classroom, this book presents a necessary historical perspective on cultural groups in the United States and context for how to teach children’s literature in a way that reflects and sustains students’ rich cultural backgrounds. The historical insights and context on diverse cultural groups at the heart of the book allow readers to deepen their understanding of why teaching about cultural diversity is necessary for effective and inclusive education. Part I offers foundational information on how to teach children’s literature in a diverse society, and Part II overviews pedagogy, resources, and guidance for teaching specific culturally and linguistically marginalized groups. Each chapter contains book recommendations, discussion questions, and additional resources for teachers. With authentic strategies and crucial background knowledge embedded in each chapter, this text is essential reading for pre-service and in-service teachers and is ideal for courses in children’s literature, literacy methods instruction, and multicultural education.

With The Sportswriter, in 1985, Richard Ford began a cycle of novels that ten years later – after Independence Day won both the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award – was hailed by The Times of London as “an extraordinary epic [that] is nothing less than the story of the twentieth century itself.” Frank Bascombe’s story resumes, in the fall of 2000, with the presidential election still hanging in the balance and Thanksgiving looming before him with all the perils of a post-nuclear family get-together. He’s now plying his trade as a realtor on the Jersey shore and contending with health, marital and familial issues that have his full attention: “all the ways that life seems like life at age fifty-five strewn around me like poppies.” Richard Ford’s first novel in over a decade: the funniest, most engaging (and explosive) book he’s written, and a major literary event.

This trilogy of brilliant novels - The Sportswriter, Independence Day, and The Lay of the Land - that charts the life and times of one of the most beloved and enduring characters in modern fiction. When we meet Frank Bascombe in The Sportswriter, his unguarded voice instantly wins us over and pulls us into a life that has been irrevocably changed by the loss of a marriage, a career, a child. We then follow Frank, ever brilliantly and hilariously observant, through Independence Day and The Lay of the Land, witnessing his fortune's rise and his family's fragmentation and reintegration. With finely honed prose and an eye that captures the most subtle nuances of the human condition in all its pathos, humour, beauty and strangeness, Richard Ford transforms Frank Bascombe's life into a riveting moving parable of life in America today.

Three-foot Matchmaker Ginny Scarborough has picked out her new mommy— Danni Everett, the local celebrity chef who hired Ginny's widowed father, Stone, to renovate her house. And Danni couldn't deny the immediate zing she felt for the handsome, green-eyed contractor…even if they were brought together by a precocious four-year-old. So why was Stone holding back when everything between them felt so right? Stone's heart had been, well, stone-cold for far too long…that is, until he met the beautiful and bubbly chef. Still, Danni was part of a world where Stone and his little girl didn't belong—better to move on than risk the pain of losing love again. With two stubborn adults to contend with, could little Cupid still make her dreams of a family come true?