A fascinating study of the global Maker Movement that explores how ‘making’ impacts our personal and social development—perfect for enthusiastic DIY-ers Dale Dougherty, creator of MAKE: magazine and the Maker Faire, provides a guided tour of the international phenomenon known as the Maker Movement, a social revolution that is changing what gets made, how it’s made, where it’s made, and who makes it. Free to Make is a call to join what Dougherty calls the “renaissance of making,” an invitation to see ourselves as creators and shapers of the world around us. As the internet thrives and world-changing technologies—like 3D printers and tiny microcontrollers—become increasingly affordable, people around the world are moving away from the passivity of one-size-fits-all consumption and command-and-control models of education and business. Free to Make explores how making revives abandoned and neglected urban areas, reinvigorates community spaces like libraries and museums, and even impacts our personal and social development—fostering a mindset that is engaged, playful, and resourceful. Free to Make asks us to imagine a world where making is an everyday occurrence in our schools, workplaces, and local communities, grounding us in the physical world and empowering us to solve the challenges we face.

A fascinating study of the global Maker Movement that explores how ‘making’ impacts our personal and social development—perfect for enthusiastic DIY-ers Dale Dougherty, creator of MAKE: magazine and the Maker Faire, provides a guided tour of the international phenomenon known as the Maker Movement, a social revolution that is changing what gets made, how it’s made, where it’s made, and who makes it. Free to Make is a call to join what Dougherty calls the “renaissance of making,” an invitation to see ourselves as creators and shapers of the world around us. As the internet thrives and world-changing technologies—like 3D printers and tiny microcontrollers—become increasingly affordable, people around the world are moving away from the passivity of one-size-fits-all consumption and command-and-control models of education and business. Free to Make explores how making revives abandoned and neglected urban areas, reinvigorates community spaces like libraries and museums, and even impacts our personal and social development—fostering a mindset that is engaged, playful, and resourceful. Free to Make asks us to imagine a world where making is an everyday occurrence in our schools, workplaces, and local communities, grounding us in the physical world and empowering us to solve the challenges we face.

Here is the straight-up dope on how to make your own clothing. With or without patterns, machines, or fancy materials—anyone can do it! Got some old clothes that you love and that fit well? Use them as patterns for new ones. Want something new and spectacular, something that fits right along where your head is moving? Cut up, remodel, add on, and let your old stuff evolve! Readers will embrace the step-by-step illustrations, clear and encouraging prose, and timeless collection of clothes—from skirts and pants to dresses, a waistcoat, and even a teeny-weeny bikini. The Illustrated Hassle-Free Make Your Own Clothes Book promises to be both an indispensable resource and a much-noticed collectible on every hipster’s bookshelf.

From Wild + Free, a wonderful collection of creative activities for parents, educators, and caregivers filled with engaging and fun ideas to help kids fall in love with literature and reading. Foster a love of reading in your child with Wild + Free Book Club. An invaluable educational resource curated by Wild + Free families around the world, this full-color illustrated book offers imaginative suggestions for creating themed book clubs for kids. Here are hands-on activities, games, food, and decoration ideas inspired by a carefully chosen list of beloved classic novels, as well as discussion questions about plots and themes that engage kids minds and sparks their curiosity. Wild + Free Book Club is filled with fun ideas for each book, including: Anne of Green Gables—host a picnic tea party The Secret Garden—craft a terrarium, a secret garden of your own Charlotte’s Web—host an old-time country fair The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe—turn your front door into a magical portal to Narnia With step-by-step instructions, lush photography, and family-tested and kid-approved activities, Wild + Free Book Club will help parents and educators inspire children and instill a lifelong passion for literature and the joy of books. The Wild + Free Book Club reading list: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Anne of Green Gables Around the World in 80 Days Black Beauty Charlotte’s Web The Crossover Esperanza Rising The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate Farmer Boy From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler The Green Ember Heidi The Hobbit Island of the Blue Dolphins The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Little House in the Big Woods A Little Princess Little Women Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH My Side of the Mountain Peter Pan Pippi Longstocking Robin Hood Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry The Secret Garden The Swiss Family Robinson Treasure Island The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street

Expand the sharing movement to your community with Little Free Libraries and Tiny Sheds—your complete source for building tiny sharing structures, including plans for 12 different structures, step-by-step photography and instructions, inspirational examples, and maintenance. Around the world, a community movement is underway featuring quaint landscape structures mounted on posts in front yards and other green spaces. Some are built for personal use, as miniature sheds for gardeners or as decorative accent pieces. More commonly, though, they are evidence of the growing trend toward neighborhood organization and community outreach. This movement has been popularized by Wisconsin-based Little Free Library (LFL), whose members currently include 75,000 stewards seeking to build community togetherness and promote reading at the same time by sharing books among neighbors. LFL has inspired builders to use similar structures to share things like CDs, food, garden tools, and seeds in the community. Produced in cooperation with Little Free Library, Little Free Libraries and Tiny Sheds is the builder's complete source of inspiration and how-to knowledge. Illustrated throughout with colorful step-by-step photography and a gallery of tiny structures for further inspiration, Little Free Libraries and Tiny Sheds covers every step: planning and design, tools and building techniques, best materials, and 12 complete plans for structures of varying size and aesthetics. In addition, author and professional carpenter Phil Schmidt includes information on proper installation of small structures and common repairs and maintenance for down the road. Little Free Libraries and Tiny Sheds even includes information on how to become a steward, getting the word out about your little structure once it's up and running, and tips for building a lively collection. Community togetherness has never been so at the fore of our consciousness—or so important. Little Free Libraries and Tiny Sheds is one tool on the road to helping you build community in your neighborhood.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Democracy Awakening, “the most comprehensive account of the GOP and its competing impulses” (Los Angeles Times) When Abraham Lincoln helped create the Republican Party on the eve of the Civil War, his goal was to promote economic opportunity for all Americans, not just the slaveholding Southern planters who steered national politics. Yet, despite the egalitarian dream at the heart of its founding, the Republican Party quickly became mired in a fundamental identity crisis. Would it be the party of democratic ideals? Or would it be the party of moneyed interests? In the century and a half since, Republicans have vacillated between these two poles, with dire economic, political, and moral repercussions for the entire nation. In To Make Men Free, celebrated historian Heather Cox Richardson traces the shifting ideology of the Grand Old Party from the antebellum era to the Great Recession, revealing the insidious cycle of boom and bust that has characterized the Party since its inception. While in office, progressive Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower revived Lincoln's vision of economic freedom and expanded the government, attacking the concentration of wealth and nurturing upward mobility. But they and others like them have been continually thwarted by powerful business interests in the Party. Their opponents appealed to Americans' latent racism and xenophobia to regain political power, linking taxation and regulation to redistribution and socialism. The results of the Party's wholesale embrace of big business are all too familiar: financial collapses like the Panic of 1893, the Great Depression in 1929, and the Great Recession in 2008. With each passing decade, with each missed opportunity and political misstep, the schism within the Republican Party has grown wider, pulling the GOP ever further from its founding principles. Expansive and authoritative, To Make Men Free is a sweeping history of the Party that was once America's greatest political hope -- and, time and time again, has proved its greatest disappointment.

Textbooks are symbols of centuries-old education. They're often outdated as soon as they hit students' desks. Acting "by the textbook" implies compliance and a lack of creativity. It's time to ditch those textbooks--and those textbook assumptions about learning In Ditch That Textbook, teacher and blogger Matt Miller encourages educators to throw out meaningless, pedestrian teaching and learning practices. He empowers them to evolve and improve on old, standard, teaching methods. Ditch That Textbook is a support system, toolbox, and manifesto to help educators free their teaching and revolutionize their classrooms.