Simply retold and wonderfully illustrated, this series brings together charming tales that children will enjoy. Each story takes approximately 10 minutes to read.

A delicate and darkly witty reflection on loss, marriage, writing, and life in New York from an acclaimed biographer and memoirist. Dorothy Gallagher’s husband, Ben Sonnenberg, died in 2010. He had suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years and was almost completely paralyzed, but his wonderful, playful mind remained quite undimmed. In the ten sections of Stories I Forgot to Tell You, Gallagher moves freely and intuitively between the present and the past to evoke the life they made together and her life after his death, alone and yet at the same time never without thoughts of him, in a present that is haunted but also comforted by the recollection of their common past. She talks—the whole book is written conversationally, confidingly, unpretentiously—about small things, such as moving into a new apartment and setting it up, growing tomatoes on a new deck, and as she does she recalls her missing husband’s elegant clothes and British affectations, what she knew about him and didn’t know, the devastating toll of his disease and the ways they found to deal with it. She talks about their two dogs and their cat, Bones, and the role that a photograph she never took had in bringing her together with her husband. Her mother, eventually succumbing to dementia, is also here, along with friends, an old typewriter, episodes from a writing life, and her husband’s last days. The stories Gallagher has to tell, as quirky as they are profound, could not be more ordinary, and yet her glancing, wry approach to memory and life gives them an extraordinary resonance that makes the reader feel both the logic and the mystery of a couple’s common existence. Her prose is perfectly pitched and her eye for detail unerring. This slim book about irremediable loss and unending love distills the essence of a lifetime.

Dorothy Gallagher began her literary career fabricating stories about celebrities for a pulp magazine. Nothing she invented, however, could rival the facts surrounding her own family. In a singular voice–intimate, fierce, hilarious–Gallagher takes you into the heart of her Russian Jewish heritage with stories as elegant and stylish as fiction. From the wrenching last stages of her parents’ lives, Gallagher moves back through time: to her parents’ beginnings, the adventures of her extended family, and the communist ideology to which they cling. Her aunt Lily sells lingerie to prostitutes; a family friend is found murdered in a bathtub; her cousin Meyer returns to the Ukraine to find his village near death from starvation; and a young Gallagher endures sessions in self-criticism at a Workers’ Children’s camp. Together these episodes tell the larger story of a generation living through tumultuous history, and record the acts of loving defiance of a daughter on her path to independence.

A collection of short stories by Josie Gray and Tess Gallagher.

When we read a nonfiction text, what is the difference between one that keeps us interested and one that merely informs? Especially when the topic may be a bit, well, dry? The difference is narrative. The writer who threads a story throughout her text - using the tools of human connection, of narrative - is the writer who brings information to life. The argument she makes is compelling and real, because we care about the story within her story. This writer understands the power of narrative. In Story Matters, Liz Prather provides activities, lessons, exercises, mentor texts, and student samples to help teens learn to seamlessly weave narrative into their nonfiction writing. She provides concrete ideas for using the tools and techniques of narrative, including: - finding stories within any topic - using characters - creating tension - exploring structure - selecting details - crafting words and sentences. Give Liz's ideas a try and watch your students' writing rise to new levels. Because story matters.

Simply retold and wonderfully illustrated, this series brings together charming tales that children will enjoy. Each story takes approximately 10 minutes to read.

Prepare to laugh out loud with this fantastically entertaining collection of mischief and mayhem. This book features favourite funny stories and extracts from authors such as Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling. Finished with colourful illustrations, packed with humour, this rib-tickling collection will encourage a love of reading in children.