As team captain, Kai is always in control on the field. He's like the glue that keeps the team together, and the team relies on him to be a solid, talented player. But at home, as hard as he tries, Kai can't keep his parents together. Their fighting intensifies so much that Kai's frustrations spill over into school and soccer. Will he be able to provide what the team needs without the home support that he used to take for granted? Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Claw is an imprint of Magic Wagon, a division of ABDO.

“Naqvi’s fast-paced plot, foul-mouthed erudition and pitch-perfect dialogue make for a stellar debut.” —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) They are renaissance men. They are bons vivants. They are three young Pakistani men in New York City at the turn of the millennium: AC, a gangsta-rap-spouting academic; Jimbo, a hulking Pushtun DJ from the streets of Jersey City; and Chuck, a wideeyed kid, fresh off the boat from the homeland, just trying to get by. Things start coming together for Chuck when he unexpectedly secures a Wall Street gig and begins rolling with socialites and scenesters flanked by his pals, who routinely bring down the house at hush-hush downtown haunts. In a city where origins matter less than the talent for self-invention, the three Metrostanis have the guts to claim the place as their own. But when they embark on a road trip to the hinterland weeks after 9/11 in search of the Shaman, a Gatsbyesque compatriot who seemingly disappears into thin air, things go horribly wrong. Suddenly, they find themselves in a changed, charged America. Rollicking, bittersweet, and sharply observed, Home Boy is at once an immigrant’s tale, a mystery, and a story of love and loss, as well as a unique meditation on Americana and notions of collective identity. It announces the debut of an original, electrifying voice in contemporary fiction.

"I've seen what the world does to the weak. It'll eat you alive." Tirio was cast out of the Takunami tribe at a very young age because of his disabled foot. But an American woman named Sara adopted him, and his life has only gotten better since. Now, as his thirteenth birthday approaches, things are nearly perfect. So why is he having visions and hearing voices calling him back to the Amazon? Luka has spent his whole life preparing for his soche seche tente, a sixth-sense test all Takunami boys must endure just before their thirteenth birthday. His family's future depends on whether or not he passes this perilous test. His mother has dedicated herself to making sure that no aspect of his training is overlooked . . . but fate has a way of disturbing even the most carefully laid plans. Two young boys. An unforgiving jungle. One shared destiny.

When strip-joint barker Joe Speaker unwittingly steals a sixty-nine-carat blue diamond, he becomes enmeshed in a blackmail-and-murder conspiracy that begins with the savage slaying of high-priced call girl Gloria Monday. Suddenly Joe's a wanted man. Hunted by a murderous pimp known as Baby Jewels Moses and a relentless homicide cop named Tarzon, Joe ends up taking the rap and getting sentenced to three years. But it's in prison that the real trouble begins.

In writing this book, Dr. Skousen takes considerable comfort from the fact that there are no “experts” on the subject of raising boys. He comes about as close as anyone, since he is the father of five sons and three daughters—and the grandfather of fifty grandchildren. In this book is his description of “boyhood” from birth to the age of twenty-one, a portrait of physical and emotional development, year by year, an outline of behavior patterns and problems and how parents should react to them. He considers such matters as the boy’s relation to the family, adjusting to school, stuttering, telling tales, and even such everyday problems as getting a boy to clean up his room or take a bath. Inevitably there will be difficult boys and with this in mind Dr. Skousen gives helpful and knowledgeable advice to parents about alcohol, drugs, and suggested preventative measures. Without preaching and with a fine sense of humor and good common sense, Dr. Skousen has compiled a concrete guide to raising non-delinquent boys who are happy and well-adjusted. This eBook includes the original index, illustrations, footnotes, table of contents and page numbering from the printed format.