How Katie Got a Voice (and a Cool New Nickname is a story that celebrates that which makes us all unique, but also highlights how sometimes a little help is needed to show us how much we are alike. The story is told by a fourth grade classmate of Katie, the new girl in school. Everyone in the school, even the principal and custodian, have nicknames related to their individual interests and personalities. When Katie comes into the class, the students are eager to involve her in their activities and to learn what is special about her. This proves to be quite a challenge. Katie has significant physical disabilities which make her dependent on a Personal Care Assistant for everything, even communicating. How can Katie fit in with her classmates when she can't even talk? When Katie is introduced to assistive technology, she is finally able to communicate with her new friends. As a result, the students are delighted to see her as a person with many interests and abilities, just like them. Katie knows she is a valued member of the school when she is given her own special nickname.

A “beautifully illustrated memoir, a deeply personal remembrance about the navigation into adulthood and the plants along the way. Touching and relatable.” (Lori Roberts, author of A Life of Gratitude) From Katie Vaz, author of Don’t Worry, Eat Cake, the beloved Make Yourself Cozy, and The Escape Manual for Introverts, comes My Life in Plants. Her newest book tells the story of her life through the thirty-nine plants that have played both leading and supporting roles, from her childhood to her wedding day. Plants include a homegrown wildflower bouquet wrapped in duct tape that she carried on stage at age three, to a fragrant basil plant that brought her and her kitchen back to life after grief. The stories are personal, poignant, heartwarming, and relatable, and will prompt readers to recall plants of their own that have been witness to both the amazing moments of life and the ordinary ones. This illustrated memoir covers the simplicity of home, the sharpness of loss, the lesson of learning to be present, and the journey of finding your way

New York Times bestseller How do you hold on to hope when you don’t get the ending you asked for? When Katie Davis Majors moved to Uganda, accidentally founded a booming organization, and later became the mother of thirteen girls through the miracle of adoption, she determined to weave her life together with the people she desired to serve. But joy often gave way to sorrow as she invested her heart fully in walking alongside people in the grip of poverty, addiction, desperation, and disease. After unexpected tragedy shook her family, for the first time Katie began to wonder, Is God really good? Does He really love us? When she turned to Him with her questions, God spoke truth to her heart and drew her even deeper into relationship with Him. Daring to Hope is an invitation to cling to the God of the impossible—the God who whispers His love to us in the quiet, in the mundane, when our prayers are not answered the way we want or the miracle doesn’t come. It’s about a mother discovering the extraordinary strength it takes to be ordinary. It’s about choosing faith no matter the circumstance and about encountering God’s goodness in the least expected places. Though your heartaches and dreams may take a different shape, you will find your own questions echoed in these pages. You’ll be reminded of the gifts of joy in the midst of sorrow. And you’ll hear God’s whisper: Hold on to hope. I will meet you here.

An educational toolkit for teaching phonics, consisting of a book, posters and musical CD, all of which provides for multiple options and inputs for learning, including: visual-icons, auditory and kinesthetic motor skill manipulations, as well as a variety of dramatic and emotive cuing-systems designed to target the affective learning domain. This "backdoor-approach" to phonemic skill acquisition is based on current neural research on Learning & the Brain--specifically how our brains actually learn best!The Secret Stories® primary purpose is to equip beginning (or struggling, upper grade) readers and writers, as well as their instructors, with the tools necessary to easily and effectively crack the secret reading and writing codes that lie beyond the alphabet, and effectively out of reach for so many learners! It is not a phonics program! Rather, it simply provides the missing pieces learners need to solve the complex reading puzzle--one that some might never solve otherwise! The Secrets(tm) are sure to become one of the most valuable, well-used, and constantly relied-upon teaching tools in your instructional repertoire!

Learn the importance of speaking in the right volume with this easy-to-read story.

A dazzling and devastating memoir exploring breakdown and obsessive love, in a voice unlike any other

Facing the prospect of fatherhood, disillusioned by his fledgling teaching career, and mourning the loss of a fraught former relationship, 25-year-old Francis Mason is a prisoner of his past mistakes. But when his second-grade class discovers a dead body during a field trip to a San Francisco beach, Francis spirals into unbearable grief and all-consuming paranoia. As his behavior grows increasingly erratic, and tensions arise with the school principal and the parents of his students, he faces the familiar urge to flee — a choice that forces him to confront the character weaknesses that have shattered his life again and again — and to accept the wrenching truth about the past he’s never been able to move beyond.