Tired of spending money on IT without understanding your investment? Not getting the results you need in the time frame you expected? Here, the authors identify five imperatives that will help you drive value from IT, with detailed explanations on their implementation.

A vibrant new voice . . . a modern classic. For generations, the Beaumont family has harbored a magical secret. They each possess a “savvy”—a special supernatural power that strikes when they turn thirteen. Grandpa Bomba moves mountains, her older brothers create hurricanes and spark electricity . . . and now it’s the eve of Mibs’s big day. As if waiting weren’t hard enough, the family gets scary news two days before Mibs’s birthday: Poppa has been in a terrible accident. Mibs develops the singular mission to get to the hospital and prove that her new power can save her dad. So she sneaks onto a salesman’s bus . . . only to find the bus heading in the opposite direction. Suddenly Mibs finds herself on an unforgettable odyssey that will force her to make sense of growing up—and of other people, who might also have a few secrets hidden just beneath the skin.

Digitization of business interactions and processes is advancing full bore. But in many organizations, returns from IT investments are flatlining, even as technology spending has skyrocketed. These challenges call for new levels of IT savvy: the ability of all managers-IT or non-IT-to transform their company's technology assets into operational efficiencies that boost margins. Companies with IT-savvy managers are 20 percent more profitable than their competitors. In IT Savvy, Peter Weill and Jeanne Ross-two of the world's foremost authorities on using IT in business-explain how non-IT executives can acquire this savvy. Concise and practical, the book describes the practices, competencies, and leadership skills non-IT managers need to succeed in the digital economy. You'll discover how to: -Define your firm's operating model-how IT can help you do business -Revamp your IT funding model to support your operating model -Build a digitized platform of business processes, IT systems, and data to execute on the model -Determine IT decision rights -Extract more business value from your IT assets Packed with examples and based on research into eighteen hundred organizations in more than sixty countries, IT Savvy is required reading for non-IT managers seeking to push their company's performance to new heights.

A leading publicist for the publishing industry shares her best advice to writers on how to maximize exposure for the work, showing writer's how to become skillful at marketing and self-promotion, while also learning how to network in the right places.

Twelve-year-old Audrey Abbott dreams of becoming a writer, but with her father's failing health and the family's shaky finances, it seems there is no room for what her overworked mother would surely call a childish fantasy. So Audrey keeps her writing a secret. That is, until she meets a mysterious old woman who seems able to read her mind. Audrey is surprised at how readily she reveals her secret to the woman. One day the old woman gives Audrey a peculiar bronze pen and tells her to "use it wisely and to good purpose." It turns out to be just perfect for writing her stories with. But as Audrey writes, odd things start happening. Did Beowulf, her dog, just speak to her? And what is that bumping under her bed at night? It seems that whatever she writes with the pen comes true. However, things don't always happen in the way that she wants or expects. In fact, it's quite difficult to predict what writing with the pen will do. Could the pen be more of a curse than a gift? Or will Audrey be able to rewrite the future in the way that she wishes---and save her father's life?

What strikes me about this wonderful book is that the authors not only tell us what they did in their classrooms, they make sure that we know how to do what they did. At the end of this book, you will know exactly why weekly shared reading works and how to do it in your classroom. -Janet Angelillo Author of Writing About Reading If only upper-elementary teachers had a tool like shared reading that supports the comprehension work their students do in reading workshop and read-aloud-one that helps children transition from teacher-led instruction to independent work. In fact, they do, because with minimal adjustments shared reading can be just as effective in grades 3-6 as it is in the primary grades. Text Savvy shows you how to make it work in your classroom. Text Savvy helps you implement a consistent, manageable, shared reading framework with the sophistication and wider variety of entry points that upper-elementary students need. Sarah Daunis and Maria Cassiani Iams present a five-day shared reading structure-called weekly shared reading-that engages students' foundational reading skills and helps them build on what they've learned. Best of all, weekly shared reading is an ideal approach to studying genres as well as an opportunity for consistently supporting reading skills across the content areas. With weekly shared reading, Text Savvy introduces you to a powerful teaching and learning tool that can change how you approach many aspects of your teaching. Let Daunis and Iams show you how weekly shared reading can: help students integrate five essential reading skills in order to understand a variety of texts in a variety of genres actually make additional time for student assessment by introducing the power and possibilities of "assessing on the run" support classrooms with a wide range of readers, learning styles, and proficiencies offer substantial support to students in test preparation and test taking give learners new entrees into the content of the subject areas and give teachers a smart framework to use throughout the curriculum. Present students smart, structured, and scaffolded opportunities to delve deeply into texts. Read Text Savvy, use weekly shared reading, and reinforce the strategies and skills that you teach in other aspects of your reading curriculum. Then watch as your students improve their use of reading strategies and develop the independence they need to grow as readers.

The fabric-lover's guide to cloth offers preshrinking instructions and advice on layout, marking, interfacing, and hemming.