Acquiring skills and nurturing talents are attributes that must be inculcated and embraced in homes, schools, work, and play by children, young, and older adults alike everywhere in the world. The title of the book, Acquiring Skills and Nurturing Talent, chronicles my life story. It presents the details of my family experiences, education, work, and community engagement. I have worked and traveled extensively in America, Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Liberia), Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia (Singapore, China), and other parts of the world. The book illustrates the important role that acquiring skills and nurturing talents, such as technical skills, artistic skills, sports skills, language skills, and entrepreneurial skills, play in instilling self-development. They also facilitate community empowerment and contribute immensely toward the complex and difficult enterprise of nation building. Chapters 1 through 7 is the autobiographical narrative. In the remaining chapters 7 through 15, the book provides a group of lectures, presentations, and some prior publications, whose contents vividly and fully describe my activities. They offer tremendous insight into how I went about putting into practice my strong belief in the value of acquiring skills for the purpose of self-development, community empowerment, and nation building. Chapter 16 is a photo gallery of a portion of my larger extended family. They are spread around the world. It is said that "a picture is worth a thousand words." So I have included lots of pictures to bring the narratives to life.

Acquiring skills and nurturing talents are attributes that must be inculcated and embraced in homes, schools, work, and play by children, young, and older adults alike everywhere in the world. The title of the book, Acquiring Skills and Nurturing Talent, chronicles my life story. It presents the details of my family experiences, education, work, and community engagement. I have worked and traveled extensively in America, Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Liberia), Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia (Singapore, China), and other parts of the world. The book illustrates the important role that acquiring skills and nurturing talents, such as technical skills, artistic skills, sports skills, language skills, and entrepreneurial skills, play in instilling self-development. They also facilitate community empowerment and contribute immensely toward the complex and difficult enterprise of nation building. Chapters 1 through 7 is the autobiographical narrative. In the remaining chapters 7 through 15, the book provides a group of lectures, presentations, and some prior publications, whose contents vividly and fully describe my activities. They offer tremendous insight into how I went about putting into practice my strong belief in the value of acquiring skills for the purpose of self-development, community empowerment, and nation building. Chapter 16 is a photo gallery of a portion of my larger extended family. They are spread around the world. It is said that "a picture is worth a thousand words." So I have included lots of pictures to bring the narratives to life.

#1 New York Times bestseller “Barry will teach you almost everything you need to know about one of the deadliest outbreaks in human history.”—Bill Gates "Monumental... an authoritative and disturbing morality tale."—Chicago Tribune The strongest weapon against pandemic is the truth. Read why in the definitive account of the 1918 Flu Epidemic. Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, The Great Influenza provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon. As Barry concludes, "The final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that...those in authority must retain the public's trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best. A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart." At the height of World War I, history’s most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease.

"In Moving: A Memoir of Education and Social Mobility author Andy Hargreaves tells the story of his working-class roots, his education, and his experiences with social mobility. Beginning with his youth in the small working-class town of Accrington in Northern England and ending with his experiences at University, the author relates his journey through the education system and all that education has done for him. The author describes what it means to be working-class, his personal successes and failures, and the ways that education allowed him to lift himself out of poverty. However, he also describes the ways that many others were left behind and never given the chance to be socially mobile. The author believes that there are lessons that can be learned from his experience of social mobility and that these lessons can be applied to society at large. In particular, educators can use these lessons to encourage and support students' social mobility and increase the number of students who can become socially mobile. These lessons can also be used to create schools that are kinder to working-class students and to students who are socially mobile. Readers will connect to the engaging, heart-felt story of the author's life and, through it, learn about the reality of social mobility, how it is experienced, and how it can be supported"--

A classic memoir that's gripping, funny, and ultimately unforgettable from the bestselling former National Ambassador of Books for Young People. A strong choice for summer reading—an engaging and powerful autobiographical exploration of growing up a so-called "bad boy" in Harlem in the 1940s. As a boy, Myers was quick-tempered and physically strong, always ready for a fight. He also read voraciously—he would check out books from the library and carry them home, hidden in brown paper bags in order to avoid other boys' teasing. He aspired to be a writer (and he eventually succeeded). But as his hope for a successful future diminished, the values he had been taught at home, in school, and in his community seemed worthless, and he turned to the streets and to his books for comfort. Don’t miss this memoir by New York Times bestselling author Walter Dean Myers, one of the most important voices of our time.

In this inspiring memoir, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush recounts the lessons he learned from his small Southern hometown. Welcome to Madison Park, a small community in Alabama founded by freed slaves in 1880. Eric Motley came of age in this remarkable place, where lessons in self-determination, hope, and an unceasing belief in the American dream taught him everything he needed for his life’s journey—a journey that led him to the Oval Office as a Special Assistant to President George W. Bush. Eric grew up among people who believed in giving and never turning away from a neighbor’s need. There was Aunt Shine, the goodly matriarch who cared so much about young Motley’s schooling that she would stand up in a crowded church and announce Eric’s progress—or shortcomings; Old Man Salery, who secretly siphoned gasoline from his beat-up car into the Motleys’ tank at night; Motley’s grandparents, who spent the last of their seed money on books for Eric; and Reverend Brinkley, a man of enormous faith and simple living. It was said that whenever the Reverend came your way, light abounded. Life in Madison Park wasn’t always easy or fair, and Motley reveals personal and heartbreaking stories of racial injustice and segregation. But Eric shows how the community taught him everything he needed to know about love and faith.