A brash young boy named Moxie and his concerned companion, Mr. Cat, go out one day to fly a kite - Moxie's prized kite, the Apollo Pan. While searching for a good spot to send Pan soaring, a tumble down a hillside places the boy, the kite, and the cat in the perfect meadow - perfect except for one tree...BEWARE! This tree bites kites...to eat!

Fourteen-year-old Iranian-American Parvin Mohammadi sets out to win the ultimate date to homecoming in this heartfelt and outright hilarious debut. Parvin Mohammadi has just been dumped--only days after receiving official girlfriend status. Not only is she heartbroken, she's humiliated. Enter high school heartthrob Matty Fumero, who just might be the smoking-hot cure to all her boy problems. If Parvin can get Matty to ask her to Homecoming, she's positive it will prove to herself and her ex that she's girlfriend material after all. There's just one problem: Matty is definitely too cool for bassoon-playing, frizzy-haired, Cheeto-eating Parvin. Since being herself hasn't worked for her in the past (see aforementioned dumping), she decides to start acting like the women in her favorite rom-coms. Those women aren't loud, they certainly don't cackle when they laugh, and they smile much more than they talk. But Parvin discovers that being a rom-com dream girl is much harder than it looks. Also hard? The parent-mandated Farsi lessons. A confusing friendship with a boy who's definitely not supposed to like her. And hardest of all, the ramifications of the Muslim ban on her family in Iran. Suddenly, being herself has never been more important. Olivia Abtahi's debut is as hilarious as it is heartfelt--a delightful tale where, amid the turmoil of high school friendships and crushes, being yourself is always the perfect way to be.

Astrid has always done everything with her best friend Nicole. So when Astrid falls in love with roller derby and signs up for a summer camp, she's sure Nicole will be right by her side - until Nicole signs up for ballet camp instead, with Astrid's biggest rival. And so begins the hardest summer of Astrid's life, as she struggles to stay on her skates, to learn who she is without Nicole . . . and to find out what it takes to be a strong, tough, awesome roller girl.

One of the greatest challenges for English language arts teachers today is the call to engage students in more complex texts. Tim Gillespie, who has taught in public schools for almost four decades, has found the lenses of literary criticism a powerful tool for helping students tackle challenging literary texts. Tim breaks down the dense language of critical theory into clear, lively, and thorough explanations of many schools of critical thought---reader response, biographical, historical, psychological, archetypal, genre based, moral, philosophical, feminist, political, formalist, and postmodern. Doing Literary Criticism gives each theory its own chapter with a brief, teacher-friendly overview and a history of the approach, along with an in-depth discussion of its benefits and limitations. Each chapter also includes ideas for classroom practices and activities. Using stories from his own English classes--from alternative programs to advance placement and everything in between--Tim provides a wealth of specific classroom-tested suggestions for discussion, essay and research paper topics, recommended texts, exam questions, and more. The accompanying CD offers abbreviated overviews of each theory (designed to be used as classroom handouts, examples of student work, collections of quotes to stimulate discussion and writing, an extended history of women writers, and much more. Ultimately, Doing Literary Criticism offers teachers a rich set of materials and tools to help their students become more confident and able readers, writers, and critical thinkers.

Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandell, authors with nearly thirty years of experience teaching college writing, know what works in the classroom and have a knack for picking just the right readings. In Patterns for College Writing, they provide students with exemplary rhetorical models and instructors with class-tested selections that balance classic and contemporary essays. Along with more examples of student writing than any other reader, Patterns has the most comprehensive coverage of active reading, research, and the writing process, with a five-chapter mini-rhetoric; the clearest explanations of the patterns of development; and the most thorough apparatus of any rhetorical reader, all reasons why Patterns for College Writing is the best-selling reader in the country. And the new edition includes exciting new readings and expanded coverage of critical reading, working with sources, and research. It is now available as an interactive Bedford e-book and in a variety of other e-book formats that can be downloaded to a computer, tablet, or e-reader. Read the preface.

Now a Netflix Original Film directed by Amy Poehler! "Moxie is sweet, funny, and fierce. Read this and then join the fight."—Amy Poehler An unlikely teenager starts a feminist revolution at a small-town Texas high school in this novel from Jennifer Mathieu, author of The Truth About Alice. MOXIE GIRLS FIGHT BACK! Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with an administration at her high school that thinks the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dress codes, hallway harassment, and gross comments from guys during class. But most of all, Viv Carter is fed up with always following the rules. Viv's mom was a tough-as-nails, punk rock Riot Grrrl in the '90s, and now Viv takes a page from her mother's past and creates a feminist zine that she distributes anonymously to her classmates. She's just blowing off steam, but other girls respond. As Viv forges friendships with other young women across the divides of cliques and popularity rankings, she realizes that what she has started is nothing short of a girl revolution. Moxie is a book about high school life that will make you wanna riot! Also by Jennifer Mathieu: The Truth About Alice: A powerful look at slut-shaming, told through the perspectives of four small-town teens, about how everyone has a motive to bring—and keep—a teen girl down. Devoted: A girl with a controlling, conservative family realizes that her life is her own—if only she can find the courage to fight for it. Afterward: A tragic kidnapping leads to an unlikely friendship in this novel about finding light in the midst of darkness. Praise for Moxie: “With a story that’s equal parts heart and instruction manual, Mathieu has captured the movement of a generation—warts and all—and shone a light forward for the next one.” —E. K. Johnston, #1 New York TimesBestselling author of Exit Pursued By a Bear “Vivian Carter and Moxie are strong and smart and so, so inspiring. She is my new hero and this is my new favorite book. I’m proud to be a Moxie girl.” —Jennifer Niven, New York Times–bestselling author of All the Bright Places and Holding Up the Universe “From its soul-deep girl friendships to its swoony love story to its smart, gutsy heroine, Moxie is a ferocious joy. I could feel my heart—and my courage—getting bigger every time I turned the page." —Katie Cotugno, New York Times–bestselling author of 99 Days and How to Love "Moxie is an anthem, a how-to guide, and that best friend who says, ‘You matter, too!’” —Sherri L. Smith, author of Pasadena and Flygirl “Like the addictive riff of a punk rock song, Moxie will pull you in, inspire you, and kick you back out into the world with a burning desire to change it. Read this. Now.” —Jenny Torres Sanchez, author of Because of the Sun "An invaluable revelation." —Booklist, starred review "This novel is full of wit, insight, and moxie. . . . Highly recommended for all teens, but especially those who would enjoy realistic coming-of-age fiction with female empowerment." —School Library Journal, starred review "Satisfying and moving." —Publishers Weekly