What if everyone in the world did a good deed for three people - and what if each of them 'paid it forward' by doing a good deed for three more people, and so on, until the world was a different place? PAY IT FORWARD begins when social studies teacher Reuben St Clair gives his class an extra assignment: implement a plan that will change the world. Trevor, a boy with an active imagination and a loving, though dysfunctional, mother, rises to the challenge. His plan is this: he'll do something good for three people and tell each that instead of paying him back, they should pay it forward and do a favour for three more people. Trevor's initial attempt seems to fail. But eventually, wondrously, the seeds that Trevor has planted bear fruit in ways that are marvellous to behold and that surprise even Trevor.

Play It Forward details the remarkable journey of Joan Barnes, the founder and former CEO of Gymboree, and how she learned to align her inner life with outward success. Forty years ago, Joan Barnes founded a modest play center in a church basement with $3,000. Determined to enable women to achieve both personal and entrepreneurial success, Barnes grew Gymboree into an innovative, billion-dollar brand and trailblazing leader in a new industry: activity-based early childhood development. But this dramatic entrepreneurial memoir is also a cautionary tale and redemption story. When Gymboree's IPO became a phenomenal success story, Barnes was nowhere near Wall Street. She had stepped down from the company because of an eating disorder that threatened to destroy everything she built. Barnes was able to confront this disorder, revealing a path to overcome one’s demons and achieve a sense of worth and hope. She eventually resumed her business career on healthier terms—with a successful line of yoga studios—in an inspiring example of how midcareer women can triumph through reinvention. Published to coincide with Gymboree's 40th anniversary, Play It Forward offers readers a deeply honest perspective of the challenges of building a business and seeking a work-life balance that’s in tune with personal values.

This thought-provoking, compulsive novel shows how a simple story has the power to move you in the most extraordinary ways. From Richard & Judy bestselling Catherine Ryan Hyde, perfect for fans of Mark Haddon, Mitch Albom and Alice Sebold. 'Hyde's book delivers a profound vision: The simple magic of the human heart' - SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE 'The philosophy behind this book is so intriguing, and the optimism so contagious... a book that lingers long after the last page'- DENVER POST 'The story is quick read, told with lean sentences and an edge... Hyde pulls off a poignant, gutsy ending without bathos' - LOS ANGELES TIMES ********************************************************************************* THE EXTRADORINARY STORY OF A PERFECT IDEA... It all started with the social studies teacher's extra-credit project: Think of an idea for world change, and put it into action. Whilst this proved a little ambitious for most of his classmates, twelve-year-old Trevor thought he would start by doing something good for three people. But instead of paying him back, he would ask them to "pay it forward" by doing a favour for three more people. If it all went to plan, Trevor thought, it would be the start of a long chain of human kindness . . . Sound unlikely to you? Well a lot of other people had their doubts too - Trevor's teacher, his classmates, his mother, in fact everyone in his small California town. It could never really work. . . could it? Now a feature film starring Helen Hunt and Kevin Spacey.

Over the last 50 years, the struggles to achieve equity in sport have become central to the feminist mission. This book contains an inspiring collection of stories from the women on the front lines: athletes, coaches, educators, and activists for women's sport, who have done so much to foster change. Many of the women profiled here reflect on their tough beginnings in sport: being isolated and unconnected, competing in makeshift settings, training alone, and inadequate equipment. But they also reflect on the joy of movement, teamwork, and competition. These women grew to be remarkable role models and helped to dismantle sexism in sport. To read these stories is to swell with pride over their victories, to empathize with their battles with discrimination, and to become re-energized to confront collectively the many hurdles left to clear.

Due to shifts in the contexts of the production and presentation of the music video, more and more people start to talk about a possible end of this genre. At the same time disciplines such as visual-, film- and media-studies, art- and music-history begin to realize that despite the fact that the music video obviously has come of age, they still lack a well defined and matching methodical approach for analyzing and discussing videoclips. For the first time this volume brings together different disciplines as well as journalists, museum curators and gallery owners in order to take a discussion of the past and present of the music video as an opportunity to reflect upon suited methodological approaches to this genre and to allow a glimpse into its future.

Dirty little secrets can lead to public scandals and unexpected love affairs… Malcolm Campbell is the director of a south Los Angeles organization focused on mentoring gay youth, and his nineteen-year-old nephew, Blake, is being sent to stay with him for the summer. Malcolm has always been a community and family role model everyone looks up to. But he also has a secret he never knew he had… until it pops up on the Internet. Across town, in the closed and closeted world of Black Hollywood celebrity, pro-basketball player Tyrell Kincaid and R&B singer Tommie Jordan are public heroes in a very private relationship. After a series of indiscretions and slipups, the relationship becomes fodder for speculation and outing by the paparazzi and nationally-known gossip reporter Livonia Birmingham. Despite living in two different worlds in L.A., Malcolm, Blake, Tommie, and Tyrell find themselves in the same arena, where they’ll have to risk it all to protect their hearts and their destiny.

The quiet solitude of Bears' Cove ushers Cronin and Sonya MacArthur into its seclusion as a respite replete with the accentuations of small town life, only to discover worldly elements that will not be denied.