Ten-year-old Ernest lives a flat, colorless life. Each day is the same: he comes home right after school, eats a healthy snack, and does his homework. Enter Victoria, the new girl in class. Victoria instantly falls in love with Ernest, and bulldozes her way into his life. Much to Ernest's surprise, he likes it. Bit by bit, color seeps into Ernest's humdrum existence--and he begins to realize that life can hold an endless variety of love, friendship, adventure, and change."Quirky characters, heightening suspense, and hilarious situations are deftly combined in this tender novel, which examines a few of the large and small ways people affect one another." --Booklist, starred review

From the popular Tumblr of the same name comes a collection of heart-warming, tear-jerking, and gut-wrenching anonymous letters that people never intended—or didn’t have the courage—to send. The Tumblr Dear My Blank—created by 16-year-old Emily Trunko and followed by over 35,000 people—is now a carefully curated gift book with more than 160 anonymous letters covering a range of topics from heartbreak, unrequited love, and loss, to inspiration, self-awareness, and gratitude. Featuring exclusive content not available on Tumblr, these unsent letters are addressed to secret crushes, lost loved ones, boyfriends, siblings, parents, grandparents, and many more. Art and design by Lisa Congdon enhance these messages, making the book a beautiful keepsake for all readers. "A visceral and voyeuristic offering that covers the spectrum from fleeting angst to gut-wrenching grief." —Kirkus Reviews "Stirring and soulful." —Booklist Praise for the Tumblr Dear My Blank “An addictive site full of strangers’ secrets.” —Cosmopolitan “A safe haven for hundreds of letters that will never be sent.” —Distractify “Tumblr’s newest obsession.” —Hello Giggles

Counting is as easy as 1... 2... purple?... in this charming book of numbers from the creators of the #1 New York Times Best Sellers, The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home. Poor Duncan can't catch a break! First, his crayons go on strike. Then, they come back home. Now his favorite colors are missing once again! Can you count up all the crayons that are missing from his box? From the creative minds behind the The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home comes a colorful board book introducing young readers to numbers.

Here is a fresh and imaginative way to look at the alphabet. Turn to the first page of the book and you'll be greeted by a picture of an arrowhead, surrounded by a simple black frame. Once you lift the frame you'll find the arrowhead is magically transformed into the letter A. And so it goes, from Ballons, Cloud, and Door through Leaf and Mice to Yolk and Zipper. Bold distinctive images and a simple yet ingenious format make this an alphabet book to treasure.

An unconventional fifth-grade teacher gives coupon books for such things as dancing in class and sleeping late.

An inspiring account of America at its worst-and Americans at their best-woven from the stories of Depression-era families who were helped by gifts from the author's generous and secretive grandfather. Shortly before Christmas 1933 in Depression-scarred Canton, Ohio, a small newspaper ad offered $10, no strings attached, to 75 families in distress. Interested readers were asked to submit letters describing their hardships to a benefactor calling himself Mr. B. Virdot. The author's grandfather Sam Stone was inspired to place this ad and assist his fellow Cantonians as they prepared for the cruelest Christmas most of them would ever witness. Moved by the tales of suffering and expressions of hope contained in the letters, which he discovered in a suitcase 75 years later, Ted Gup initially set out to unveil the lives behind them, searching for records and relatives all over the country who could help him flesh out the family sagas hinted at in those letters. From these sources, Gup has re-created the impact that Mr B. Virdot's gift had on each family. Many people yearned for bread, coal, or other necessities, but many others received money from B. Virdot for more fanciful items-a toy horse, say, or a set of encyclopedias. As Gup's investigations revealed, all these things had the power to turn people's lives around- even to save them. But as he uncovered the suffering and triumphs of dozens of strangers, Gup also learned that Sam Stone was far more complex than the lovable- retiree persona he'd always shown his grandson. Gup unearths deeply buried details about Sam's life-from his impoverished, abusive upbringing to felonious efforts to hide his immigrant origins from U.S. officials-that help explain why he felt such a strong affinity to strangers in need. Drawing on his unique find and his award-winning reportorial gifts, Ted Gup solves a singular family mystery even while he pulls away the veil of eight decades that separate us from the hardships that united America during the Depression. In A Secret Gift, he weaves these revelations seamlessly into a tapestry of Depression-era America, which will fascinate and inspire in equal measure. Watch a Video

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!