In this electrifying follow-up to Kwame Alexander's Newbery winner The Crossover, soccer, family, love, and friendship take center stage. A New York Times bestseller and National Book Award Longlist nominee. Twelve-year-old Nick learns the power of words as he wrestles with problems at home, stands up to a bully, and tries to impress the girl of his dreams. Helping him along are his best friend and sometimes teammate Coby, and The Mac, a rapping librarian who gives Nick inspiring books to read. This electric and heartfelt novel-in-verse bends and breaks as it captures all the thrills and setbacks, action and emotion of a World Cup match. "A novel about a soccer-obsessed tween boy written entirely in verse? In a word, yes. Kwame Alexander has the magic to pull off this unlikely feat, both as a poet and as a storyteller. " —The Chicago Tribune Can’t nobody stop you Can’t nobody cop you… ILA-CBC Children's Choice List· ALA Notable Children’s Book · Book Links’ Lasting Connections · Kirkus Best Book · San Francisco Chronicle Best Book· Washington Post Best Book· BookPage Best Book

From one of America’s leading authorities on juvenile violence comes a groundbreaking investigation of the explosion of violent behavior in girls With Lost Boys, James Garbarino became our foremost explicator of violent behavior in boys. Now he turns his attention to its increasing incidence in girls. Twenty-five years ago, ten boys were arrested for assault for every one girl. Now that ratio is four-to-one and dropping. Combining clinical experience with incisive analyses of social trends, Garbarino traces the factors—many of them essentially positive—behind the epidemic: girls’ increased participation in sports and greater comfort with their physicality, but also their lack of training in handling aggression. See Jane Hit goes beyond diagnosing the problem to outline a clear-eyed, compassionate solution.

The numerous anti-bullying programs in schools across the United States have done little to reduce the number of reported bullying instances. One reason for this is that little attention has been paid to the role of the media and popular culture in adolescents' bullying and mean-girl behavior. This book addresses media role models in television, film, picture books, and the Internet in the realm of bullying and relational aggression. It highlights portrayals with unproductive strategies that lead to poor resolutions or no resolution at all. Young viewers may learn ineffective, even dangerous, ways of handling aggressive situations. Victims may feel discouraged when they are unable to handle the situation as easily as in media portrayals. They may also feel their experiences are trivialized by comic portrayals. Entertainment programming, aimed particularly at adolescents, often portray adults as incompetent or uncaring and include mean-spirited teasing. In addition, overuse of the term "bully" and defining all bad behavior as "bullying" may dilute the term and trivialize the problem.

The importance of Boske and Osanloo’s approach to identifying the crisis of bullying in our society lives within the personal stories shared in this book. Readers are reminded that victims of bullying are our own friends, neighbors and classmates, and those at every level in the community are challenged to be part of the solution. The hatred carried out by those who bully impacts all of us, not only the individual victims. Students, Teachers, and Leaders Addressing Bullying in Schools captures the tragedy victims face and the urgency of creating a new dialogue amongst our educators.– Judy Shepard, Founder, Matthew Shepard Foundation The most important experts on bullying are the students, parents, and educators who wrestle with its impact every day. In this book, Boske and Osanloo place them at the center of the dialogue to design lasting solutions and spur the national conscience into action. Bias-based bullying complicates systemic solutions by activating the “isms” and “phobias” that plague us all. The bold collective behind this book calls us to get over our own stuff and double down on our efforts to create safe and affi rming schools for all students.– Eliza Byard, PhD, Executive Director, GLSEN The brilliance and boldness of this book lie in two distinguishing features. First, inspired by the Boske and Osanloo’s vision, the contributors discuss bullying as precisely what it is: not an interpersonal challenge, not a cross-cultural tension, not an issue that can be conflict-mediated away, but a social justice concern that is connected to bigger societal conditions and injustices. Secondly, Boske and Osanloo reject the idea that academics are the experts of everybody’s experiences, and so they open the space on the pages of their book to the targets of bullying and their on-the-ground advocates. The result is revolutionary. If you think you understand bullying, I dare you to read this book.– Paul Gorski, Founder, EdChange, & Associate Professor, Integrative Studies atGeorge Mason University

This book provides an exciting compilation of research, with a social-ecological perspective that illustrates the complexity of bullying behaviors and offers suggestions for data-based decision-making to intervene and reduce those behaviors.

Although girls and women account for approximately 40 percent of all athletes in the United States, they receive only 4 percent of the total sport media coverage. SportsCenter, ESPN's flagship program, dedicates less than 2 percent of its airtime to women. Local news networks devote less than 5 percent of their programming to women's sports. Excluding Sports Illustrated's annual "Swimsuit Issue," women appear on just 4.9 percent of the magazine's covers. Media is a powerful indication of the culture surrounding sport in the United States. Why are women underrepresented in sports media? Sports Illustrated journalist Andy Benoit infamously remarked that women's sports "are not worth watching." Although he later apologized, Benoit's comment points to more general lack of awareness. Consider, for example, the confusion surrounding Title IX, the U.S. Law that prohibits sex discrimination in any educational program that receives federal financial assistance. Is Title IX to blame when administrators drop men's athletic programs? Is it lack of interest or lack of opportunity that causes girls and women to participate in sport at lower rates than boys and men? In Women's Sports: What Everyone Needs to Know®, Jaime Schultz tackles these questions, along with many others, to upend the misunderstandings that plague women's sports. Using historical, contemporary, scholarly, and popular sources, Schultz traces the progress and pitfalls of women's involvement in sport. In the signature question-and-answer format of the What Everyone Needs to Know® series, this short and accessible book clarifies misconceptions that dog women's athletics and offers much needed context and history to illuminate the struggles and inequalities sportswomen continue to face. By exploring issues such as gender, sexuality, sex segregation, the Olympic and Paralympic Games, media coverage, and the sport-health connection, Schultz shows why women's sports are not just worth watching, but worth playing, supporting, and fighting for.

"Merely Words of Inspiration" was written because of an awakening of my spiritual nature, which inspired me. I would hear different phrases during the day at work, on television, or just having a casual conversation during the day. I was given an idea and began to write such as the following article: "Tell it Like It Is" or "Sugarcoated". Jesus never sugarcoated anything. He always told the truth, the whole truth. When we do not tell it like it is, we are doing the work of the adversary. He is the author of confusion, which is his truth. The book was also written to enhance our spiritual awareness. It was written to let you see that the everyday phrases, such as another article titled "Can You Hear Me Now?", can be inspirational in the right circumstances. Here is an insert from the following article: "Have we ever thought about Jesus saying, "Can You Hear Me Now?" Why can't we hear Him? Is it because we are listening to the world and not for His voice? It is written, "I am the Good Shepherd, and I know my sheep, and am known of mine. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice: and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd"(John 10:14, 16). This is something to get excited about, being in heaven with our Lord and Savior. Have a Blessed Day