A story about pilgrims in Holland.

The year is 1614. Recently orphaned Lizzy Tinker has lived half of her twelve years in Holland, but she does not feel at home there. Lizzy belongs to a small congregation of religious refugees who have fled England in order to worship as they choose. The Dutch people enjoy a free and easy lifestyle that Master William Brewster constantly admonishes his austere English Pilgrims to resist. Many find this difficult, including Lizzy. Although the Brewsters took her in when her father died, she doesn't feel at home with them either. Her undisciplined tongue always seems to get her in trouble. What is more, Lizzy has a talent for cooking, and she loves making sinfully delicious Dutch cookies and cakes. Her kitchen craft has landed her a job cooking for a Dutch family whose precocious eight-year-old son has a stubborn nature, artistic talent, and nose for trouble even greater than Lizzy's own. Heaven help her now! With meticulous research and great imagination, Jamie Gilson has created an authentic, entertaining story that brings to life seventeenth- century Holland and the unique culture that fostered both the Mayflower Pilgrims and master painters such as Rembrandt.

These widely acclaimed essays from the author of Infinite Jest -- on television, tennis, cruise ships, and more -- established David Foster Wallace as one of the preeminent essayists of his generation. In this exuberantly praised book -- a collection of seven pieces on subjects ranging from television to tennis, from the Illinois State Fair to the films of David Lynch, from postmodern literary theory to the supposed fun of traveling aboard a Caribbean luxury cruiseliner -- David Foster Wallace brings to nonfiction the same curiosity, hilarity, and exhilarating verbal facility that has delighted readers of his fiction, including the bestselling Infinite Jest.

Get young readers hooked on some of the best titles in juvenile literature, ranging from humor to mystery to fantasy, with unusual and effective methods like games. Getting students to want to read is one of the greatest challenges facing middle school teachers and librarians. Determining which are the "right books" that can spark a child's mental awakening is also difficult. This book from prolific author Nancy Polette furnishes interesting and fun games to pique students' interest in junior novels that are worth reading—carefully selected titles that will contribute to their educational and emotional growth. Gateway to Reading: 250+ Author Games and Booktalks to Motivate Middle Readers is a powerful tool for luring middle-school students away from the distractions of 21st-century media and introducing them to junior or 'tween novels that they won't be able to put down. By presenting children with a challenge to engage their minds—racing to decode book titles, or using their creativity to come up with titles of their own, for example—students are naturally drawn towards reading these books from well-known children's authors.

The corner of Truth Avenue and Pain Street is Valley City's butt crack part of town. Eight teenagers, the Gangsters & Retards, live there: Moon, a blind and deaf girl who practices aikido; Carlos, a Mexican-American rapper in a lowrider wheelchair; Bryan, a basketball loving boy with Down syndrome; Mad Girl, a pregnant fourteen-year-old Latina with major anger issues; Pho, a humongous Vietnamese skateboarder/tagger; Janice, a Jewish-American princess with leg braces and crutches; Dutch, a less than smart white boy wigger; and Learoy, a totally hot sixteen-year-old African-American girl. In this episode, convinced his failed attempts at breaking into the hip hop music scene are due to his Hispanic ethnicity, Carlos pretends he's black to catch a music label's attention. But when a record exec appears with a contract, Carlos obviously doesn't have the right skin color, and in the wink of an eye his falsified identity slips away from him. The absurd world of Valley City serves as the backdrop as Carlos plays a cat and mouse game to regain both his persona and the seven friends swept into the mess he creates. Cartoon realism misadventures ensue as this humorous novel of love, lies, power, corruption, and everyday existence makes you laugh and cry while possibly offending your sensibilities.