Winner of the 2021 Colorado Prize for Poetry In Study of the Raft, Leonora Simonovis’s poems weave the outer world of a failed political revolution in her native country, Venezuela, with an inner journey into the memories of migration and exile, of a home long gone, and of family relations, especially among womxn. The collection explores the consequences of colonization, starting with “Maps,” a poem that speaks of loss and uprootedness, recalling a time when indigenous lands were stolen and occupied, where stories were lost as new languages and beliefs were imposed on people. The politics of the present are also the politics of the past, not just in the Venezuelan context, but in many other Latin American and Caribbean countries. It is the reality of all indigenous people. Simonovis’s poems question the capacity of language to represent the complexity of lived experience, especially when it involves living from more than one language and culture. These poems wrestle with questions of life and death, of what remains after what and whom we know are no longer with us, and how we, as humans, constantly change and adjust in the face of uncertainty.

Robbie's last-minute flight to the Midway Atoll proves to be a nightmare when the plane goes down in shark-infested waters. Fighting for her life, the co-pilot Max pulls her onto the raft, and that's when the real terror begins.

A flock of birds was moving toward me along the river, hovering over something floating on the water. It drifteddownstream, closer and closer, until finally it bumped up against the dock. Though it was covered with leaves and branches, now I could tell that it was a raft. I reached down and pushed some of the leaves aside. Beneath them was a drawing of a rabbit. It looked like those ancient cave paintings I'd seen in books--just outlines, but wild and fast and free. Nicky isn't one bit happy about spending the summer with his grandma in the Wisconsin woods, but them the raft appears and changes everything. As Nicky explores, the raft works a subtle magic, opening up the wonders all around him--the animals of river and woods, his grandmother's humor and wisdom, and his own special talent as an artist.

Like Huck’s raft, the experience of American childhood has been both adventurous and terrifying. For more than three centuries, adults have agonized over raising children while children have followed their own paths to development and expression. Now, Steven Mintz gives us the first comprehensive history of American childhood encompassing both the child’s and the adult’s tumultuous early years of life. Underscoring diversity through time and across regions, Mintz traces the transformation of children from the sinful creatures perceived by Puritans to the productive workers of nineteenth-century farms and factories, from the cosseted cherubs of the Victorian era to the confident consumers of our own. He explores their role in revolutionary upheaval, westward expansion, industrial growth, wartime mobilization, and the modern welfare state. Revealing the harsh realities of children’s lives through history—the rigors of physical labor, the fear of chronic ailments, the heartbreak of premature death—he also acknowledges the freedom children once possessed to discover their world as well as themselves. Whether at work or play, at home or school, the transition from childhood to adulthood has required generations of Americans to tackle tremendously difficult challenges. Today, adults impose ever-increasing demands on the young for self-discipline, cognitive development, and academic achievement, even as the influence of the mass media and consumer culture has grown. With a nod to the past, Mintz revisits an alternative to the goal-driven realities of contemporary childhood. An odyssey of psychological self-discovery and growth, this book suggests a vision of childhood that embraces risk and freedom—like the daring adventure on Huck’s raft.

In the early 1930s, George Raft, an actor and dancer from New York City's Hell's Kitchen, gained a name for himself playing stylish and charismatic gangsters in films like 1932's original Scarface. Raft's own real-life connection to the New York mob added frightening authenticity to his portrayals, and his star quality coincided with the peak years of the Hollywood factory to produce a remarkable track record of successful movies. Highly regarded during his lifetime as a performer, his reputation as an actor suffered a steep decline after his death. This definitive study of all of Raft's films offers intimate insight into all of his productions, including casts, characters, technical credits, and story synopses, and dispels a number of myths surrounding his legendary career.

This is a complete novel study. It includes: vocabulary activities, turn-and-talk prompts, snapshot questions, open-ended comprehension questions, essay prompts, pre-reading activity, theme analysis, research ideas, foldable suggestions (with directions), character analysis, 4 quizzes, and comprehension test.

Moving backward in time, Dorris's critically acclaimed debut novel is a lyrical saga of three generations of Native American women beset by hardship and torn by angry secrets.