Fifteen-year-old Maddie has won an art contest and gets to visit New York City.

For three school years, from 2007 to 2010, about 200 high-needs New York City public schools participated in the Schoolwide Performance Bonus Program, whose broad objective was to improve student performance through school-based financial incentives. An independent analysis of test scores, surveys, and interviews found that the program did not improve student achievement, perhaps because it did not motivate change in educator behavior.

Melissa leaves London and her agency, The Little Lady Agency, to join her American boyfriend, Jonathan Riley, for an extended vacation in Manhattan.

As debates about defunding US police forces continue, this book offers an enlightening historical overview of one of the largest metropolitan contingents: the New York City Police Department. The NYPD is America’s largest and most celebrated law enforcement agency. This book examines the history of policing in New York City, from colonial days and the formation of the NYPD at the turn of the twentieth century, through 1930s battles with the Mafia to the Zero Tolerance of the 1990s. Jules Stewart explores political influence, corruption, reform, and community relations through stories of the NYPD’s commissioners and the visions they had for the force and the city, as well as at the level of cops on the beat. This book is an indispensable chronicle for anyone interested in policing and the history of New York.

In Book 4 of the Project Earth-mend Series, Earth is under threat by starships from a distant galaxy sent to destroy humanity before its pollution can spread to other planets. Mick of the Min-Min is in fact Commander of the Abell 2218 strike force. Vanquished by the Kangaroo at the end of Tiger Tames the Min Min, Mick and his robots retreat to the outer reaches of the solar system to plan a new all-out assault on Earth. Tiger the Cat, Wanda the Blue Tongue, Number 12 the racing camel and Syd the dizzy crow team up with Prince, Eudora and Tark, extraterrestrials in disguise, and other species – as well as President Obama and Madonna to head off the confrontation over the skies of New York City (the Big Apple). On their way to New York, they sign up other species to Project Earth-mend like polar bears, timber wolves, beavers, bats, and even the national emblem of the USA, the Bald Eagle. Before the battle, the Team makes their case at United Nations for unity among all living beings, but will it be too late to defend the planet? Will we pay the ultimate price for ignoring Climate Change?

The fourth entry in the quirky, poignant Janie Chronicles finds Janie O’Connelly’s feet back on blessed dry land… until an unexpected opportunity has her jetting to the Big Apple. What do broken plans, bad drivers, unexpected visitors, and a psycho stalker have in common? Yep, that would be Janie. Janie has been invited to be a featured artist at the prestigious Schumer Gallery in New York City. It’s the offer of a lifetime. But as she knows, nothing ever goes exactly as planned. Horrible taxi rides and Fitzy’s over-the-top Halloween plans have nothing on an involuntary spiritual shift that leaves Janie more awakened but no less confused about the craziness of her quickly changing life.