One day when Dad is out of town, the family dog decides to take over his role by demanding some grub, taking the family on a picnic, and hogging the remote.

"In Maryland's Carroll County, story boxes have made this impossible dream come true for twenty years. Now MacMillan, writer, storyteller, and former children's librarian, outlines the proven story box system for sharing an array of successful programs. Story boxes offer a simple method for capturing ideas, talent, creativity, and resources available in your library. Including step-by-step instructions from concept through implementation and supplemented by programming tips, A Box Full of Tales also offers detailed plans for fifty great story boxes, including suggested books, fingerplays, songs, props, crafts, and sign language." "From ah-choo to antlers, from monkey business to zoo escapes, A Box Full of Tales is an easy way to offer winning, stress-free library programs for children without the headaches and the hassles. You can make the impossible happen when you share resources with story boxes!"--BOOK JACKET.

Playing on the phrase, The author and you, a commonly taught reading comprehension strategy that teaches the learner how to look at the words of an author and make inferences about what is being said, this series assists teachers and teacher-librarians in understanding the underlying purposes of the author as they prepare learning activities for their students. Through family photos, reminiscences, anecdotes and stories, Toni Buzzeo relates her lifelong preparation to become a writer. The book features wonderful insights into the creation of her picture books for children and interesting creative lesson activities to use with students. The series focuses primarily on books for the elementary age child (K-6), featuring insights into the author's background, purposes and goals in writing books. By furnishing an overview of the author's works, the books in the series give teachers the big picture. Each book features personal information about the author, including insights into why this author has chosen to write in a specific genre plus lesson plans and/or activities for each of the author's books featured. These lessons will stress the particular interest of the author and the author and you (the teacher) will build a collaborative instructional relationship using the material provided. Each book is written by the featured author or in close collaboration with the author. Using family photographs, reminiscences, anecdotes and stories, Toni Buzzeo relates her lifelong preparation to become a writer. The book features wonderful insights into the creation of her picture books for children and interesting creative lesson activities to use with students. Grades K-6.

The historic region between the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers has formed the basis for countless accounts of apparitions, hauntings and unexplained phenomena. For more than one hundred years, reports have circulated that the ghost of merciless slave master Lewis Morris can be seen scouring Passage Point Plantation in Rumson, with a gaping hole where his heart should be. The frozen waters of the Navesink were a popular destination for iceboat sailing, and many still claim to see the face of a drowned teen in the ice after a tragic incident in 1906. The native Lenapes and colonial Dutch told eerie tales of the ancient forest of Ole Balm Hollow in Middletown, including phantom riders and the echoes of crying children. Local author Patricia Heyer recounts haunted tales of the two rivers peninsula.

A rising star, a down-to-earth teacher, and a Christmas touched by wonder… Country music star Kris Trabeau heads to Charming, Mississippi, to convince his aging aunt to sell her farm and move into a nice retirement community. She’s not having it, and she enlists her neighbor Tory Odom to help her remind Kris why the farm means so much…especially at Christmas. After being dumped by her longtime boyfriend, Tory’s not feeling the holiday spirit. Still, she agrees to co-chair a children’s concert and silent auction to benefit the after-school center where she volunteers. As Kris helps her with the concert and spends time with the kids, the attraction between them becomes harder and harder to ignore. Can he trade spotlights and city lights for the place where the music began? This funny, emotional romance includes a free Hallmark original recipe for Jingle Bell Fruitcake Cookies.

This is an updated edition of the story of the gang scene in East L.A. and Father Gregory Boyle's innovative ministry and economic development efforts in the area.

Honor My Father is a true story of how college men came to the US Navy as reservists, instructed by the officers from Annapolis, and teamed together. It brings their many personal stories of interactions with my dad (Air Defense Commander), serving on two destroyers (USS Bancroft & USS Goodrich) with the naming of their actual crew members. My story honors these silent, humble heroes. Thirty Benson-class destroyers were built from 1938 to 1943 and were the most vulnerable in the sea, protecting the fleet. The officers and crews earned 174 Battle Star Citations, one Presidential Citation and two Navy Unit Commendations posthumously. The last section of my true story about Dad, Comedy of Adolescence; describes how as a new professor, working on his Ph.D. this writer entered his teenage years while the two of us moved from the city of Chicago to the small town of Athens, Ohio. After his war experiences, he experienced nothing like the big guns going off in his ear until the hard pounding drums from my new rock and roll band!