One of the themes I play around with is the idea of mountains fading in the distance, becoming transparent and flying. I have done this through the use of Canada Geese, which I have personally trained to fly in "V" formation. My goal is to encourage these majestic birds to spell my name across the sky. The most difficult letter of course is "S" because you have to get two flocks to fly in opposite directions on a near collision course.

Unique in its coverage of contemporary American children's literature, this timely, single-volume reference covers the books our children are--or should be--reading now, from board books to young adult novels. Enriched with dozens of color illustrations and the voices of authors and illustrators themselves, it is a cornucopia of delight. 23 color, 153 b&w illustrations.

“Jewel is a truth-teller…this is a book that lingers in your heart.” – Brené Brown *The New York Times bestseller* New York Times bestselling poet and multi-platinum singer-songwriter Jewel explores her unconventional upbringing and extraordinary life in an inspirational memoir that covers her childhood to fame, marriage, and motherhood. When Jewel’s first album, Pieces of You, topped the charts in 1995, her emotional voice and vulnerable performance were groundbreaking. Drawing comparisons to Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell, a singer-songwriter of her kind had not emerged in decades. Now, with more than thirty million albums sold worldwide, Jewel tells the story of her life, and the lessons learned from her experience and her music. Living on a homestead in Alaska, Jewel learned to yodel at age five, and joined her parents’ entertainment act, working in hotels, honky-tonks, and biker bars. Behind a strong-willed family life with an emphasis on music and artistic talent, however, there was also instability, abuse, and trauma. At age fifteen, she moved out and tasked herself with a mission: to see if she could avoid being the kind of statistic that her past indicated for her future. Soon after, she was accepted to the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, and there she began writing her own songs as a means of expressing herself and documenting her journey to find happiness. Jewel was eighteen and homeless in San Diego when a radio DJ aired a bootleg version of one of her songs and it was requested into the top-ten countdown, something unheard-of for an unsigned artist. By the time she was twenty-one, her debut had gone multiplatinum. There is much more to Jewel’s story, though, one complicated by family legacies, by crippling fear and insecurity, and by the extraordinary circumstances in which she managed to flourish and find happiness despite these obstacles. Along her road of self-discovery, learning to redirect her fate, Jewel has become an iconic singer and songwriter. In Never Broken she reflects on how she survived, and how writing songs, poetry, and prose has saved her life many times over. She writes lyrically about the natural wonders of Alaska, about pain and loss, about the healing power of motherhood, and about discovering her own identity years after the entire world had discovered the beauty of her songs.

(Ukulele). 30 favorites to sing as you roast marshmallows and strum your uke around the campfire. Includes: Blowin' in the Wind * Drift Away * Edelweiss * God Bless the U.S.A. * Hallelujah * The House of the Rising Sun * I Walk the Line * Lean on Me * Let It Be * The Lion Sleeps Tonight * On Top of Spaghetti * Puff the Magic Dragon * Take Me Home, Country Roads * Wagon Wheel * You Are My Sunshine * and many more.

In the hours following Christ's quiet escape from the grip of death, He began to fulfill His breathtaking promise to dwell within us and walk among us. He chose the road to Emmaus as a fitting venue to showcase the subtle power by which He intended to move His own from venality to virtue, from deceit to forthrightness, and from timidity to boldness. The men that He engaged on the road had felt the pain of broken relationship. The One in whom they had placed their trust failed to live up to His commitment. He had, after all, orphaned them-or had He? Who was this Stranger who suddenly appeared, reminding them of the very truths meant to sustain them? It was only after patient communion that they recognized Him as the One whom they thought had forsaken them. Just as He had emerged from the wreckage of His former physical accommodation, so He appears amid the broken pieces of troubled relationships. The New Testament proclaims that Christ is before all things. One might understand this assertion to imply that in much the same way a conductor assumes himself before an orchestra, Christ directs the timing, movement, rhythm and intensity of all the lives that would have it so. If a broken or neglected relationship is to be restored, it will be done so on the Emmaus Road. The elusive voice will speak from within one circumstance to the next. One might count it silly fancy or he might take it for what it is: the confident direction of a Divine Conductor. One will know when he has chosen the latter, for his heart will indeed burn within him.

The act of imagining lies at the very heart of children's engagements with literature and with the plots and characters they encounter in their favorite stories. The Courage to Imagine is a landmark new study of that fundamental act of imagining. Roni Natov focuses on the ways in which children's imaginative engagement with the child hero figure can open them up to other people's experiences, developing empathy across lines of race, gender and sexuality, as well as helping them to confront and handle traumatic experience safely. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical approaches from the psychological to the cultural and reading a multicultural spectrum of authors, including works by Maya Angelou, Louise Erdrich, Neil Gaiman and Brian Selznick, this is a groundbreaking examination of the nature of imagining for children and re-imagining for the adult writer and illustrator.