Poems and quilts pay tribute to the unique creatures and landscape of the Everglades. The unusual waterways and exotic vegetation of the Florida Everglades create a home rich with sea creatures and wildlife, especially birds. Colorful and often majestic, these feathery residents evoke images that can tickle the imagination: the ballerina-like spoonbill; the biker-cool, wild-eyed cormorant; the snowy egret, elegantly dressed in white tails and black spats. Sue Van Wassenhove, who lived in Florida for many years, shares her passion for the Everglades in thoughtful poems and--in an unusual twist--with breathtaking quilts, creating a one-of-a-kind poetry book for readers to savor.

Today's students need to be able to do more than score well on tests—they must be creative thinkers and problem solvers. The tools in this book will help teachers and parents start students on the path to becoming innovative, successful individuals in the 21st century workforce. The children in classrooms today will soon become adult members of society: they will need to apply divergent thinking skills to be effective in all aspects of their lives, regardless of their specific occupation. How well your students meet complicated challenges and take advantage of the opportunities before them decades down the road will depend largely upon the kind of thinking they are trained and encouraged to do today. This book provides a game plan for busy librarians and teachers to develop their students' abilities to arrive at new ideas by utilizing children's books at hand. Following an introduction in which the author defines divergent thinking, discusses its characteristics, and establishes its vital importance, chapters dedicated to types of literature for children such as fantasy, poetry, and non-fiction present specific titles and relevant activities geared to fostering divergent thinking in young minds. Parents will find the recommendations of the kinds of books to read with their children and explanations of how to engage their children in conversations that will help their creative thinking skills extremely beneficial. The book also includes a case study of a fourth-grade class that applied the principles of divergent thinking to imagine innovative designs and come up with new ideas while studying a social studies/science unit on ecology.

A collection of poems about peace by Anna Grossnickle Hines, accompanied by illustrations that feature quilts made by the poet.

Forced to leave their old home, 16 animals decide to take a train ride to search for a new one.

Colorado rancher and investigator Charlie Moon accidentally kills a purse snatcher with ties to the mob. With an assassin on his way, the FBI close behind, and a new P.I. bringing up the rear, Doss adds a raucous story to his wild and witty western mystery series.