A riveting exposé of child abuse in America and how the newest breed of pediatricians determines what happened, why, and at whose hands. Although more than one million children are abused each year in the United States, child abuse often remains a secret to family members, professionals, and politicians who neither see nor understand it. Child abuse pediatricians are the newest breed of pediatricians, specialized in exposing abuse. With detective-like acumen, child abuse pediatricians deduce through careful medical analysis who has abused and who has been abused. Describing the most compelling cases among the thousands that they have evaluated, author Lawrence Ricci reveals the trauma, pain, disability, and sometimes death that abused children experience at the hands of trusted adults. This gripping look at the dark side of American families is about good parents and poor ones, perpetrators and victims, and collateral victims such as innocent family members. It is also about the professionals who have made it their career to expose child abuse and to treat children who have suffered from it. The conclusion calls for systematic changes that could help to stem the tide of child abuse.

Tim Cotton has been a police officer for more than thirty years. The writer in him has always been drawn to the stories of the people he has met along the way. Dealing with the standard issue ne’er-do-wells as a patrol officer, homicide detective, polygraph examiner, and later as the lieutenant in charge of the criminal investigation division certainly provides an interesting backdrop—but more often he writes about the regular folks he encounters, people who need his help, or those who just want to share a joke or even a sad story. The Detective in the Dooryard is composed of stories about the people, places, and things of Maine. There are sad stories, big events, and even the very mundane, all told from the perspective of a seasoned police office and in the wry voice of a lifelong Mainer. Many of the stories will leave you chuckling, some will invariably bring tears to your eyes, but all will leave you with a profound sense of hope and positivity.

Oftentimes the answers to life’s biggest questions can be found by searching for them at the smallest scales. In Book of Days, beloved nature writer Hal Borland (1900–1978) takes readers on an eye-opening day-by-day journey through a year of the outdoor world around us. Originally published in The New York Times as “daily reflections,” these short reports and observations convey Borland’s inspiring thoughts about the world around him and the creatures he shared it with. He also muses about the changes in weather and climate through the seasons, reflects on our traditions and habits, and ponders fundamental questions about what it all means. Writing in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau and Aldo Leopold, and with the inquisitiveness of a philosopher and the perceptive wit of a wise old New England farmer, Borland portrays with simple clarity the elements of change and permanence in the untamed world around us. Neither calendar nor almanac, this delightful natural history “daybook” of mini essays features a treasure trove of fascinating philosophical insights and environmental wonders. Book of Days can be read straight through or savored one day at a time. Be sure to also read Hal Borland's other bestselling classics published by Echo Point Books—Hal Borland's Twelve Moons of the Year and Sundial of the Seasons.

For use in schools and libraries only. The four Alden children try to discover who is stealing eggs from Mr. Beas's woodshed.

Imagine growing up in a clapboard farmhouse without running water, without an inside bathroom, where the sole source of heat was a two-sided fireplace and a wood-burning cookstove in the kitchen, and where air conditioning was non-existent. Now, with all the technological advances of the twenty-first century that allow us to communicate instantly with people all over the world, it's no surprise that we, as the most blessed nation on the face of the earth, are lightyears removed from the simpler time in which people looked to and depended on God's Word for answers to life's questions. Only history will determine if these powerful distractions have led to the extinction of the wisdom of the woodshed. In Woodshed Wisdom, Vol. 1, Freeman Martin gives his personal account of how he experienced God and his word while growing up on a southern farm in the 1950s. While reading, you will be transported to a humbler way of life and will find yourself desiring a simpler daily communion with God over the static of modern life. Freeman Martin is a gifted man of God...You will be blessed by his words of inspiration and homespun humor. —Dr. David Gallamore, Senior Pastor, Rock Springs Baptist Church, Easley, SC Freeman Martin has hit it out of the ballpark with Woodshed Wisdom, Vol. 1! With a healthy dose of humor and rare spiritual insight, Woodshed Wisdom serves up a delightful slice of Americana about a large family surviving and thriving on a farm in the '50s. Every visit to the woodshed will simultaneously tug at your heart and make you want to stand and applaud. This book is a must-read! —J. Gresham Barrett, former U. S. Congressman, South Carolina, Third District Jesus perfected the art of parable telling, earthly stories revealing heavenly truths. In Woodshed Wisdom, Freeman Martin follows that tradition, plucking heavenly truths for today from his well-worn memories of growing up in Appalachia. —Houston T. Hawkins, Colonel USAF (retired)

Out of the Woodshed is the first biography of the author of Cold Comfort Farm, but also offers the reader an inside view of literary London from the 1930s until Stella's death in 1989.

As the amoral art dealer heads to the Isle of Jersey, the author’s “comic invention and lacerating, politically incorrect humor are in brilliant form” (Publishers Weekly). The Honorable Charlie Mortdecai—degenerate aristocrat and seasoned epicurean—has managed, somehow, to tarnish his already questionable reputation. Thanks to a few shady art deals, he’s been exiled from London. Together with his gadabout wife Johanna and his ex-con butler Jock, Mortdecai takes refuge in a country estate on the Channel Island of Jersey. But what begins as a hedonistic interlude turns into a macabre manhunt. Through the haze of drunken locals and loathsome tourists, Charlie is out to expose a local rapist whose modus operandi bears a striking resemblance to that of a warlock from ancient British mythology known as “The Beast of Jersey.”