When the road signs take a vacation, chaos and hilarity ensue--and they quickly learn how important they are. School is ending for the summer, and the stick figures on the school crossing sign are jealous of all the vacation plans they hear the students making. The stick figures work hard--maybe they deserve a vacation, too! So they abandon their signpost and set off on an adventure, inviting along all the other underappreciated road signs they meet on the way. It's all fun and games for a while, especially when they stumble upon a fantastic amusement park. But the people they've left behind are feeling their absence, and soon there are traffic tangles and lost pedestrians everywhere. The signs are more important than they realized, and now it's time for them to save the day!

Explains how neighborhood signs help people stay safe, drive safely, and find their way around. Suggested level: junior.

One small act of kindness can change the world. From esteemed bullying expert and author of The Invisible Boy, Trudy Ludwig and Little Elliot illustrator Mike Curato comes a tale as simple--and simply inspiring--as the golden rule. When one child reaches out in friendship to a classmate who seems lonely, she begins a chain reaction of kindness that ripples throughout her school and her community. One kind act begets another, small good deeds make way for bigger ones, and eventually the whole neighborhood comes together to build something much greater than the sum of its parts. From acclaimed bullying expert Trudy Ludwig, The Power of One not only conveys a message of kindness, it offers concrete steps that kids can take to make a difference in their own communities. As Trudy says in the final line of the book: "Acts and words of kindness DO count, and it all starts with ONE."

When the barn used for hiding runaway slaves burns to the ground, Luke, who is deaf, finds a unique way to pass along information about the next safe haven.

Guides readers to take deep breaths, think about the positive aspects of life, and talk with someone they trust when they feel like running away.

There was a time in America when salesmen travelled from door to door selling everything from bibles to neon signs. (Some still do, even today!) Follow along as a young girl and her dad pack up their convertible on a summer day and hit the road selling signs - stopping at family-owned stores and restaurants where a new sign really can make the difference. Filled with charming details of small-town American life in the early 1950s, this satisfying picture book is bursting with illustrations which evoke both Norman Rockwell and Robert McKlosky.

In this new and refreshing approach to the story, Ben Zvi starts with the premise that Jonah, like most books, was written to be read. He therefore concentrates on intended and unintended readership(s) of Jonah and the network of messages that they were likely to derive through their reading and rereading. He starts with the historical and social matrix of the production and reading of the book in antiquity, analyzes its self-critical approach and its metaprophetic character as a comment on the genre of prophetic books and on prophets. How does the historical fact of Nineveh's destruction acually shape the reading? Or the perception of Jonah as a runaway slave?Ben Zvi demonstrates the malleability of interpretation of the Book of Jonah and its limitations, as attested in different communities of readers. He asks why certain messages are easily accepted by particular historical communities, whereas others are not raised at all.