The Ellie Project is a special alphabet book written and illustrated by a loving father to his two-year old daughter, while he was battling for his life. Andrew B. Heard author of "A Gray Faith" was diagnosed with his second battle with cancer at the ripe age of twenty-nine. Andrew was eighteen when he was first diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. The cancer came back eleven years later as lung cancer. He fought hard for 10 months and then went to be with the Lord July 26, 2013. During his battle Andrew completed two books. "A Gray Faith" was published a month before he passed away. He also spent his time finding ways to connect with his two year old daughter, Ellie, through drawing animals (her favorite) and with each drawing writing her a love note about character qualities he believed were important for her to learn in life. Out of this act of love developed The Ellie Project.

"Look out, Junie B. Jones! Ellie the engineer is thinking, making, creating, and showing enthusiasm and brilliance with her creations!" -School Library Connection A charming, hilarious illustrated middle grade about a girl who is an engineer--no, not the kind on a train, the kind that builds things! Perfect creative, STEM-powered fun for girls who have interests in how things work. Ellie is an engineer. With a tool belt strapped over her favorite skirt (who says you can't wear a dress and have two kinds of screwdrivers handy, just in case?), she invents and builds amazing creations in her backyard workshop. Together with her best friend Kit, Ellie can make anything. As Kit's birthday nears, Ellie doesn't know what gift to make until the girls overhear Kit's mom talking about her present--the dog Kit always wanted! Ellie plans to make an amazing doghouse, but her plans grow so elaborate that she has to enlist help from the neighbor boys and crafty girls, even though the two groups don't get along. Will Ellie be able to pull off her biggest project yet, all while keeping a secret from Kit? Illustrated with Ellie's sketches and plans, and including backmatter with a fun how-to guide to tools, this is a STEM- and friendship-powered story full of fun!

How would your career, social life, family ties, carbon footprint and mental health be affected if you could not leave the city where you live? Artist Ellie Harrison sparked a fast-and-furious debate about class, capitalism, art, education and much more, when news of her year-long project The Glasgow Effect went viral at the start of 2016. Named after the term used to describe Glasgow's mysteriously poor public health and funded to the tune of £15,000 by Creative Scotland, this controversial 'durational performance' centred on a simple proposition – that the artist would refuse to travel beyond Glasgow's city limits, or use any vehicles except her bike, for a whole calendar year.

"Fresh out of secondary school and struggling to work out how to spend her 'gap year', Ellie had started to believe that postponing her university study was going to be a waste of time and money.Then, one spring evening, she was asked a question that opened a door she didn't know existed ...'Have you thought about being an au pair?'Six years later, Ellie recounts the highs and lows of becoming an integral part of another family, caring for a six-year-old boy in a small village, 12,000 miles away from home. In just four months, navigating her way through language, culture, childcare, friendships and family life taught her more about herself and the world that she could have ever imagined"--Print back cover.

A Gray Faith is unique in that it is written, not after cancer has been beaten, or as a reflection on someone else's experience, but it is written in the dark, gray walk of not knowing if cancer will end my life. We all face dark times, but the manner in which we embrace our faith through the gray, uncertainty determines the growth our soul will experience in the life and the life to come. If you are struggling in your faith or aren't sure you have faith, this book is a great start to walking through the questions of this life and the life to come.

This book is based on a longitudinal study involving learners of English as a foreign language from their first year in primary education to their last year in compulsory secondary education. Some of the chapters report on the whole sample initially drawn from five primary schools and some are based on a sample of focal learners. These focal learners were followed in secondary school (grades 7 and 10). One of the main aims of the book is capturing change over time regarding the learners’ language perceptions and awareness, oral and written language development, learners’ attitudes and motivation, and their language learning trajectories. The longitudinal nature of the data also allows identification of internal and external factors on learners’ linguistic outcomes. The book draws on a wealth of data sources (self-reported data, classroom observations, institutional data, language tests and tasks), participants (learners, teachers, parents), several testing times and both qualitative and quantitative analyses. The book will be of interest to educators and scholars working on such areas as language pedagogy, language development and awareness as well as individual differences.