In conversation, children on the autism spectrum often struggle to select topics of interest to others. Many have strong, narrow interests and feel compelled to introduce these subjects when they talk. This book provides a simple visual model to help children experience more success in finding common ground in conversation. The "Green Zone" is a visual representation of finding common ground between one person (blue) and another person (yellow) to create a "green zone" that represents the pair's shared interests. The book, illustrated with hundreds of photographs representing the range of other people's interests, clearly explains what the "Green Zone" is and how to find it, and contains many photocopiable conversation practice activities and reinforcement worksheets based on this simple visual. Ideal for use in classroom settings or at home, this attractive, full colour book is suitable for children on the autism spectrum aged 7 and up.

The critically acclaimed account of life in Iraq under US occupation with a new afterword.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • National Book Award Finalist • This "eyewitness history of the first order ... should be read by anyone who wants to understand how things went so badly wrong in Iraq” (The New York Times Book Review). The Green Zone, Baghdad, Iraq, 2003: in this walled-off compound of swimming pools and luxurious amenities, Paul Bremer and his Coalition Provisional Authority set out to fashion a new, democratic Iraq. Staffed by idealistic aides chosen primarily for their views on issues such as abortion and capital punishment, the CPA spent the crucial first year of occupation pursuing goals that had little to do with the immediate needs of a postwar nation: flat taxes instead of electricity and deregulated health care instead of emergency medical supplies. In this acclaimed firsthand account, the former Baghdad bureau chief of The Washington Post gives us an intimate portrait of life inside this Oz-like bubble, which continued unaffected by the growing mayhem outside. This is a quietly devastating tale of imperial folly, and the definitive history of those early days when things went irrevocably wrong in Iraq.

Green Zone Diary: A Diplomat's War Story is a vivid insider's account by a State Department Foreign Service Officer posted in the Middle East during the early 2000s. Centered on Baghdad's Green Zone, Madsen takes us behind the scenes of a war effort with heartwarming and heartbreaking honesty. As relentless bureaucracy alternates with tragedy, the reader is offered a glimpse of war-time diplomatic tasks we rarely stop to think about: signing death certificates of people you admire or coordinating a return of a minor who inexplicably found himself in Iraq. Separated from the chaos of the war only by office walls, Madsen faces an additional struggle: to find her place and safety among the soldiers and private contractors alongside she swore to serve.

Environmentalism is the issue of the moment. Reusable shopping bags, hybrid cars and green energy solutions are all espoused as ways to reduce carbon footprints, but these are only the tip of the quickly melting iceberg. Sanders and Davis present a sobering revelation - until US military attacks are held accountable for the war they have waged on the environment, domestic changes made in good faith won't do a thing. Frighteningly, their argument is based primarily on research leaked by the military itself.