A recently orphaned girl moves to the Texas panhandle and struggles to forge new friendships in a town of football glory in this unforgettable novel of surprising plot twists and unexpected beginnings. Recently orphaned, eleven-year-old Cathy Benson feels she has been dropped into a cultural and intellectual wasteland when she is forced to move from her academically privileged life in California to the small town of Kersey in the Texas Panhandle where the sport of football reigns supreme. She is quickly taken under the unlikely wings of up-and-coming gridiron stars and classmates John Caldwell and Trey Don Hall, orphans like herself, with whom she forms a friendship and eventual love triangle that will determine the course of the rest of their lives. Taking the three friends through their growing up years until their high school graduations when several tragic events uproot and break them apart, the novel expands to follow their careers and futures until they reunite in Kersey at forty years of age. Told with all of Meacham's signature drama, unforgettable characters, and plot twists, readers will be turning the pages, desperate to learn how it all plays out.

WHAT IS THIS BOOK ABOUT? Everyone feels small or inadequate at some point in their lives. The Tiniest Tumbleweed is a story written to help children learn more about what they can do to become their best selves, despite whatever may be making them feel small or limited. The characters are two Sonoran Desert neighbors, a tiny tumbleweed and a baby house sparrow, who are both small for their age. Guided by the loving encouragement of their parents, they learn to work within their physical limitations to grow to be the best they can be, rather than measure themselves against others. As a result, they also learn how they can help one another, providing a lesson about the synergy between living things and the boundless opportunities those relationships provide. WHAT MAKES IT UNIQUE? The proven psychological concepts for building self-efficacy combined with a children's literature writing method that helps young readers believe in limitless opportunities are what make The Tiniest Tumbleweed unique. The connection between the characters in the book, a tiny tumbleweed and a sparrow, provides a fascinating look into the real-life desert relationship between tumbleweeds and birds. Following the story, a well-researched curriculum guide captivates young readers, helping them develop a deeper respect for nature.

"Harryette Mullen is a magician of words, phrases, and songs . . . No voice in contemporary poetry is quite as original, cosmopolitan, witty, and tragic." —Susan Stewart, citation for the Academy of American Poets Fellowship Urban tumbleweed, some people call it, discarded plastic bag we see in every city blown down the street with vagrant wind. —from Urban Tumbleweed Urban Tumbleweed is the poet Harryette Mullen's exploration of spaces where the city and the natural world collide. Written out of a daily practice of walking, Mullen's stanzas adapt the traditional Japanese tanka, a poetic form suited for recording fleeting impressions, describing environmental transitions, and contemplating the human being's place in the natural world. But, as she writes in her preface, "What is natural about being human? What to make of a city dweller taking a ‘nature walk' in a public park while listening to a podcast with ear-bud headphones?"

Maria van Buren, a beautiful, high-class prostitute, is found dead with a knife in her back in her houseboat on an Amsterdam canal. Grijpstra and de Gier must solve the murder. Her tony clients all have sound alibis. Before the murderer is caught, the detectives and their commissaris will investigate allegations of black magic, travel to Curaçao, and pursue the clues to a chilly island off the coast of Holland.

In northwestern Texas, Phoebe's upbringing as a southwestern belle who can also rope and ride equips her to square off against the meanest, dirtiest, and most ill-mannered cowpokes in the territory.

This book examines how we navigate questions of commitment and flexibility at work and at home in a world where insecurity has become the norm. How do people today, especially parents, think and talk about what we owe each other on the job and in intimate relationships-with partners, children, and others-when so much is perpetually up in the air?