"Born in Harlem during the Great Depression, a little African-American girl is named Hope Sequoyah for the promise of better times to come and the Cherokee chief who taught his people how to read and write. With a name like yours, you must stand tall, her mama always says. When Hope is five years old, her mama takes a painting class with Robert Brackman and Hope's life is forever changed. In her own words, Hope tells of how she gets another name and meets President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor--all with her teddy bear by her side."--Dust jacket.
Mark Singer's lively and extremely popular "U.S. Journal" column in The New Yorker featured under-the-radar stories that were unusual but emblematic tales of American life. A first-time collection of these pieces, Somewhere in America offers an illuminating glimpse of the cultural kaleidoscope of our country. From worm farmers in Weleetka, Oklahoma, to angry nudists in Wilmington, Vermont, Singer proves that "sometimes you don't even need a passport to experience a new nation" (U.S. News & World Report).
Readers fell in love with teenage waitress Hope Yancey when Joan Bauer’s Newbery Honor–winning novel was published ten years ago. Now, with a terrific new jacket and note from the author, Hope’s story will inspire a new group of teen readers.
The challenges we face can be difficult even to think about. Climate change, war, political polarization, economic upheaval, and the dying back of nature together create a planetary emergency of overwhelming proportions. This revised, tenth anniversary edition of Active Hope shows us how to strengthen our capacity to face these crises so that we can respond with unexpected resilience and creative power. Drawing on decades of teaching an empowerment approach known as the Work That Reconnects, the authors guide us through a transformational process informed by mythic journeys, modern psychology, spirituality, and holistic science. This process equips us with tools to face the mess we’re in and play our role in the collective transition, or Great Turning, to a life-sustaining society.
If we as a nation invested the money and time necessary to give every trauma-exposed child a cheerleader, we would empty our prisons and mental health facilities within two generations. We would dramatically reduce intimate partner violence and see stunning drops in crime rates across all categories. We have the resources and we know what to do. It is only a question of our priorities and commitment. Cheering for the Children is a clarion call to all caring people to become cheerleaders for children exposed to trauma and abuse. Author Casey Gwinn, former elected San Diego city attorney and a leading domestic violence professional, explains why childhood trauma should be the preeminent public health issue in America today and how we can all help change the lives of children for the better. In this compelling and well-documented book, Gwinn maps out the massive costs and lifelong consequences of unaddressed childhood trauma through the internationally recognized Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study and other critical research. Then, using his own personal journey through trauma, lessons learned from leading experts across the country, and poignant real-life anecdotes from survivors, he provides the big strategies and small, practical steps that every parent, grandparent, mentor, caring community member, and policymaker can take to make a difference in the lives of their own children and the hurting children of America.
For too long we’ve lacked a compact, inexpensive, authoritative, and compulsively readable book that offers American readers a clear, informative, and inspiring narrative account of their country. Such a fresh retelling of the American story is especially needed today, to shape and deepen young Americans’ sense of the land they inhabit, help them to understand its roots and share in its memories, all the while equipping them for the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship in American society The existing texts simply fail to tell that story with energy and conviction. Too often they reflect a fragmented outlook that fails to convey to American readers the grand trajectory of their own history. This state of affairs cannot continue for long without producing serious consequences. A great nation needs and deserves a great and coherent narrative, as an expression of its own self-understanding and its aspirations; and it needs to be able to convey that narrative to its young effectively. Of course, it goes without saying that such a narrative cannot be a fairy tale of the past. It will not be convincing if it is not truthful. But as Land of Hope brilliantly shows, there is no contradiction between a truthful account of the American past and an inspiring one. Readers of Land of Hope will find both in its pages.
A poignant--and funny--story of a girl trying to be brave and find her place in the world after she's sent to live with scheming relatives, perfect for fans of One for the Murphys. Right before Wavie's mother died, she gave Wavie a list of instructions to help her find her way in life, including this one: Be brave, Wavie B! You got as much right to a good life as anybody, so find it! But little did Wavie's mom know that events would conspire to bring Wavie back to Conley Hollow, the Appalachian hometown her mother tried to leave behind. Now Wavie's back in the Holler--and in the clutches of a dastardly aunt. Living with uncaring relatives is no picnic, but Wavie finds real joy in the beauty of the mountains and sleeping in her mother's childhood bed. She takes her mother's advice to heart, making friends with Camille and Gilbert--funny, kindhearted kids her aunt calls "neighborhood no accounts." And when Wavie learns a shocking family secret, it is their support that just might allow her to be brave enough to find--and grab--a piece of that good life.
“Nothing short of a masterpiece.” —NPR Books A New York Times Bestseller and a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year In the most ambitious one-volume American history in decades, award-winning historian Jill Lepore offers a magisterial account of the origins and rise of a divided nation. Widely hailed for its “sweeping, sobering account of the American past” (New York Times Book Review), Jill Lepore’s one-volume history of America places truth itself—a devotion to facts, proof, and evidence—at the center of the nation’s history. The American experiment rests on three ideas—“these truths,” Jefferson called them—political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. But has the nation, and democracy itself, delivered on that promise? These Truths tells this uniquely American story, beginning in 1492, asking whether the course of events over more than five centuries has proven the nation’s truths, or belied them. To answer that question, Lepore wrestles with the state of American politics, the legacy of slavery, the persistence of inequality, and the nature of technological change. “A nation born in contradiction… will fight, forever, over the meaning of its history,” Lepore writes, but engaging in that struggle by studying the past is part of the work of citizenship. With These Truths, Lepore has produced a book that will shape our view of American history for decades to come.
/About The Book Life is the pursuit of happiness, something that is ordained not by men, but bestowed by God. Our Path to hope is our purpose, something we all must discover if we are to truly live up to our potential as human beings. In this book, I will address one of the most pressing concerns facing our country today: Immigration and cultural diversity. One is the problem and the other is the solution. As a citizen of the world, I will use my experiences to show how cultural diversity is not to be feared, but used to benefit us all. In difficult economic times, native citizens will naturally look for scapegoats, and immigrants, both legal and illegal, fit the bill. But if we are to move forward, we need to find ways to allow immigrants to freely contribute to our society in order to solve the problems we accuse them of causing. If we embrace the cultural diversity rather than fight it, we will succeed. In the global economy, we cannot afford to discount such a valuable resource as the many who leave their homes for a better life, fueled by their own Path to Hope. Immigration isn’t the problem, it’s the answer! Even when unemployment is high, millions of jobs remain unfilled 49% of businesses find it hard to fill critical jobs, 15% above the global average. By 2018, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics jobs won’t be filled even if every American graduate with an advanced degree finds employment. Immigrants bring critical skills Construction will add 1.8 million jobs by 2020. 60% of Latino immigrants arrive with a sophisticated knowledge of the trade. 25% of scientists and engineers in the U.S. are foreign-born. Immigrants are 13% of the U.S. population but make up 28% of in-home health workers. Immigrants have higher work force participation rates than those born in the U.S. The U.S. must attract and retain human capital Immigration caps force 20,000 American-educated students to leave the U.S. every year. As the U.S. population ages, unfilled jobs will hinder growth By 2030, the U.S. will need to add 25 million workers to the labor force to sustain current growth. Without immigrants, the U.S. will not have enough new workers to support retirees. More than one-third of the U.S. population growth is attributed to new immigrants. By 2050, 93% of growth in the U.S. working-age population will be due to immigrants and their children. 75% of the foreign-born labor force is in the vital 25-54 year-old category - higher than their U.S.-born counterparts. Multi-lingual immigrants boost trade Every 100 H1-B visas creates 183 jobs for American-born workers. Every 100 H2-B visas creates 464 additional jobs.
