Haunted by her sister's mysterious disappearance, Lucy Wilson arrives in Rowan County, Kentucky, in the spring of 1911 to work for Cora Wilson Stewart, superintendent of education. When Cora sends Lucy into the hills to act as scribe for the mountain people, she is repelled by the primitive conditions and intellectual poverty she encounters. Few adults can read and write. Born in those hills, Cora knows the plague of illiteracy. So does Brother Wyatt, a singing schoolmaster who travels through the hills. Involving Lucy and Wyatt, Cora hatches a plan to open the schoolhouses to adults on moonlit nights. The best way to combat poverty, she believes, is to eliminate illiteracy. But will the people come? As Lucy emerges from a life in the shadows, she finds purpose; or maybe purpose finds her. With purpose comes answers to her questions, and something else she hadn't expected: love. Inspired by the true events of the Moonlight Schools, this standalone novel from bestselling author Suzanne Woods Fisher brings to life the story that shocked the nation into taking adult literacy seriously. You'll finish the last page of this enthralling story with deep gratitude for the gift of reading.
The first woman elected superintendent of schools in Rowan County, Kentucky, Cora Wilson Stewart (1875–1958) realized that a major key to overcoming the illiteracy that plagued her community was to educate adult illiterates. To combat this problem, Stewart opened up her schools to adults during moonlit evenings in the winter of 1911. The result was the creation of the Moonlight Schools, a grassroots movement dedicated to eliminating illiteracy in one generation. Following Stewart’s lead, educators across the nation began to develop similar literacy programs; within a few years, Moonlight Schools had emerged in Minnesota, South Carolina, and other states. Cora Wilson Stewart and Kentucky’s Moonlight Schools examines these institutions and analyzes Stewart’s role in shaping education at the state and national levels. To improve their literacy, Moonlight students learned first to write their names and then advanced to practical lessons about everyday life. Stewart wrote reading primers for classroom use, designing them for rural people, soldiers, Native Americans, prisoners, and mothers. Each set of readers focused on the knowledge that individuals in the target group needed to acquire to be better citizens within their community. The reading lessons also emphasized the importance of patriotism, civic responsibility, Christian morality, heath, and social progress. Yvonne Honeycutt Baldwin explores the “elusive line between myth and reality” that existed in the rhetoric Stewart employed in order to accomplish her crusade. As did many educators engaged in benevolent work during the Progressive Era, Stewart sometimes romanticized the plight of her pupils and overstated her successes. As she traveled to lecture about the program in other states interested in addressing the problem of illiteracy, she often reported that the Moonlight Schools took one mountain community in Kentucky “from moonshine and bullets to lemonade and Bibles.” All rhetoric aside, the inclusive Moonlight Schools ultimately taught thousands of Americans in many under-served communities across the nation how to read and write. Despite the many successes of her programs, when Stewart retired in 1932, the crusade against adult illiteracy had yet to be won. Cora Wilson Stewart presents the story of a true pioneer in adult literacy and an outspoken advocate of women’s political and professional participation and leadership. Her methods continue to influence literacy programs and adult education policy and practice.
“A reassuring look at feeling shy on the first day in the classroom.”—The Independent (U.K.) It's Mouse's first night at Miss Moon's Moonlight School but she is shy, too shy to even say hello. Luckily, with help from Miss Moon and her new friends Bat, Cat, and Owl, a game of hide-and-seek makes Mouse feel right at home.
Chase the silvery light of the moon across the sleeping world in this elegant modern lullaby. At once profound and playful, this bedtime story follows the moonlight as it travels across the globe. From jungle to sea, from ocean to valley, from distant lands right to your own window. The simple, lullaby-like text is sure to encourage sweet dreams. With elegant, bold illustrations featuring large blocks of color in a gentle blue and green palette and a foil-stamped jacket, Moonlight is a perfect gift for young readers and art-lovers alike. Award-winning author and illustrator Stephen Savage turns his talent to hand-cut lino prints, creating a sophisticated, appealing exploration of the moon's nightly journey, sure to be a family favorite for years to come. A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
When sixteen-year-old Cynda goes to stay with her father and his second wife, Susan, at their remote bed-and-breakfast inn in Maine, everything starts off well despite legends about ghosts and a murder at the inn. But Cynda feels like a visitor in Dad's new life, an outsider. Then intense, handsome stranger Vincent Morthanos arrives at the inn and seems to return Cynda's interest. At first she is blind to the subtle, insistent signs that Vincent is not what he seems-that he is, in fact, a vampire. Can Cynda free herself-and her family-from Vincent's power before it's too late? Full-bodied characterizations and page-turning suspense ensure that this eerie, riveting novel will appeal to middle school fans of mystery and horror.
In the second novel in her bestselling Edilean trilogy, Jude Deveraux returns to the idyllic Virginia town where three best girlfriends joyfully reunite as they each seek out their heartfelt dreams and desires. Kim Aldredge is delighted that her dear college "sister" Jecca has found lasting love with Kim's cousin Tristan. But despite her flourishing jewelry-making career, Kim's own happiness seems as distant as the childhood summer when she played the hours away with young Travis Merritt, who came to Edilean with his mother under mysterious circumstances. At the end of that innocent season, he promised Kim he would return one day . . . and then vanished without even a goodbye. Years later, a worn photo is Kim's only proof of the perfect joy they shared. But when she least expects it, Travis, now a savvy Manhattan attorney, will crash into her life once more. Will Kim see the boy she knew under the man he's become?
Maggie Holloway is unsatisfied with the explanation for her former stepmother's death, and when the residents of a nursing home begin dying suddenly and inexplicably she becomes suspicious. It is only later that she realizes she herself is a target for a twisted killer.
“An atmospheric, multilayered, sex-positive romance.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) After an awkward first encounter, Birdie and Daniel are forced to work together in a Seattle hotel where a famous author leads a mysterious and secluded life in this romantic contemporary novel from the author of Alex, Approximately. Mystery-book aficionado Birdie Lindberg has an overactive imagination. Raised in isolation and homeschooled by strict grandparents, she’s cultivated a whimsical fantasy life in which she plays the heroic detective and every stranger is a suspect. But her solitary world expands when she takes a job the summer before college, working the graveyard shift at a historic Seattle hotel. In her new job, Birdie hopes to blossom from introverted dreamer to brave pioneer, and gregarious Daniel Aoki volunteers to be her guide. The hotel’s charismatic young van driver shares the same nocturnal shift and patronizes the waterfront Moonlight Diner where Birdie waits for the early morning ferry after work. Daniel also shares her appetite for intrigue, and he’s stumbled upon a real-life mystery: a famous reclusive writer—never before seen in public—might be secretly meeting someone at the hotel. To uncover the writer’s puzzling identity, Birdie must come out of her shell…discovering that the most confounding mystery of all may be her growing feelings for the elusive riddle that is Daniel.
Newbery Medal–winning author Paula Fox’s gripping and sensitive portrayal of a teenage girl who discovers her father is not the man she thought he was. Catherine Ames’s father, Harry, has always been a mystery. Her parents divorced when she was three, and she has spent most of her life in a Montreal boarding school. When Harry suggests a month-long stay with him at his summer cabin in Nova Scotia, Catherine is thrilled. Finally she’ll have the kind of relationship with her father that other girls at school have with theirs. But the bright summer quickly darkens. Harry drinks—a lot. The more Catherine witnesses his drinking, the more she begins to hate him. Only, Catherine can’t help but love him too. A travel writer with a poet’s tongue, Harry is clever and exciting, and tells wonderful stories—until he drinks again, and the playful father that takes her on picnics becomes someone dark and frightening. How can the man she grew up wishing to be close to seem so far away? And how can Catherine bring him back to her? A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, The Moonlight Man is a lyrical and emotional account of love, acceptance, and the difficult lessons of growing up.
