In a set of stories about 17 American heroes and heroines, this book analyzes the hero concept in the nation’s history. This book unmasks and reveals some of the United States’ most beloved historical figures, reflecting their strengths, values, and flaws as no conventional history textbook can. Each chapter provides a comprehensive and complex look at the heroes and heroines who helped to shape a national identity. This book also examines the history, mechanics, and proven benefits of storytelling, identifying the form as an effective strategy to teach about some of the nation’s most famous men and women. Each story concludes with a set of discussion questions that allow both educators and students to probe transcending values that are still relevant for young Americans today.

In 1956, a young couple from the little town of Steubenville, Ohio (Eugene and Norma), decided to wage war against the disease that had condemned their precious son (Craig) to death. They would take the long journey to Lourdes, France, in order to seek a miracle for his life at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. Through the words of a French journalist (Roger Bernard) and the eyes of his photographer (Serge), on an indeterminate journey more than fifty years ago, allow yourself to become engrossed in their story. Look at the pictures. Study the faces of those in this true account. Relive the journey that is this intriguing and remarkable story.

Winner of the 2003 Trillium Book Award "Stories are wondrous things," award-winning author and scholar Thomas King declares in his 2003 CBC Massey Lectures. "And they are dangerous." Beginning with a traditional Native oral story, King weaves his way through literature and history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest, gracefully elucidating North America's relationship with its Native peoples. Native culture has deep ties to storytelling, and yet no other North American culture has been the subject of more erroneous stories. The Indian of fact, as King says, bears little resemblance to the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the construct so powerfully and often destructively projected by White North America. With keen perception and wit, King illustrates that stories are the key to, and only hope for, human understanding. He compels us to listen well.

In this mischievous and utterly original debut, Hansel and Gretel walk out of their own story and into eight other classic Grimm-inspired tales. As readers follow the siblings through a forest brimming with menacing foes, they learn the true story behind (and beyond) the bread crumbs, edible houses, and outwitted witches. Fairy tales have never been more irreverent or subversive as Hansel and Gretel learn to take charge of their destinies and become the clever architects of their own happily ever after.

"Ovid is, after Homer, the single most important source for classical mythology. The Metamorphoses, which he wrote over the six-year period leading up to his exile from Rome in 8 a.d. , is the primary source for over two hundred classical legends that survived to the twenty-first century. Many of the most familiar classical myths, including the stories of Apollo and Daphne and Pyramus and Thisbe, come directly from Ovid. The Metamorphoses is a twelve-thousand-line poem, written in dactylic hexameters and arranged loosely in chronological order from the beginning of the universe's creation to the Augustan Rome of Ovid's own time. The major theme of the Metamorphoses, as the title suggests, is metamorphosis, or change. Throughout the fifteen books making up the Metamorphoses, the idea of change is pervasive. Gods are continually transforming their own selves and shapes, as well as the shapes and beings of humans. The theme of power is also ever-present in Ovid's work. The gods as depicted by the Roman poets are wrathful, vengeful, capricious creatures who are forever turning their powers against weaker mortals and half-mortals, especially females. Ovid's own situation as a poet who was exiled because of Augustus's capriciousness is thought by many to be reflected in his depictions of the relationships between the gods and humans." -- from http://www.enotes.com/metamorphoses-of-ovid (Jan. 24, 2011.)

Includes: Gunther Anders, "Victims of Aggression"; Hannah Arendt, "From the Life of the Mind"; Ernst Bloch, "On Fine Arts in the Machine Age, From "The Principle of Hope"; Karl Jaspers, "Existential Philosophy"; Albert Schweitzer, "Philosophy of Civilization"; Karl R. Popper, "An Optimistic View of Our Age"; Ludwig Wittgenstein, From "Philosophical Investigations"; and more.

An alchemist peddles a new magical invention—and the key that could unlock Lettie Peppercorn’s family secrets—in this quirky “tale of self-discovery, family, and friendship” (The Independent). Lettie Peppercorn cannot go outside. Ma told her so right before Ma disappeared forever. So Lettie’s house is on stilts, and she is stuck with only the wind and a pigeon for a friend. Nothing exciting has ever happened to her—until the night a strange merchant appears. He claims to be an alchemist—the greatest that ever lived—and he is here to sell Lettie his newest invention. It’s an invention that could change Lettie’s life—and the world forever. An invention called “snow.” But snow is not the only secret he holds. The alchemist knows where Lettie’s Ma is. And Lettie will do anything to get Ma back—even if it means risking her own life. Join the brilliant and resourceful Lettie Peppercorn as she sails across the world to reunite her family and discover the truth about herself.