Award-winning picture book creator Frank Morrison makes his author/illustrator debut in an exuberant story about being yourself. Epic has tricks you won't believe. He's the kick flipping, big rail king. When his family moves to a new neighborhood, he can't wait to hit the street with his skateboard. But his old moves don't feel fresh without a crew to see 'em. Epic thinks about giving up his board to fit in, but an encouraging word from his dad helps him see that the trick to making new friends is to always be yourself. Be you. . . be epic! Award-winning illustrator Frank Morrison offers a heartwarming, dynamic celebration of self-expression, inspired by his own journey through fatherhood.

There's a single defining moment within every skater. It lasts only a second. Two if you're good. Three if you're really good. It's the moment you're in the air, your board somewhere beneath you, and nothing but wind surrounds you. It's the feeling of being airborne. The sixteen-year-old version of me would've said it was the greatest feeling in the world. Then at seventeen, I had my son. And every single second became a defining moment. Even the ones that consisted of heartbreak when his mother left us. Seventeen. Single. Dad. That's what my life became. Yet, every day, I managed to find that feeling of being airborne. Or at least I convinced myself I did. But I lied--to myself and to everyone around me. Until she showed up; Tanned skin, raven dark hair, and eyes the color of emeralds. You know what sucks about being in the air? Coming down from the high. Sometimes you land on the board and nail the trick. Then kick, push, and coast away. Other times you fall. You fall hard. And those are the times when it's not as easy to get back up, dust off your pads and try again. Especially when the girl with the emerald eyes becomes your drug ... And you become her poison.-from Amazon.

“Thompson captures the ache, fizz, yearning and frustration of being the father of adolescent boys.” —Michael Chabon “What a riveting, touching, and painful read!” —Maria Semple “Fun, moving, raw, and relatable.” —Tony Hawk What makes a good father, and what makes one a failure? Does less-is-more parenting inspire independence and strength, or does it encourage defiance and trouble? Kickflip Boys is the story of a father’s struggle to understand his willful skateboarder sons, challengers of authority and convention, to accept his role as a vulnerable “skate dad,” and to confront his fears that the boys are destined for an unconventional and potentially fraught future. With searing honesty, Neal Thompson traces his sons’ progression through all the stages of skateboarding: splurging on skate shoes and boards, having run-ins with security guards, skipping classes and defying teachers, painting graffiti, drinking and smoking, and more. As the story veers from funny to treacherous and back, from skateparks to the streets, Thompson must confront his complicity and fallibility. He also reflects on his upbringing in rural New Jersey, and his own adventures with skateboards, drugs, danger, and defiance. A story of thrill-seeking teens, of hope and love, freedom and failure, Kickflip Boys reveals a sport and a community that have become a refuge for adolescent boys who don’t fit in. Ultimately, it’s the survival story of a loving modern American family, of acceptance, forgiveness, and letting go.

The oldest and most respected martial arts title in the industry, this popular monthly magazine addresses the needs of martial artists of all levels by providing them with information about every style of self-defense in the world - including techniques and strategies. In addition, Black Belt produces and markets over 75 martial arts-oriented books and videos including many about the works of Bruce Lee, the best-known marital arts figure in the world.

The oldest and most respected martial arts title in the industry, this popular monthly magazine addresses the needs of martial artists of all levels by providing them with information about every style of self-defense in the world - including techniques and strategies. In addition, Black Belt produces and markets over 75 martial arts-oriented books and videos including many about the works of Bruce Lee, the best-known marital arts figure in the world.

Hip Hop Headphones is a crash course in Hip Hop culture. Featuring definitions, lectures, academic essays, and other scholarly discussions and resources, Hip Hop Headphones documents the scholarship of Dr. James B. Peterson, founder of Hip Hop Scholars-an organization devoted to developing the educational potential of Hip Hop. Defining Hip Hop from multi-disciplinary perspectives that embrace the elemental forms of Hip Hop Culture (b-boying, dj-ing, rapping, and graffiti art), Hip Hop Headphones is the definitive guide to how Hip Hop culture can be used in the classroom to engage and inspire students.

The oldest and most respected martial arts title in the industry, this popular monthly magazine addresses the needs of martial artists of all levels by providing them with information about every style of self-defense in the world - including techniques and strategies. In addition, Black Belt produces and markets over 75 martial arts-oriented books and videos including many about the works of Bruce Lee, the best-known marital arts figure in the world.

This timely reflection on male identity in America that explores the intersection of fatherhood, race, and hip-hop culture “is a page-turner…drenched in history and encompasses the energy, fire, and passion that is hip-hop” (D. Watkins, New York Times bestselling author). Just as his music career was taking off, Juan Vidal received life-changing news: he’d soon be a father. Throughout his life, neglectful men were the norm—his own dad struggled with drug addiction and infidelity—a cycle that, inevitably, wrought Vidal with insecurity. At age twenty-six, with barely a grip on life, what lessons could he possibly offer a kid? Determined to alter the course for his child, Vidal did what he’d always done when confronted with life’s challenges—he turned to the counterculture. In Rap Dad, the musician-turned-journalist takes a thoughtful and inventive approach to exploring identity and examining how today’s society views fatherhood. To root out the source of his fears around parenting, Vidal revisits the flash points of his juvenescence, a feat that transports him, a first-generation American born to Colombian parents, back to the drug-fueled streets of 1980s–90s Miami. It’s during those pivotal years that he’s drawn to skateboarding, graffiti, and the music of rebellion: hip-hop. As he looks to the past for answers, he infuses his personal story with rap lyrics and interviews with some of pop culture’s most compelling voices—plenty of whom have proven to be some of society’s best, albeit nontraditional, dads. Along the way, Vidal confronts the unfair stereotypes that taint urban men—especially Black and Latino men. “A heartfelt examination of the damage that wayward fathers can leave in their wake” (The Washington Post), Rap Dad is “rich with symbolism…a poetic chronicle of beats, rhymes, and life” (NPR).

"Batterer Intervention: Program Approaches and Criminal Justice Strategies" is a publication of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) in Rockville, Maryland. The publication provides judges, prosecutors, and probation officers with the information they need to better understand batterer intervention and make appropriate decisions regarding programming.