It is a great privilege for me to endeavor to tell you this story about my Great-Great-Great Grandfather's life; about his ancestors, his family, and his work for God. I have gathered genealogy information used herein since I first learned of my Shook roots in 2000. My non-fiction story is based on found legal documents and documented history that would apply to anyone in the same situation and time period. There is much information out there and so much of it is incorrect in one way or another. I do not claim to have found it all, or even that I have the true grist of what I do have. I do strive to give you my sources for everything that I included here. You can then make up your own mind as to what is fact and what is unproven.

Did you know God made you MORE than your disease, and he has a purpose for you? Well, he did and he does! No matter how many needle sticks you get that make you shout, "Ow!" or scary tests that make you want to scream, or cold waiting rooms you have to sit in that make you feel small, God sees you, your bravery, and the MORE he created you to be. The author's disease began when she was a little girl, so Whitney knows first-hand the emotions and feelings these children experience and the frightening unknowns they face. In this book, Whitney encourages every child who's battling disease to see themselves how God sees them and shout the powerful message to the world- "I am MORE!"

A rich mosaic of photographs, words, and songs, Voices from the Mountains tells the turbulent story of the Appalachian South in the twentieth century. Focusing on the abuses of the coal industry and the grassroots struggle against mine owners that began in the 1960s, Guy and Candie Carawan have gathered quotations from a variety of sources; words and music to more than fifty ballads and songs, laments and satires, hymns and protests; and more than one hundred and fifty photographs of longtime Appalachian residents, their homes, their countryside, the mines they work in, and the labor battles they have fought. The "voices" that speak out in these pages range from the mountain people themselves to such well-known artists as Jean Ritchie, Hazel Dickens, Harriet Simpson Arnow, and Wendell Berry. Together they tell of the damage wrought by strip mining and the empty promises of land reclamation; the search for work and a new life in the North; the welfare rights, labor, antipoverty, and black lung movements; early days in the mines; disasters and negligence in the coal industry; and protest and change in the coal fields. Dignity and despair, poverty and perseverance, tradition and change--Voices from the Mountains eloquently conveys the complex panorama of modern Appalachian life.

Caldecott Honor Book! "An evocative remembrance of the simple pleasures in country living; splashing in the swimming hole, taking baths in the kitchen, sharing family times, each is eloquently portrayed here in both the misty-hued scenes and in the poetic text." -Association for Childhood Education International

Dorie's story begins with her childhood on an isolated mountain farm, where we see first-hand how her parents combined back-breaking labor with intense personal pride to produce everything their family needed--from food and clothing to tools and toys--from the land. Lumber companies began to invade the mountains, and Dorie's family took advantage of the financial opportunities offered by the lumber industry, not realizing that in giving up their lands they were also letting go of a way of life. Along with their machinery, the lumber companies brought in many young men, one of whom, Fred Cope, became Dorie's husband. After the lumber companies stripped the mountains of their timber, outsiders set the area aside as a national park, requiring Dorie, now married with a family of her own, to move outside of her beloved mountains.

The legendary mountaineer describes his adventures in such ranges as the Alps and Himalayas, and provides details of what really happened during a controversial 1954 Italian expedition that made the first ascent of K2.

When Your Strength Comes from the Right Source... There's Not a Mountain You Can't Climb What would you do if you were the first person diagnosed with a rare mutant gene? What if your doctors told you that you shouldn't be alive? In 2013, Whitney Ward was diagnosed with a rare gene mutation, discovered by her team of doctors at the National Institutes of Health. The medical discovery unlocked the mystery of what had caused her autoimmune and immune diseases, but eventually the scientific find led to the shocking news that Whitney should have never survived her mother's pregnancy. After living a childhood filled with overcoming challenges, surgeries, hospital visits, school absences, and unanswered questions because of her chronic illness, Whitney embarked on an upward climb with her medical team to find the answers to this unknown disease. Join Whitney as she shares her tumultuous mountain climb and intertwines her story with the stories of others who have faced mountains. Learn how you can make it to the top of any peak. Gain courage from Whitney's words as you realize-You are MORE than your mountains.

Immerse your children in the beauty and wonder of the U.S. National Parks. Help them comprehend how BIG and WIDE, how TALL and DEEP your love for them will always be. These are memories they will never forget! As you explore, see if you can identify which national parks are pictured!

“A riveting adventure for the soul . . . just the kind of evocative historical fiction I love.”—Sara Gruen, author of At the Water’s Edge and Water for Elephants An epic, inspiring novel about one woman’s survival in the hardscrabble Italian countryside and her determination to protect her family throughout the Second World War—by any means possible Maria Vittoria is twenty-five when her father brings home the man who will become her husband. It is 1923 in the austere Italian mountain village where her family has lived for generations, and the man she sees is tall and handsome and has survived the First World War without any noticeable scars. Taking just the linens she has sewn that make up her dowry and a statue of the Madonna that sits by her bedside, Maria leaves the only life she has ever known to begin a family. But her future will not be what she imagines. The Madonna of the Mountains follows Maria over the next three decades, as she moves to the town where she and her husband become shopkeepers, through the birth of their five children, through the hardships and cruelties of the National Fascist Party Rule and the Second World War. Struggling with the cost of survival at a time when food is scarce and allegiances are questioned, Maria trusts no one and fears everyone—her Fascist cousin, the madwoman from her childhood, her watchful neighbors, the Nazis and the Partisans who show up hungry at her door. As Maria’s children grow up and her marriage endures its own hardships, she must hold her family together with resilience, love, and faith, until she makes a fateful decision that will change the course of all their lives. A sweeping saga about womanhood, loyalty, war, religion, family, food, motherhood, and marriage, The Madonna of the Mountains is a poignant look at the span of one woman’s life as the rules change and her world becomes unrecognizable. In depicting the great cost of war and the ineluctable power of time on a life, Elise Valmorbida has created an unforgettable portrait of a woman navigating both the unforeseen and the inevitable. Advance praise for Madonna of the Mountains “The moral and ethical questions raised propel the story beyond the particulars into the universal.”—Kirkus Reviews “It is a bewitching but entirely unsentimental portrait of one woman’s attempt to keep her family safe in turbulent times.”—The Times (UK), Book of the Month “A solid choice for readers who appreciate layered family sagas.”—Library Journal

When Dr Ben Givens left his Seattle home he never intended to return. It was to be a journey past snow-covered mountains to a place of canyons, sagelands and orchards, where, on the verges of the Columbia River, Ben had entered the world and would now take his leave of it.