Over the years, I have told many stories around a campfire in Algonquin Park during our family camping trips. My kids each have their favourite stories that I have to tell over and over again. Friends who were also with us had their favourite stories they wanted me to tell. The problem was that I never did write down the stories in the thirty years of telling. My family finally convinced me to write down the stories. This is a collection of the some of the stories I told and one my daughter told. The time seemed right to share the stories with everyone. Since the stories put smiles on many of my friends' faces, I thought it would be good for others. Each story is the perfect length for a bedtime story. Read to your young children. My children are in their thirties, and still upon occasion I have to read for them. Now sit back, get comfortable, and let me get my frumpy reading sweater, and we will begin. Once upon a time...

Life is a challenge for 36-year-old Kate Cavanaugh, high school guidance counselor to a motley group of at-risk students. Two years after finding her young husband dead in bed beside her, Kate's storybook life has vanished, and she and her two children are still reeling. Her daughter Charlotte, once a sweet girl, has morphed into an angry, tattooed, tongue-studded teen; and Hunter, Kate's four-year-old, keeps his feelings sealed tight inside and an empty ketchup bottle clasped to his heart. When a tragedy occurs at the Alan B. Shepard High School, it's Kate who finds herself in need of counsel and guidance. What she does next catapults her and her family down an unfamiliar road, on a trajectory into space—toward understanding, forgiveness and healing.

When Ethan Sutherland was in high school, he'd go to any lengths to hide his secret, including betraying the one girl who tried to help him. Now he's back in town and hoping Cassidy Wells finds it in her heart to forgive him.

Never mind the Real Housewives of Orange County—Marla Jo Fisher is the woman everyone can relate to, complete with bad parenting, rotten dogs, ill health, and fashion faux pas. For nearly two decades, in the Orange County Register and many syndicated papers, readers have delighted in Marla Jo’s subversive humor, cranky intellect, and huge heart on her journey through broke, single, after-40 motherhood, when she adopted Cheetah Boy and Curly Girl, to her oddball adventures around the globe, to the sublime ridiculousness of life next door. Even while facing a devastating diagnosis, Fisher teaches us that humor is the balm that eases and the very thing that binds us together.

Learn how to construct and embellish a stylish jacket from a comfy sweatshirt for a fabulous, perfect fit! Designer Londa Rolfing shows you how to blend your favorite fabrics and trims with her basic patterns to create your own designs. Explore 2 construction methods—use the whole sweatshirt intact or cut it up. Ruffles, ruching, slashes of denim…what is your signature touch? Includes full-size tissue patterns, designed for sizes from S to XXL—choose a pattern that fits your sewing skill. Whether you’re into casual hoodies or classic coats, you’ll never look at a sweatshirt the same way again!

With the generosity, thoughtfulness, and practicality we have come to appreciate from this extraordinary classroom teacher, Linda gives us the structures and models we need to invite every student we teach to think and act as a reader, writer, and artist. -Nancie Atwell Many teachers wonder how to juggle a writer's notebook and a reader's response log. Linda Rief ingeniously combines them both in the Writer's-Readers's Notebook. This veteran teacher truly walks the walk; she shows exactly how to make this powerful tool work in the classroom. -Ralph Fletcher The Readers-Writers Notebook is THE tool for all those concerned with adolescents and literacy. -Teri Lesesne Author of Naked Reading The Writer's-Reader's Notebook is the most essential learning and teaching tool in Linda Rief's classroom. More than an empty journal, it's a highly structured, specifically designed place where all students (English language learners, those with learning differences, girls and boys) connect reading, writing, and thinking. It's also where Linda can observe and encourage their learning. Now, in Inside the Writer's-Reader's Notebook, Linda shows you how this key resource in her English/language arts workshop has the power to help learners develop into articulate, literate citizens of the world. In Inside the Writer's-Reader's Notebook Linda guides you through the Writer's-Reader's Notebook: what's in it, why it's in there, and how to use it effectively with your students. She shows you how to use it to assess what students know, how they think, and how they can express themselves as writers and readers. Inside the Writer's-Reader's Notebook includes: descriptions of the reading and writing minilessons that Linda uses to get kids thinking in the notebook ideas for further invitations that engage adolescents in writing, reading, and drawing specific ways to use the lists and tools that are printed right in the Notebook dozens of reproducible examples of notebook pages by Linda's students that show the Notebook's multiple uses and that will help inspire your own students' writing and reading an annotated list of professional titles that will help further your knowledge of Notebooks and how to use them effectively in a variety of ways in your classroom. With a copy of the Writer's-Reader's Notebook and vital insights into its effectiveness, Inside the Writer's-Reader's Notebook includes everything you need to implement the Writer's-Reader's Notebook in any class and to help students begin the journey toward more thoughtful, purposeful literacy experiences. Read it and see why the Notebook should be at the center of your teaching. Purchase 5-packs of the Writer's-Reader's Notebook here.

Practical and stylish pieces for daily life! New American Knits offers garments that are casual but polished, equally appropriate whether running errands, at the office, or socializing with friends. Author Amy Christoffers takes her inspiration from the clean lines and elegant functionality of American sportswear and creates projects that have a classic nostalgic feel. In designing her fashionable modern uniform, Amy focuses on beautiful everyday sweaters, tops, and pretty accessories. Included are sections on texture and lace and pops of colorwork to add visual and knitterly interest. Projects feature traditional, seamless, and semi-seamless construction as well as detailed finishing. New American Knits has a "country house" feel with touches of heather grays, tweeds, slubby textures, and muted tones. The book is visually elegant with a streak of casual bohemian style, much like the projects themselves.

Eleanora Stone has spent her entire life moving from place to place with her aunt Ada, never putting down roots. Never making friends. When, on the cusp of her eighteenth birthday, she is brought to a remote island off the coast of Maine to live, everything changes—for this is a homecoming of sorts. Here she will connect not only with her family history but also the destiny of her blood. Here she will be expected to grow into powers beyond all imagining and unseat an ancient evil poised to destroy mankind.

STEP INSIDE THE DARK ACADEMIA NOVEL WHICH HAS EVERYONE TALKING THIS SPOOKY SEASON PERFECT FOR FANS OF LEIGH BARDUGO’S NINTH HOUSE AND NETFLIX'S WEDNESDAY An elite academy. A secret society. A sister who will stop at nothing to discover the truth. A deliciously dark and atmospheric read. I tore through this gothic tale of a sister's love and the monsters she will face to unearth the shocking truth - Frances White, Sunday Times bestselling author of Voyage of the Damned 'Eerie, intense, and mysterious with immersive world building and mythology. The fast pace kept me turning pages, and I’d follow Jae pretty much anywhere' Stacia Stark, bestselling author of the Kingdom of Lies series --- Hell is empty and all the devils are at Ravenswood Academy . . . Mourning the sudden death of her sister, Andy Emmerson knows she must come to terms with a life without Violet. But on the day of the funeral Andy is shocked to discover one thing: the person in that casket is not her sister. Is Violet alive? Convinced her sister's elite boarding school is covering up the truth, Andy enrols at Ravenswood Academy to discover what really happened and find Violet. The school is as beautiful and haunting as the students within it and Andy learns that it's not just good grades that drives these pupils. Something much darker is at play. After discovering a cryptic note from her sister, Andy must follow a set of clues to unlock the truth. This will bring her into contact with secret societies, ancient magic, demons and monsters. And a charming senior named Jae Han who has his own reasons for finding out what happened to Violet . . . Soon Andy realizes the price she must pay to bring her sister home is darker and more dangerous than she ever could have imagined. --- Readers are loving All The Devils 'Wow, wow, wowwwww!!! I did not expect how this book was going to play out, I couldn’t put the book down' 5 ***** Reader Review ‘I have read almost every dark academia or dark academia adjacent book and All The Devils was SOOO refreshing. The romance, the storyline, the plot. I practically devoured it!’ 5 ***** Reader Review ‘Dark academic? Witchy vibes? Art history? Sprinkle of romance? All a recipe for a 5* read in my opinion. The characters and the scenery were all exquisitely, especially when we went to the Underworld. The twists just kept coming when it came to Jae and I spent a good deal of time picking my jaw up off the floor' 5 ***** Reader Review 'If you love dark academia, secret societies and the supernatural then this book is perfect for you. I adored this book and won’t be forgetting it anytime soon' 5 ***** Reader Review

"If you're a fan of Kristen Ashley, then you will love this book." -- Aestas Book Blog on Four Letter Word He didn't want to be bad. He just didn't have a choice... Shayla Perkins isn't the kind of girl who makes the same mistake twice, especially when it comes to Sean "Stitch" Molina. So when he gives her the world's biggest rejection, that's it--she's done. Until the sexy, silent, unavailable Sean makes Shay a very personal offer. Of course, it still doesn't mean he's interested in her. Or does it? Sean has done things in life. Bad things. And he's paid the price. All he wants now is to make up for his past by doing good in the present. And no one deserves more good than Shay. Beautiful on the inside and out, Shay is the kind of woman who should be cared for and protected--especially from a man like Sean. He's tried to keep his feelings for her in check, but a single, reckless impulse pulls them closer than ever before. Soon the two are sharing their biggest dreams and satisfying their deepest desires. But what will happen if the only way to truly give each other what they want most...is to let each other go? "The perfect mix of funny, hot and heartwarming. I enjoyed it immensely!" -- Mia Sheridan, New York Times bestselling author, on Four Letter Word