Possum returns in a lushly illustrated story about new homes and old friends—perfect for fans of Possum's Harvest Moon, Kevin Henkes, and Beth Krommes. Possum looked out one summer afternoon. “Time to come in!” he called to his baby possums. “It looks like we’re in for some weather!” Possum calls his children out of the summer storm—but what can he do when their home is swept away by rising water? The possum family must rely on their friends to construct a new house. At first it seems that no other animal's home is suited for a possum, but they come up with something spectacular! Beloved character Possum is back, along with an array of friends who make for a broad, ranging ensemble, giving children a tantalizing peek at how different animals build their homes.

This collection of ideas for lessons provides school librarians with inspiration for meeting the tsunami of new standards dictating change for today's next generation learners. Today's school librarian has less and less time to prepare for instruction. This book delivers lesson plans for the librarian to implement immediately, as is or with a little adaptation. Using the new AASL standards and an Information Literacy scope and sequence carefully crafted for K–6 students, the authors package lessons that are both engaging and challenging. This book inspires librarians to go beyond their usual role in literacy promotion and instruction only and moves to preparing students to be inquiry learners by embracing inquiry-based learning. Lessons include the Essential Question (begin with the end in mind); pre- and post-assessment ideas; technology integration ideas, where applicable; reading and research ideas; and collaboration ideas when applicable. AASL Standards and others are noted via an "integrated standards checklist," while new educational research demonstrates that standards can be met via engaging, collaborative, and interesting lessons, modeled throughout the text.

Learn how to use children's books during storytime to approach sensitive topics and increase children's social-emotional wellness-and how to create storytimes that are engaging, participative, and FUN! The emotional challenges many children experience consume the time of teachers, exhaust parents, and sometimes lead children toward behaviors that prohibit social and academic success. Storytime to the rescue! Library storytimes prepare children for kindergarten; storytimes at home and in preschools allow teachers, parents, and children to think and talk about empathy and the importance of honoring your own and others' feelings. In Bringing Heart and Mind into Storytime, Heather McNeil teaches librarians and teachers how to use books to open conversations with children to teach such concepts as patience, tenacity, kindness, and teamwork. McNeil shares research on brain development, social-emotional learning, and the importance of play, but she also emphasizes maintaining the fun of storytime. She recommends songs, action rhymes, games, and crafts that contribute to fun and healthy storytimes. Extensive lists of recommended books will help readers find the right ones for their audience.

Stories, sketches and verse (including translations)

". . . the authors sound a pessimistic note about society's short-term memory in their sobering, able history of Camille" --Booklist "This highly readable account aimed at a general audience excels at telling the plight of the victims and how local political authorities reacted. The saddest lesson is how little the public and the government learned from Camille. Highly recommended for all public libraries, especially those on the Gulf and East coasts." —Library Journal online As the unsettled social and political weather of summer 1969 played itself out amid the heat of antiwar marches and the battle for civil rights, three regions of the rural South were devastated by the horrifying force of Category 5 Hurricane Camille. Camille's nearly 200 mile per hour winds and 28-foot storm surge swept away thousands of homes and businesses along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi. Twenty-four oceangoing ships sank or were beached; six offshore drilling platforms collapsed; 198 people drowned. Two days later, Camille dropped 108 billion tons of moisture drawn from the Gulf onto the rural communities of Nelson County, Virginia-nearly three feet of rain in 24 hours. Mountainsides were washed away; quiet brooks became raging torrents; homes and whole communities were simply washed off the face of the earth. In this gripping account, Ernest Zebrowski and Judith Howard tell the heroic story of America's forgotten rural underclass coping with immense adversity and inconceivable tragedy. Category 5 shows, through the riveting stories of Camille's victims and survivors, the disproportionate impact of natural disasters on the nation's poorest communities. It is, ultimately, a story of the lessons learned-and, in some cases, tragically unlearned-from that storm: hard lessons that were driven home once again in the awful wake of Hurricane Katrina. "Emergency responses to Katrina were uncoordinated, slow, and--at least in the early days--woefully inadequate. Politicians argued about whether there had been one disaster or two, as if that mattered. And before the last survivors were even evacuated, a flurry of finger-pointing had begun. The question most neglected was: What is the shelf life of a historical lesson?" Ernest Zebrowski is founder of the doctoral program in science and math education at Southern University, a historically black university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Professor of Physics at Pennsylvania State University's Pennsylvania College of Technology. His previous books include Perils of a Restless Planet: Scientific Perspectives on Natural Disasters. Judith Howard earned her Ph.D. in clinical social work from UCLA, and writes a regular political column for the Ruston, Louisiana, Morning Paper. "Category 5 examines with sensitivity the overwhelming challenges presented by the human and physical impacts from a catastrophic disaster and the value of emergency management to sound decisions and sustainability." --John C. Pine, Chair, Department of Geography & Anthropology and Director of Disaster Science & Management, Louisiana State University

On the run from her controlling husband, Sara Garret has discovered she's got a spine of steel - and she'll do anything to protect her son. Now the person she must turn to is another man. But this SEAL, with his Harley and ponytail, is no knight in shining armour.