A picture book exploration of math concepts time and measurement featuring winter animals in cut paper collage

Since they were first established in the 1880s, children’s summer camps have touched the lives of millions of people. Although the camping experience has a special place in the popular imagination, few scholars have given serious thought to this peculiarly American phenomenon. Why were summer camps created? What concerns and ideals motivated their founders? Whom did they serve? How did they change over time? What factors influenced their design? To answer these and many other questions, Abigail A. Van Slyck trains an informed eye on the most visible and evocative aspect of camp life: its landscape and architecture. She argues that summer camps delivered much more than a simple encounter with the natural world. Instead, she suggests, camps provided a man-made version of wilderness, shaped by middle-class anxieties about gender roles, class tensions, race relations, and modernity and its impact on the lives of children. Following a fascinating history of summer camps and a wide-ranging overview of the factors that led to their creation, Van Slyck examines the intersections of the natural landscape with human-built forms and social activities. In particular, she addresses changing attitudes toward such subjects as children’s health, sanitation, play, relationships between the sexes, Native American culture, and evolving ideas about childhood. Generously illustrated with period photographs, maps, plans, and promotional images of camps throughout North America, A Manufactured Wilderness is the first book to offer a thorough consideration of the summer camp environment.

A character-driven novel about the unlikely friendship between a 10-year-old boy and an elderly woman. The old woman badgers the boy into taking her sailing, but when the weather turns bad, it becomes a wild sail. It becomes the last trip before she goes into the hospital where she dies: but not before the two of them share memories of their last sail together. Hazel helps build the boy's confidence during a tough time in his home life. Both moving and joyful, Into the Wind is a poignant story about loss and love in a boy's life, and the surprising and sustaining bonds that can grow between the old and young.

When eleven-year-old Jackie meets every kid's greatest nightmare--disfigured hermit Charlie No Face--his life is changed forever. A coming of age story in which a misunderstood recluse and a young boy redeem each other's lives through a most unlikely friendship.

Journey into the natural world in the fall and discover that numbers, patterns, shapes -- and much more! -- can be found by observing everyday plants and animals.

The summer of 1984 was shaping up to be the greatest for twelve-year-old Ryne Moreland. His beloved Chicago Cubs were on the way to their first penant in 39 years while he and his friends were in hot pursuit of a rumored black panther on the loose. And now that he had discovered girls, his ultimate goal was to obtain his first real kiss from good friend and fellow Cub lover, Marla Hebner. Helped by his good friends, Ryne has to overcome several awkward and comical obstacles to reach his goal and finds himself wondering if he will ever succeed. His journey takes a sudden and serious turn when Marla has to face life's ultimate test, sending Ryne on a search for life's ultimate answers. It is how the young girl and her family handle this test that becomes Ryne's first and greatest spiritual witness. In Summer of 84, Robert Rooney captures joy, laughter and tragedy through the eyes of a child coming of age.

EBONY is the flagship magazine of Johnson Publishing. Founded in 1945 by John H. Johnson, it still maintains the highest global circulation of any African American-focused magazine.

Get swept away in this breezy beach read about love, family, and the true meaning of friendship. Meet the Boys of Winlock Harbor… Grayson Cartwright: Golden Boy. Football Prodigy. Troublemaker. Mike Metzler: Local Heartthrob. Surfer Boy. Hopeless Romantic. Ian Handler: Army Brat. Musician. King of Sarcasm. Best friends since they were kids, Grayson, Mike, and Ian were hoping for another epic summer on “The Locks”, filled with clambakes, bonfires, and late-night swims in the ocean. But that was before Ian’s dad never returned home from his last deployment. Before Mike had to take on more responsibility in order to help provide for his family. Before Grayson’s accident left him with an injured throwing arm and an uncertain future. It’s clear this summer on the island is shaping up to be very different from those Grayson, Mike, and Ian had come to rely on. And when the sacred code of dating a friend’s sister or ex is broken, it will push their friendship to the absolute limit, testing their loyalties in a way that could either break them—or save them.