The figure of the mammy occupies a central place in the lore of the Old South and has long been used to ullustrate distinct social phenomena, including racial oppression and class identity. In the early twentieth century, the mammy became immortalized as Aunt Jemima, the spokesperson for a line of ready-mixed breakfast products. Although Aunt Jemima has undergone many makeovers over the years, she apparently has not lost her commercial appeal; her face graces more than forty food products nationwide and she still resonates in some form for millions of Americans. In Slave in a Box, M.M. Manring addresses the vexing question of why the troubling figure of Aunt Jemima has endured in American culture. Manring traces the evolution of the mammy from her roots in the Old South slave reality and mythology, through reinterpretations during Reconstruction and in minstrel shows and turn-of-the-century advertisements, to Aunt Jemima's symbolic role in the Civil Rights movement and her present incarnation as a "working grandmother." We learn how advertising entrepreneur James Webb Young, aided by celebrated illustrator N.C. Wyeth, skillfully tapped into nostalgic 1920s perceptions of the South as a culture of white leisure and black labor. Aunt Jemima's ready-mixed products offered middle-class housewives the next best thing to a black servant: a "slave in a box" that conjured up romantic images of not only the food but also the social hierarchy of the plantation South. The initial success of the Aunt Jemima brand, Manring reveals, was based on a variety of factors, from lingering attempts to reunite the country after the Civil War to marketing strategies around World War I. Her continued appeal in the late twentieth century is a more complex and disturbing phenomenon we may never fully understand. Manring suggests that by documenting Aunt Jemima's fascinating evolution, however, we can learn important lessons about our collective cultural identity.

Biff, Chip, Kipper and friends have grown up and their true destiny is about to be revealed...Can they stop the evil Virans from destroying history as we know it?

Time is running out. Chess and her brothers, Box and Splinter, are caught in a bitter struggle between two ruthless organizations. Now they face a terrifying choice - carry out a dangerous mission for the Committee, or try to outrun the evil Twisted Symmetry alone. Chess wants to take the mission. But it could prove fatal. And it will lead the Tuesdays into the heart of the very organization that is hunting them . . .

Biff, Chip, Kipper and friends are older now and their true destiny is about to be revealed. Join them as they embark on the mission of a lifetime! In Book 1, The Strange Box, the children find an old box in Chip's bedroom. A strange man tries to take it away from them at the school fair, but Mr Mortlock (who is not quite the school caretaker the children thought they knew!) zaps the strange man away. Together, they all run through a mysterious doorway that appears on the horizon...Time Chronicles is a series of fun and accessible chapter books perfect for moving your child on from picture books to longer stories. Each book in the series is a thrilling story in its own right, as the children fight to save the world from the evil Virans. The books are carefully levelled to boost the confidence of the child, whilst also introducing more vibrant and interesting vocabulary. They are perfect for keeping the attention of all children with fast paced action, lots of authentic historical facts and cool gadgets!Set in a real historical time with characters from the past, these books are packed full of extras including questions, historical fact files, character information, photos, artwork and glossaries. Support for parents is also included. Time Chronicles are part of Read with Biff, Chip & Kipper -the UK's most popular home reading series.

1 of each of the following titles at Stage 10+: The Strange Box, Beyond the Door, The Jewel in the Hub, The Matrix Mission, The Power of the Cell, The TimeWeb 1 of each of the following titles at Stage 11+: Time Runners, Tyler: His Story, A Jack and Three Queens, Mission Victory, The Enigma Plot, The Thief Who Stole Nothing

Biff, Chip, Kipper and friends are older now and their true destiny is about to be revealed. Join them as they embark on the mission of a lifetime! In Book 1, The Strange Box, the children find an old box in Chip's bedroom. A strange man tries to take it away from them at the school fair, but Mr Mortlock (who is not quite the school caretaker the children thought they knew!) zaps the strange man away. Together, they all run through a mysterious doorway that appears on the horizon... Time Chronicles is a series of fun and accessible chapter books perfect for moving your child on from picture books to longer stories. Each book in the series is a thrilling story in its own right, as the children fight to save the world from the evil Virans. The books are carefully levelled to boost the confidence of the child, whilst also introducing more vibrant and interesting vocabulary. They are perfect for keeping the attention of all children with fast paced action, lots of authentic historical facts and cool g

An ambitious genre-crossing exploration of Black speculative imagination, The Dark Delight of Being Strange combines fiction, historical accounts, and philosophical prose to unveil the extraordinary and the surreal in everyday Black life. In a series of stories and essays, James B. Haile, III, traces how Black speculative fiction responds to enslavement, racism, colonialism, and capitalism and how it reveals a life beyond social and political alienation. He reenvisions Black technologies of freedom through Henry Box Brown’s famed escape from slavery in a wooden crate, fashions an anticolonial “hollow earth theory” from the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, and considers the octopus and its ability to camouflage itself as a model for Black survival strategies, among others. Looking at Black life through the lens of speculative fiction, this book transports readers to alternative worlds and spaces while remaining squarely rooted in present-day struggles. In so doing, it rethinks historical and contemporary Black experiences as well as figures such as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, Henry Dumas, and Toni Morrison. Offering new ways to grasp the meanings and implications of Black freedom, The Dark Delight of Being Strange invites us to reimagine history and memory, time and space, our identities and ourselves.

From the imagination of blink-182’s award-winning author Tom DeLonge, the Strange Times crew first debuted in the graphic novel Strange Times: The Curse of Superstition Mountain. Now teamed-up with Geoff Herbach, also an award-winning author of the Felton Reinstein Trilogy, DeLonge tells the hilarious and haunting adventure that originally forced five outcast jerks to band together or give up the ghost. Charlie Wilkins has it all. Pitcher on the baseball team, point guard on the basketball team, good jock friends and girls who just love him. Then his U.S. Air Force dad goes M.I.A. during a secret mission and Charlie falls into darkness. He quits basketball, pushes away his old friends who all seem so stupid. He stops talking. Nobody knows what he’s going through, because the government has forbidden the family from disclosing Dad’s predicament. Charlie turns into a loner, until an Earth Science assignment forces him to join a new, messed-up team. Wiz has a brain for science, a love for steampunk, and a total disgust for most human beings. Heavy-set, picked-on Riley has a home life Harry Potter wouldn’t trade for. Mouse and Mattheson are skateboard slackers with a keen interest in tacos and in building a model volcano that looks like a butt. With zero chemistry between them, Charlie can’t see how he’s going to pass this class. Will he be stuck, suffering, in eighth grade forever? The earth shifts. It seems impossible. A ghost girl reaches out to Charlie through the terrified skater boys. She’s being stalked by a vengeful spirit that shares a past with Charlie’s family. It soon becomes clear that the spirit is coming for him. He has to save the ghost girl and save himself. His only hope? The nerd Wiz, the loser Riley, the skaters Mouse and Mattheson who want to hook-up with the girl. But, seriously, she’s a ghost. Strange Times indeed...

“Strange Tales from a Boy's Life,” Stories Published in Boys’ Life Magazine by award-winning author J Louis Messina range from the whimsical to the absurd: A boy must find a snack that helps his teacher think.... The mysterious box a boy receives from his grandfather will give him anything he wants—but only once.... A man-eating plant stalks a boy in his messy room.... A magic mask helps a shy boy succeed. Each peculiar tale has that aura of the unexpected that tantalize the mind. Winner of the Paul A. Witty Short Story Award by the International Reading Association, the Association of Educational Publishers Distinguished Achievement Award, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators Short Story Merit Award. Proven stories that have been selected for standardized tests: “I personally chose your stories for their high interest level. You can imagine that it is important to us to find stories that students will be engaged in reading when they are being tested on comprehension.” – Ann Pizzoli, Measurement Inc.