In The Apple Branch, renowned scholar Alexei Kondratiev combines the history, folklore, and language of the Celtic world in a unique guide for understanding its spirituality. He explores the myths, legends, and cultural figures, from Brigit to King Arthur, and he explains how the ancient Celtic religion survives in the context of modern Christianity. Discover how to observe the calendar customs from the six remaining Celtic nations of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and the Isle of Man. Learn the practices and rituals of the Celtic tradition, including how to organize a Celtic ritual group, celebrate the phases of the moon, and participate in the great quarterly feasts. This is a seminal book which presents seekers with dazzling visualizations and the beauty and power of a vital, living path. The Apple Branch will inspire in everyone a new way of looking at the world. Book jacket.

In the rat race of our lives, the loss of our connection with the world of nature, and the lack of alternatives to society's conventions for marking important events in life, aspects of Celtic tradition can help. In this guide to Celtic ritual one of its great devotees brings to life the ancient rituals.

Originally published over twenty years ago, and out of print since 1998, Sleeping Bear Press is proud to bring this beloved Christmas tale to a whole new audience. Moving and nostalgic, and brought to life by glowing watercolor paintings, it reveals the joy of a very special present and the love that a father and daughter share.

Lizzy loves the big apple tree in her yard more than anything. So when the first day of school comes, she picks a beautiful apple, turns it into a makeshift doll she names Susanna, and takes it along to keep her company. But her teacher tells her that dolls aren't allowed at school. Even worse, her sister says that Susanna won't last forever. Then Lizzy's mom shows her a way to turn Susanna into a real apple doll. And with the help of Susanna the Apple Doll, Lizzy overcomes her shyness at school and makes plenty of new friends to bring home to play in her beloved apple tree. Detailed, delightful collage illustrations accompany this sweet story about one girl's success in bringing together her home world and her school world. Instructions for making an apple doll just like Susanna are included!

Book Features: • 24 pages, 8 inches x 8 inches • Ages 4-6, PreK-Kindergarten leveled readers • Simple, easy-to-read pages with real-life photographs • Features before and after reading vocabulary • Includes reading tips and comprehension and extension activities The Magic Of Reading: Bring the magic of reading and nature to life with the Apple Trees and the Seasons book. The 24-page apple book features vibrant photographs and simple language about apple trees to practice early reading comprehension skills. Hands-On Reading Adventure: Do you know how apples are made? By apple trees, of course! Follow along on a fun, science adventure journeying through each of the seasons to see how apples grow into yummy snacks for picking (and eating!). Features: More than just a story full of fascinating facts, this kids book also includes pre- and post-reading vocabulary lists, reading tips for mid-story interaction and engagement, and fun reading comprehension and extension activities. Leveled Books: Vibrant photographs and leveled text work together to tell a fun story and promote reading comprehension skills. The leveled book engages PreK and kindergarten readers with short, simple language and high-interest topics like nature. Why Rourke Educational Media: Since 1980, Rourke Publishing Company has specialized in publishing engaging and diverse non-fiction and fiction books for children in a wide range of subjects that support reading success on a level that has no limits.

We have a special tree in our yard -- an apple pie tree!Colorful collage illustrations follow each season as an apple tree grows leaves, fragrant blossoms, and tiny green apples. Soon the fruit is big, red, and ready to be picked. It's time to make an apple pie! Here is a celebration of apples and how things grow -- sure to delight young readers all year long.

"The Iliad of the Iraq war" (Tim Weiner)--a gut-wrenching, beautiful memoir of the consequences of war on the psyche of a young man. Eat the Apple is a daring, twisted, and darkly hilarious story of American youth and masculinity in an age of continuous war. Matt Young joined the Marine Corps at age eighteen after a drunken night culminating in wrapping his car around a fire hydrant. The teenage wasteland he fled followed him to the training bases charged with making him a Marine. Matt survived the training and then not one, not two, but three deployments to Iraq, where the testosterone, danger, and stakes for him and his fellow grunts were dialed up a dozen decibels. With its kaleidoscopic array of literary forms, from interior dialogues to infographics to prose passages that read like poetry, Young's narrative powerfully mirrors the multifaceted nature of his experience. Visceral, ironic, self-lacerating, and ultimately redemptive, Young's story drops us unarmed into Marine Corps culture and lays bare the absurdism of 21st-century war, the manned-up vulnerability of those on the front lines, and the true, if often misguided, motivations that drove a young man to a life at war. Searing in its honesty, tender in its vulnerability, and brilliantly written, Eat the Apple is a modern war classic in the making and a powerful coming-of-age story that maps the insane geography of our times.

With an emphasis on simple preparation and fresh foods, the author offers seasonal recipes for Forth of July picnics, Valentine's Day treats, and warming winter meals.

“State of the art science fiction . . . a landmark novel.”—Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine Now, in the stunning continuation of the epic adventure begun in Hyperion, Simmons returns us to a far future resplendent with drama and invention. On the world of Hyperion, the mysterious Time Tombs are opening. And the secrets they contain mean that nothing—nothing anywhere in the universe—will ever be the same. Praise for The Fall of Hyperion “One of the finest SF novels published in the past few years.”—Science Fiction Eye “A magnificently original blend of themes and styles.”—The Denver Post

In this remarkable book, Graham Hodges presents a comprehensive history of African Americans in New York City and its rural environs from the arrival of the first African--a sailor marooned on Manhattan Island in 1613--to the bloody Draft Riots of 1863. Throughout, he explores the intertwined themes of freedom and servitude, city and countryside, and work, religion, and resistance that shaped black life in the region through two and a half centuries. Hodges chronicles the lives of the first free black settlers in the Dutch-ruled city, the gradual slide into enslavement after the British takeover, the fierce era of slavery, and the painfully slow process of emancipation. He pays particular attention to the black religious experience in all its complexity and to the vibrant slave culture that was shaped on the streets and in the taverns. Together, Hodges shows, these two potent forces helped fuel the long and arduous pilgrimage to liberty.