This is the extraordinary story of a young girl who made many mistakes and created a life that some would consider pathetic, while others would consider a miracle. It will tug at your heartstrings as you cry, laugh and admire what she accomplished in her short life. She was a brave young child, a disturbed teen, a very young mother and, through it all, was a beautiful woman who fought hard to make life worthwhile. Her young demise will hopefully help some parents who have lost a child to cope with their loss as well.

From Dr. Patricia Love, a ground-breaking work that identifies, explores and treats the harmful effects that emotionally and psychologically invasive parents have on their children, and provides a program for overcoming the chronic problems that can result.

The belief that with hard work and determination, all children have the opportunity to succeed in life is a cherished part of the American Dream. Yet, increased inequality in America has made that dream more difficult for many to obtain. In Too Many Children Left Behind, an international team of social scientists assesses how social mobility varies in the United States compared with Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Bruce Bradbury, Miles Corak, Jane Waldfogel, and Elizabeth Washbrook show that the academic achievement gap between disadvantaged American children and their more advantaged peers is far greater than in other wealthy countries, with serious consequences for their future life outcomes. With education the key to expanding opportunities for those born into low socioeconomic status families, Too Many Children Left Behind helps us better understand educational disparities and how to reduce them. Analyzing data on 8,000 school children in the United States, the authors demonstrate that disadvantages that begin early in life have long lasting effects on academic performance. The social inequalities that children experience before they start school contribute to a large gap in test scores between low- and high-SES students later in life. Many children from low-SES backgrounds lack critical resources, including books, high-quality child care, and other goods and services that foster the stimulating environment necessary for cognitive development. The authors find that not only is a child’s academic success deeply tied to his or her family background, but that this class-based achievement gap does not narrow as the child proceeds through school. The authors compare test score gaps from the United States with those from three other countries and find smaller achievement gaps and greater social mobility in all three, particularly in Canada. The wider availability of public resources for disadvantaged children in those countries facilitates the early child development that is fundamental for academic success. All three countries provide stronger social services than the United States, including universal health insurance, universal preschool, paid parental leave, and other supports. The authors conclude that the United States could narrow its achievement gap by adopting public policies that expand support for children in the form of tax credits, parenting programs, and pre-K. With economic inequalities limiting the futures of millions of children, Too Many Children Left Behind is a timely study that uses global evidence to show how the United States can do more to level the playing field.

With reports of County farmers' institutes for the year ...

Sam must be helped to rely on his mother less in order to love himself more. What is described works. The treatment provides relief to the children in the here and now; follow-up data, including positive effects on IQ, family stability, and psychological functioning of individual children, show the positive results of treatment in their futures, as well.

In Telling Memories Among Southern Women, Susan Tucker presents a revealing collection of oral-history narratives that explore the complex, sometimes enigmatic bond between black female domestic workers and their white employers from the turn of the twentieth century to the civil rights revolution of the 1960s. Based on interviews with forty-two women of both races from the Deep South, these narratives express the full range of human emotions and successfully convey the ties that united—and the tensions and conflicts that separated—these two mutually dependent groups of women.

How do older women come to terms with widowhood? Are they vulnerable or courageous, predictable or creative in dealing with this life challenge? Most books about widows usually focus on younger women; this book interweaves the voices of older widows their experiences and insights to show how they have come to terms with widowhood and have recreated their lives in new, unsuspected ways. The widows speak about how they relate to their children, their friends, to men. With powerful emotions they describe their husbands’ final illnesses and deaths, and the challenging early days of widowhood. Disputing stereotypes about older women and widows, The Widowed Self allows the reader to visualize the impact of losing one’s life partner and offers a new way of thinking about widowhood. This new book by Deborah Kestin van den Hoonaard fills a void in previous work on widowhood. Rather than seeing these women as unfortunate, passive victims of life, the reader will come to appreciate the strength and creativity with which these women face one of life’s greatest challenges, a challenge that affects more than half of all women over the age of sixty-five. Widows and their families, scholars, social workers and other professionals who work with older adults will all be interested in reading The Widowed Self: The Older Woman’s Journey through Widowhood.

As Old Flo sat there, watching and listening, she became easily convinced of several important observations. The first was that her daughter-in-law seemed uncharacteristically distracted, even remote, from the events around her. Secondly, she understood with complete clarity that her own son was infatuated with the pretty little thing sitting opposite. She could see the longing in his eyes and trace it through every behavioural tick on show. She felt sure that the others, including the girl herself, must surely have registered such transparency, and she wondered what fireworks lay ahead. Another intriguing factor was the big blonde lad who sat there, apparently comfortable and confi dent, and yet in some way preoccupied. Something there required further investigation. Flo just couldn't see why the man's attractive wife would ever fi nd anything worth straying for in her own son's rather tawdry realm. Time would tell, but she knew her son wanted that girl.Spanning a generation, this mystery thriller moves between the City of London and Cape Town, rural Kent and the hills of Girona in north-eastern Spain, weaving a tale of lust and deception, romance and retribution.