This collection of 61 poems is chock-full of lighthearted, read-aloud fun. Life lessons are interwoven throughout deliciously random rhymes, featuring endearing illustrations and unforgettable characters. The title poem, "The Gumball Lottery," tells the story of a kiddo who has spotted the perfect gumball in the machine and takes a chance to win the sweet prize. Other poems in this assortment use iconic childhood symbols as opportunities for teachable moments (unicorns and roller coasters and mermaids, oh my!). And some rhymes are simply just for fun-because there's a lesson in that, too. Whether you choose to savor each rhyme one bite-sized morsel at a time-or consume them by the handful-you might just find that you're glad you took a gamble at The Gumball Lottery.

Camille has exhausted the last of her nine lives. Under strict cat law, she must depart this earth for the eternal tenth life. Pioline and Poulet, her eight-week-old kittens, are left behind. Willed by Camille’s departed spirit, Boots, her aging brother, finds the kittens under the deck of John and Sandi’s house. They are wired with fear and spirits so lost they might never be found. Boots, a life long stray, confesses he is ill suited for the caring of kittens. He must devise a plan to convince the humans to take the kittens into their home. A more daunting task is to convince the kittens they should become house cats. Sandi becomes an unwitting partner in his plan. John becomes an unwitting foil. Learn the laws that govern a cat's life and how they deal with death, fear, joy, humor and love.

Her secret or her second chance? It was her choice Winning the lottery should have been a dream. Instead, Jessie Martin's life is transformed into a nightmare. In order to protect herself and her family, she flees to Key West. But in a world where no one can be trusted, even paradise seems like a prison. Breaking the rules of her seclusion to waitress at a local restaurant, Jessie suspects the owner's sexy nephew, Logan Nash, knows she's hiding something. Caught between the truth and lies, Jessie won't risk anyone discovering who she really is. Even if she's falling for this one perfect guy…

Crickets on the Moon is a story of friendship, family, and the power of determination and cooperation in overcoming obstacles. Sirius has traveled halfway across the galaxy. He's a diplomat-in-training with an unusual deformity, desperately trying to make good on his father's dying wishes. He doesn't know it, but his deformity is also the source of a potent gift he possesses. After two failed missions, time is running short, and it looks like he's going to have to return home in shame and face possible exile. Before he embarked on his journey, his uncle told him to "find the right planet, find the right contact," but he's found neither, until he comes across Earth, hoping he finally got it right. He selects Jonah, a 13 year-old boy who is dying from leukemia, for his mission. Sirius parks on the moon and sends a mysterious orb to Jonah, who must figure out how to use it and also demonstrate, along with four other boys chosen by Sirius, that people on Earth can responsibly use power for peaceful purposes. The boys form a club that meets nightly with the orb, with the directive to ask one question a day, and to choose their questions carefully. It will answer any question they ask. Besides Jonah, there's his hyperactive best friend Ricky, Steven, a socially challenged science geek, Todd, Steven's mortal enemy and a troubled, unhappy boy with dark secrets, and Joe Billy, one-quarter Arapaho who's tried to distance himself from his heritage and the teachings of his grandfather in order to better fit in with his peers. The success of Sirius' mission is constantly challenged by his own emotionality as well as by the boys' struggles in their own lives and with each other. The mission culminates in a perilous adventure in the Rocky Mountains. Sirius must decide whether to risk the boys' lives or to risk never being able to return home. Ultimately, the boys, including Sirius, learn the deeper meanings of friendship and family, and discover a greater purpose to their lives.

A seemingly ordinary village participates in a yearly lottery to determine a sacrificial victim.

"The most sensational, perpetual teenager in the world.” —Jim Henson "To know him was to love him, and we do." —Mark Hamill Funny Boy: The Richard Hunt Biography tells the life story of a gifted performer whose gleeful irreverence, sharp wit and generous spirit inspired millions. Richard Hunt was one of the original main five performers in the Muppet troupe. He brought to life an impressive range of characters on The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock and various Muppet movies, everyone from eager gofer Scooter to elderly heckler Statler, groovy girl Janice to freaked-out lab helper Beaker, even early versions of Miss Piggy and Elmo. Hunt also acted, directed and mentored the next generation of performers. His accomplishments are all the more remarkable in that he crammed them all into only 40 years. Richard Hunt was just 18 years old when he joined Jim Henson’s company, where his edgy humor quickly helped launch the Muppets into international stardom. Hunt lived large, savoring life’s delights, amassing a vivid, disparate community of friends. Even when the AIDS epidemic wrought its devastation, claiming the love of Hunt’s life and threatening his own life, he showed an extraordinary sense of resilience, openness and joy. Hunt’s story exemplifies how to follow your passion, foster your talents, adapt to life’s surprises, genuinely connect with everyone from glitzy celebrities to gruff cab drivers – and have a hell of a lot of fun along the way.

This book helps quench the quest of knowledge of academicians, researchers, and others interested in developing a complete and critical understanding of consumer happiness. The relentless search of happiness by humans is sought in different ways. Scientific discussion on happiness for long was considered a forte of Philosophers. Other disciplines seldom delved into this. But today not only science but neuroscience, marketing, and other varied fields have started delving into it and have developed a keen interest. The book has been conceptualized on this line of thinking and thus divided into two parts. The first part is customized towards understanding various perspectives of happiness and the relative importance of knowing the same. The first chapter of this section is on the biological perspective of happiness. The second is titled ‘Behavioural perspective’. The third chapter is an attempt to elucidate the cultural perspective of the concept of happiness. The fourth is on the role of technology in inducing happiness. Fifth and sixth are on theories of happiness and measuring happiness, respectively. Knowledge about the different perspective and theories has a wide range of benefits. It informs us about how the brain works, interprets, and reacts. This theoretical understanding helps us to move beyond the trial and error methods towards a more scientific underpinning of adoption of measures that would generate long-lasting happiness in consumers. The second part of the book is dedicated toward understanding consumer happiness from a neuroscience perspective, i.e. keeping consumer happy. This segment has ten chapters. The first is on differentiating the concept of happiness from satisfaction. The second is on sensory marketing and happiness. The third deals with the store design and shelving of products to generate happiness. Fourth and fifth chapters relate to persuading the consumers. While the fourth chapter is on developing persuasive messages and the fifth is on subliminal messaging sixth chapter is on pricing and seventh on advertising. The eighth chapter highlights the role of emotions and the ninth is on the different factors that induce happiness in consumers. The last chapter is about raising some unanswered questions and food for thought for readers. Together the contents of the book make for a complete understanding of the concept of happiness and how it is shaping the world of marketing. Addressing the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of consumer happiness in the same book makes the book comprehensive.

This textbook bridges the gap between lower-division mathematics courses and advanced mathematical thinking. Featuring clear writing and appealing topics, the book introduces techniques for writing proofs in the context of discrete mathematics. By illuminating the concepts behind techniques, the authors create opportunities for readers to sharpen critical thinking skills and develop mathematical maturity. Beginning with an introduction to sets and logic, the book goes on to establish the basics of proof techniques. From here, chapters explore proofs in the context of number theory, combinatorics, functions and cardinality, and graph theory. A selection of extension topics concludes the book, including continued fractions, infinite arithmetic, and the interplay among Fibonacci numbers, Pascal's triangle, and the golden ratio. A Discrete Transition to Advanced Mathematics is suitable for an introduction to proof course or a course in discrete mathematics. Abundant examples and exercises invite readers to get involved, and the wealth of topics allows for course customization and further reading. This new edition has been expanded and modernized throughout. New features include a chapter on combinatorial geometry, a more in-depth treatment of counting, and over 365 new exercises.

Edgar Tobias works as a freelance computer programmer in the city of Anver. Desperate to escape his deceased fathers’ fame as a hit singer-songwriter duo, he left the city of Kasyova and the arts behind. He doesn’t know he’s about to be targeted in a vicious murder game where the prize is a million dollars in cryptocurrency to the first person who can capture his murder on video. Reis Asher lost everything in the Anverite civil war ten years ago, including their mother. Their father created the agreement known as Unification, which joined Anver and Kasyova to create the Twin City-States of Anver-Kasyova, ending the civil war and ushering in a new era of peace and prosperity. When they discover the Killing Game, they know that it represents a threat to everything they hold dear and set out to stop it. But powerful forces are at work that refuse to be undermined by one stubborn soul and their sense of justice. Someone wants Edgar dead, and they’ll stop at nothing to see him six feet under… even if that means Reis and other innocent bystanders get caught in the crossfire.

From the author of Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?, a fascinating look at how an equation that foretells the future is transforming everything we know about life, business, and the universe. In the 18th century, the British minister and mathematician Thomas Bayes devised a theorem that allowed him to assign probabilities to events that had never happened before. It languished in obscurity for centuries until computers came along and made it easy to crunch the numbers. Now, as the foundation of big data, Bayes' formula has become a linchpin of the digital economy. But here's where things get really interesting: Bayes' theorem can also be used to lay odds on the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence; on whether we live in a Matrix-like counterfeit of reality; on the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum theory being correct; and on the biggest question of all: how long will humanity survive? The Doomsday Calculation tells how Silicon Valley's profitable formula became a controversial pivot of contemporary thought. Drawing on interviews with thought leaders around the globe, it's the story of a group of intellectual mavericks who are challenging what we thought we knew about our place in the universe. The Doomsday Calculation is compelling reading for anyone interested in our culture and its future.