Compelling and Controversial....The Melon Boys is a story of the South in the summer of 1968, soon after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Its fictitious account brings to light real events that took place outside the view of TV cameras and the 6 Oclock evening news. This was the South of the migrant worker and sharecropper, where white social backlash exacted a terrible price on ordinary blacks. In turbulent times, everyday life can require great courage, and friendships can lead to ultimate tests of loyalty. For college student Matt Mayer, the job of migrant worker turns into the education of a lifetime in this context. After he befriends two black co-workers, he finds himself in the path of danger more than once. He is quickly driven to decide if he should follow the unwritten rules that dictate day-to-day race relations, or honor the bonds of friendships he has formed. How can a white college student from the Midwest, with little exposure to any race but his own, make sense of the complex social rules of a still segregated South? And, more importantly, how will his experience shape the man he will become?

Melonhead, the first book in author Katy Kelly's laugh-out-loud chapter book series, is now in paperback! Adam Melon's friend Lucy Rose gave him a nickname—Melonhead—and it caught on fast. Melonhead is a self-proclaimed inventor. All his life, which is ten years and counting, great ideas have been popping in and out of his melon head. And sometimes they work! This year Melonhead's class is entering an inventing fair, so he and his friend Sam are dreaming up plans. And Capitol Hill has a ton of places to find invention parts. But they have to be sure they find what they need and get home on time with no excuses. That might be hard, because Melonhead and Sam have a way of forgetting. But their work will all pay off if they win first place—they'll be headed to even bigger and better things!

Be yourself like Molly Lou Melon no matter what a bully may do. Molly Lou Melon is short and clumsy, has buck teeth, and has a voice that sounds like a bullfrog being squeezed by a boa constrictor. She doesn't mind. Her grandmother has always told her to walk proud, smile big, and sing loud, and she takes that advice to heart. But then Molly Lou has to start in a new school. A horrible bully picks on her on the very first day, but Molly Lou Melon knows just what to do about that.

Noura is crazy about watermelon. She wants to eat nothing else, every day, at every meal. In fact, Noura thinks there is no such thing as too much watermelon. Until one night, when the watermelon she has hidden in her room to eat all by herself begins to grow and Noura get taken on a wild watermelon adventure! A story that can be the springboard for a discussion on favorite foods, eating a balanced diet, sharing with others and trying new foods.

The beloved modern classic character, Molly Lou Melon, is tackling the timely topic of speaking up for yourself and others. Molly Lou Melon's mother taught her to use her big voice for good--to speak up for what's right, for those who can't, and even when it's hard. So she does. When school starts and a bully begins teasing everyone, including a new student, Molly Lou knows just what to do. From standing up for a friend to admitting when you've made a mistake, Molly Lou shows us how speaking up is always the right choice. The beloved classic character has another important message to share, and David Catrow's vibrant and spunky illustrations continue to expand Molly Lou's larger-than-life personality.

Boys' Life is the official youth magazine for the Boy Scouts of America. Published since 1911, it contains a proven mix of news, nature, sports, history, fiction, science, comics, and Scouting.

In this series, William Dean Howells delightfully describes the early years of his life, in the "Boy's Town" of Ohio, the state where he was born and raised. These stories remain as a vivid autobiographical records and colorful images of a life in the mid-nineteenth century American town. Extract: "If there was any fellow in the Boy's Town fifty years ago who had a good reason to run off it was Pony Baker. Pony was not his real name; it was what the boys called him, because there were so many fellows who had to be told apart, as Big Joe and Little Joe, and Big John and Little John, and Big Bill and Little Bill, that they got tired of telling boys apart that way; and after one of the boys called him Pony Baker, so that you could know him from his cousin Frank Baker, nobody ever called him anything else." William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American realist author, literary critic, and playwright. Nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters", he was particularly known for his tenure as editor of the Atlantic Monthly as well as his own prolific writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day", and the novels The Rise of Silas Lapham and A Traveler from Altruria. Howells is known to be the father of American realism, and a denouncer of the sentimental novel. He was the first American author to bring a realist aesthetic to the literature of the United States. His stories of Boston upper crust life set in the 1850s are highly regarded among scholars of American fiction.

This carefully crafted ebook: "THE FLIGHT OF PONY BAKER: A Boy's Town Story (Illustrated)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. The Flight of Pony Baker is a novel for children which tells the story of a young boy named Pony Baker who, throughout the book, attempts to run away from his home where he lives with his mother, father, and five sisters. The setting of the story is "fifty years ago" in the Boy's Town of Ohio, the state where Howells was born and raised. Pony lives in the Boy's Town with his mother, father, and five sisters, whom his mother always wants him to play with. Pony's mother is very overprotective of Pony, which makes her a bad mother when it comes to having fun. Pony's father has done some things that have given Pony the right to run away as well. An older boy named Jim Leonard suggests that Pony go with the Indians and that the Indians would like him and then adopt him into their tribe. Extract: "If there was any fellow in the Boy's Town fifty years ago who had a good reason to run off it was Pony Baker. Pony was not his real name; it was what the boys called him, because there were so many fellows who had to be told apart, as Big Joe and Little Joe, and Big John and Little John, and Big Bill and Little Bill, that they got tired of telling boys apart that way; and after one of the boys called him Pony Baker, so that you could know him from his cousin Frank Baker, nobody ever called him anything else." William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American realist author, literary critic, and playwright.