Educational resource for teachers, parents and kids!

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo in Mexico, march along the Champs-Élysées on Bastille Day, and visit Israel during Hanukkah as you circle the globe to observe 30 festivities.

Told by one of our greatest chroniclers of technology and society, the definitive biography of iconic serial visionary Stewart Brand, from the Merry Pranksters and the generation-defining Whole Earth Catalog to the marriage of environmental consciousness and hacker capitalism and the rise of a new planetary culture—the story behind so many other stories Stewart Brand has long been famous if you know who he is, but for many people outside the counterculture, early computing, or the environmental movement, he is perhaps best known for his famous mantra “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” Steve Jobs’s endorsement of these words as his code to live by is fitting; Brand has played many roles, but one of the most important is as a model for how to live. The contradictions are striking: A blond-haired WASP with a modest family inheritance, Brand went to Exeter and Stanford and was an army veteran, but in California in the 1960s he became an artist and a photographer in the thick of the LSD revolution. While tripping on acid on the roof of his building, he envisioned how valuable it would be for humans to see a photograph of the planet they shared from space, an image that in the end landed on the cover of his Whole Earth Catalog, the defining publication of the counterculture. He married a Native American woman and was committed to protecting indigenous culture, which connected to a broader environmentalist mission that has been a through line of his life. At the same time, he has outraged purists because of his pragmatic embrace of useful technologies, including nuclear power, in the fight against climate change. The famous tagline promise of his catalog was “Access to Tools”; with rare exceptions he rejected politics for a focus on direct power. It was no wonder, then, that he was early to the promise of the computer revolution and helped define it for the wider world. Brand's life can be hard to fit onto one screen. John Markoff, also a great chronicler of tech culture, has done something extraordinary in unfolding the rich, twisting story of Brand’s life against its proper landscape. As Markoff makes marvelously clear, the streams of individualism, respect for science, environmentalism, and Eastern and indigenous thought that flow through Brand’s entire life form a powerful gestalt, a California state of mind that has a hegemonic power to this day. His way of thinking embraces a true planetary consciousness that may be the best hope we humans collectively have.

Educational resource for teachers, parents and kids!

Discover the holiday customs of nations around the world with 30 festive full-page illustrations. Celebrations range from spectacular parades in China and candles in the sand on Brazilian beaches to fireworks over Sydney Harbor and the countdown in New York's Times Square. Lively pictures to color include new year observances in Israel, Germany, India, Greece, Mexico, Italy, Haiti, Nigeria, and other countries.

This comprehensive encyclopedia covers the reciprocal effects that the politics, foreign policy, and culture of Spain, Portugal, and the American nations have had on one another since the time of Columbus. From the discovery of Newfoundland and Labrador by Portuguese explorer Gaspar Corte Real in 1501 to the phenomenal Hollywood careers of Spanish movie stars such as Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz, Iberia and the Americas traces 500 years of Iberian influence on the Americas and vice versa. Featuring six introductory essays and a chronology of key events, this three-volume encyclopedia examines more than five centuries of transatlantic encounters. Students of a wide range of disciplines, as well as the lay reader, will appreciate this exhaustive survey, which traces Spanish and Portuguese influence throughout the Americas and highlights how Iberian cultures have in turn been enriched by the diverse cultures of the Americas.

Use this activity-centered, literature-based approach to get students excited about social studies. These 32 units have summaries of books, social studies topic areas, lists of content-related words, curricular perspectives, and critical-thinking questions, as well as myriad activities. Fredericks also gives you an excellent annotated bibliography of children's literature and a list of social studies resources.

Presents chronologically an event to celebrate each day of the year, e.g. January 3, Birthday of J.R.R. Tolkien; May 12, the Cat Festival in Belgium; and October 24, United Nations Day.

An introduction to the symbols and concepts of the African-American holiday Kwanzaa.

The Big Book of Holiday Paper Crafts, -Life's fun days are the focus of more than 450 cards, gift bags, boxes, albums, frames, party accents, and more from Paper Crafts magazine.