In this first novel of the National Park Adventure Series, sixteen-year-old Darrell Freeman narrates the story of his ten-year-old brother Jarod and their strange camping experiences among the weird trees and peculiar critters of Joshua Tree National Park in the California desert. While their Mom, a book illustrator, pursues her art, the boys take off in their vintage orange VW camper bus to see the park. Jarod, an indigo child with psychic abilities, is able to call up the native critters and talk with the Joshua Trees and granite boulders that are scattered everywhere. Thus the brothers learn that the area is not only ancient but sacred, and that the trees and boulders need help—their help. The park lies between two Earth faults and the Earth is beginning to rumble. The brothers start their quest at once to find the special tree and particular boulder that will tell them what to do. Meanwhile, a lady and man in a black SUV start their own quest to find the brothers and steal the strange buzzing rock Jarod found the first day. What causes the rock to buzz? No one knows. Before the tale is done the SUV people steal the rock, but the boys recover it with the help of a mysterious Indian shaman. Then they must find the “proper resting place” to bury the rock to stabilize the park. Do they succeed?

Jarod, ten-year-old “indigo child,” and his sixteen-year-old narrator brother Darrell are joined by a girl Omega, another “indigo” youngster Jarod’s age for this new adventure. It begins in New Mexico’s Petroglyph National Monument where Jarod’s mom is painting illustrations of its rock art. Soon they are overwhelmed by the number of drawings on the black volcanic rocks of the monument. Who made all these figures? What do they say? Is it possible that Jarod and Omega can interpret their meanings? Their vintage orange VW camper bus takes them up to Dinosaur National Monument in Utah on the trail of even more amazing rock art. On redrock walls near Rainbow Park they are startled by the life-size images of strange ancient Fremont people who give them an important message about how they must help stabilize the Earth during these unstable times. They learn the Fremonts are not Indians but a high-tech race using levitation devices to locate water and precious minerals. To carry out their mission Jarod and friends must “follow the rainbow to find center Earth” down in Utah’s Capitol Reef National Park where the first Fremont petroglyphs were discovered. Nefarious characters keep hot on their trail from the start when a man in black tries to steal Jarod’s buzzing hunting knife, to the end when a pair kidnaps Omega to steal her talking necklace.

Discover the bombshell cold case that rocked the state of Colorado for five years and changed the way many viewed their world forever. On October 2nd, 1999, 3 year-old Jaryd Atadero vanished on a group hike in the Comanche Peak Wilderness. As hours turned into days, and days into months, Jaryd's father Allyn goes through hell and high water to combat nightmarish circumstances hindering the search, threatening the very core of his existence - circumstances which would bring most ordinary people to the breaking point and beyond. Sound like fiction? It isn't. And it's only the very tip of the iceberg. But underlying the tragedy is an insurmountable hope that can only come from above, and a sustaining love that redefines what it means to be a follower of Christ in the throes of losing the most precious thing on earth to a parent. "Missing: When the Son Sets" lets you step into the heart and soul of Allyn and his family as they struggle to come to grips with a mystery that remains unsolved to this day . . . Including the real police reports and letters from those involved in the search. You get an unfiltered look at how emotionally exhausting it is to lose a child. How did Jaryd vanish? Who (or what) took him? The book will leave you with more questions than answers, but with a heightened sense of the reality we live in. This is the most emotionally challenging book I have ever read. There were parts that left me feeling drained, and others that left me downright angry. If I had been in Allyn's shoes when he had to confront some of the situations he was faced with, I'd still be on probation... Do yourself a favor and pick up this book. Despite the tragic nature of the story, the grating frustrations faced by the Atadero family and those who fought for them, there is a strong inspirational foundation that will leave you strengthened in the end. Zebulon Rogers

Unique alignment of chapters for each of the 13 learning centers in a preschool classroom make PRESCHOOL APPROPRIATE PRACTICES, 4E, International Edition a must have resource for preschool teachers. Emphasis is placed on setting up preschool centers for self-directed learning, treating the teacher as a facilitator. Creative ideas for involving children in all aspects of their learning, including rule making and curriculum planning, are found throughout the book. These activities integrate with the National Association for the Education of Young Children's (NAEYC) developmentally appropriate practice (DAP), a nationally recommended set of early childhood practices.

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A bestselling dystopian novel that tackles surveillance, privacy and the frightening intrusions of technology in our lives—a “compulsively readable parable for the 21st century” (Vanity Fair). When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.

How do we begin to cope with loss that cannot be resolved? The COVID-19 pandemic has left many of us haunted by feelings of anxiety, despair, and even anger. In this book, pioneering therapist Pauline Boss identifies these vague feelings of distress as caused by ambiguous loss, losses that remain unclear and hard to pin down, and thus have no closure. Collectively the world is grieving as the pandemic continues to change our everyday lives. With a loss of trust in the world as a safe place, a loss of certainty about health care, education, employment, lingering anxieties plague many of us, even as parts of the world are opening back up again. Yet after so much loss, our search must be for a sense of meaning, and not something as elusive and impossible as "closure." This book provides many strategies for coping: encouraging us to increase our tolerance of ambiguity and acknowledging our resilience as we express a normal grief, and still look to the future with hope and possibility.

The Art of Fire Emblem Awakening contains an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the smash-hit 3DS game, from beautifully illustrated renditions of your favorite characters, to storyboards for in-game events, character designs, weapon designs, character profiles, and the entirety of the script with every possible branch of dialogue! Relive some of the most poignant moments of the game, or see what might have been if you had made different in-game decisions with the Art of Fire Emblem Awakening!

The Development of an Extraordinary Species We human beings share 98 percent of our genes with chimpanzees. Yet humans are the dominant species on the planet -- having founded civilizations and religions, developed intricate and diverse forms of communication, learned science, built cities, and created breathtaking works of art -- while chimps remain animals concerned primarily with the basic necessities of survival. What is it about that two percent difference in DNA that has created such a divergence between evolutionary cousins? In this fascinating, provocative, passionate, funny, endlessly entertaining work, renowned Pulitzer Prize–winning author and scientist Jared Diamond explores how the extraordinary human animal, in a remarkably short time, developed the capacity to rule the world . . . and the means to irrevocably destroy it.

This classic in the field of early childhood education provides practical tips and research-based methods for developing teachers, plus ready-to-use checklists for observing children and the classroom environment. In addition to its success as a college text, Janice Beaty’s Skills for Preschool Teachers is widely used by student interns, volunteers, assistants, CDA candidates, and beginning and experienced teachers around the world who work with three- to five-year old children in a variety of settings—preschools, center-based child care, Head Start programs, and pre-kindergartens. Rewritten to include the most recent research on the use of technology with young children, the linkage between brain development and children’s play, and the importance of taking indoor activities outdoors, this new edition brings students up-to-date on the latest information and innovations in the area of preschool teaching.