Child-initiated, creative play is returning after decades of erosion. Through the hard work and dedicated efforts of play activists, new opportunities for play are arising, including the use of open-ended play materials in schools, parks, nature centers, and adventure playgrounds. Over 20 play initiatives are described in this book, with dozens of photographs that illustrate the power of play.

When was the last time that you felt your score accurately reflected your true ability as a golfer? Do you remember a time when you felt truly comfortable on the golf course, treating it as a playground to explore? Can you imagine what it feels like to create unique golf shots in your mind and then execute these intentions? The lost art of playing golf suggests answers to these profound questions. It will help you to re-connect with the soul of the game. Learn how to approach the game you love in a profoundly different way -- and liberate yourself to derive more pleasure from your precious time playing golf.

Play out your favorite fairy tales and invent your own stories with this intricate and beautifully illustrated pop-up book. Featuring four evocative scenes including under the sea, in a forest, at a castle, and inside a cave, and over 100 characters to press out and use. The book also includes four plays to read and act out: The Little Mermaid, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Ali-Baba and the Forty Thieves. The story possibilities are limited only by your imagination!

An affecting memoir of life as a boy who didn’t know he had Asperger’s syndrome until he became a man. In 1997, Tim Page won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for his work as the chief classical music critic of The Washington Post, work that the Pulitzer board called “lucid and illuminating.” Three years later, at the age of 45, he was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome–an autistic disorder characterized by often superior intellectual abilities but also by obsessive behavior, ineffective communication, and social awkwardness. In a personal chronicle that is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Page revisits his early days through the prism of newfound clarity. Here is the tale of a boy who could blithely recite the names and dates of all the United States’ presidents and their wives in order (backward upon request), yet lacked the coordination to participate in the simplest childhood games. It is the story of a child who memorized vast portions of the World Book Encyclopedia simply by skimming through its volumes, but was unable to pass elementary school math and science. And it is the triumphant account of a disadvantaged boy who grew into a high-functioning, highly successful adult—perhaps not despite his Asperger’s but because of it, as Page believes. For in the end, it was his all-consuming love of music that emerged as something around which to construct a life and a prodigious career. In graceful prose, Page recounts the eccentric behavior that withstood glucose-tolerance tests, anti-seizure medications, and sessions with the school psychiatrist, but which above all, eluded his own understanding. A poignant portrait of a lifelong search for answers, Parallel Play provides a unique perspective on Asperger’s and the well of creativity that can spring forth as a result of the condition.

"This book provides practical strategies for developing the mental skills which help speed you to your full potential."---Dave Winfield What does it mean to play heads-up baseball? A heads-up player has confidence in his ability, keeps control in pressure situations, and focuses on one pitch at a time. His mental skills enable him to play consistently at or near his best despite the adversity baseball presents each day. "My ability to fully focus on what I had to do on a daily basis was what made me the successful player I was. Sure I had some natural ability, but that only gets you so far. I think I learned how to focus; it wasn't something that I was necessarily born with." -- Hank Aaron "Developing and refining my mental game has played a critical role in my success in baseball. For years players have had to develop these skills on their own. This book provides practical strategies for developing the mental skills that will help speed you toward your full potential." -- Dave Winfield

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Abbey Girls Play Up" by Elsie Jeanette Dunkerley. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Play Up and Play the Game (1973) examines the type of fictional hero most embodied in the work and character, poetry and philosophy of Sir Henry Newbolt. ‘Newbolt Man’, imbued with the spirit of fairplay, loyalty, fearlessness, conformity (while remaining slightly philistine and sexless), can be traced in the work of Rider Haggard, Conan Doyle, Edgar Wallace, Anthony Hope and P.C. Wren. The book traces his development from the Victorian schoolboy (Tom Brown’s School Days and Kipling) to the twentieth-century secret agent (Buchan’s Richard Hannay), and on to his demise in Sheriff’s Journey’s End and Aldington’s Death of a Hero.

In August 1956 at 3 o’clock in the morning a 15-year old aspiring hockey player boarded a Greyhound bus in Yorkton, Saskatchewan to begin a journey that first took him to Maple Leaf Gardens where he achieved his childhood dream of playing in the NHL and then the journey unexpectantly led him down a path where he was able to build a 45-year career as a scientist in modern molecular medicine. Leslie Kozak explores his early life to determine how the environment created his intense competitive spirit. This exploration of life takes the reader through Leslie’s years at St. Michael’s College School, a short interlude as a Trappist monk, success as a Toronto Maple Leaf, then followed within days by a depressed fracture of his skull that ended his hockey career. Out of this journey emerges a molecular geneticist who dedicates himself in a 45-year research career to the exploration of body heat production and energy metabolism in response to a cold environment and how they could provide solutions to obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Laugh-aloud humor abounds when David can't resist bugging his big brother. In this funny romp, David careens from one mischievous antic to the next... until he finally wins his brother's approval. Little-brother antics have never been so endearing -- or true to life! David Shannon's beloved character in his bestselling book No, David! captures the attention and hearts of young children as few characters can. Readers relish David's exuberance, defiance, and wildly energetic curiosity, and when there's trouble, you can bet "David did it!" Now he's taunting his older brother by eating his Halloween candy, making a bathroom mess, and following him up the tree house. "You're too little!" won't stop David's tricks in this all-time "read it again" favorite. With millions of copies in print and four sequels, No, David! hit the ground running in 1998 and was a Caldecott Honor Book, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book, and a classic for 20 years. Based on a book the author wrote and illustrated when he was five, David captures the timeless no-no's familiar to every child. Grow Up, David! is nothing short of exhilarating.

In his raw and gritty biography, former Rutgers University football standout and Assistant United States Attorney Vaughn L. McKoy leads readers through the mind-set and strategies he adopted that result in personal and professional success. An inner-city youth from Paterson “P-town” New Jersey, Vaughn becomes convinced life has more to offer than drugs, gangs, and prison. Throughout grade school and high school, despite the lure of the streets and the shock and responsibility of becoming a teenage dad, he strives for athletic excellence, encouraged by baseball, basketball, and football coaches whose teachings are never solely about the game: • Things don’t get better unless you make them better. • Belief has power. If you believe you can, then you can. • If something is tough to do, then you just have to play up. • What are you going to get better at today? After being awarded a football scholarship to Rutgers University, Vaughn meets alumnus, attorney, and business mogul Arthur M. Goldberg while lifting weights. For the next ten years, “Mr. G.” weekly mentors Vaughn to pursue academic and professional success. Under the mentorship of Mr. G., Vaughn continues his rise to professional achievement as a law firm litigator, an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and the head of the Criminal Division for the New Jersey Attorney General. Today, Vaughn a corporate lawyer and executive at Public Service Enterprise Group, Inc. Inspired by Mr. G and others, Vaughn embarks on a personal mission to “give back” and help organizations and people achieve their goals. Chapter by chapter, through Vaughn’s trials and triumphs, Playing Up builds in readers the mind-set of ongoing achievement and the inspiration to obtain the guidance of a mentor and meaningful relationships. Playing Up is more than a biography. It’s a true-to-life compass its readers can follow to play up in their own lives, one that can lead them to engage in mentoring relationships that provide ongoing direction, accountability, and encouragement, written from a mentee’s perspective.