The future will belong to children with innovative minds. Which is why this team of education experts have drawn on their decades of applied research in creativity, individuality, play, and media to craft an engaging guide for parents who understand that creative thinking skills are no longer a luxury, but a necessity for success in the new, grown-up world of work. The book introduces the Sensory Alphabet, basic building blocks that are as powerful for building twenty-first-century literacies as the ABCs are for reading—and that are lacking in schools today. The Missing Alphabet also offers foundational knowledge, current research and a pragmatic path for parents to understand the individual strengths and creative potential that will help their own children learn productively in the future. To turn these ideas into action, there is a Field Guide full of resources and activities for parents and kids to explore together at home, in museums, and around the neighborhood. This tried-and-true approach engages children with the creative thinking process, the capacity to invent with many media, the ability to think across disciplines, and the reliance on (and joy in) the imagination. Over the past forty years, the authors have developed highly successful programs for both in and out-of-school settings based on these concepts. Now, they offer parents a comprehensive guide for building the confidence and creative thinking skills for their own children—and now urgently needed for our collective future.

Missing Letters is not a typical alphabet book-it's a word game that teaches the importance of each letter by illustrating what happens when they're removed from words. The results are surprising as words and meaning are transformed. It can be dramatic as Will becomes ill and play becomes pay, or it can be funny when peaks become peas and banana becomes 'baaa'. Lively illustrations and a diverse cast of characters accentuate the changes, helping children increase their phonemic awareness-the ability to hear sounds not only in the starts of words but also in the middle or end. Missing Letters can also extend beyond the pages by thinking of your own words that change when you remove a letter. It's accessible to children of any age. Young pre-readers can focus on the missing sounds and compare the illustrations, while early readers can look at the spellings to spot the difference.

Follow Bear from A to Z as he hunts for a cake thief in a hilarious alphabet book crossed with a whodunit. There has been a terrible crime, Bear tells us. Someone has STOLEN a delicious chocolate cake! Bear sets off to find the culprit, questioning characters and compiling clues from A to Z. Among the suspects: a gingerbread man (G) with a bite out of his head, a kite (K) that may be above the law, and an octopus (O) with grabby tentacles. But — hold on — are those crumbs on Bear’s page? Is that frosting on his face? Looks like our narrator is a little unreliable! And it appears our culprit might be the one that Bear wants readers to suspect the least of all. . . . Author Eoin McLaughlin’s sly, cheeky humor takes the alphabet book to inventive new heights, while best-selling illustrator Marc Boutavant’s smart and striking graphic-style art matches the irreverent tone. Young ABC learners and older fans of funny stories will laugh out loud at Bear’s uproarious “investigation” and his anything-but-usual suspects.

A wonderful story book of imagination and interest in teaching and learning at the same time. A book for every Children's Library.

A practical guide for parents to teach their children creative thinking skills.

When a set of alphabet blocks disappears, the hunt is on to put them back in order.

The program is designed for students who seek to develop speed and proficiency in the use of material that is alphabet-dependent.

Follow along on a flying pencil as all the little letters set out to solve a very puzzling mystery.

Here is a fresh and imaginative way to look at the alphabet. Turn to the first page of the book and you'll be greeted by a picture of an arrowhead, surrounded by a simple black frame. Once you lift the frame you'll find the arrowhead is magically transformed into the letter A. And so it goes, from Ballons, Cloud, and Door through Leaf and Mice to Yolk and Zipper. Bold distinctive images and a simple yet ingenious format make this an alphabet book to treasure.

SSecret letters spark true love in this emotionally compelling romance from the New York Times bestselling author of A Curse So Dark and Lonely, Brigid Kemmerer. Juliet Young always writes letters to her mother, a world-traveling photojournalist. Even after her mother's death, she leaves letters at her grave. It's the only way Juliet can cope. Declan Murphy isn't the sort of guy you want to cross. In the midst of his court-ordered community service at the local cemetery, he's trying to escape the demons of his past. When Declan reads a haunting letter left beside a grave, he can't resist writing back. Soon, he's opening up to a perfect stranger, and their connection is immediate. But neither Declan nor Juliet knows that they're not actually strangers. When life at school interferes with their secret life of letters, sparks will fly as Juliet and Declan discover truths that might tear them apart.