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Twelve-year-old Cindy begins seventh grade with a certain amount of apprehension, but discovers that her new friends and experiences are thoroughly enjoyable.
Fans of First Day Jitters will love spending the last day of school in Mrs. Hartwell classroom. What do teachers do for summer vacation? Mrs. Hartwell's students worry that their teacher will miss them while they are gone for the summer. The class comes up with a way to make sure Mrs. Hartwell won't be too sad. But Mrs. Hartwell and the other teachers have some plans of their own. Once again Julie Danneberg and Judy Love bring to life the crazy antics of Mrs. Hartwell and her class and show that teachers and students are more alike than we sometimes think.
A clever, bluesy riff on middle-kid angst Lee has the low-down, big-frown, sulkin?-all-aroundtown blues. His older brother gets all the big-kid privileges, and no one expects his little sister to do anything but be cute. And sometimes his family even leaves him behind! But when Lee breaks out his guitar and finally makes his voice be heard, he draws a big crowd. It turns out lots and lots of people share his middle-kid pain'and he loves how being stuck in the middle is making him the center of attention.
Middle School Blues, Rite of Passage is about a day in the life of a small group of 6th, 7th and 8th-grade students who live in a farming community north of Chicago, Illinois. The characters experience peer pressure, question their identity and struggle with physical changes occurring in their bodies. Some characters experiment with substances and some consider themselves transgender. This is a unique period of time between elementary school and high school. Getting through middle school is a rite-of-passage.
Middle School is the worst period in a child's life. He or she has to undergo bullying, and an often painful transition from childhood to young adulthood. It is also a period most neglected at home and in school, for the child grows rebellious as he feels he is misunderstood and unjustly dealt with. Parents feel helpless to interfere. Imagine what then can be the plight of twins? Set in teeming, exotic Mumbai, India, this is the story about Raman and Sunny who are twins. Their childhood period was full of companionship and love and healthy competition. But with their graduation to middle school their travails began. Raman and Sunny felt suffocated on being compared with each other. Each wanted to choose his own path, be it academics or sports. They drifted apart and the bullying began. Where before their togetherness was their strength, their separation resulted in their being isolated and bullied, especially the mild Raman. Resentment between the twins creeps in and the crevice in their relationship widens. The mild Raman allows resentment to feed him and he becomes irritable and destructive. This leads to him being thrust before the school counsellor, Mrs. Bulwa, who decides that the best way to deal with waywardness in children, is to deprive them of their comfort zone. Raman's only solace is his friend Imran. Imran is the son of a Doctor. He is weak in studies but has a literary bent of mind. He shares his passion with Raman. But as things turn out, even here Raman misreads the situation and resorts to a deed which lowers him in the estimation of his father. Enter Sunil Sir. He is a reformer teacher who firmly believes that children should be encouraged to explore the different subjects taught by research and analysis methods to inculcate a love for learning and literature. Though sometimes prejudiced by past events, he does not allow this to cloud his judgement. The book deals with parenting, the agony of middle school, the individuality of each child, the jealousy, resentment and fear of change faced by both children and teachers, each at their level. It deals with violence, resentment, bullying, and defiance in children. It explores new methods to get the child on the right path by introducing him to those less fortunate than himself. It explores a synthesis in learning and new and fun methods of teaching. And it deals with the inherent goodness in children and in man. It's a family story, which shows that love, forgiveness and understanding in family life will help bring stability to a child's life.
Ninth Grade Blues follows four teens through the adventures and misadventures of the first year of high school. Interweaving first person stories are told by: Luke: a shy, poorly dressed boy from the wrong side of the tracks. But he has hidden talents in science -- and he is even appealing to some girls. Elly: sociable and friendly, Elly worries about getting a boy to like her. She has frizzy hair, and a few excess pounds. However, she is also a top notch student. Elly has her life mapped out, all the way through a big church wedding and a house in the suburbs. Marcus: a freshman superstar, Marcus plays football and basketball at the varsity level and has his sights on a D-I college scholarship. He worries about having to choose between the NBA and the NFL. Mia: a smart, dedicated girl who gets straight A's. Her Mexican-American parents are intent on matching her up with a nice Hispanic boy. But Mia and Luke begin studying together, and very soon, Mia develops other opinions.
Growing up on his family's orchards in Appleton, Michigan, in the 1950s, Martin Dijksterhuis finds everything he needs in his extended family and in the land itself -- in the reassuring routines of growing and harvesting, spraying and pruning. Although his mother wants him to get out of Appleton, which she finds impossibly provincial, and attend a great university -- the University of Chicago, her alma mater -- he has no desire to leave. In the autumn of his junior year of high school, however, in the camp of the migrant workers who come north every year to pick the Dijksterhuis peaches and apples, Martin discovers his vocation, the country blues -- unsettling melodies that cry out from a place in the soul he never knew existed. He also falls in love with Corinna Williams, the strong-willed daughter of the black foreman who runs the Dijksterhuis orchards. His blues vocation and his love for Corinna are the two stories of his life. His struggle to combine them into a single story takes him a long way from home and from the life he had always envisioned for himself, and then it brings him back again in a way he could never have imagined. In this beautifully rendered novel, Robert Hellenga, author of The Sixteen Pleasures and The Fall of a Sparrow, explores the fragility of happiness, the difficulties of following one's calling in life, and the sorrows and satisfactions of being a parent.
A gorgeous picture book biography of botanist and photographer Anna Atkins--the first person to ever publish a book of photography After losing her mother very early in life, Anna Atkins (1799–1871) was raised by her loving father. He gave her a scientific education, which was highly unusual for women and girls in the early 19th century. Fascinated with the plant life around her, Anna became a botanist. She recorded all her findings in detailed illustrations and engravings, until the invention of cyanotype photography in 1842. Anna used this new technology in order to catalogue plant specimens—a true marriage of science and art. In 1843, Anna published the book Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions with handwritten text and cyanotype photographs. It is considered the first book of photographs ever published. Weaving together histories of women, science, and art, The Bluest of Blues will inspire young readers to embark on their own journeys of discovery and creativity.
