Mark Edmundson's essays reclaim college not as the province of high-priced tuition, career training, and interactive online courses, but as the place where serious people go to broaden their minds and learn to live the rest of their lives. A renowned professor of English at the University of Virginia, Edmundson has felt firsthand the pressure on colleges to churn out a productive, high-caliber workforce for the future. Yet in these essays, many of which have run in places such as Harper's and the New York Times, he reminds us that there is more to education than greater productivity.
Two children, treasure map in hand, and their pet gazelle sneak past their father, out of their house, and into a world beneath the city, where monsters and pirates roam.
Will they find the treasure? Will they make it out alive?
This book is about generosity. Children at this age are typically in the egocentric phase of development. They want to know "What's in it for me?" The message that I want to send to them is that they will feel good when they do something for someone else. This book models what children can do for others right now in their lives.
This picture book is like a good marriage: a great partnership. The text and the illustrations are both are complete and poetic in their own right. Yet when joined together, the new whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This book is a must-see for anyone who wants their child to appreciate the magnificence of nature and its cycles. - Jeanne M. Moran
When Verne the turtle and his woodland friends wake up from their hibernation, they find a suburban neighborhood encroaching on their forest home, Verne's first instinct is to retreat into his shell and leave, but then he meets R.J., a con-artist racoon. R.J. views suburbia as a treasure trove of goodies waiting to be discovered. And since he owes a very angry bear a lot of food, the opportunity is to good to pass up -- especially if he can convince his new friends to help him!