In America today, the gap between the rich and the poor is the greatest ever recorded--larger than any other industrialized nation. It has become far too easy to ignore the hardships of millions of children plagued by poverty, poor health, illiteracy, violence, adult hypocrisy, and injustice. As founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman knows all too well the suffering of so many of our nation's children, who live every day with adversity most of us can ba...

The founder of the Children's Defense Fund and author of The Measure of Our Success presents prayers and meditations to inspire all those, such as parents, teachers, and ministers, who work on the behalf of children.Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, is one of the most important moral leaders in America. Her first book, The Measure of Our Success was a #1 New York Times bestseller—spending 16 week...

This landmark volume commemorates the fortieth anniversary of the Children’s Defense Fund, which has been an uncompromising champion of American youth for all of those years. Yet the book looks not to the past but at our current circumstances—and at the challenges we must meet now and in the future on behalf of our young people. The book examines critical issues—prenatal and infant health and development, early child care and education, school reform, the achievement gap, ...

The number one New York Times bestseller—from the founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund"This book is from the heart of a woman who practices each lesson she preaches."—Hillary ClintonThe Measure of Our Success is a compassionate message for parents trying to raise moral children, a tough and searching book that ought to be required reading for everyone.Edelman speaks powerfully to her three sons abou...

I am grateful beyond words for the example of the lanterns shared in this memoir whose lives I hope will illuminate my children's, your children's, and the paths of countless others coming behind.--Marian Wright Edelman, from the PrefaceMarian Wright Edelman, "the most influential children's advocate in the country" (The Washington Post), shares stories from her life at the center of this century's most dramatic civil rights struggles. She pays tribute to the extraordinary...

Rosa sat soMartin could march.Martin marched soBarack could run.Barack ran soOur children can soar.This is the seed of a unique and inspirational picture book text, that is part historical, part poetry, and entirely inspirational. It symbolically takes the reader through the cumulative story of the US Civil Rights Movement, showing how select pioneers' achievements led up to this landmark moment, when we have elected our first black President.Eac...

Whether a parent or pastor, child advocate or Christian educator, professional or volunteer working with children, we yearn for both comfort and challenge, vision and validation, hope and help as we seek to make a difference in the lives of children.In Hope for the Future, Shannon Daley-Harris draws from her twenty-four years of work with the Children's Defense Fund to offer twelve meditations for those working to create a better world for our children. Each meditation foc...

This one-of-a kind book challenges the current thinking about black girls to show how America has failed them—and what can be done to make their lives better.African American girls are one of the United States' most endangered populations, yet meaningful explorations of the issues that impact their lives are almost nonexistent. In this riveting book, led by one of the African American community's best-known scholars, experts from across the nation explain the risks...

David Hilfiker has committed his life, both as a writer and a doctor, to people in need, writing about the urban poor with whom he’s spent all his days for the last two decades. In Urban Injustice, he explains in beautiful and simple language how the myth that the urban poor siphon off precious government resources is contradicted by the facts, and how most programs help some of the people some of the time but are almost never sufficiently orchestrated to enable people to escape the cycle ...

Americans, as we put a spoonful of food to our mouths, millions of our fellow Americans cannot feed themselves or their children. The Republican politicians alike have lethargically responded to Americans living in abject conditions. They seem to be more concern about the federal deficit than about the poverty deficit that is leaving many Americans to suffer or even die. Across America, politicians are asking Americans for their votes while children are going to bed hungry at night. Povert...

Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King, is an ordained minister, an attorney, and one of this country's most admired speakers. As this remarkable collection of her sermons and speeches makes clear, she shares with her father a rare gift for oratory and the wisdom and compassion to inspire others.The collection begins with words designed to "disturb the comfortable." Tackling such controversial subjects as our disaffected youth, gun co...

What is America becoming? Or, more importantly, what can she be if we reclaim a vision for the things that made her great in the first place? Join Dr. Ben Carson as he explores what made this nation great and discovers how we can find our way back.In America the Beautiful, Dr. Ben Carson helps us learn from our past in order to chart a better course for our future. From his personal ascent from inner-city poverty to international medical and humanitarian a...