This book examines children’s play in public city parks and playgrounds as they pursue their agendas for joy, healing, discovery, and democratic engagement.It offers an understanding of relevant theory and approaches for strengthening public city parks and playgrounds as spaces for children’s healthy development and civic engagement. The book features an introduction, six diary interludes between chapters, and six chapters that examine critical dimensions of children’s play in publ...

**Liberia’s oligarchy: The beginning of the end.2019 Grand Prize Winner - Red City ReviewBased on the remarkable true account of a young American who landed in Liberia in 1961.The story weaves drama, dark comedy, and romance throughout a rich tapestry of narration - The San Francisco Book Review**KEN VERRIER IS NOT HAPPY, NOR AT PEACE. He is experiencing the turbulence of Ishmael and the guilt of his brother's death. His sudden decision to drop out of colleg...

**Death of a 130-year Oligarchy.Volume 2 in The Dung Beetles of Liberia series.**In April of 1979, Ken Verrier and his wife, Sam, return to Liberia to buy diamonds. They did not return to get caught up in a rice riot and a coup de'etat. But that's what happens. Ken witnesses and unwittingly participates in a period of Liberia's tumultuous yet poorly documented history---the overthrow of the Tolbert presidency and ultimately the end of the Americo-Liberian one hundred thirty...

An easy-to-read, pocket-sized primer on brief coaching basics.This is a highly practical and condensed introduction to solution-focused coaching, offering a simple and clear structure for coaching sessions that is easy to learn. Content is illuminated through exemplary dialogues from real coaching sessions and bullet-point toolboxes for greater variety of choice. Narrative explanations create a helpful framework for understanding the general idea of coaching and th...

This timely book offers preschool and kindergarten teachers practical, research-based strategies for how to use culturally relevant picture books to discuss social justice and equity with young children. It includes activities and dozens of recommended children’s books that will help students understand their own social, cultural, and linguistic identities.Challenging outdated literacy norms, this book calls on educators to center picture books abo...

Chronicles the ups-and-downs of two young, first-grade teachers in an urban public school. Through rich, detailed portraits, excerpts from teacher journals, student work, and lived memories and recollections, Daniel Meier shows that the heart of teaching and learning in our culturally diverse urban schools is tied to the overall quality of human interaction in the classroom.“I know that every classroom teacher will read this with bated breath, perhaps even with a small knot in the ...

This book focuses on interstitial spaces or in- between borders in the Middle East. Using various case studies, it raises the question how actors living in these regions perform their belonging despite the apparent constraints of history and politics.In recent years, the Middle East has seen States attempts to shape buffer zones or safe zones in border regions, for example, in Syria’s borderlands in the aftermath of the civil war. Typically studies on in- between borders refer to t...

This volume focuses on the influence that borders in the Middle East can have on actors’ identity building, as well as how local, national, or transnational actors re/ define borders and boundaries.The Middle East is facing a political crisis, revealed by the Arab uprisings, that is affecting states’ borders in a paradoxical way: while local, communal, or tribal dissent tends to contest international borders, states are trying to affirm their control over national territory in buil...

A comprehensive theory-to-practice guidebook, Supporting Literacies for Children of Color argues for a new strength-based view of teaching to support the literacy talents and abilities of preschool-aged children of Color.The early childhood field is at a critical juncture in preschool literacy education as educators confront an ever-changing array of curricular approaches and assessment measures while still trying to meet the social, cultural, language, and literacy needs ...

In his latest book, Daniel Meier highlights the critical importance of integrating content and mechanics for successful and engaged writing at the K–4 level. Featuring the teaching philosophies and strategies of seven exemplary teachers, and a discussion of relevant research and theory, Meierprovides a fresh, practical, and much-needed perspective on making writing meaningful and effective in the current standards-based era. Written by an experienced...

Amertec Electronics company jet carrying the Senior VP and soon to be CEO mysteriously crashes shortly after taking off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It was a cold, rainy day with low visibility.The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says it was an accident. The victim's wife says it was murder. Frank Adams, retiree from the NTSB, now independent aviation accident investigator, has been hired to find out. Mounting evidence and an addition...

On a refreshingly cool summer evening in North Carolina, a hog farmer was stunned, then horrified when a light airplane crashed into his hog pens and erupted into flames.The ensuing FAA investigation convinced the small town that the crash was an accident. Except for one person. Ted Grant was an academic colleague and good friend of Dr. David Lanmore', and Ted knew that Dr. Lanmore had just discovered a cure for cancer.The last place Frank Adams wanted to inv...