Chance Developments

Chance Developments PDF Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 1101871261
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
From the bestselling author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series comes this splendid collection. Inspired by vintage photographs, these five lyrical stories capture the surprising intersections of love and friendship that alter life's journeys. A smiling girl leading a younger girl astride a pony, and a boy in a kilt on a tricycle beside them, gives rise to a story of a lifelong romance between the two riders. A dapper, roguish-looking man perching on a lady's knee sparks the story of a ventriloquist and an animal handler who work in a circus, and who, under the most delightfully unexpected circumstances, fall in love. The image of a woman haloed by light in a train station becomes the lighthearted tale of a nun's decision to leave the sisterhood and discover what the big city has to offer. Charming and poignant, this collection brims with the flourishes of grace and humor that could only come from the pen of Alexander McCall Smith. (With black-and-white photographs throughout.)

Chance Developments

Chance Developments PDF Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 1101871261
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
From the bestselling author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series comes this splendid collection. Inspired by vintage photographs, these five lyrical stories capture the surprising intersections of love and friendship that alter life's journeys. A smiling girl leading a younger girl astride a pony, and a boy in a kilt on a tricycle beside them, gives rise to a story of a lifelong romance between the two riders. A dapper, roguish-looking man perching on a lady's knee sparks the story of a ventriloquist and an animal handler who work in a circus, and who, under the most delightfully unexpected circumstances, fall in love. The image of a woman haloed by light in a train station becomes the lighthearted tale of a nun's decision to leave the sisterhood and discover what the big city has to offer. Charming and poignant, this collection brims with the flourishes of grace and humor that could only come from the pen of Alexander McCall Smith. (With black-and-white photographs throughout.)

Chance Developments

Chance Developments PDF Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Knopf Canada
ISBN: 0345811682
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
WITH A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR TO HIS CANADIAN READERS It is said that a picture may be worth a thousand words but an old photograph can inspire many more. In this beguiling book, McCall Smith casts his eye over five “orphaned” photographs from the era of black-and-white photography and imagines the stories behind them. Who were those people, what were their stories, why are they smiling, what made them sad? What emerges are surprising and poignant tales of love and friendship in a variety of settings an estate in the Highlands of Scotland, a travelling circus in Canada, an Australian gold-mining town, a village in Ireland, and the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. A dapper, roguish-looking man perching on a lady’s knee sparks the story of a ventriloquist and an animal handler who work in a circus, and who, under the most delightfully unexpected circumstances, fall in love. The image of a woman haloed by light in a train station becomes the lighthearted tale of a nun’s decision to leave the sisterhood and discover what and whom the big city has to offer. Some will find joy and fulfillment; others would prefer happier endings. Each of them, though, will find love, and that is ultimately what matters. Romantic, wistful and poignant, Chance Developments brims with flourishes of grace and humor that could only come from the pen of Alexander McCall Smith.

Chance, Development, and Aging

Chance, Development, and Aging PDF Author: Caleb Ellicott Finch
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195133615
Category : Aging
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
Chance, Development, and Aging analyzes a subject that has been largelyignored until now: the sources of individual variations in development and agingthat cannot be attributed to genes or the external environment. And by doing so,this book develops new insight on aging and the individual. Gathering andscrutinizing evidence from diverse sources, the authors examine thosedifferences in individuals that arise during development and those that mightinfluence outcomes of aging. Through their research, they pose a new set ofquestions about the contribution of chance events during development, andalthough chance variations during development are well known within thesub-fields of developmental biology, there has been little recognition of theiraffects on variations in adult form and function. Here, the authors confrontthis issue with a fascinating hypothesis: chance variations in form andfunction, arising through development, affect individual base-line functions andindividual responses to the external environment and so modify outcomes ofaging. This book will undoubtedly benefit gerontologists, geneticists,reproductive biologists, and physiologists, and it will fascinate all thoseinterested in the outcomes of aging.

A Chance for Change

A Chance for Change PDF Author: Crystal R. Sanders
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469627817
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
In this innovative study, Crystal Sanders explores how working-class black women, in collaboration with the federal government, created the Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM) in 1965, a Head Start program that not only gave poor black children access to early childhood education but also provided black women with greater opportunities for political activism during a crucial time in the unfolding of the civil rights movement. Women who had previously worked as domestics and sharecroppers secured jobs through CDGM as teachers and support staff and earned higher wages. The availability of jobs independent of the local white power structure afforded these women the freedom to vote in elections and petition officials without fear of reprisal. But CDGM's success antagonized segregationists at both the local and state levels who eventually defunded it. Tracing the stories of the more than 2,500 women who staffed Mississippi's CDGM preschool centers, Sanders's book remembers women who went beyond teaching children their shapes and colors to challenge the state's closed political system and white supremacist ideology and offers a profound example for future community organizing in the South.

A Chance in the World

A Chance in the World PDF Author: Stephen Pemberton
Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM
ISBN: 1595554165
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
“Pemberton’s beautifully told story is a rags to riches journey—beginning in a place and with a jarring set of experiences that could have destroyed his life. But Steve’s refusal to give in to those forces, and his resolve to create a better life, shows a courage and resilience that is an example for many of us to follow.” —Stedman Graham, author, educator Home is the place where our life stories begin. A Chance in the World is the astonishing true story of a boy destined to become a man of resilience determination and vision. Down in the dank basement, amidst my moldy, hoarded food and beloved worm-eaten books, I dreamed that my real home, the place where my story had begun, was out there somewhere, and one day I was going to find it. Taken from his mother at age three, Steve Klakowicz lives a terrifying existence. Caught in the clutches of a cruel foster family and subjected to constant abuse, Steve finds his only refuge in a box of books given to him by a kind stranger. In these books, he discovers new worlds he can only imagine and begins to hope that one day he might have a different life, that one day he will find his true home. A fair-complexioned boy with blue eyes, a curly Afro, and a Polish last name, he is determined to unravel the mystery of his origins and find his birth family. Armed with just a single clue, Steve embarks on an extraordinary quest for his identity, only to find that nothing is as it appears. Through it all, Steve’s story teaches us that no matter how broken our past, no matter how great our misfortunes, we have it in us to create a new beginning and to build a place where love awaits.

Giving Our Children a Fighting Chance

Giving Our Children a Fighting Chance PDF Author: Susan B. Neuman
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807771945
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
This is a compelling, eye-opening portrait of two communities in Philadelphia with drastically different economic resources. Over the course of their10-year investigation, the authors of this important new work came to understand that this disparity between affluence and poverty has created a knowledge gap--far more important than mere achievement scores--with serious implications for students' economic prosperity and social mobility. At the heart of this knowledge gap is the limited ability of students from poor communities to develop information capital. This moving book takes you into the communities in question to meet the students and their families, and by doing so provides powerful insights into the role that literacy can play in giving low-income students a fighting chance. Important reading for a wide audience of educators, policymakers, school reformers, and community activists, Giving Our Children a Fighting Chance: Documents how inequalities begin early and are reinforced by geographic concentration. Compares community libraries to see how print is used in each neighborhood and how children develop as young readers. Looks at patterns that create radical differences in experiences and attitudes toward learning prior to entering school. Explores the function of technology as a tool that exacerbates the divide between affluent students and those with limited access to information. Provides a comprehensive analysis of community literacy, documenting the transformation of media habits from books to computers. Concludes with a look inside schools to answer questions about what schools can do to overcome this complex, unequal playing field. Susan B. Neuman is a professor of Educational Studies at the University of Michigan, and has served as the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education.Her books include Changing the Odds for Children at Risk. Donna C. Celano is assistant professor of Communication at La Salle University in Philadelphia. “Giving Our Children a Fighting Chance depicts a stark reality: the enormous and growing divide in literacy and reading skill development between children growing up in poverty and children from the middle and upper classes—and the social and economic ramifications. This book should be required reading, not just for those in the education and policy fields, but for anyone who cares about the lives of children and the health of our society.” —Kyle Zimmer, President and CEO, First Book “‘By walking the streets, riding the buses, and taking the subways,’ Celano and Neuman give us a groundbreaking and sobering look at print and education technology resources in two neighborhoods, one wealthy and one poor. The result is a must-read eye-opener for anyone who cares about equal opportunity. The stuff of learning is essential but insufficient. Only with close teacher, parent, and student-to-student coaching can better print and technology resources make a difference.” —Eugenia Kemble, Executive Director, Albert Shanker Institute “The authors of this text make you CARE about these communities and children. They provide insights about how we must focus on literacy in order to make a real difference in the lives of students. This is one of the most comprehensive analyses to date of community literacy, documenting the transformation of media habits from books to computers.” —Linda B. Gambrell, Distinguished Professor of Education, Clemson University

Giving Kids a Fair Chance

Giving Kids a Fair Chance PDF Author: James Joseph Heckman
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262019132
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
Current social and education policies directed toward children focus on improving cognition, yet success in life requires more than smarts. Heckman calls for a refocus of social policy toward early childhood interventions designed to enhance both cognitive abilities and such non-cognitive skills as confidence and perseverance. This new focus on preschool intervention would emphasize improving the early environments of disadvantaged children and increasing the quality of parenting while respecting the primacy of the family and America's cultural diversity. Heckman shows that acting early has much greater positive economic and social impact than later interventions -- which range from reduced pupil-teacher ratios to adult literacy programs to expenditures on police -- that draw the most attention in the public policy debate. At a time when state and local budgets for early interventions are being cut, Heckman issues an urgent call for action and offers some practical steps for how to design and pay for new programs.

Ghost of a Chance

Ghost of a Chance PDF Author: Simon R. Green
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101442514
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
View our feature on Simon R. Green's Ghost of a Chance. A brand-new series from the New York Times bestselling author of the Nightside novels! The Carnacki Institute exists to "Do Something" about Ghosts-and agents JC Chance, Melody Chambers, and Happy Jack Palmer will either lay them to rest, send them packing, or kick their nasty ectoplasmic arses with extreme prejudice.

Welcome to Last Chance (A Place to Call Home Book #1)

Welcome to Last Chance (A Place to Call Home Book #1) PDF Author: Cathleen Armstrong
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1441242570
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
The red warning light on her car dashboard drove Lainie Davis to seek help in the tiny town of Last Chance, New Mexico. But as she encounters the people who make Last Chance their home, it's her heart that is flashing bright red warning lights. These people are entirely too nice, too accommodating, and too interested in her personal life for Lainie's comfort--especially since she's on the run and hoping to slip away unnoticed. Yet in spite of herself, Lainie finds that she is increasingly drawn in to the dramas of small town life. An old church lady who always has room for a stranger. A handsome bartender with a secret life. A single mom running her diner and worrying over her teenage son. Could Lainie actually make a life in this little hick town? Or will the past catch up to her even here in the middle of nowhere? Cathleen Armstrong pens a debut novel filled with complex, lovable characters making their way through life and relationships the best they can. Her evocative descriptions, observational humor, and talent at rendering romantic scenes will earn her many fans.

Report of the Governor of New Mexico to the Secretary of the Interior

Report of the Governor of New Mexico to the Secretary of the Interior PDF Author: New Mexico. Governor
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : New Mexico
Languages : en
Pages : 750

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Book Description