A Smithsonian Notable Book for Children A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year “Genius.” —The New York Times Book Review A beautiful repackage marking the twentieth anniversary of the beloved, award-winning novel that celebrates teachers and learning. Ten-year-old Frederika (Fred for short) doesn’t have much faith that the new teacher in town will last very long. After all, they never do. Most teachers who come to their one-room schoolhouse in remote Alaska leave at the first smell of fish, claiming that life there is just too hard. But Miss Agnes is different: she doesn’t get frustrated with her students, and finds new ways to teach them to read and write. She even takes a special interest in Fred’s sister, Bokko, who has never come to school before because she is deaf. For the first time, Fred, Bokko, and their classmates begin to enjoy their lessons—but will Miss Agnes be like all the rest and leave as quickly as she came?

Presents tips and advice for professionals who are creating or overseeing service-learning programs.

Offers a list of two hundred books targeted at children that work well when read aloud, with summaries and recommendations based on grade level and popular topics.

When Deet's father is jailed for using drugs, Deet learns that prison is not what he expected, nor are other people necessarily the way he thought they were.

“The Undertaker’s Daughter is a wonderfully quirky, gem of a book beautifully written by Kate Mayfield.…Her compelling, complicated family and cast of characters stay with you long after you close the book” (Monica Holloway, author of Cowboy & Wills and Driving With Dead People). How does one live in a house of the dead? Kate Mayfield explores what it meant to be the daughter of a small-town undertaker in this fascinating memoir evocative of Six Feet Under and The Help, with a hint of Mary Roach’s Stiff. After Kate Mayfield was born, she was taken directly to a funeral home. Her father was an undertaker, and for thirteen years the family resided in a place nearly synonymous with death, where the living and the dead entered their house like a vapor. In a memoir that reads like a Harper Lee novel, Mayfield draws the reader into a world of haunting Southern mystique. In the turbulent 1960s, Kate’s father set up shop in sleepy Jubilee, Kentucky, a segregated, god-fearing community where no one kept secrets—except the ones they were buried with. By opening a funeral home, Frank Mayfield also opened the door to family feuds, fetishes, murder, suicide, and all manner of accidents. Kate saw it all—she also witnessed the quiet ruin of her father, who hid alcoholism and infidelity behind a cool and charismatic façade. As Kate grows from trusting child to rebellious teen, the enforced sobriety of the funeral home begins to chafe, and she longs for the day she can escape the confines of Jubilee and her place as the undertaker’s daughter. “Mayfield fashions a poignant send-off to Jubilee in this thoughtfully rendered work” (Publishers Weekly).

In this 13th edition of "Adventuring with Books," teachers and librarians will find descriptions of more than 850 texts (published between 1999 and 2001) suitable for student use in background research, unit study, or pleasure reading, and children will find books that delight, amuse, and entertain. The texts described in the book are divided into 24 general topics, including Science Nonfiction; Struggle and Survival; Fantasy Literature; Sports; Games and Hobbies; and Mathematics in Our World. To highlight literature that reflects the schools' multiple ethnicities, the booklist also introduces readers to recent literature that celebrates African American, Asian and Pacific Island, Hispanic American, and indigenous cultures. Each chapter begins with a brief list of selection criteria, a streamlined list of all annotated titles in that chapter, and an introduction in which chapter editors discuss their criteria and the status of available books in that subject area. While the reviews were written by adults, the voices and opinions of children are often included as well, lending credence to adult choices of the quality children's books. (NKA).

This is the ultimate book on Singapore's national flower. Created as a hybrid in Singapore, by the woman horticulturalist whose name it bears, it was first formally described in 1893 by "Mad" Ridley, of Singapore's Botanic Gardens. Fifty years later it was one of the most famous orchids in the world, grown from Hawai'i to Barbados. Its popularity faltered in the 1950s, but in the 1980s it was selected as a symbol of Singapore. Its role in Singapore's national and horticultural life seems unlikely to diminish. This book is a repository of the relevant scientific, horticultural, and historical knowledge on Singapore's national flower.