On-stage beauty. Backstage drama. As a dancer with the ultra-prestigious Manhattan Ballet Company, nineteen-year-old Hannah Ward juggles intense rehearsals, dazzling performances and complicated backstage relationships. Up until now, Hannah has happily devoted her entire life to ballet. But when she meets a handsome musician named Jacob, Hannah's universe begins to change and she must decide if she wants to compete against the other 'bunheads' in the company for a star soloist spot or strike out on her own in the real world. Does she dare give up the gilded confines of the ballet for the freedoms of everyday life?

Essie is the octogenarian obituary writer for her family's small town newspaper. When a young country girl is reported to be missing, perhaps whisked away by an itinerant aerial photographer, Essie stumbles onto the story of her life. Or, it all could be simply a hoax, or a delusion, the child and child-thief invented from the desperate imagination of a lonely, lovelorn woman. Either way, the story of the girl reaches far and wide, igniting controversy, attracting curiosity seekers and cult worshippers from all over the country to this dying rural town. And then it is revealed that the long awaited final book of an infamous series of Y.A. gothic novels is being secretly printed on the newspaper's presses. The Coffins of Little Hope tells a feisty, energetic story of characters caught in the intricately woven webs of myth, legend and deception even as Schaffert explores with his typical exquisite care and sharp eye the fragility of childhood, the strength of family, the powerful rumor mills of rural America, and the sometimes dramatic effects of pop culture on the way we shape our world.

"In Education Nation author Milton Chen draws from extensive experience in media--from his work on Sesame Street in its nascent years to his current role as executive director of the George Lucas Educational Foundation--to support his vision for a new world of learning. Presented in five parts and divided into "module" chapters, this book examines the ways in which K-12 learning can be revolutionized through innovative reform and the use of technology. Due in large part to new technologies, over the last few decades we've witnessed a huge shift in how we imagine teaching and learning. A good example is the educational revolution sparked by Sesame Street--which in its first season had a goal of teaching preschool-age children the numbers 1 to 10. At the time, experts dismissed it as an unrealistic goal since many kindergarten students were having trouble mastering this simple counting. Yet the research proved that preschool-age children learned those skills and many others directly from the TV screen. Now Sesame Street's curriculum teaches the numbers from 1 to 40. In today's digital age the number of new ways to teach and learn is ever-expanding and includes: television, Google, YouTube, TeacherTube, Facebook, iPhones, video games, GPS devices, open source textbooks, interactive whiteboards; and there are countless examples of ways technology positively impacts student learning--from voice-recognition software that helps children learn to read to translation tools that help teachers communicate with non-English speaking parents. As a result of constant innovation, learning is no longer limited by traditional confines and we're quickly moving beyond students tied to their chairs, desks, and textbooks--and teachers locked away in classrooms."--