Social Science Kids

It's the American dream: get a good education, work hard, buy a house, and achieve prosperity and success. This is the America we believe in - a nation of opportunity, constrained only by ability and effort. But during the last 25 years we have seen a disturbing "opportunity gap" emerge. Americans have always believed in equality of opportunity, the idea that all kids, regardless of their family background, should have a decent chance to improve their lot in life.

When the red moon rises over the heart of the Okefenokee swamp, legend says that the mysterious golden gator Munch will grant good luck to the poor soul foolish enough to face him. But in 1817, when two fools reach him at the same time, the night's fate is split. With disastrous consequences for both...and their descendants. Half of the descendants have great fates, and the other half have terrible ones. Now Tumble Wilson and Blue Montgomery are determined to fix their ancestors' mistakes.

Nicola Berry and her friends have barely caught their breath from their last trip to space when they are called on another intergalactic adventure! This time, they're on their way to Shobble, a beautiful snowy rainbow planet where nothing bad ever happens - or so they say. It turns out there is trouble brewing beneath this glittery exterior, and Nicola is put in a tough position. Should she risk defying the planet's dangerous commander-in-chief to help the people of Shobble?

The contributors of Trust Kids! write from different backgrounds, genders, ages, and sexualities and combine past lineages with more recent child-rearing ideas to offer a fresh, inspiring perspective. Many works on parenting and families wind up re-inscribing hierarchies by declaring how kids should be liberated. Trust Kids! insists on youth autonomy, listening to youth, and questioning adult supremacy.

Screenwise offers a realistic and optimistic perspective on how to thoughtfully guide kids in the digital age. Many parents feel that their kids are addicted, detached, or distracted because of their digital devices. Using the foundation of their own values and experiences, parents and educators can learn about the digital world to help set kids up for success in a world fueled by technology.

Bobby Phillips is an average 15-year-old boy. Until the morning he wakes up and can't see himself in the mirror. Not blind, not dreaming, Bobby is just plain invisible. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to Bobby's new condition; even his dad the physicist can't figure it out. For Bobby that means no school, no friends, no life. He's a missing person. Then he meets Alicia. She's blind, and Bobby can't resist talking to her, trusting her.

Heidi is settling in at Broomsfield Academy. She and Melanie are trying to get along, and Heidi is getting used to her classes, all her new friends, and her very first crush, Hunter! The problem is: Hunter is really popular. How will Heidi get him to notice her? Her friends tell her to just be herself, but that sounds so boring! After all, Heidi is a witch-in-training. What good is having magic if you can’t use it? She knows she can find the perfect love spell to make Hunter fall in love with her. What could possibly go wrong?

Growing up in suburban Detroit, David Hahn was fascinated by science. While he was working on his Atomic Energy badge for the Boy Scouts, David's obsessive attention turned to nuclear energy. Throwing caution to the wind, he plunged into a new project: building a model nuclear reactor in his backyard garden shed. Posing as a physics professor, David solicited information on reactor design from the US government and from industry experts. Following blueprints he found in an outdated physics textbook, David cobbled together a crude device that threw off toxic levels of radiation.

Kate the Chemist is a 10-year-old science problem solver. There's no problem Kate can't fix! When her best friend, Birdie, is cast as the lead unicorn in their school's musical Dragons vs. Unicorns, and Kate is chosen to be the assistant director, they agree this is going to be the best musical EVER! Kate is a natural assistant director; like all good scientists, she's smart and organized, but she also comes up with great ideas.

When Molly Bigelow discovered that zombies shared New York with humans, she didn't think life could get more shocking. Then she learned that her mother was once one of the greatest zombie killers ever - and she discovered that her dead mother is not technically dead after all (although she isn't alive, either). Molly's efforts to keep these secrets and to help her Omega team track down the identity of the original 13 zombies will take her from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade to New Year's Eve in Times Square.

In 1937, a schoolteacher on the island of Maui challenged a group of poverty-stricken sugar plantation kids to swim upstream against the current of their circumstance. The goal? To become Olympians. They faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The children were Japanese-American, were malnourished and barefoot, and had no pool; they trained in the filthy irrigation ditches that snaked down from the mountains into the sugarcane fields.

Auggie and his magical companions are tending to the Fabled Stables when the building shakes and shudders to make room for a new arrival: the Tattle-Tail. Auggie and friends travel through the portal to a town called Rainbow’s End in search of this mysterious creature. Auggie assumes that the Tattle-Tail is in danger, but he learns that it’s actually the town that needs rescuing...from an infestation of Tattle-Tails!

Ghoulia lives in Crumbling Manor with her Auntie Departed and spends most of her time playing with Tragedy, her beloved albino greyhound. But things aren't as easy as they seem for this little zombie girl - all she wants is a real friend. She tries to venture past the manor's walls, but she can't hide her pale green skin or the deep purple circles under her eyes. The other children will be afraid of her, and no one will want to be her friend. But when Halloween rolls around, Ghoulia hatches a brilliant plan.

Heather Shumaker has sparked much discussion with her "renegade rules for raising competent and compassionate kids". In this follow-up book, she takes on new hot-button issues like banning homework, technology use, and skipping kindergarten. Shumaker offers broader guidance on how parents can control their own anger and move from an overscheduled life to one of more free play.

In Pledged, Alexandra Robbins followed four college girls to produce a riveting narrative that read like fiction. Now, in The Overachievers, Robbins uses the same captivating style to explore how our high-stakes educational culture has spiraled out of control.

More than just a simple journey through the history of Pokémon, Daniel Dockery offers an in-depth look at the franchise’s many branches of impact and influence. With dozens of firsthand interviews, Monster Kids covers its beginnings as a Japanese video game created to recapture one man's love of bug-collecting as a child before diving into the decisions and conditions that would ultimately lead to that game's global domination.

Let your children learn with Diggory Doo, the dragon, about gratitude, appreciation, and thankfulness. Fun, cute, and entertaining with relatable stories, this is a must-have book for parents, teachers, school counselors, and educators to help kids understand the importance of picking up after themselves.

In my more than 20 years in public education, I have seen my fair share of students who became disinterested with school. This manifested itself in obvious ways such as not turning in work, poor grades, lack of participation in classroom activities, and just a general apathy for school. Equally alarming to me was the evolution I saw in my own children concerning their attitudes about school.

In "The Girl Who Talked to Animals," listeners are transported into a world where the natural and the fantastical collide in breathtaking harmony. Follow the journey of Emily, a young girl with a remarkable gift—the ability to communicate with animals. From the quaint village of Willowbrook to the enchanted depths of the forest, embark on an adventure filled with friendship, mystery, and the timeless wonders of the natural world.

Amelia and her friends are taking part in a competition to visit Pumpkin Paradise Park - the most bloodcurding theme park ever! All they have to do is sell as many cookies as possible. But the creatures of Nocturnia have begun to act stranger than usual...no one can seem to remember anything - including their own names or even Amelia's big birthnight party! Where have everyone's memories gone? And how can Amelia save them when they have all forgotten who she is?