Many of our countryOs children face daily a threat to their personal safety and well-being. As school boards, law enforcement officials, and policymakers continue to look for ways to stop youth violence in urban and suburban schools, not enough attention is paid to eradicating the socioeconomic and cultural conditions that give rise to these acts. In this timely and thought-provoking collection, seasoned educators and cultural theorists emphasize this connection between youth violence and the realities faced by many children poverty, racism, unequal opportunity, and the mediaOs glorification of violence.

The deepest longing of the human heart is to know and be known by God. God longs for an intimate relationship with us as well. But how do we develop that kind of relationship with a holy God? It is one thing to long for such a relationship, but quite another to experience intimacy with Him. In "Leaving Ordinary," Donna Gaines shares from her personal experience how prayer can become the channel that links the believer's heart to the heart of God.

God gave the pattern of the tabernacle to the Israelites. It was a temporary and portable dwelling for His glory. Through it God taught them how to approach and worship Him before He led them to their reward--the promised land. Using the tabernacle and its articles as a guide, Donna teaches readers how to interact with God in that secret place of true intimacy that leads to worship. Your "ordinary" daily practice of prayer can become an "extraordinary "encounter with the living Lord. "Leaving Ordinary" is essential reading for anyone who desires to enter into and experience the reality of God's presence.

As you read, you will:

• Explore the tabernacle and discover how it can be a guide for prayer today.
• Learn how to gain a stronger, more intimate relationship with God.
• Develop your own personal prayer testimony as you experience His presence.

Teenage Wasteland provides memorable portraits of "rock and roll kids" and shrewd analyses of their interests in heavy metal music and Satanism. A powerful indictment of the often manipulative media coverage of youth crises and so-called alternative programs designed to help "troubled" teens, Teenage Wasteland draws new conclusions and presents solid reasons to admire the resilience of suburbia's dead end kids. "A powerful book."--Samuel G. Freedman, New York Times Book Review "[Gaines] sheds light on a poorly understood world and raises compelling questions about what society might do to help this alienated group of young people."--Ann Grimes, Washington Post Book World "There is no comparable study of teenage suburban culture ...and very few ethnographic inquiries written with anything like Gaines's native gusto or her luminous eye for detail."--Andrew Ross, Transition "An outstanding case study...Gaines shows how teens engage in cultural production and how such social agency is affected by economic transformations and institutional interventions."--Richard Lachman, Contemporary Sociology "The best book on contemporary youth culture."--Rolling Stone

The central experience of the Ramones and their music is of being an outsider, an outcast, a person who's somehow defective, and the revolt against shame and self-loathing. The fans, argues Donna Gaines, got it right away, from their own experience of alienation at home, at school, on the streets, and from themselves. This sense of estrangement and marginality permeates everything the Ramones still offer us as artists, and as people. Why the Ramones Matter compellingly makes the case that the Ramones gave us everything; they saved rock and roll, modeled DIY ethics, and addressed our deepest collective traumas, from the personal to the historical.