Storytelling empowers children to engage in discussions; explore ideas about power, respect, community, fairness, equality, and justice; and help frame their understanding of complex ethical issues within a society. In Life Lessons through Storytelling, Donna Eder interviews elementary students and presents their responses to stories from different cultures. Using Aesop s fables and Kenyan and Navajo storytelling traditions as models for classroom use, Eder demonstrates the value of a cross-cultural approach to teaching through storytelling, while providing deep insights into the social psychology of learning."

A People's Ecology: Explorations in Sustainable Living presents a tapestry of perspectives on food and the interplay of health, cultural ecology, and environment, which are the fabric and foundation of all sustainable living. It offers personal stories, documented information, traditional understandings, and speculations on future directions. Each contribution calls on us to reclaim our human heritage of "caring for our home fires" -- a metaphor that can inspire the revitalization of our connections to the earth, all living things, and each other.

The writers examine the underlying ecology of sustainable living rooted in the historical traditions, environmental practices, and sense of place of peoples of the Southwest; and they describe the impact that disruption of this way of life continues to have on health, well-being, and communal identity. Drawing on an Indigenous paradigm of "healthy environment, healthy culture, healthy people, " this book explores possibilities of applying the principles of sustainable living in both traditional and non-traditional communities.