In Moth, Jane Springer uses shaped poems, prose poems, and poems with unusual structures to soar through time and the natural world. Yet, while her lines are aesthetically playful, she examines serious subjects, including our destruction of the environment, the widening and divisive gulf between socioeconomic classes, and the further injustices thrust upon those already suffering in society. She focuses on the role of women in a chaotic world, as mothers, daughters, and sisters work to restore order and comfort. Simultaneously heartbreaking and lighthearted, these masterful poems gracefully delve into the complexities of our lives.

A fascinating look at hip hop, the world’s most popular music, and what it means to young people all over the globe, written by an acclaimed pop-culture critic. An excellent introduction to hip hop for young adults. Hip hop is arguably the predominant global youth subculture of this generation. In this book Dalton Higgins takes vivid snapshots of the hip hop scenes in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and more. American hip hop has gone through growing pains, and is questioned for being too commercialized to articulate the hopes, concerns and dreams of marginal youth and community members. Outside the US, hip hop culture is often a political tool to mobilize disenfranchised communities around hard issues, with little support from mainstream corporations or sponsors. Higgins taps into his own powers of pop culture prognostication to predict the future of the genre and the youth culture that spawned it, as hip hop spreads its tentacles to the furthest reaches of humanity. "[The Groundwork Guides] are excellent books, mandatory for school libraries and the increasing body of young people prepared to take ownership of the situations and problems previous generations have left them." — Globe and Mail Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.2 Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.3 Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples or anecdotes). CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.6 Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.

This book explores today’s global dependency on oil and reveals the sobering realities of the relationship between oil, politics and money. An excellent introduction for young adults. Oil, our main source of energy, underlies the world's economy. In the twentieth century its availability and relatively low price allowed for the industrial growth and development of the world's leading economies. The new rapidly developing giants, India and China, want access to the same possibilities. But today we know that cheap, easily accessible oil supplies are dwindling, and we are beginning to recognize the true cost to the world's environment of our profligate use of this form of energy. As Oil shows, a substantial portion of the world's remaining supply lies in countries whose interests are not identical with those of the major industrial powers. "[The Groundwork Guides] are excellent books, mandatory for school libraries and the increasing body of young people prepared to take ownership of the situations and problems previous generations have left them." -- Globe and Mail