Ordinary Magic

From a pioneering researcher, this book synthesizes the best current knowledge on resilience in children and adolescents. Ann S. Masten explores what allows certain individuals to thrive and adapt despite adverse circumstances, such as poverty, chronic family problems, or exposure to trauma. Coverage encompasses the neurobiology of resilience as well as the role of major contexts of development: families, schools, and culture. Identifying key protective factors in early childhood and beyond, Masten provides a cogent framework for designing programs to promote resilience. Complex concepts are carefully defined and illustrated with real-world examples..

In ORDINARY MAGIC Jack Daly, atheist and movie 'special effects' expert, creates holograms of Jesus and famous saints to preach the Sunday sermon at Holy Redeemer Church in a last ditch effort to keep the poor parish out of bankruptcy. Tickets to the service cost up $250 each. His uncle, Fr. Frank Shymanski, the pastor, is tormented over this as he believes they are committing a sacrilege against God and will be severely punished for it. Bizarre murders soon take place. A policeman is levitated to his death in the church. An altar boy is mortally torched by a blast of psychokinetic energy. A beautiful woman is strangled in a Black Mass ritual at a synagogue by a killer who can be in two places at the same time. Rabbi Ari Zabel, a student of Kabbalah, is asked by the NYPD to consult on the strange case as the killer seemingly has mystical powers similar to those possessed by certain prophets in the Bible. The evidence points to a Demon as the likely culprit. In a climactic confrontation at St. Patrick's Cathedral, the killer's formidable powers are pitted against Jack's 'special effects' movie magic and the sparks fly..

In Abby's world, magic isn't anything special: it's a part of everyday life. So when Abby is discovered to have zero magical abilities, she's branded an Ord-ordinary, bad luck, and quite possibly a danger to society. The outlook for an ord isn't bright. Many are cast out by their families, while others are sold to treasure hunters (ords are impervious to spells and enchantments) Luckily for Abby, her family enrolls her in a special school for kids who must learn how to get around in the world without magic. But with kidnappers and carnivorous goblins lurking around every corner, Abby's biggest problem may not be what she's going to do with her life - it's whether she's going to survive the school year..

an ordinary magic is Anna Foletta's first book of original poetry and is a powerful and vulnerable exploration of the world around her. This book is a raw and intimate collection of musings, exploring the journey of finding magic in the perfect wonderfulness of ordinary life. It offers a deeply personal insight into everyday life, celebrating and reflecting on the importance of vulnerability and courage..

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This book offers penetrating insight into the nature and process of perception through a skillful interweaving of the concepts of the new physics, evolutionary biology, and cognitive psychology with the profound insights of meditative traditions. We are shown how we may go beyond the harsh and narrow limits of beliefs and habitual patterns of thought and behavior to awaken fresh perception that is fearless and compassionate, experiencing the sacredness of the ordinary world..

Ordinary Heroes recreates the sights, sounds and textures of a world gone by - a world of freedom, innocence and mystery - where boys leave home at 6:00 in the morning and return home for dinner - a world of sleep outs and midnight escapades. 14 year old Randy's life begins as a near-death experience. But - cerebral palsy aside - by 1959, he loves Sandra Dee, Sandy Koufax, the Dodgers, Wolfman Jack - and a girl named Daisy Clover - in that order. Things begin to pop when the boys poke around the crumbling Jefferson place and discover perplexing evidence - pointing to something very different than the official version of their neighborhood hero's death - confusing clues, threatening notes, phone calls - and violence. If 19 year old Scotty Jefferson's death is an "open and shut, police slam dunk" - why all the fuss? Ordinary Heroes salutes the goodness of boys everywhere!.

Rodney Stark's provocative new book argues that, whether we like it or not, people acting for the glory of God have formed our modern culture. Continuing his project of identifying the widespread consequences of monotheism, Stark shows that the Christian conception of God resulted--almost inevitably and for the same reasons--in the Protestant Reformation, the rise of modern science, the European witch-hunts, and the Western abolition of slavery. In the process, he explains why Christian and Islamic images of God yielded such different cultural results, leading Christians but not Muslims to foster science, burn "witches," and denounce slavery. With his usual clarity and skepticism toward the received wisdom, Stark finds the origins of these disparate phenomena within monotheistic religious organizations. Endemic in such organizations are pressures to maintain religious intensity, which lead to intense conflicts and schisms that have far-reaching social results. Along the way, Stark debunks many commonly accepted ideas. He interprets the sixteenth-century flowering of science not as a sudden revolution that burst religious barriers, but as the normal, gradual, and direct outgrowth of medieval theology. He also shows that the very ideas about God that sustained the rise of science led also to intense witch-hunting by otherwise clear-headed Europeans, including some celebrated scientists. This conception of God likewise yielded the Christian denunciation of slavery as an abomination--and some of the fiercest witch-hunters were devoted participants in successful abolitionist movements on both sides of the Atlantic. For the Glory of God is an engrossing narrative that accounts for the very different histories of the Christian and Muslim worlds. It fundamentally changes our understanding of religion's role in history and the forces behind much of what we point to as secular progress..

Entering the world alone, the past life has become a cloud. Master Yu Qi, incomplete knowledge enters his mind. Young Xiuqin, the purple spirit was born and became Taihe when the black and white turned. With talent, evildoers will become evil, but all eyes will become empty. The demon rises, and the dragon demon finds fate to break in troubled times. Enmity is born, and the hatred of the race is destroyed twice. Desire to break the soul, eight years of fate has passed two lifetimes of grief and cultivated the heart. When the adventure is complete, the spirit crystal appears, and asks the sky with tears..

Master Suiboku's given Sansui his blessing, so in addition to guarding his mistress, Lady Douve, he's now offering instruction in swordsmanship. Not only is he teaching his fellow Japanese transferee Saiga and the foreign prince Tahlan, but he's somehow found himself teaching the city's ne'er-do-wells and the Royal Guard. Meanwhile, House Caputo, a Great House of the Arcana Kingdom, is fighting a war with the Kingdom's neighboring nation. Evidently, the army invading the Caputo lands is equipped with cheat items, but House Caputo's got a cheat of their own up their sleeve..

This groundbreaking book investigates the clash between a desire for unfettered mobility and the prevalence of inequality, exploring how this generates frictions in everyday life and how it challenges the ideal of just cosmopolitanism. Reading fictional and popular cultural texts against real global contexts, it develops an ‘aesthetics of justice’ that does not advocate cosmopolitan mobility at the expense of care and hospitality but rather interrogates their divorce in neoliberal contexts..

This authoritative, engaging work examines the key role of relationships in child and adolescent development, from the earliest infant-caregiver transactions to peer interactions, friendships, and romantic partnerships. Sections cover foundational developmental science, the self and relationships, social behaviors, contexts for social development, and risk and resilience. Leading experts thoroughly review their respective areas and highlight the most compelling current issues, methods, and research directions. Pedagogical Features: *Structured to follow the sequence of a typical social development course. *Chapters are brief and can be assigned along with primary source readings. *Includes end-of-chapter suggested reading lists. *Coverage is broader and higher-level than other social development texts. *Designed with the needs of students in mind, in terms of writing style, size, and price..

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Looking After Children is an assessment and planning approach for children and youth in out of home care, first developed in the UK, and since 1997 adapted and used increasingly in Canada, particularly in Ontario. The approach is developmental and strengths based. The Assessment and Action Record (AAR), the core clinical tool, provides the basis for an in-depth assessment interview which then leads to a comprehensive care plan. The AAR is computerized and provides the possibility of data aggregation, and the recent revision allows for comparability among Canadian children as assessed by the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. Looking After Children: A Practitioner's Guide includes training material that will help practitioners understand and put the LAC approach and tools to effective use..

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Out of the Ordinary is a detailed account of current work by Pollard Thomas Edwards architects (PTEa), accompanied by an overview of the career of this prominent practice. Innovators in both design and business strategies, PTEa have been pioneers of urban property development since they were established in the 1970s, and their radical methodologies continue to influence contemporary architecture, even as they continue to evolve. PTEa's innovations have now become absorbed into standard urban design practice; this book shows how they continue to build upon their own radical approach in their most recent projects, including the development at City Road Basin, which houses their own offices among new mixed-use buildings and public gardens. PTEa's work, in its emphasis upon context and the accommodation of the new within the old, is doubly 'out of the ordinary'; by emerging from and working within 'ordinary', existing structures, they are a truly extraordinary practice..

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