Partnerships in Communities: Reweaving The Fabric Of Rural America

Partnerships in Communities: Reweaving The Fabric Of Rural America Review

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Partnerships in Communities: Reweaving The Fabric Of Rural America Feature

Partnerships in Communities provides a fresh perspective on sustainable rural community development, offering community-based and community-driven responses to the challenges facing rural America. Author Jean Richardson draws on her many years of experience working in rural areas both at home and abroad to offer an integrated and practical approach to rural community development. Some of the findings presented are derived from a comprehensive project known as Environmental Partnerships in Communities (EPIC), which Richardson has directed for the past seven years in Vermont. From this experience and those of others from across America, Richardson provides a wealth of insight regarding what works, what doesn't, and how financial and human resources can be most effectively focused in rural communities.

Following an introductory chapter that describes what is happening in rural America today and examines the institutions and natural resource base upon which rural communities depend, the book:

addresses the need for self-directed community development

sets forth a comprehensive approach based on the EPIC experience

describes efforts to revitalize working rural landscapes, including organization building, pasture management, historic preservation, and more

uses case studies and personal stories of rural people to portray the critical role of leadership in community stewardship and conservation.

At the end of each chapter, the author synthesizes the transferable lessons learned, and the book concludes with a chapter that draws together those lessons to suggest a dynamic new approach to rural development. Numerous photographs enliven the text, and an extensive bibliography and a rich set of appendixes provide resources for additional information.

Partnerships in Communities will serve as an invaluable source of inspiration and ideas for rural community leaders, citizen groups, public officials, planners, students of rural planning and community development, and nonprofit organizations involved with rural development.

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The Oxford Book of Children's Verse in America (Oxford Books of Verse)

The Oxford Book of Children's Verse in America (Oxford Books of Verse) Review

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The Oxford Book of Children's Verse in America (Oxford Books of Verse) Feature

Compiled by the award-winning poet and author of children's books, Donald Hall, this delightful anthology follows in the tradition of Iona and Peter Opie's classic Oxford Book of Children's Verse. Hall brings together poems written specifically for children and also those written for anyone and enjoyed by children and adults alike. He presents over two hundred fifty poems written by over one hundred different American poets--including anonymous works, ballads, and recitation pieces--that range from the Calvinist verses of the seventeenth century to the fabulous nonsense poems of the present.
Drawing on literally thousands of sources--including Sunday School magazines, Christmas annuals for children, and such wonderful children's periodicals as St. Nicholas and Youth's Companion--Hall gives the modern reader a rich sampling of many poems never before anthologized. He includes everyone's favorites, from Clement Clarke Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (a.k.a. "The Night Before Christmas") to the classic lines of Longfellow and Whittier. Along with Sarah Josepha Hale's famous poem, "Mary's Lamb," we find poetry by Emily Dickinson, Mary Mapes Dodge, Palmer Cox, Sarah Orne Jewett, Laura E. Richards, and Gelett Burgess. He also covers the twentieth-century with verse by T.S. Eliot, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Langston Hughes, Ogden Nash, Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel), and Randall Jarrell, just to name a few. Hall concludes with the poetry of present-day writers such as Shel Silverstein and Nancy Willard.
A testament to a captivating tradition in American literature, this anthology will encourage many hours of nostalgic browsing and reading aloud to children.

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