Sticks And Stones Exposed

Relationships. It all boils down to relationships.Everyone wants strong, positive, mutually beneficial relationships. So why are they so hard to develop? Why do so many spouses have such a hard time communicating with each other? Why would so many employees prefer to pull out their own molar teeth with a pair of rusty pliers than have lunch with their supervisors?

When Stick rescues Stone from a prickly situation with a Pinecone, the pair becomes fast friends. But when Stick gets stuck, can Stone return the favor? Author Beth Ferry makes a memorable debut with a warm, rhyming text that includes a subtle anti-bullying message even the youngest reader will understand. New York Times bestselling illustrator Tom Lichtenheld imbues Stick and Stone with energy, emotion, and personality to spare. In this funny story about kindness and friendship, Stick and Stone join George and Martha, Frog and Toad, and Elephant and Piggie, as some of the best friend duos in children's literature.

The girls make their final stand in this third and final novel in the thrilling, subversive near-future series from New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Young about a girls-only private school that is far more than it appears to be. There is no one who can save your rebel soul… ​The girls of Innovations Academy escaped the confines of their unethical school, fought against the system protecting predators who targeted girls for harassment, and they’re not done yet. They’re still not free. Reeling from one revelation after the next, Mena and her friends begin to unwind the truth of their existence and, as a result, their destiny. The men from Innovations Corporation still hunt them, the woman who created them still wants control over them, and worst of all, Mena realizes that through all her pain, all her tears, the world of men has not changed. There is no more time to hope for the best. The girls know they are in a battle for their lives, a war for their very existence. The girls of Innovations Academy have sharpened their sticks to fight back, they have fought for justice with blood from their razor hearts. And now, the girls will choose their true nature…and how they define their rebel souls.

"There are so many words, insults, labels and boxes for women to be packaged and packed off in. Often, but not always, they're words coined by men." Why that is, is a bigger conversation that is starting to be had by women everywhere. We're slowly, but oh-so-surely, making it clear that there is no man in womxn. We're writing him out and writing us back in, and we deserve a suffix all of our own that is free from patriarchal roots. So from here on in, we are WOMXN. Sticks and Stones is a powerful reclamation of the slurs and insults thrown at women for centuries. It's a righting of wrongs - a rewriting of sexist, belittling and shaming language. It's a tool for breaking free from the stereotypes and impossible standards used to confine women, transforming them into messages of resilience and resolve. And, most importantly, it's a rallying call for change, healing and empowerment. It takes the words, slurs, insults and labels that are used to diminish women every day and breaks them down and tears them apart. It transmutes and rewrites these words - sometimes with all of the pain they trigger, sometimes in the form of positive affirmations, mantras and poems - all told in acrostics. With their underlying meditative rhythms, these acrostics are also a remedy for healing wounds and empowering women to have the confidence to be their true selves. You can dip in and out, or read it cover to cover. You can come back to, and work through, any words that resonate with you. Lexy also offers clearing meditations at the back of the book to help you tackle the words that hurt you most, helping to remove them from your past, present and future. This title is illustrated by the hugely talented illustrator and print maker Margaux Carpentier. Margaux creates pictures using a symbolic language, so each piece has its own unique message for every individual. Her work is inspired by all the incredible colours of the world. She adapts her illustrations in 3D and large-scale murals, the most recent of which is currently on display in Brown Hart Gardens in Mayfair, London.

A leader is anyone who has influence. Take a look at any group of kindergartners on the playground. Not one of those little stinkers has a title, but there is definitely someone in charge, influencing what s going on. While most people traditionally look to the top of an organization or department for leadership (in theory, that is!), the highest performing groups in companies, schools, clubs, or sports teams have members who demonstrate leadership at every level. These leaders without the title have latched on to the profound reality that because they have influence, THEY LEAD.

The consequences of incendiary rhetoric are predictable. This is what author Helio Fred Garcia argues and warns us about in Words on Fire. The El Paso terrorist attack finally brought to the forefront broader public recognition that leaders who dehumanize and demonize groups, rivals, or critics create conditions where citizens begin to accept, condone, and even commit acts of violence. Leaders of all kinds use language to move people, and this book is about how they do it. The Work focuses on Donald Trump’s use of language that dehumanizes others, and how his use of dehumanizing language can provoke “lone wolves” to commit acts of violence, a type of violent extremism known as stochastic terrorism. Garcia’s goal is to sound the alarm about this insidious spur to violence by spelling out the mechanisms by which it works so that leaders, citizens, journalists, and others can recognize it when it occurs and hold leaders accountable. The Work is a timely analysis of leadership communication applied to the current political and social climate that will find a long-term audience with engaged citizens, civic leaders, and in the business, military, academic, and religious communities with which the author has deep ties. Garcia provides responsible leaders not just with techniques to recognize when they are using language in ways that may lead to negative consequences, but with ways to stop, redirect their focus, and stay on the high ground. And he provides citizens, civic leaders, journalists, and others with a framework to recognize potentially violence-provoking rhetoric so they can hold leaders accountable for it with twelve warning signs that rhetoric may provoke violence.