In the 1990s, Ed Galindo, a high school science teacher on the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho, took a team of Shoshone-Bannock students first to Johnson Space Center in Texas and then to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. These students had submitted a project to a competitive NASA program that was usually intended for college students—and they earned a spot to see NASA astronauts test out their experiment in space. The students designed and built the project themselves: a system to mix phosphate and water in space to create a fertilizer that would aid explorers in growing food on other planets.

In Children of the Stars, Galindo relates his experience with this first team and with successive student teams, who continued to participate in NASA programs over the course of a decade. He discusses the challenges of teaching American Indian students, from the practical limits of a rural reservation school to the importance of respecting and incorporating Indigenous knowledge systems. In describing how he had to earn the trust of his students to truly be successful as their teacher, Galindo also touches on the complexities of community belonging and understanding; although Indigenous himself, Galindo is not a member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribes and was still an outsider who had as much to learn as the students.

Children of the Stars is the story of students and a teacher, courage and hope. Written in a conversational style, it’s an accessible story about students who were supported and educated in culturally relevant ways and so overcame the limitations of an underfunded reservation school to reach great heights.

 

More than one hundred species of kingfishers brighten every continent but Antarctica. Not all are fishing birds. They range in size from the African dwarf kingfisher to the laughing kookaburra of Australia. This first book to feature North America’s belted kingfisher is a lyrical story of observation, revelation, and curiosity in the presence of flowing waters.

The kingfisher—also known as the halcyon bird—is linked to the mythic origin of halcyon days, a state of happiness that Marina Richie hopes to find outside her back door in Missoula, Montana. Epiphanies and a citizen science discovery punctuate days tracking a bird that outwits at every turn. The female is more colorful than the male (unusual and puzzling) and the birds’ earthen nest holes are difficult to locate.

While the heart of the drama takes place on Rattlesnake Creek in Missoula, the author’s adventures in search of kingfisher kin on the lower Rio Grande, in South Africa, and in London illuminate her relationships with the birds of Montana. In the quiet of winter, she explores tribal stories of the kingfisher as messenger and helper, pivotal qualities for her quest. For all who love birds or simply seek solace in nature, Halcyon Journey is an inviting introduction to the mythic and mysterious belted kingfisher.

 

"Engaging hybrid - part lyrical travelogue, part investigative journalism and part jeremiad, all shot through with droll humor." --The Atlanta Journal Constitution

In 1867, John Muir set out on foot to explore the botanical wonders of the South, from Kentucky to Florida. One hundred and fifty years later, veteran Atlanta reporter Dan Chapman recreated Muir’s journey to see for himself how nature has fared since Muir’s time. He uses humor, keen observation, and a deep love of place to celebrate the South’s natural riches. But he laments the long-simmering struggles over misused resources and seeks to discover how Southerners might balance surging population growth with protecting the natural beauty Muir found so special.

A foundational look at the way children’s books shaped views of the LGBTQ+ world

The seminal history of the formation and tactics of the Citizens’ Council that battled integration and voting rights

An enlightening collection of essays by a renowned European scholar on the transatlantic significance of Eudora Welty

A critical study that highlights a new perspective of the long-buried and forgotten songs of resistance

The first collection of essays focused exclusively on examining the Harry Potter novels as literature

Collected interviews with the internationally acclaimed director, screenwriter, and producer known for the emotional realism and stylistic simplicity of such films as Le Monde du silence and Goodbye, Children

A recovery and celebration of a once-mighty, now-vanished Tennessee musical legacy

Collected interviews with the feminist Beat poet and cofounder of the Poets Press, known for her blended use of political and spiritual subject matter

This empowering book showcases successful neurodivergent role models from the worlds of sport, art, science, music and more. Written by a stand-up comedian, with illustrated portraits, it highlights the incredible achievements of the 30 neurodivergent people you need to know and shows that their neurodivergent traits helped get them where they are.

A witty, unapologetic and fabulous guide to living your best non-binary life. With personal stories, honest advice and fun games, this book covers mental health, fashion, self-expression, self-love, allyship and social media.

This professional and evidence-based guide helps yoga teachers and yoga therapists, as well as movement and fitness professionals to understand the intersections of biomechanics, biochemistry and self-regulation, emotional resiliency, pain science and dynamic strategies for pelvic embodiment. By including case studies, this book takes the practitioner through the journey of self-assessment and ultimately demystifies the pelvic floor.

A new and expanded biography of one of country music’s most celebrated singer-songwriters.

How a DJ’s innovative chopped and screwed technique changed the Houston hip-hop scene.

This edited collection explores theoretical and practical applications of the Writing-Enriched Curriculum (WEC) approach, an innovative and sustainable alternative to writing across the curriculum and writing in the disciplines.

Where the Red-Winged Blackbirds Sing examines the ways in which the Akimel O’odham (“River People”) and their ancestors, the Huhugam, adapted to economic, political, and environmental constraints imposed by federal Indian policy, the Indian Bureau, and an encroaching settler population in Arizona’s Gila River Valley.

The Mountaineer Site presents over a decade’s worth of archaeological research conducted at Mountaineer, a Paleoindian campsite in Colorado’s Upper Gunnison Basin.

Using Gloria Anzaldúa's theories of conocimiento as a critical lens, the authors examine several literary works including Side by Side / Lado a lado; They Call Me Güero; Land of the Cranes; Efrén Divided; and Gabi, a Girl in Pieces.

This full-color, simple-to-use field guide makes shrub identification easy and fun. It features 100 of the most common shrubs that grow in and around Pacific Northwest forests—from southern British Columbia to northern California and from the Pacific Ocean to the northern Rockies. It includes an overview of shrub communities in the Pacific Northwest; more than five hundred color photos; individual range maps and complete descriptions for each species; notes on range and habitat, response to disturbance, traditional and current uses, and origin of names; glossary of identification terms; and an easy-to-use, well-tested identification key.

Gillian Ranson weaves front-wave boomers’ stories of life and aging before and during the pandemic into a powerful account of how to make growing old more humane, for this generation and for everyone.

Colorado Family Outdoor Adventure is the definitive guide for families of all ages to experiencing the natural splendors of Colorado.

A Legacy of Exploitation recasts the Hudson’s Bay Company’s experiment at Red River as a reaction to Indigenous peoples’ autonomy, challenging collective historical fantasies of Canada as a glorious nation of adventurers.