Books with author S McPherson

For those who love Camp Hawthorne, here's a Christmas novella with Stella, Jayden, Lindsey and Ellen.The first Christmas after Camp Hawthorne was one Stella would never forget. Perhaps it was the surprising powers she found at camp, and it’s true—Christmas was even more magical when Jayden used his levitation powers to hang the lights on his roof and Lindsey sent carols into Stella's mind in the middle of seventh grade math class. But the real adventure started with Ellen, and her unusual gift, and the new neighbor…

A new type of dictionary. An indispensable reference for language learners within the Indo-European language family, as well as for any who love words and want to deepen their understanding of English, or any of these other languages.This dictionary records words from 32 languages, covering eight of the nine living branches of the Indo-European language ‘tree’. These languages are English, Old English, Frisian, Dutch, German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Norse, Welsh, Irish, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Ancient Greek, Modern Greek, Lithuanian, Latvian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Macedonian, Albanian, Sanskrit, Hindi, Persian, Pashto. Of these, the Germanic and Romance languages are covered far more completely and deeply, with nearly 32,000 of the 40,000 words in the dictionary belonging to these groups.The dictionary consists of two parts. The first part contains the pages for each Proto-Indo-European word (the root word), showing cognates in the chosen languages plus various descendants and derivatives. These pages are arranged thematically, allowing you to browse or study. Search is enabled by the second part to the dictionary, which contains a separate index for each language, telling you where to find each word.

William Tyndale is the most important translator of the Bible into English in history. Though not the first (that would be John Wyclif), Tyndale's translation has had the most lasting impact. The King James Bible is actually largely a revision of Tyndale's translation. Joyce McPherson is an accomplished children's author (Dürer, Calvin, Pascal, & Newton), and here she turns her attention to another key figure from the Reformation. She writes an engaging account of Tyndale's youth and education, and his determination to translate the Bible: As a young university graduate, he said, ". . . if God spare my life, I will make a boy that driveth the plough know more of the Scripture than [a priest] does." This is a great biography to read out loud to students from age 10 up. Independent reading level is 5th/6th grade.

Dereck, is a normal thirteen-year-old boy who has agreed to take care of his five-year-old sister, Jessie, while their mother is away overnight. As the big brother, he intends to keep his sister safe, taking on the role of their dad who died in a car accident the year before. Derek loves his sister, but her constant need of his attention is starting to get on his nerves. However his mom is always reminding him to spend time with his little sister. The only thing Jessie wants Dereck to do is read fairy tales to her, though he would prefer they do anything else like shoot bottle rockets or throw a baseball around. When Jessie takes a nap, a violent storm moves in, causing Dereck to stumble down the steps to the cellar of their home. When Jessie screams out for help, Dereck imagines a tree crashing through her window, trapping his sister in her room. Trying to run to his sister's rescue, he falls through the cellar floor and wakes up in Oz - an Oz filled with all the fairy-tale characters Jessie loves (and he hates) so much. Right away Dereck meets a farmer and his wife who live on the far side of a cornfield that grows beside the yellow road that weaves itself through Oz. The couple is waiting on the Dorothy girl from Kansas to pass by so they can make a deal with her. If she helps them catch a pesky man-sized crow, they will give her a secret map that shows a shortcut to the Emerald City. But when Miss Glinda warns the farm girl not to take the shortcut, Dereck, with the help of the six-foot crow, decides to 'borrow' the map without the farmer's knowledge so that Dereck can rush to the Wizard as quickly as possible so the great Oz might send him back to his sister who, he knew, was yelling for him to help her. Dereck meets Miss Glinda's personal assistant who has dressed herself like the good witch and calls herself Glindalina. Right before his eyes, the Wicked Witch of the West talks the assistant into becoming her evil assistant so she can help her make sure Dorothy will get the shortcut map, take the shortcut, and die so the green witch can get her hands on the silver slippers she wants from the farm girl so badly. Miss Glinda is livid and scares the wicked witch away so that she won't be able to give Dorothy the shortcut map. With the help of Crow, Dereck sneaks the map from Miss Glinda, and takes off down the yellow road where he battles a giant, a wolf, an ogre and somehow loses the yellow road, winding up in the middle of a thick forest where he runs into a little girl who wears a red cloak. The girl introduces him to her grandmother who brings out an old photograph of a young man who favors Dereck a good deal. But how could that be? Within the short visit, the old lady finds out about Dereck planning to take the shortcut and gives him a safety charm since she heard that the shortcut between the yellow road and the Emerald City is a very dangerous path. Dereck makes it to the shortcut path, finding a beautiful lady who quickly morphs into an ugly hag and tells Dereck he must die so that she and the other creatures kept captive there will be freed at last. Dereck remembers bottle rockets in his backpack and uses them to destroy the creature and catch the surrounding forest on fire. Miss Glinda calls for a dragon to take Dereck home then and there. When Dereck arrives back to his house, he finds Jessie hiding in her bedroom closet as the storm outside has started to move away. A few days later, Dereck notices in the artwork of Jessie's fairy tale books, small things in the background like he had seen on his journey but were never mentioned in the age-old stories. He discovers the artist is from his own hometown and looks up the artist's picture, realizing he looks very familiar and suddenly remembers the old photograph that Red's grandma had shown him. That was the artist who had looked like him. But how could that be? Had the artist been to the same place? Dereck may never know.

His life hasn't been a fairy tale... but after getting chased through the woods of Beacon Island by his new classmates, Eddie discovers a mysterious pen pal at the bottom of a well. Her note says her name is Ember and needs his help. Despite fearing that it all could be an elaborate prank, Eddie takes a chance and believes her.But Ember does not live at the bottom of a well.Far away, in a world of darkness, Ember is trapped in a tower. She is a Fen — a luminous being whose skin glows and whose breath brings objects to life. However, few Fen are left. Most of them were murdered or enslaved by their greatest creations, the Perfect — living statues that shape reality as they dance.Eddie will have to unravel the mysteries of Beacon Island if he has any hope of helping his new friend. Meanwhile, Ember's life balances on the edge of a Perfect's unstable temper. One misstep, one wrong word and she will suffer worse than death.Two worlds, kept divided for thousands of years, are about to intertwine.

[*Read by the author - Miles McPherson]Miles McPherson, founder of the Rock Church in San Diego, speaks out about the pervasive racial divisions in today's Christian church and argues that we must learn to see people not by the color of their skin, but as Christ sees them--humans created in the image of God.Miles McPherson has had enough of shying away from a major problem in America today: racial tension. It's a topic that's widely recognized, yet rarely acknowledged. Sunday morning is the most segregated time in America today, and our preference for clinging to those who are like us leads to big problems in our country as a whole. Even Christians--who, if they claim to follow God, should be the people most outspoken against racism--fall short, and many of us feel obliged to choose sides. Us vs. them. Cops vs. protestors. Blacks vs. whites.The Third Option is a plea on behalf of a brokenhearted God who, Scripture teaches, is frustrated with those of us who claim to believe in Him but are really ""faking the faith."" McPherson argues that we must rise above the issues that divide us and be part of something bigger. The Third Option challenges both believers and seekers to fully embrace God's goodness and power.As senior pastor of Rock Church in San Diego, he doesn't shy away from core issues that have caused a great divide both within the church and across the country. He believes that instead of choosing one of two sides, there is a third option--one that's proven to bring people together, mend relationships, and promote genuine peace in communities. Miles exposes common misconceptions that keep people at a distance and encourages us to engage with those who look different from us and expand our world.Full of practical takeaways and exercises to help us understand the points of view of others, this book inspires, encourages, and equips us to make positive changes in our country--starting with ourselves.