Books with author Stephanie%20S.%20Tolan

Stephanie S. Tolan set out as a concerned mother to help her highly gifted son have a school experience that matched his intellectual ability and pace of learning. In the process, she became an advocate for gifted children and, as a founding member of the Columbus Group, played a major part in reshaping thinking about giftedness itself. Her essay "Is It a Cheetah?" is justly renowned for its power and worldwide influence. Other essays deal with spirituality, the problem of pain, self-esteem and the gifted adult, imagination, and intuition. Here, collected for the first time, are her essays and talks that are now part of the fabric of the most advanced thinking about gifted people. From the introduction: "For more than 30 years now, I've written and spoken about the difficulties this rare population of kids and their families face in a world that doesn't recognize their differences or-if it does-offers little to help them accept and cope with, let alone take joy in, those differences. It can still be difficult for such a child to think or believe, 'It's okay to be me.'" The author goes on to say: "In this volume I've collected many of the articles and essays I've written about the gifted and highly gifted precisely because (in spite of the enormous changes in the world: computers, internet, wi-fi, social media, the legalization of home schooling, the invention of charter schools, and the veritable explosion of information-and arguments-about the gifted)..., children and families still face the same basic challenges." Stephanie S. Tolan has been named a SENG Educator of the Year and a North Carolina Gifted Association Outstanding Parent of the Year. Stephanie S. Tolan has written and published poetry, plays, and more than two dozen books for children and young adults, including the 2003 Newbery Honor-winning Surviving the Applewhites.

Elijah Raymond was one of four remarkably gifted children gathered together in an experimental group home called the Ark. In their shared dreams he was always the Raven, flying over the other three. But when the Ark program was discontinued, Elijah ran away.In Flight Of The Raven, Elijah has been found by a group of environmental terrorist and taken to their snowy woodland hideout. There he meets Amber, the leaders lonely daughter, who insists that radical change justifies the deaths she calls "necessary losses." Unable to escape, Elijah discovers that he can shift into "dreamtime," joining his consciousness with that of creatures who survive in the unforgiving wintry world. Gradually Elijah learns to survive himself. But how can he truly find a home with these violent men -- and how has Amber?Stephanie S. Tolan follows up her magnificient Welcome To The Ark with the story of EIijah, a boy who is forced to confront the world's cruelty, accept his own mysterious powers -- and help himself and Amber learn to fly free.

Devastated by the dismantling of the group home where the “Ark Kids” discovered their extraordinary mental powers, and overwhelmed by the violence of an eco-terrorist bombing, Elijah has fled into the Adirondack wilderness, intending to leave a world he cannot save. But he is found by the terrorists and taken to their hidden compound, where a raven, like the one he becomes in his dreams, urges him to survive. Sharing a house with Amber and Kenny, the children of the terrorist leader, and their American Indian stepmother, he retreats into what he calls “dreamtime.” But he cannot deny his growing mental connection with Amber. Could she, too, be an Ark Kid? She has been taught that to save the planet from technological development, there must be “necessary losses,” like the deaths in the recent bombing. But faced with the reality of her father’s planned apocalypse, Amber at last begins to question her upbringing. Can the raven’s flight save her, Elijah and the world?

Will anyone take on Jake Semple?Jake Semple is notorious. Rumor has it he burned down his old school and got kicked out of every school in his home state.Only one place will take him now, and that's a home school run by the Applewhites, a chaotic and hilarious family of artists. The only one who doesn't fit the Applewhite mold is E.D. -- a smart, sensible girl who immediately clashes with the unruly Jake.Jake thinks surviving this one will be a breeze ... but is he really as tough or as bad as he seems?

The side-splittingly funny Newbery Honor Book about a rebellious boy who is sent to a home-schooling program run by one family—the creative, kooky, loud, and loving Applewhites! Jake Semple is notorious. Rumor has it he managed to get kicked out of every school in Rhode Island, and actually burned the last one down to the ground. Only one place will take him now, and that's a home school run by the Applewhites, a chaotic and hilarious family of artists: poet Lucille, theater director Randolph, dancer Cordelia, and dreamy Destiny. The only one who doesn't fit the Applewhite mold is E.D.—a smart, sensible girl who immediately clashes with the defiant Jake.Jake thinks surviving this new school will be a breeze . . . but is he really as tough or as bad as he seems?

In a world of random violence and multiplying militias, four brilliant young misfits are thrown together in a group home for troubled youth. Isolated by their special abilities, Miranda, Doug, Taryn, and Elijah are unable to cope in a society that regards them as freaks.But in the experimental program they dub the Ark, the four discover they are not alone. Slowly, as connections form among them, they discover that their minds have a power they could never have imagined. Drawn together by their deep concern for the future, they embark on a mission to stop the violence that is engulfing the world. The challenge seems impossible ...until they face it together.In this compelling, sensitively written story, Stephanie Tolan paints a disturbing portrait of a violence-ridden world. Yet her characters offer a bright ray of hope for anyone who cares about the fate of the earth. The story of the Ark is gripping, suspenseful, heartbreaking, and, ultimately, inspiring.

Having been dragged by his mother from one commune to another as she searches for a place to belong, fourteen-year-old Ty finds conditions at the new place, the Kingdom, intolerable, even while realizing that for some, such as his mother, this way of life is a haven.Having been dragged by his mother from one commune to another as she searches for a place to belong, fourteen-year-old Ty finds conditions at the new place, the Kingdom, intolerable, even while realizing that for his mother this way of life is a haven