Books with author Susan York Meyers

Readers may be familiar with the astounding innovations and ideas developed by the Ancient Greeks. They may not know, however, how truly repulsive some of the practices of the Ancient Greeks were. Be prepared for stomach-churning descriptions of the plumbing and hygiene of Ancient Greece, not to mention culinary delights like goat lung and brain omelets. Medical practices that would not be approved by the FDA today, such as bloodletting and vivisection, are also detailed. This totally disgustingbut entirely funvolume will have students wondering what practices from their own lives will one day be described as "totally gross."

In the 18th century the explorer and mariner James Cook made his way to the American colonies to fight for the British in the French and Indian War. In the New World he would earn fame as a courageous sea captain, talented mapmaker, astronomer of Venus, and seeker of the Northwest Passage. This fascinating account details his voyage around Antarctica and his accomplishment as the first accurate mapmaker of the Pacific Ocean. This guide will introduce readers to the legacy of one of the most talented men in the history of exploration.

The greatest remedy for writer's block--and an effective way to expand one's vocabulary--is the use of the writer's go-to resource: a thesaurus. Thesauri are easier to use than ever before, thanks to numerous online options that complement traditional print editions. Readers will not only discover how to zero in on just the right word for the occasion, but they will also learn how to identify parts of speech, related words, and the fine distinctions among words. This is an indispensible guide to mastering the most important tool of a wordsmith.

From the news to school hallways, xenophobic rhetoric is sadly on the rise. This book provides an all-too-timely resource for students to understand what xenophobia is, remember to avoid xenophobic language, and most importantly, work to wipe out xenophobia. Through easy-to-follow text that is accessible even to struggling readers, the book provides key strategies for helping students to both recognize and confront xenophobia in their communities. Personal stories of teens and adults who both experienced xenophobia and helped speak out against it are also shared.

You may not realize it, but many of today's most popular dog breeds were actually bred hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago to be expert hunters. Their size, coat, color, behavior, and unique abilities were all carefully selected and engineered to assist in the hunting of game big and small, including deer, foxes, waterfowl, and even rats. Some were also bred to assist on the farm, working as shepherds. Though more often found walking on leash and lounging in living rooms today, these special breeds are still used by modern hunters for the same purposes for which they were originally bred. This book introduces the reader to the various classes, types, and breeds of hunting dogs, their various specialized characteristics, their skills, and their temperament. This is an indispensable guide to anyone considering buying and training a hunting dog, and a fascinating read for any dog, or history, lover.

With the rise of the Internet and the explosion of Web-based entertainment, digital piracy has become a startlingly common crime and a huge problem that robs companies, artists, and other content creators of their creative and financial due. The fundamentally unfair nature of the crime and the harsh consequences of this illegal behavior need to be brought home to teens in a very visceral, high-impact way. By framing the discussion as property theft pure and simple and putting a human face on the victims, who are the very people teens respect and idolizemusicians, actors, directors, authors, gamers, programmers--this text does exactly that. Steeped as it is in digital literacy, suitable as a source for research projects, and serving up an argument whose structure, development, and effectiveness can be analyzed by readers, this is an excellent example of an informational text that conforms to many of the reading standards of the Common Core Curriculum.

Focusing on the universal laws, characteristics, and tendencies common to nearly all gases, this book is an excellent primer on how gases behave and react under various typical laboratory and real-world conditions. It provides compelling profiles of the scientists who discovered many gases, pioneered our understanding of them, and formulated many of the "Gas laws." The book features an intriguing section on the practical uses of gases in our everyday world, from fire extinguishers and air bags to carbonated soda and methane fuel cells. Finally, it concludes with a discussion of global warming from the perspective of gases and the gas laws discussed in earlier chapters. Tying everything together in this way and ending on a hopeful, encouraging note, this book makes invisible gases entirely present to the reader and explains just how important they are to life on Earth.