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.

A Newbridge Book Club Selection "Discusses creative uses of signing to help children share what they have learned." --Library Talk Come Sign With Us Book Now, the new, completely revised Come Sign With Us offers more follow-up activities, including many in context, to teach children sign language. The second edition of this fun, fully illustrated activities manual features more than 300 line drawings of both adults and children signing familiar words, phrases, and sentences using American Sign Language (ASL) signs in English word order. Twenty lively lessons each introduce ten selected "Target Vocabulary" words in a format familiar and exciting to children, including holidays, pets, cars and trucks, and more. All signs have equivalent words listed in both English and Spanish. Come Sign With Us shows how to form each sign exactly, and also presents the origins of ASL, interesting facts about deafness, and how people live in the Deaf community. Used with reading and grammar studies, the sign language learned from this book can help children improve their vocabulary retention and reading comprehension. ISBN 1-56368-051-3, 8 ½ x 11 softcover, 160 pages, line drawings, glossary

The public library is in the perfect position as a community resource to help bridge the gap between preschool and kindergarten; however, starting from scratch can feel daunting. In this guide, Baker combines her background in early childhood education with her experience as a youth services programming specialist to present a school readiness program that can be tailored for any public library. Based on the successful framework of her tried and tested original program, this book offers everything that a public library needs in order to get started, including

• A six-week schedule of detailed lesson plans which combine the best practices of the Every Child Ready to Read® (ECRR) Second Edition (talking, singing, reading, writing, playing) with nationally identified school readiness skills
• A six-month family calendar with activities to help parents engage their children in activities that foster early literacy and school readiness skills at home
• Tips for maintaining a collaborative relationship with early childhood stakeholders and policymakers to help maintain a program that fits the school readiness needs of the local community
• Specific examples of successful school readiness programs and partnerships from public library systems across the country

Baker's guide will help public libraries ensure that young children are ready for school from day one.