Latest news with #Sourcebooks
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
On the Shelf: Dinosaurs, time travel and inventing the world
It's back-to-school season for the big kids, but there are plenty of new books to keep little ones learning too. Ask for them at your local library or your favorite book store! 'The Pink Pajamas' by Charlene Chua (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, ages 4 – 8) Award–winning illustrator Charlene Chua is going to make you cry, but the message of this beautiful book is timeless and in many ways, sacred. There are, as Mister Rogers taught us, many ways to say, 'I love you.' Sometimes love is expressed through the making and giving – and wearing – of soft, pink pajamas. This story is a gentle way to start a conversation with children about the loss of a loved one. It's a must for the family bookshelf. 'Oh No! Dinosaurs in My School' by Timothy Knapman, illustrated by Sarah Warburton (Sourcebooks, ages 4 to 8) Get the back-to-school giggles with this sweet tale. Imagination runs wild here – or does it? It's a great first day read for littles. 'Wait 'Til You're Older' by Maria Marianayagam, illustrated by Irina Avgustinovich (Sourcebooks ages 4 to 8) Loaded with imagination and fun, this picture book is a unique way for young readers to think about time and heady concepts like time travel and wormholes. This is a truly unique story and so much fun. 'You're So Bright' by Rose Rossner, illustrated by Emily Emerson (Sourcebooks, age birth to 3) Words that encourage and build up kids from birth are some of the most important they will ever hear. This bright (yes, really), colorful, pun-laden bunch of wordplay in board book form is one you can read over and over again to little ones. 'The Atlas Obscura Explorer's Guide To Inventing The World' by Dylan Thuras and Jennifer Swanson, illustrated by Ruby Fresson (available Aug. 12, Workman Kids, ages 8 – 12) Get this book immediately for your nonfiction lovers and invention-focused kids. Electricity, clocks, writing, codes, steel, agriculture – this book is packed with details and engaging illustrations that teach kids how and where and why so many critical systems and items were invented. It's a treasure trove of STEM inspiration. This article originally appeared on Greenville News: On the Shelf: Sweet reads for August Solve the daily Crossword
Business Upturn
01-08-2025
- Business
- Business Upturn
NCBE to Issue Official Sourcebooks for the NextGen Uniform Bar Examination
MADISON, WISCONSIN, Aug. 01, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) will publish a new resource to help examinees prepare for the NextGen Uniform Bar Examination (NextGen UBE). The NCBE Sourcebooks Collection for the NextGen UBE is a series of digital books that serves as a companion to the NextGen UBE Content Scope, providing legal educators, examinees, and other stakeholders with information about which legal concepts and principles are within the scope of doctrine to be assessed on the NextGen UBE. The first series covers the July 2026 and February 2027 administrations of the new bar exam. The first two Sourcebooks, covering contract law and real property, will be released in September 2025, with the remaining subject areas (business associations, civil procedure, constitutional law, criminal law, evidence, and torts) to be released in stages through early 2026. In later years, NCBE will issue updated Sourcebooks only when necessary to ensure that content remains current and relevant. In 2027, NCBE will also release the family law Sourcebook (family law will be added to the core subjects tested on the NextGen UBE starting in July 2028). The public may sign up to receive notice by email when the first Sourcebooks become available at 'The NextGen UBE, like the current bar exam, tests a wide range of substantive law. The Sourcebooks help to ensure that law school faculty, bar preparation providers, and the examinees themselves have access to clear, accessible information about the specific law that will appear on the NextGen exam' said NCBE's President and CEO, Judith Gundersen. According to University of Oklahoma College of Law Professor and NCBE Distinguished Scholar in Residence Jon J. Lee, who served as a collaborator on the Sourcebooks, 'the Sourcebooks are a valuable new resource that provides greater transparency regarding the concepts and principles tested on the NextGen bar exam. From my experience working with students preparing for the bar exam, I believe the Sourcebooks will be especially helpful to legal educators.' The Sourcebooks will be published in collaboration with West Academic, the leading U.S. publisher of legal education materials and digital learning tools for law schools, and will provide law faculty and students with seamless digital access to official NCBE Sourcebook content via the user-friendly VitalSource™ eReader. Fully integrated within the West Academic Study Aids & Reference Collection, this digital experience offers easy navigation, advanced search and filtering tools, and streamlined access, eliminating the need for additional logins or platforms. Law schools already subscribed to the West Academic Study Aids & Reference Collection will be eligible for discounted pricing. Individuals who do not have access to the Sourcebooks through their law schools will be able to purchase single subjects or the entire series through the NCBE Study Aids store. 'West Academic is proud to partner with NCBE to publish the new Sourcebooks for the NextGen UBE as part of our Study Aids & Reference Collection. These thoughtfully crafted references represent a significant step forward in legal education, and we're thrilled to support law schools, faculty, and students with resources that reflect the future of legal licensure.' said Pamela Siege Chandler, Chief Content and Learning Officer at BARBRI and Publisher of West Academic. The NextGen UBE will be administered by ten jurisdictions in July 2026. A total of 45 jurisdictions have announced plans to begin administering the NextGen exam between July 2026 and July 2028. The NextGen UBE is being developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), which currently develops bar exam content for 54 of 56 US jurisdictions. In the US, the highest court in each jurisdiction has authority over the admission of attorneys to practice in its courts, aided by its own bar admissions agency. The NextGen UBE will replace the current Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) and, like the current UBE, will serve as the basis for score portability between participating jurisdictions. Designed to reflect the work performed by newly licensed attorneys, the NextGen UBE will test eight areas of legal doctrine (civil procedure, contract law, evidence, torts, business associations, constitutional law, criminal law, real property) and seven foundational lawyering skills (legal research, legal writing, issue spotting and analysis, investigation and evaluation, client counseling and advising, negotiation and dispute resolution, client relationship and management). Tenets of attorney ethics will also be tested in conjunction with other topics and skills. Family law will be added to the exam in July 2028. The new exam will balance the skills and knowledge needed in litigation and transactional legal practice and will reflect many of the key changes affecting legal practice. Visit for outlines of the legal doctrine and skills that will be tested on the exam. The subjects and skills to be tested were developed through a multi-year, nationwide legal practice analysis focused on the most important knowledge and skills for newly licensed lawyers (defined as lawyers within their first three years in practice). NCBE recently convened a nationwide standard-setting study; data from that study will help inform jurisdictions' independent policy decisions surrounding required passing scores. Like the current bar exam, the NextGen UBE will be administered, and the written portions graded, by the individual US jurisdictions. The exam will be administered over one and a half days, with six hours of testing time on day one and three hours on day two. The current bar exam is typically administered in 12 hours over two full days. # # # About the National Conference of Bar Examiners The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, is a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1931. NCBE promotes fairness, integrity, and best practices in bar admissions for the benefit and protection of the public, in pursuit of its vision of a competent, ethical, and diverse legal profession. Best known for developing bar exam content used by 54 US jurisdictions, NCBE serves admission authorities, courts, the legal education community, and candidates by providing high-quality assessment products, services, and research; character investigations; and informational and educational resources and programs. In 2026, NCBE will launch the next generation of the bar examination, ensuring that the exam continues to test the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for competent entry-level legal practice in a changing profession. For more information, visit the NCBE website at About West Academic, a BARBRI Company West Academic is the leading U.S. publisher of legal education materials and digital learning tools for law schools. Rooted in a rich history of legal expertise and innovation, West Academic delivers trusted resources that support faculty instruction and enhance student learning. In 2021, West Academic was acquired by BARBRI. For more information on West Academic, visit For more Information on BARBRI, visit About the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam Set to debut in July 2026, the NextGen UBE will test a broad range of foundational legal doctrine and lawyering skills in the context of the current practice of law. The skills and concepts to be tested were developed through a nationwide legal practice analysis and reflect the most important knowledge and skills for newly licensed lawyers in both litigation and transactional practice. NCBE is committed to ensuring a systematic, transparent, and collaborative implementation process, informed by input from and participation by stakeholders, and guided by best practices and the professional standards for high-stakes testing. For more information, visit Attachment NextGen bar exam adoption map Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with GlobeNewswire. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same. Ahmedabad Plane Crash
New York Times
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Thrillers That Capture the Dark Side of Small-Town Life
This month's books all provide pleasingly fresh variations on a familiar theme: a troubled person's reluctant return home to confront old traumas, and possibly unsolved murders, from long ago. Whether this is a good plan (or not) is an open question. The Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont, the title character of THE GHOSTWRITER (Sourcebooks, 342 pp., $27.99), is still haunted by a tragedy from a generation earlier: the unsolved double murder in 1975 of her father's siblings, Poppy and Danny, in Ojai, Calif. Though her father — just 16 at the time — had an alibi, he could never escape from the rumors that he was the killer. A half-century later, Olivia is pulled back to Ojai to help her father, whom she hasn't seen in decades, write his memoirs. It's a disturbing task. He appears ready to tell the truth, finally, about what happened on that fateful day all those years ago — but is she ready to hear it? 'There are things I never told the police,' he says, darkly. Complicating matters is his recent diagnosis of dementia, and how his memory seems to flicker on and off. 'This illness, it's deceptive. It tricks you into thinking you have a grasp on reality, on events of the past,' he tells her, in one of his lucid moments. 'But then you find out that nothing you believed is real.' Clark's book deftly and engagingly delves into this complicated not-so-cold case, from multiple points of view. Most affecting are a journal and some newly unearthed film footage taken by Poppy, an aspiring moviemaker and budding feminist who turns out to be the heroine of the story. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
USA Today
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Kristina McMorris pens her city's dark history, talks meaning of 'shanghaied'
Kristina McMorris pens her city's dark history, talks meaning of 'shanghaied' As a historical fiction author, Kristina McMorris has made a career out of exploring untold nuggets of history. Her novel 'Sold on a Monday' was inspired by a real newspaper photo of children under a sign offering them for sale. 'Bridge of Scarlet Leaves' followed the non-Japanese women who voluntarily entered Japanese internment camps to stay with their spouses and children. But it took her several decades to learn about the history right in her backyard. McMorris had heard of 'being Shanghaied' as slang, but found out about the Portland Shanghai tunnels, funnily enough, from an episode of "Ghost Hunters". Now, 'The Girls of Good Fortune' (out now from Sourcebooks) connects those tunnels and the discrimination against Chinese laborers during the 1800s through its main character, Celia. What does it mean to get 'shanghaied'? 'Girls of Good Fortune' goes behind slang In popular culture, 'shanghaied' often refers to tricking or coercing someone. But the term's historical roots refer to the method of kidnapping men to meet the growing demand for sailors in the late 19th century. The Portland Tunnels, subject to much local lore, were likely used as dungeons for "shanghaied" victims. 'Girls of Good Fortune,' set in 1888, opens as Celia awakens in one of these underground cells, drugged and disguised as a man. As she retraces her steps to understand how she got there, she begins to understand that she has been 'shanghaied' and is about to be shipped off into forced labor. She'll do anything to make it back to her young daughter, who's been left behind in peril. During the start of her research during the pandemic, McMorris took virtual tours of the tunnels and read historical texts from the Oregon Historical Society to fill in the blanks. It was more of a challenge than her previous novels, many of which have been set in the 20th century and relied on interviews and first-hand accounts. That research led her to a period of intense anti-Chinese violence in the late 1800s. McMorris learned about the Tacoma Method, which refers to a mob of several hundred white men (including city leaders) violently pushing out the entire Chinese community of Tacoma, Washington in 1885. The mob intimidated families, burned churches and broke into and vandalized homes. Seen as a method to successfully push Chinese populations out, the Tacoma expulsion led to even more violence. In Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory in 1885, white miners attacked Chinese miners and set fire to their homes, killing an estimated 28 people. In Hells Canyon in 1887, 30 Chinese miners were gunned down in Oregon by a white gang. The novel is set during this period of intense anti-Chinese sentiments, and Celia's father is killed in these massacres. 'How have we never learned about this?' McMorris says. 'Given that it is, historians will tell you, the greatest atrocity against the Chinese immigrants in America, in our history. And yet most people have never heard of it.' As a historical fiction writer, McMorris says the best compliment she receives from readers is that her books make them want to learn more and do their own research. She sees the genre as an accessible entry point. 'That is more interesting, I hope, than a textbook from history class, when we were told just to memorize dates and names and regurgitate them for exams and it didn't mean much to us because we didn't humanize it,' McMorris says. 'The humanizing of history, where it becomes real people that are us at a different time, they're ordinary people during extraordinary times, in extraordinary circumstances, then we're able to increase empathy. And I think that is really important.' In all her work, McMorris searches for women's roles in history that are 'easily brushed over.' 'When We Had Wings,' her 2022 novel with Ariel Lawhon and Susan Meissner, follows the forgotten but crucial Women's Army Corps in World War II. She's 'endlessly fascinated' by stories of women (fictional and real) who had to disguise themselves as men for freedom, political power or to serve on the battlefield. She was also partially inspired by 'Mulan,' a household family favorite, when she was writing Celia getting 'shanghaied.' Kristina McMorris' Asian identity informs 'Girls of Good Fortune' characters McMorris, who is Japanese and white, hasn't put this much of her Asian identity into a novel since 'Bridge of Scarlet Leaves' in 2012. With 'Girls of Good Fortune,' she used her own experience being mixed race to craft Celia, who is white and Chinese and passing while she works as a maid for the mayor's family. McMorris' father is from Kyoto, and she says he was reluctant for many years to teach her and her sister Japanese because he was 'so proud of having his kids be American.' He regretted it later in his life. 'We didn't know exactly where we fit in,' McMorris says. 'Having a foot in both worlds was interesting and yet wasn't something that we appreciated as much until we got older. And so now we absolutely love that, the feeling that we're different in a way, that we're unique in our own ways.' That experience of balancing assimilation but holding onto cultural roots is something McMorris injected into her novel. And more than just grappling with her identity, Celia reckons with her privilege to pass as white and how she can use her voice to speak up for those who cannot, like her father. 'What we bring to the table is our voice, which is how we view the world, the way that we put those words together, the messages that we want to share,' McMorris says. 'Most importantly, it is telling stories from history that otherwise might be forgotten. Shining a light on that in some way, I think, is absolutely important today more than ever.' More historical fiction: 5 books about forgotten female heroes Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY's Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you're reading at cmulroy@
