New Releases by Julie Berry

While conducting volunteer work in Manhattan in 1888, eighteen-year-old Tabitha and Pearl''s fates intertwine with Jack the Ripper as he is hunted by the Gorgon Medusa.

The third book in New York Times bestselling, award-winning author Julie Berry''s magically adventurous Wishes and Wellingtons series, in which Maeve Merritt and her friends encounter charmed mirrors, meddling thieves, and a lady scholar who doesn''t (yet!) believe in magic. Maeve Merritt knows all about magic. After all, she found Mermeros the djinni in a sardine can! But not even magic can give her the freedom to do the daring things she wants to do in her life—things not allowed for girls in 1897. When Maeve and her friend Alice take a summer field trip to Oxford, though, they''re amazed to see women as college students and even playing sports! But just when it seems like her dreams might one day come true, thieves looking to steal Mermeros put Maeve and her friends in danger. With the help of two charmed silver mirrors, Maeve can outwit almost any burglar, but she knows magic will continue to cause her trouble at every turn. What if it''s time to give up her djnnni once and for all? Is Maeve ready to throw away all her wishes? The perfect book for: Anyone searching for middle grade books Parents, teachers, or librarians looking for kids books ages 8 to 10 Young fantasy readers ages 8-11 Fans of historical fantasy Empowering young girls

Schools often track students to classes based on ability. Proponents of tracking argue it is a low-cost tool to improve learning since instruction is more effective when students are more homogeneous, while opponents argue it exacerbates initial differences in opportunities without strong evidence of efficacy. In fact, little is known about the pervasiveness or determinants of ability tracking in the US. To fill this gap, we use detailed administrative data from Texas to estimate the extent of tracking within schools for grades 4 through 8 over the years 2011-2019. We find substantial tracking; tracking within schools overwhelms any sorting by ability that takes place across schools. The most important determinant of tracking is heterogeneity in student ability, and schools operationalize tracking through the classification of students into categories such as gifted and disabled and curricular differentiation. When we examine how tracking changes in response to educational policies, we see that schools decrease tracking in response to accountability pressures. Finally, when we explore how exposure to tracking correlates with student mobility in the achievement distribution, we find positive effects on high-achieving students with no negative effects on low-achieving students, suggesting that tracking may increase inequality by raising the ceiling.

From award-winning author Julie Berry comes the second installment in the fantastically adventurous Wishes and Wellingtons series, in which our heroine, Maeve Merritt, embarks on a magic-powered and most dangerous quest to help her friends. Now that Maeve Merritt has surrendered Mermeros, the djinni she found in a sardine can, she expects her life in London will be dull as dirt. But villains from Maeve''s previous escapades are still searching for the djinni, now in the hands of Mr. Poindexter, the adoptive father of Maeve''s friend Tommy. When Mr. Poindexter tries to use one of his wishes, he and Mermeros go missing—and without a guardian, Tom will be forced back to the orphanage. With the help of magical flying carpetbags, Maeve, Tom, and their friend Alice soar off to find Mr. Poindexter and that rascal, Mermeros, before the djinni''s fabled wishes fall into the wrong hands. The perfect book for: Anyone looking for middle grade books Parents, teachers, or librarians looking for kids books ages 8 to 10 Young fantasy readers Ages 8-11 Empowering young girls

Sometimes we’re all cranky, and that’s okay! Cranky Right Now shows kids how to deal with those cranky days. Cranky Right Now brings a much-needed message to kids: sometimes we’re all cranky. Maybe we’re tired, we’re hungry, or we’re just feeling grumpy. Dealing with emotions can be hard. Cranky Right Now is a fun and funny ride through the ups and downs of being cranky, helping kids process difficult feelings, frustrating relationships, and things that just make them mad. Award-winning author Julie Berry talks about reasons kids can feel cranky and how to recognize those feelings and acknowledge them. She then gives simple practices for moving through crankiness. She shows that it’s okay to be in a bad mood sometimes—just not to take it out on others—and that cranky days will eventually give way to happy ones. A companion volume to Happy Right Now, with Holly Hatam’s bright and playful illustrations, Cranky Right Now helps you embrace, understand, and move through cranky in a whole new way.

From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Julie Berry comes a brand new middle-grade fantasy adventure full of friendship, magic, and mischief. Be careful what you wish for ... Maeve Merritt chafes at the rigid rules at her London boarding school for "Upright Young Ladies." When punishment forces her to sort through the trash, she finds a sardine tin that houses a foul-tempered djinni with no intention of submitting to a schoolgirl as his master. Soon an orphan boy from the charitable home next door, a mysterious tall man in ginger whiskers, a disgruntled school worker, and a take-no-prisoners business tycoon are in hot pursuit of Maeve and her magical discovery. It''ll take all of her quick thinking and sass to set matters right. Maeve Merritt is one feisty heroine you won''t soon forget. First published as an Audible Original in 2018 The perfect book for: Ages 8-11 Young fantasy readers Empowering young girls

An illustrated picture book that teaches the best way to be happy is to embrace the circumstances we find ourselves in each day Happy Right Now brings a much-needed message to kids: it’s great to feel happy, but it’s okay to feel sad sometimes too. Dealing with emotions can be hard. Children experience the same range of strong feelings as adults, but often don’t have the tools to deal with them. For children ages 4 to 8, Happy Right Now teaches emotional intelligence with fun, relatable imagery and clever rhymes. Award-winning author Julie Berry brings a playful bounce to the important lesson that kids don’t need to wait for fantastic gifts, school vacations, or sunny days to find joy in the moment. And even if they can’t find a way to choose happiness—if the blues are just too strong—Berry provides a series of quick practices to help young readers move through their sadness. Smartly illustrated by Holly Hatam, Happy Right Now is perfect for children, parents, and caregivers who want to learn how to navigate difficult emotions and embrace the bright side of any situation, rain or shine.

It’s no ordinary day at the castle! This beautifully illustrated, picture book is a fun introduction to the medieval world and the illuminated bestiary. Young Godfrey and his family toil for the lord and lady of the castle. But when Godfrey stumbles upon an unfinished Book of Beasts, its splendid pictures of animals make him forget his chores. He invents the story of a brave knight, Sir Godfrey the Glorious, who battles a lion, tames a unicorn, defeats a griffin, conquers a bonnacon, and triumphs over a dragon. Godfrey does not realize that each time he says the name of an animal, it magically emerges from the book, causing mayhem and inadvertently accomplishing his chores. Written by award-winning author Julie Berry, and featuring fantastical illustrations by April Lee, this children’s book also contains engaging back matter with information on life in the Middle Ages and a mini-bestiary showing animals from original thirteenth-century manuscripts. Don’t Let the Beasties Escape This Book! brings the Middle Ages, legendary beasts, and the medieval imagination to life. Ages 5 and up.

The miracle of Christmas comes alive in this luminous celebration of unconditional love and the joy and hope and promise in every child from Printz Honor receipient Julie Berry! Long ago, in a dusty barn, a mother took a child in her arms, wrapped him snug, made his bed in the hay. He was her gift that Christmas Day. There''s no sweeter gift than a life so new. My best gift, little one, is you.In this poignant and lyrical story by Printz Honor recepient Julie Berry, the miracle of Christmas and the promise in every new child come together in a luminous celebration of unconditional love and hope. With tender, incandescent illustrations by Annie Won, the wonder of the nativity story and the marvel of every baby come alive in a wholly extraordinary book for families everywhere.A special, beautiful keepsake storybook to read, share, and cherish every Christmas season with the ones you love.

As young dairymaid Begonia tries to find her lost cow, Alfalfa, using a magical map, the Emperor goes missing from the royal palace and Begonia must use her wits to save the empire and get Alfalfa home safely.

A Printz Honor Book "Gorgeous and evocative . . . magnificent."--The New York Times Medieval France: Dolssa is an upper-crust city girl with a secret lover and an uncanny gift. Branded a heretic, she’s on the run from the friar who condemned her mother to death by fire, and wants Dolssa executed, too. Botille is a matchmaker and a tavern-keeper, struggling to keep herself and her sisters on the right side of the law in their seaside town of Bajas. Their lives collide when Botille rescues a dying Dolssa and agrees to conceal her in the tavern. Aided by her sisters and Symo, her surly but loyal neighbor, Botille nurses Dolssa back to health and hides her from her pursuers. But all of Botille’s tricks, tales, and cleverness can’t protect them forever, and when the full wrath of the Church bears down upon Bajas, Dolssa’s passion and Botille’s good intentions could destroy the entire village.

Abstract: Improving public sector workforce quality is challenging in sectors such as education where worker productivity is difficult to assess and manager incentives are muted by political and bureaucratic constraints. In this paper, we study how providing information to principals about teacher effectiveness and encouraging them to use the information in personnel decisions affects the composition of teacher turnovers. Our setting is the Houston Independent School District, which recently implemented a rigorous teacher evaluation system. Prior to the new system teacher effectiveness was negatively correlated with district exit and we show that the policy significantly strengthened this relationship, primarily by increasing the relative likelihood of exit for teachers in the bottom quintile of the quality distribution. Low-performing teachers working in low-achieving schools were especially likely to leave. However, despite the success, the implied change to the quality of the workforce overall is too small to have a detectable impact on student achievement

Firms and other organizations establish the criteria under which employees will be judged and the performance measures made available to supervisors, the board of directors and other stakeholders, and these structures almost certainly influence behavior and organization outcomes. Any divergence of the chosen performance metric from an ideal measurement of productivity may lead to suboptimal outcomes, particularly in the public sector where outside interest groups may rely more heavily on easily accessible ratings than better-informed insiders. In the case of public education, federal and state accountability systems provide considerable information about student outcomes and rate schools on that basis. However, the No Child Left Behind accountability legislation’s focus on pass rates rather than learning and achievement growth introduces the possibility that inadequate information and a flawed structure each compromise public school quality. This study of school principal labor market outcomes investigates the relationship between principal labor market success and a set of performance measures that differ on the basis of accessibility to stakeholders and link with true principal productivity. The results from the empirical analysis provide evidence that information and design deficiencies introduce a lack of alignment between incentives and principal productivity and adversely affect the quality of education in Texas public schools.

Il y a de cela quatre ans, Judith et sa meilleure amie ont disparu du village de Rosewell Station sans laisser de traces. Deux ans plus tard, seul Judith est revenue, définitivement mutilée - la langue tranchée -, et s''est vue mise au ban de sa communauté. Incapable de parler, refusant de s''expliquer, la jeune fille vit depuis tel un fantôme hagard dans sa propre maison, ne s''adressant qu''en pensée au garçon qui a ravi son coeur depuis toujours - son ami d''enfance, Lucas. Cependant, lorsque Rosewell Station est attaqué, Judith va devoir faire un choix : continuer à vivre dans le silence et voir les siens massacrés, ou retrouver sa voix et affronter par la même occasion les démons de son passé et son ravisseur...

"Seven very proper Victorian young ladies conspire to hide a murder from the authorities at their boarding school" --

Judith (18, ik-figuur) is twee jaar vermist geweest. Als ze terugkeert wordt ze door de gemeenschap verstoten, omdat ze door haar ontvoerder verminkt is. Vanaf ca. 15 jaar.

ALL THE TRUTH THAT''S IN ME is many things. It is a true romance, a story of desperate yearning and unrequited love. It''s a page-turning mystery full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end. But most of all, it''s an empowering drama about a girl''s journey from victim to hero. Judith can''t speak. Ever since the horrifying trauma that left her best friend dead and Judith without her tongue, she''s been a pariah in her close-knit community of Roswell Station; even her own mother won''t look her in the eye. All Judith can do is silently pour out her thoughts and feelings to the love of her life, the boy who''s owned her heart as long as she can remember - even if he doesn''t know it - her childhood friend, Lucas. But when Roswell Station is attacked by enemies, long-buried secrets come to light . . . and Judith''s world starts to shift on its axis. Before she knows it, Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice, even if what she has to say might change her world, and the lives around her, forever.

When Headmaster Farley''s estranged sister takes over Splurch Academy, Cody and the other boys are pitted against their new classmates, the girls of Priscilla Prim Academy for Precious and Proper Young Ladies.

Abstract: Beginning in 1998, all students in the state of Texas who graduated in the top ten percent of their high school classes were guaranteed admission to any in-state public higher education institution, including the flagships. While the goal of this policy is to improve college access for disadvantaged and minority students, the use of a school-specific standard to determine eligibility could have unintended consequences. Students may increase their chances of being in the top ten percent by choosing a high school with lower-achieving peers. Our analysis of students'' school transitions between 8th and 10th grade three years before and after the policy change reveals that this incentive influences enrollment choices in the anticipated direction. Among the subset of students with both motive and opportunity for strategic high school choice, as many as 25 percent enroll in a different high school to improve the chances of being in the top ten percent. Strategic students tend to choose the neighborhood high school in lieu of more competitive magnet schools and, regardless of own race, typically displace minority students from the top ten percent pool. The net effect of strategic behavior is to slightly decrease minority students'' representation in the pool

A lyrical and magical new story from the acclaimed author of The Amaranth Enchantment

Can one magical momentlead to happily ever after?

We explore the extent to which schools manipulate the composition of students in the test-taking pool in order to maximize ratings under Texas'' accountability system in the 1990s. We first derive predictions from a static model of administrators'' incentives given the structure of the ratings criteria, and then test these predictions by comparing differential changes in exemption rates across student subgroups within campuses and across campuses and regimes. Our analyses uncover evidence of a moderate degree of strategic behavior, so that there is some tension between designing systems that account for heterogeneity in student populations and that are manipulation-free.

The empirical literature on DI has primarily focused on the impact of program parameters on caseload growth or reduced labor force attachment. The focus on the efficiency costs of DI provides a misleading view of the social desirability of the program itself and of the adequacy of benefit levels. In order to provide a more comprehensive view, we develop a framework that allows us to simulate the benefits as well as the costs associated with a marginal increase in benefit generosity using a representative crosssectional sample of the population. Using the 1991 March CPS, we estimate the total cost of providing an additional $1 of income to current DI recipients to be $1.42. While the load factor due to moral hazard is fairly high, we demonstrate that it is moderate enough that representative workers should be willing to "buy" additional insurance through reduced take-home pay at this price. The reform looks less attractive, however, once the financial benefits and costs are distributed across individuals in the sample. Fist, the average implicit price of an additional dollar of insurance is actually much higher than $1.42 for all but the least educated category of workers due to the redistribute nature of the program. We predict that the reform leads to a net welfare loss for these more highly educated groups, regardless of the level of risk aversion. Second, despite an average implicit price of less than $1, the expected utility gain also turns negative for high school dropouts under high levels of risk aversion. Second, despite an average implicit price of less than $1, the expected utility gain also turns negative for high school dropouts under high levels of risk aversion. This counterintuitive finding arises since the utility calculation weighs low income individuals more heavily as risk aversion increases and individuals with income below the floor provided to current DI recipients help to finance the benefit increase.

School choice has become an increasingly prominent strategy for urban school districts seeking to enhance academic achievement. Evaluating the impact of such programs is complicated by the fact that a highly select sample of students takes advantage of these programs. To overcome this difficulty, we exploit randomized lotteries that determine high school admission in the Chicago Public Schools. Surprisingly, we find little evidence that attending sought after programs provides any benefit on a wide variety of traditional academic measures, including standardized test scores, attendance rates, course-taking, and credit accumulation. This is true despite the fact that those students who win the lotteries attend better high schools along a number of dimensions, including higher peer achievement levels, higher peer graduation rates, and lower levels of poverty. We do, however, uncover evidence that attendance at such schools may improve a subset of non-traditional outcome measures, such as self-reported disciplinary incidences and arrest rates.

Current education reform proposals involve improving educational outcomes through forms of market-based competition and expanded parental choice. In this paper, we explore the impact of choice through open enrollment within the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Roughly half of the students within CPS opt out of their assigned high school to attend other neighborhood schools or special career academies and magnet schools. Access to school choice dramatically increases student sorting by ability relative to neighborhood assignment. Students who opt out are more likely to graduate than observationally similar students who remain at their assigned schools. However, with the exception of those attending career academies, the gains appear to be largely spurious driven by the fact that more motivated students are disproportionately likely to opt out. Students with easy geographical access to a range of schools other than career academies (who presumably have a greater degree of school choice) are no more likely to graduate on average than students in more isolated areas. We find no evidence that this finding can be explained by negative spillovers to those who remain that mask gains to those who travel. Open enrollment apparently benefits those students who take advantage of having access to vocational programs without harming those who do not.