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A Gift of Days

A Gift of Days
A Gift of Days
The Greatest Words to Live By  
Illustrated by: Stephen Alcorn
This edition: Hardcover, 128 pages
Ages: 8 and up
Availability: Usually ships within 3-4 weeks
List Price: $21.99
Your Price: $17.59 You Save $4.40 (20%)

Awards and Nominations

  • CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book

Description

The society in which we live has been, and continues to be, inspired by visionaries and heroes from all walks of life: activists and artists, athletes and writers, inventors and explorers, healers and politicians, musicians and moguls. Our world's visionaries and heroes challenge assumptions, push boundaries, and inspire the ordinary to become extraordinary, thereby shaping our world each and every day.

Starting with January 1 and arranged by birth date, A Gift of Days highlights the words and ideas of 366 noteworthy figures -- including Shakespeare and Steve Jobs, Jackie Robinson and Billie Jean King, Beethoven and Buzz Aldrin, Abraham Lincoln and Maya Angelou, Blessed Mother Teresa and Oprah, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi -- to motivate and inspire readers of all ages to become heroes and mentors themselves, the kind of people who nurture and shape the very best of our culture and society.

With resounding words of wisdom, a stunning selection of portraits, short informative biographies of the visionaries, and an illustrator's note, A Gift of Days celebrates the society of which we're all a part and reminds us that we each have the potential to change the world every day of the year.

How did you come to write this book?

My GIFT OF DAYS (book) project (Atheneum, 2009) is an outgrowth, and in ways fusion, of two disparate publishing endeavors of mine: 1) THE VISIONARY'S ALMANAC (a grayscale, half-page, biweekly feature that is published by MAIN STREET, a newspaper serving the Albany region). 2) A series of full-color e-mail tributes I conceived and mailed out regularly over a three year period celebrating my favorite musicians, authors, directors, philosophers, social activists and cultural icons in general. Replete with salient quotes and original portraiture, the series of e-mail installments was sent under the subject "BOOK OF DAYS".

Learn more about Stephen Alcorn