Through the small tall bathroom window the December yard is gray and scratchy, the tree calligraphic.

Maybe he was more than the sum of his broken parts.

We are unusual and tragic and alive.

High school teachers who want to get reluctant readers turned around need to give the students some say in the reading list. Make it collaborative: The students will feel ownership, and everyone will dig in.

Every time my brain parks the car neatly in the driveway, my mouth drives through the back of the garage.

I'm an amateur science enthusiast. I'm not even a professional enthusiast. I don't know anything; I never even passed biology in high school. But I read the science section of the newspaper.

I really believe strongly that kids should be spared the runoff of their parents' lives and problems.