Over the last two months, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt employees on two local teams ran, jogged, and walked their way to the finish lines of JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge 3.5-mile road races in Chicago and Boston. Participating in multiple cities marked the start of a new, more inclusive tradition for the Company.

Comprised of 23 employees from the Company's Evanston, Geneva, and Rolling Meadows offices, the Chicago team joined 17,000 participants from 525 area companies on May 21, to run and raise money for the Greater Chicago Food Depository. The Boston team, which included 45 employees from both the Boston and Wilmington offices, ran with a crowd of 12,000 participants from 651 companies on June 25, to benefit Camp Harbor View.

Both Houghton Mifflin Harcourt teams demonstrated solidarity and spirit throughout their runs by wearing specially designed T-shirts bearing bright yellow sunbursts and the tagline, "177 years old and still running strong." And they certainly did run strong: the Company's fastest men and women—Evanston's Raj Desai and Roxann Salgado and Boston's Brian Godfrey and Lauren McCarthy—all crossed the finish line with impressive speed.

The Irish Voice's second-annual Most Influential Women list salutes businesswomen, politicians, and community leaders who demonstrate business savvy, resourcefulness, and exceptional leadership within their fields. Each of this year's 75 honorees, ranging from Irish citizens to fourth-generation Irish-Americans, attributes their personal and professional success to their rich cultural heritage.

Chief Human Resources Officer Ciara Smyth has contributed to the evolution and success of both Irish and American businesses. Before joining Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Ciara served as executive vice president of Global Business Operations at Riverdeep, an Irish publisher of interactive education products that merged with Houghton Mifflin in 2007. A self-described product of Ireland, Ciara believes that her "professional success has been made possible because of the education and upbringing" she received at home.

The Company proudly congratulates Ciara on this impressive distinction, and celebrates her commitment to excellence at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Research shows that K–12 students typically lose between one and three months of learned material over their summer vacation. In a June 2 article entitled "Keep Kids' Brains Active to Avoid Summer Drain," The Sacramento Bee's Niesha Lofing published Susan's expert advice on how to keep students in practice without dampening summer fun. Susan's recommendations also appeared on Boston.com's Child Caring parenting and news advice blog last week.

According to Susan, routine activities like shopping, cooking, watching sports, and reading become prime learning opportunities during the summer. By adding up the cost of grocery items, following recipe instructions, tracking a favorite sports team, or reading aloud with family members, children can practice important math and reading skills, as well as develop critical-thinking and analytical abilities, in casual and fun non-academic settings.

After an outpouring of emotion from readers, David Sheff broadened his New York Times Magazine article “My Addicted Son” into the highly acclaimed book Beautiful Boy. Sheff's honest account of his struggle with son Nic's crystal meth addiction rose quickly to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Additionally, Nic offered a first-hand account of his crippling addiction, relapses, and recovery in his own memoir, Tweak.

In April 2008, father and son appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss their experiences and advise parents and families of drug-addicted children. Also featured were parents who gained strength from Beautiful Boy while facing their own children’s addictions. The show, which was a highlight of the season, will re-air next Thursday, June 4, at 4:00 p.m. EST.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt annually sponsors two scholarships for the children of our employees. Chosen by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), this competitive award is based on academics, extracurricular involvement, and leadership.  

Taylor, daughter of Kathy Doyle, will be attending Abilene Christian University where she plans to major in nursing. An accomplished student, Taylor is a member of the National Honor Society and has served two years as captain for Lewisville High School’s Women’s Varsity Soccer team. In her spare time, she enjoys working out, going to baseball games and spending time with her family and friends.

Dylan, son of Denise Piatt, will enroll in the University of Chicago this fall where he intends to major in statistics. Dylan is currently a student at Elgin High School Gifted and Talented Academy where he is the Valedictorian for the class of 2009 and a member of the National Honor Society. Dylan also volunteers for Youth United Way and the Elgin Community Crisis Center.

In a CNBC interview on May 5, 2009, Scott Kirkpatrick, executive vice president of strategy and business management for K–12, and columnist John Dvorak shared their impressions of Amazon’s new Kindle DX electronic reading device, its effect on the textbook publishing industry, and its value to K–12 students.

Kirkpatrick praised the Kindle DX as a comprehensive education solution that offers numerous learning modalities to all types of students. The Kindle provides an innovative and eco-friendly way to deliver the Company's robust suite of K­–12 offerings, and its interactivity and transportability increase student engagement within and beyond the classroom.

Time magazine's annual "Time 100" recognizes Houghton Mifflin Harcourt author David Sheff as one of the world's most influential people of 2009.

Sheff's deeply moving account of his son's struggle through addiction, entitled Beautiful Boy, was number one on the New York Times Bestseller List. In it, Sheff traces his own journey as a parent, wrestling with feelings of loss and responsibility, with a voice that is both resonant and compelling.

Time heralds David Sheff as one of this year's most influential scientists and thinkers, and places him in a category shared by presidential speechwriter Jon Favreau and Harvard economic professor Roland Fryer among others.

Teachers and math coaches in Pennsylvania's West Shore School District are extremely impressed by Math Expressions, a K–5 mathematics curriculum that combines traditional with innovative standards-based instruction to develop conceptual understanding, fluency, and mastery of skills. The curriculum uses objects, drawings, and Math Talk (a discussion community) to emphasize the real-world application of mathematical ideas. Several months into the curriculum, first-graders at the district's Fishing Creek Elementary School are achieving measurable success. Teachers are thrilled by their students' increasing eagerness to share mathematical thoughts with classmates. West Shore educators agree that Math Expressions' interactivity builds the personal confidence that enables students' academic success.

This praise arrives on the heels of a large-scale federal study showing that Math Expressions and Saxon Math, another Houghton Mifflin Harcourt early mathematics program, surpass Investigations in Number, Data, and Space and Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Mathematics—both published by Pearson—in instructional efficacy among elementary school students. For more information regarding the study, click here.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has acquired The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, a never-before-published Norse epic by J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien wrote The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún during his Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon, which he held from 1925 to 1945 at Oxford University. Though it predates his best-known works, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún shares important literary threads with both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The manuscript has never been reproduced or quoted, even in part, since its completion more than seventy years ago.

Like much of his work, Tolkien's narrative retelling of Sigurd the Völsung and The Fall of the Niflungs derives from the Poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse minstrel poems. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún will be published worldwide, in English, in early May. A Tolkien lecture on Norse literature will serve as its introduction, and it will include commentary and notes by his son, Christopher Tolkien.

Michelle Obama: An American Story by David Colbert (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children) debuted at #10 on the New York Times Best Seller List this month. Colbert interprets the challenges and triumphs of Michelle's early life within the context of African American history, demonstrating the transcendence of sociopolitical movements like abolition, reconstruction, and civil rights. This timely and poignant biography teaches children that the legacies of today's role models derive from the lessons of the past. Colbert's other historical accounts include Eyewitness to America: 500 Years of American History in the Words of Those Who Saw It Happen (1998) and the series 10 Days that Shook Your World (2008).

On December 11, 2008, Adams Elementary School of Madera, California ended the Edusoft Assessment Management System® 100,000,000th Answer Sheet Scan Contest by scanning Edusoft's 100 millionth answer document. The landmark answer document was scanned by Vallorie Borchardt, a school administrator, and belonged to student Oscar Rodriguez. Madera Unified School District, which consists of 27 schools and 18,500 students, has been a proud Riverside customer for six years. In recognition of Adams Elementary's 100,000,000th scan, Riverside Publishers presented the school with a $2,500 check to help fund a choice hardware or software purchase.

The Edusoft Assessment Management System® is a standards-based assessment solution designed to improve classroom instruction and student performance. It helps schools administer district benchmarks and classroom tests quickly and easily, improves the reliability of assessment programs, and connects assessment to instructional decisions.

PRINT, the nation's premier visual culture and design magazine, featured a trio of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt cover designs in its 2008 Regional Design Annual, published last month. Industry designers submit tens of thousands of pieces to the Annual each year—of which only a handful withstand its three rounds of stringent judging. The body of remaining entries represents the nation's most striking, elegant, and thought-provoking designs.

The cover and jacket designs of Howard Norman's Devotion (2008), Grégoire Bouillier's The Mystery Guest (2007), and Dana Adam Shapiro's The Every Boy (2007) bested nearly 10,000 submissions. Trade and Reference Executive Art Director Michaela Sullivan—whose portfolio includes Anchee Min's The Last Empress (2007), David Sheff's Beautiful Boy (2008), and Preeta Samarasan's Evening Is the Whole Day (2008)—designed Devotion. Trade and Reference Art Director Christopher Moisan designed both The Mystery Guest and The Every Boy. His other work includes The Best American Comics 2006 and John Harwood's The Seance (2009).

On October 7, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt was named 2008 Educational Partner of the Year by Microsoft for its outstanding commitment to providing innovative teaching and learning solutions worldwide. In its recognition of the Company, Microsoft highlighted Learning Village as a particularly powerful curriculum management solution.

Learning Village, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Learning Technology, is an innovative, web-based curriculum management solution that equips educators with a shared portal of resources and learning tools like best practices, instructional strategies, and lesson plans. By facilitating content creation, asset management, and district-wide collaboration, Learning Village enhances the teaching experience and enables consistent, measurable achievement among students.

Bridget Marmion, senior vice president and director of marketing for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade and Reference Division, has been named chair of the Association of American Publishers' (AAP) Trade Publishers Executive Committee. Bridget replaces HarperStudio President Bob Miller, who has held the position since 2002.

Bridget's responsibilities as chair of the committee include collaborating with vendors, critics, and media to promote awareness of worthy books and authors; developing philanthropic, outreach, and community service programs that emphasize literacy and education; and reviewing nominees for the next annual AAP Honors Award, given to an individual or organization outside the publishing community who demonstrates exceptional commitment to promoting American books and authors.

A new, irreverent and funny middle-grade novel by Newbery Medalist Lois Lowry will be illustrated by Pulitzer-prize winning Jules Feiffer. Birthday Ball, which will publish in spring 2010, features feisty Princess Patricia Priscilla on her sixteenth birthday. Although the princess is expected to choose a suitor on her big day, she instead sets off on a series of adventures with her cat Delicious and other entertaining characters.

Feiffer, the subject of a PBS biography Feiffer’s America, wrote an internationally syndicated cartoon for the Village Voice for forty-two years, and is currently working on a full-length animated feature film. He is also a professor at Southampton College at Long Island University. Lowry, a longtime Houghton Mifflin Harcourt author who worked for many years with Editor Walter Lorraine, has won the prestigious Newbery Medal twice, in 1990 for Number the Stars and in 1994 for The Giver.

United Animal Nations (UAN) has selected Lucky Boy as part of its Humane Education Ambassador Reader (HEAR) reading list. Written and illustrated by Susan Boase, the children's book was chosen for a touching storyline that explores the kind and caring relationship between Lucky Boy, a dog, and Mr. Miller, his elderly neighbor.

UAN, a nonprofit, charitable organization, promotes the compassionate treatment of animals and provides rescue and shelter services across the country. Volunteers from the HEAR program will read Lucky Boy to children and discuss its thematic elements, with a focus on the connection between people and animals and the responsible, moral way humans should treat them.

Lucky Boy is also a past recipient of the KIND Award from the Humane Society of the USA-Youth organization.

Nine titles published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt claimed slots on Entertainment Weekly's list of one hundred New Classic Books. The notable books include American Pastoral by Philip Roth (#5), Blindness by José Saramago (#12), The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (#16), The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (#31), Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (#39), Clockers by Richard Price (#49), The Giver by Lois Lowry (#65), Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (#68), and Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (#94). The list, which was published in the June 27, 2008, issue of the magazine, ranked books published in the past twenty-five years.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is helping bolster reading skills internationally with a donation of more than 300,000 books to eight Asian countries. Working through San Francisco–based Books for Asia, the Company is able to reach learners in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Mongolia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. High illiteracy rates affect many in Asia, and the need for books written in English is rising.

Books for Asia staff work with local partners to deliver the books schools, reading and child care centers, and libraries with the greatest need, helping a new generation of readers develop their English skills.

Failure, the direct and wry collection from well-known author Philip Schultz, is a 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry. Dating back to 1917, the Pulitzer Prize is among the most respected awards in the nation and recognizes accomplishment in various fields of American journalism, literature, and music. Natasha Trethewey's Native Guard took last year's poetry honors.

Schultz has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and is the founder of the Writers Studio in New York. His collection Like Wings was a National Book Award nominee.

David Sheff's Beautiful Boy sits in the top slot on the New York Times nonfiction best-seller list for April 6. Chronicling his teenage son Nic's torturous journey through addiction to methamphetamines, Sheff presents a parent's unique perspective on a child's downward spiral.

Beautiful Boy is currently the featured title in the Starbucks Entertainment book program, and is available in more than 6,500 Starbucks locations throughout the United States. Nic Sheff's version of his addiction story, Tweak (Simon & Schuster), is at number four on the Times children's chapter book best-seller list.

Two of the most trusted names in educational publishing, Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt, have joined to become Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Together, these companies will be able to offer more choices in educational publishing, with integrated and customized educational solutions as well as award-winning trade and reference materials from the industry's most distinguished list of authors.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will continue to support all of the products and programs their customers value and rely upon while, at the same time, investing in new product development and services. To learn more about Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt, visit www.hmco.com and www.harcourt.com.

For her book The Fragile Edge, Houghton Mifflin author Julia Whitty is this year's recipient of the John Burroughs Medal. Given annually, the award recognizes the author of a distinguished work of natural history. In The Fragile Edge, documentary filmmaker and deep-sea diver Whitty takes readers underwater to the coral reefs and sea life of the South Pacific. Her narrative examines the ways in which science extends our understanding of the ocean, illuminating the threats facing reefs and why these fragile oases are vital to human survival.

The John Burroughs Association will present Whitty with the award during its annual meeting in April at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Nine Houghton Mifflin titles have received the Burroughs Medal since the award's inception in 1926; most recently, The Singing Life of Birds in 2006, and in 2001, Swampwalker's Journal.

Click here for more information on the John Burroughs Medal.

Each year, the National Endowment for the Humanities awards medals to those whose work contributes to and enriches the humanities. Two of this year’s nine recipients, Russell Freedman and Cynthia Ozick, are Houghton Mifflin authors.

Freedman, who was recognized for "recounting the history of our nation's struggle for liberty," is an award-winning writer of nonfiction works for young readers. His numerous honors include the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award for The Voice that Challenged a Nation, and the Newbery Medal for Lincoln: A Photobiography.

Ozick was recognized "for literary criticism which has traced the shifting currents of American arts and letters," and is a leading author of fiction and nonfiction with more than a dozen books to her credit. Dictation: A Quartet—the next book by the Pulitzer Prize–finalist and multiple National Book Critics Circle honoree—is set to publish in 2008.

The National Endowment for the Humanities selects winners for their lifelong achievements in their areas of expertise. President Bush presented the medals during a ceremony in the White House East Room.

Click here for more information about the awards.

This year, Houghton Mifflin is sponsoring the National Vocabulary Championship (NVC), which will feature one of the Company's premier reference tools, the American Heritage Dictionary. The NVC is an academic competition that tests vocabulary prowess and aims to narrow the achievement gap. The AHD will serve as the contest's official dictionary. Open to eligible high school students throughout the United States, the NVC awards more than $100,000 annually in college tuition and other prizes.

Click here for more information about the NVC.

Just in time for the new school year, ClassZone, McDougal Littell's interactive website for students and educators, enjoyed a dramatic redesign. With an updated navigation and more accessible content, it is now easier than ever for students to utilize lessons, chapters, and activities correlated to their textbook programs, and for teachers to quickly access engaging content for class and homework. Users are already taking advantage of the new format. In the short time since the launch "visits to pages have doubled," said Jim Ferguson, director of the digital learning group for McDougal Littell. "People are liking what they see and finding what they want."

Click here to experience the new ClassZone.

This year, two Houghton Mifflin authors received coveted James Beard Foundation Awards—the nation's preeminent honors for culinary professionals. Dorie Greenspan claimed the prize in the Baking and Dessert category for Baking: From My Home to Yours and was also inducted into the James Beard Foundation Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America. Roy Finamore won in the very competitive General category for Tasty: Get Great Food on the Table Every Day. Each spring, the peer-judged awards recognize cookbooks, restaurants and chefs, design and graphics, broadcast media, journalism, and achievement.

Click here to learn more about the James Beard Foundation Awards.

Houghton Mifflin's newest division is off to a great start with recent accolades from the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) for two if its flagship products. Houghton Mifflin Learning Technology received two Codie Awards for Best Mathematics Instruction Solution and Best Instruction Solution for Special Needs Students.

Larson Learning—a highly interactive software-based math program that combines real-world problem solving and skill building through interactive instruction, guided practice, and mastery—was named Best Mathematics Instruction Solution. The Edmark House Series—a series combining activities that supplement math, reading, social studies and science in the special needs and early learning classrooms, and supports cross-curricular instruction—was named Best Instruction Solution for Special Needs Students.

Established by SIIA in 1986, the Codie Awards celebrate outstanding achievement and vision in the software, digital information, and education technology industries. The Codie Awards holds the distinction of being the only peer-recognition awards program of its kind in the industry, providing a unique opportunity for companies to earn the praise of their competitors.

Great Source iwrite, a free web resource to aid writing instruction for grades 5–12 in and outside the classroom, garnered a glowing review recently in MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, a magazine focused on technology tools for educators. The review rated iwrite as "highly recommended," and gave grades of 'A' in all four categories of the product rating system: Installation, Content/Features, Ease of Use, and Product Support.

The iwrite site utilizes Great Source's flagship writing curriculum, Write Source, mixed with interactive content (such as streaming video grammar lessons), online tutorials, and tips from the iwrite resident writing expert to supplement in-class writing programs. The MultiMedia & Internet@Schools review praised the site's "wonderful tools and resources for writing," recommending that "every teacher with adequate Internet access should take advantage of Great Source iwrite and should recommend it to parents for home use." 

Click here to read the product review.

To learn more about iwrite, visit www.greatsource.com/iwrite.

In an exciting month for Houghton Mifflin poets, Natasha Trethewey received the Pulitzer Prize for her collection Native Guard, and Erica Funkhouser was granted a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship.

Recognizing accomplishment in various fields of American journalism, literature, and music, the Pulitzer Prize is one of the most respected awards in the nation. The elegiac Native Guard pays homage to the Louisiana Native Guards, one of the first black regiments called into service during the Civil War. Trethewey has also been the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, the Groiler Poetry Prize, and a Pushcart Prize.

Joining the list of renowned Guggenheim recipients, including Trethewey, Erica Funkhouser, is a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Guggenheim Fellows are chosen for their distinguished past achievement and the promise of exceptional future accomplishment. Funkhouser's fifth collection, Earthly,will be released next year and will feature poems that explore what it means to be earthly.

Houghton Mifflin's Student Achievement Series is a new concept in college textbooks, designed to meet the teaching needs of today's instructors and the learning, study, and assessment needs of today's students. Based on extensive research, the Student Achievement Series incorporates the suggestions and preferences of a diverse cross-section of more than six-hundred students and instructors from forty universities. It's the first time instructors and students from across the country have joined together to help build their textbooks systematically from the ground up. The result is a series that "is very student focused," said Paulina Glater, student at DePaul University. "It does seem like a different concept as far as what other texts have done."

Due to student and instructor demand, the Student Achievement Series is growing rapidly. Launched in June 2006, it already includes seven titles for a wide array of courses, including: Principles of Management by Ricky Griffin, The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History by Richard Bulliet, and Fundamentals of Business Communication by Scot Ober. "The online resources are very helpful for following along in class and especially for studying for tests," said Holli Gabri, student at Adrian College.

Click here for more student feedback about the Student Achievement Series.

The American Library Association (ALA) recently announced that David Wiesner is the winner of this year's Randolph Caldecott Medal for his most recent picture book, Flotsam, published by Clarion Books. Given annually, the Caldecott Medal honors the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. In the richly illustrated Flotsam, an underwater camera travels through the ocean capturing fantastical images before washing up on a beach and giving a young boy surprising views from the bottom of the sea.

This marks Wiesner's third Caldecott; he also won for The Three Pigs in 2002, Tuesday in 1992, and received Caldecott Honors for Sector 7 in 2000 and Free Fall in 1989.

This year, the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) named three Houghton Mifflin products as finalists for their prestigious Codie Awards, which celebrate outstanding achievement and vision in the software, digital information, and education technology industries. Riverdeep's The Edmark House Series is competing in the category of Best Instruction Solution for Special Needs Students, Great Source's Larson's Intermediate Math 4.0 is a contender in the Best Mathematics Instruction Solution category, and Riverside Publishing's Edusoft Assessment Management System, Version 4.0, is vying for the Best Student Assessment Solution. Selected by a group of journalist and peer reviewers, the winners of the twenty-second annual Codie Awards will be announced at a gala in San Francisco on April 17.

Click here to learn more about the Codie Awards on the SIIA website.

Houghton Mifflin Company recently merged with Riverdeep, a Dublin-based courseware publisher, to forge the most comprehensive set of print and technology-based educational resources available under one company. With a common vision for the future of education, Houghton Mifflin and Riverdeep bring together complementary strengths, combining trusted, research-based programs with top-selling technology solutions to meet the ever-increasing, complex challenges of today's pre-K–12 classrooms.

Committed to creating interactive teaching tools that deliver measurable results, Riverdeep features such award-winning brands as the Destination Success series, which includes Destination Math and Destination Reading; Riverdeep Learning Village; and Reader Rabbit.

Dr. David Lohman, lead author of the Riverside Publishing Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT), recently received the distinguished Paper of the Year award at the 2006 NAGC Convention for "The Role of Nonverbal Ability Tests in Identifying Academically Gifted Students: An Aptitude Perspective."

Dr. Lohman is the creator of the Riverside Publishing CogAT Interactive (Score) Profile Interpretation System. CogAT is a rigorously developed assessment used by schools to adapt instruction to individual students' abilities and to determine eligibility for gifted and talented programs. Dr. Lohman's Interactive (Score) Profile Interpretation System gives each student an ability-profile score based on his/her CogAT results that can be readily accessed by teachers online.

"The recognition of Dr. Lohman's work by the NAGC further supports the use of CogAT to identify students as academically gifted who might not otherwise be identified on the basis of academic achievement alone," said Michael Perik, chairman, Riverside Publishing.

For additional information on CogAT, visit www.cogat.com.

China Shakes the World by James Kynge is the winner of the 2006 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. Given annually, this prestigious award honors the business book that provides the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues. China Shakes the World offers alternative explanations for China's explosive transformation and reshaping of world trade and politics. A former bureau chief in China, Kynge describes how the country’s breakneck rise occurred, the extraordinary problems China now faces, and the consequences of both for the twenty-first century.

David Macaulay and David Carroll are both recent recipients of this year's prestigious MacArthur Fellowships. Sometimes referred to as the genius awards, the $500,000 grants are given by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and are intended to encourage people of outstanding talent from varied fields to pursue their own creative, intellectual, and professional inclinations.

David Macaulay is the creator of numerous award-winning children's books including international bestsellers The New Way Things Work, Mosque , and the Caldecott medalist Black and White. His unique visuals have celebrated some of the world's greatest architectural and engineering achievements.

Author, illustrator, and naturalist David Carroll's interest in swamp creatures and fresh water turtles is evident in his books, including Self-Portrait with Turtles and Swampwalker's Journal. His work has helped people of all ages to see the beauty, history, and value in swamps, bogs, kettle ponds, and rivers.

For more information and a complete list of recipients, visit http://www.macfound.org.

With nearly thirty-five million books in print and a feature film under his belt, Houghton Mifflin's mischievous monkey will make his much-anticipated television debut on Monday, September 4, when Curious George premieres nationwide on PBS. Based on the beloved children's stories by Margret and H.A. Rey, the half-hour series is narrated by award-winning actor William H. Macy and features two animated stories per episode along with short live-action segments showing children investigating math and science concepts. Curious George will also be the focus at a number of upcoming events, including the month-long "Be Curious @ Your Library" series taking place at all twenty-seven branches of the Boston Public Library in October, and a number of scavenger hunts at zoos across the country.

Visit the PBS Kids website to check your local listings for Curious George.

Houghton Mifflin is proud to partner with BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life) to sponsor their accelerated learning program, BELL Summer. A nationally recognized organization, BELL provides academic and social support during out-of-school-time to students in grades K–5 living in low-income, urban communities.

BELL Summer addresses the learning loss typically experienced during summer months. The program's mix of classroom learning, enrichment activities, guest speakers, and community and parent involvement results in students with increased self esteem and academic preparedness as well as an average gain of five months' worth of grade-equivalent reading, writing, and math skills.

For more information about BELL, visit http://www.bellnational.org/.

Houghton Mifflin took first place in the second annual Boston Reading Tournament during Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic's (RFB&D) 2006 Record-a-Thon. Competing against local businesses and joining two hundred other volunteers, the fifteen-member Houghton Mifflin team read seventeen hours worth of educational textbooks aloud, eleven hours more than the second place finisher. In total, the Record-a-Thon produced nearly four hundred hours of material, which translates to twenty audiobooks for the C.V. Starr Learning Through Listening Library and students with print disabilities.

RFB&D is a nonprofit volunteer organization that promotes equal access to the printed word for all people, regardless of visual impairment, dyslexia, or other physical disability.

For more information about RFB&D, visit http://www.rfbd.org/index.htm.

The Library of Congress recently appointed Houghton Mifflin author Donald Hall as the fourteenth Poet Laureate of the United States. Chosen by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington with the help of former appointees, the current Laureate, and distinguished poetry critics, Hall will take over the position this October. As Laureate, he will work to raise the status of poetry in the national consciousness, give an annual lecture and reading of his work, and introduce poets in the Library of Congress' annual poetry series. Hall will also receive a $35,000 annual stipend funded by a gift from the estate of Archer M. Huntington.

A member of the Academy of Arts and Letters, Hall has published fifteen books of poetry as well as several children's books and other works of prose. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award, the 1990 Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America, and two fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation. Hall's latest work, White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems 1946-2006, is a collection of more than 200 poems accompanied by an audio CD of selected readings.

As a featured author on The Poetic Voice, Houghton Mifflin's poetry podcast series, Hall can also be heard at http://www.thepoeticvoice.com.

Students in Baltimore recently went letter for letter in the forty-five school Houghton Mifflin Archdiocese of Baltimore Spelling Bee. The Archdiocese’s best and brightest spellers from grades 4–6 represented their schools in the citywide competition, which used words from Houghton Mifflin Spelling and Vocabulary. Shane Templeton, senior author of the program, shared, “Spelling bees do what good teachers do: They open up the world of the English language to reveal meanings and histories.” All students received certificates of participation, and winners were awarded savings bonds and books for their schools.

Houghton Mifflin Spelling and Vocabulary is a researched-based program that connects spelling with phonics, vocabulary, and writing to increase comprehension across all subject areas and promote student success.

Clarion author Margaret Mahy recently won the world's premier prize for children's writing—the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Given biennially by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), the award honors an author who has made a lasting contribution to international children's literature. Mahy has written more than 200 books for children and is described by the panel of international judges as "one of the world's most original re-inventors of language."

Mahy was chosen from a group of twenty-five authors from around the globe and will receive the award in September during the thirtieth IBBY Congress in Beijing.

Mahy’s latest book, Down the Back of the Chair, illustrated by Polly Dunbar, is a lively rhyming text that takes readers on an entertaining search for a lost set of car keys.

Click here to learn more about the IBBY Hans Christian Andersen Award.

Houghton Mifflin Science Discover! Simulations has been chosen as a finalist in this year’s Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) Codie Awards, competing in the category for Best Instructional Solution: Science. Chosen by journalist and peer judges, the awards celebrate achievement and vision in software, education technology, and digital content, recognizing best-of-class products and services.

The simulations are an integral part of Houghton Mifflin Science and provide students in grades K–6 with a Flash-based, interactive way to explore real-world science concepts while meeting both state and national standards. In addition to the innovative simulations, standards-based Houghton Mifflin Science offers differentiated instruction, ongoing assessments, and integrated reading, writing, and vocabulary.

Recipients of the 2006 Codie Awards will be announced at a gala on May 16. Discover! Simulations was also chosen as a finalist in the 2005 Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange Awards.

Click here to learn more about the Codie Awards on the SIIA website.

Ken Stewart, a Spanish teacher at Chapel Hill High School in North Carolina and user of McDougal Littell’s ¡En español! Spanish program, is the first recipient of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) National Language Teacher of the Year Award.

The award was developed as part of ACTFL’s The Year of Languages project and recognizes Stewart’s excellence in classroom language teaching. During the year, Stewart will serve as a spokesperson for foreign language education, making appearances and giving presentations at foreign language conferences.

¡En español! is a four-level Spanish program that uses integrated technology to immerse all learners in authentic language and culture, boosting their grammar and vocabulary development.

For more information, visit www.actfl.org

Calculus, Eighth Edition by Ron Larson, Robert P. Hostetler, and Bruce H. Edwards provides teachers and students with a range of conceptual, technological, and creative mathematics tools. Now, award-winning cover design can be added to its list of attributes. The textbook recently received a Benny, the highest honor in the largest and most prestigious competition in the printing industry, the Premier Print Awards.

Chosen for innovation in both design and print, Calculus received the Benny in the Books, Book Jackets, and Diaries for School Textbooks category. A torus—an elegant, single-edged mathematical form—is featured on the book’s cover and is treated with a special holographic foil. This treatment creates a dynamic, ever-changing look to the design and provides a distinct identity to the text, which helped it capture the award.

Hundreds of companies from around the world enter their work in the Premier Print Awards each year. Click here for more information and a list of winners.

Reading In Progress, an exciting new initiative designed to promote literacy as a community priority, was recently launched during a press conference at the Overtown Youth Center in Miami. Established by Houghton Mifflin in partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Reading In Progress aims to educate parents and students about the importance of literacy, celebrate reading through exciting activities, and motivate students to view reading as a valuable and enjoyable pastime. 

At the press conference, Superintendent Rudy Crew was joined by Miami Heat basketball star Alonzo Mourning to kick off Reading In Progress and dedicate the first Community Reading Corner. The reading corner, one of many to be established through Dade County, provides a designated place to read and a reminder that reading is an activity that can be enjoyed in a library, in a park, and in many other locations throughout the community. Mourning helped dedicate the first corner by reading to a group of elementary school students and presenting each child with a book and the first in a series of collectable Reading In Progress bookmarks.

In addition to support from the community, the initiative provides guidance and resources for parents, and a newsletter with best practices, tips, and materials for teachers to ensure that the students will have every opportunity to advance their reading skills.

With a $50,000 grant from Houghton Mifflin Company, the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and South Shore Day Care Services (SSDCS) expanded their successful Project RISE initiative in Quincy, Randolph, and Weymouth, Massachusetts. Established in 2003, Project RISE strives to make parents aware that reading to young children is a critical component of school readiness and future success.

The program’s many services include creating lending libraries in participating preschool classrooms, distributing new books to preschool students during enrollment visits, providing lists of recommended children’s books to parents, and training teachers on how best to educate, encourage, and support parents. The program also hosts a variety of free community reading events, featuring professional storytellers, hands-on activities, and book giveaways to promote reading at home.

“Our children, parents, and staff have enthusiastically embraced RISE. Use of our lending libraries and attendance at our literacy nights far exceeded our most optimistic expectations,” said Sheri Adlin, executive director of SSDCS. “Thanks to the support of Houghton Mifflin and United Way of Massachusetts Bay, we’ll be able to expand this initiative to serve larger numbers of children and parents.”

In an effort to put books back into the hands of children displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Houghton Mifflin Company recently donated 30,000 children's books to Book Relief. Led by First Book, an award-winning national literacy organization, the Book Relief initiative is teaming up with publishers across the country to aid the victims of the hurricanes. Houghton Mifflin proudly supports this initiative, and immediately donated such favorite titles as Lyle the Crocodile in Lyle at Christmas, the critically acclaimed Building Big, and the popular Five Little Monkeys with Nothing to Do.

The first stage of the campaign has generated more than 100,000 donated books, which have already been shipped to the affected areas. In future phases, books will be placed in afterschool programs, libraries, and schools as they are rebuilt.

To learn more about First Book and the Book Relief initiative, or to sponsor a new book for a displaced child or devastated school, visit http://www.firstbook.org.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino officially declared September 17th as Curious George Day in honor of the much-loved inquisitive monkey’s birthday. To help the city celebrate, Houghton Mifflin and the Boston Public Library (BPL) are hosting a party from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. in the Rey Children’s Room at the BPL.

Houghton Mifflin author Louise Borden will read from and sign her new book The Journey That Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey, which tells the dramatic story of the Reys’ escape from Paris on homemade bicycles as the Nazis approached during World War II.

The celebration will also feature a special cake cutting by celebrity chef Ming Tsai, owner of Blue Ginger restaurant and host of Public Television’s Simply Ming, as well as other activities, including arts and crafts for children, photos with Curious George, and story time.

Audrey Heining-Boynton, author of McDougal Littell’s ¡En español! and current president of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) opened the NASDAQ stock market on August 29 as part of The Year of Languages project. Accompanied by seventh-grade language students from Herricks School District in New York, Heining-Boynton emphasized the growing need for Americans to be proficient in world languages in order to remain economically competitive in the global marketplace.

This year was officially designated as The Year of Foreign Language Study by a resolution passed in the U.S. Senate in February. In celebration, ACTFL developed The Year of Languages project, dedicated to promoting the academic, social, and economic benefits of language learning. As part of this special initiative, McDougal Littell has become the exclusive sponsor of the newly created ACTFL National Foreign Language Teacher of the Year Award.

To learn more, visit www.actfl.org.

Linda Sue Park is the recent recipient of two distinguished honors. The much-loved, award-winning children's book author was invited to be a featured speaker at the opening gala for the 2005 National Book Festival, and also was awarded the Chicago Tribune Literary Prize for Young Adult Fiction.

Organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, the National Book Festival celebrates American creativity and highlights the rich resources in our nation's libraries. This year, the festival will be hosted by Laura Bush and includes more than eighty well-known authors, illustrators, and poets who will showcase and sign their books on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on September 24. Park is one of only four authors speaking during the festival's opening event, and the only children's book author among them.

At the Chicago Humanities Festival in October, Park will be presented with the Chicago Tribune Literary Prize for Young Adult Fiction. Established in 2002 to honor an author whose work has special resonance with young adults and speaks to adolescents' roll and significance in society, the prize recognizes Project Mulberry. Park's latest novel tells the contemporary story of a Korean-American girl named Julia who struggles with a silkworm project for the state fair, and in so doing, discovers what it means to grow up American.

Learn more about the National Book Festival and the Chicago Humanities Festival.

In today's fast-paced world, issues involving business ethics have increasingly become front-page news and the subject of public scrutiny. With that in mind, corporations and CEOs are turning to educational business programs for guidance.

On July 20–22, business educators from across the country and around the world gathered in Boulder, Colorado, for the Teaching Business Ethics Conference. Cosponsored by Houghton Mifflin authors O.C. Ferrell and Linda Ferrell, who wrote Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, the conference provided an opportunity for attendees to participate in thought-provoking roundtable discussions, share ideas, and exchange the latest practices on teaching business ethics.

O.C. Ferrell, codirector of the Center for Business Ethics and Social Issues at Colorado State University, explained, “Corporate leaders are requesting that business schools take a leadership role in preparing students for business ethics decisions they face,” and remarked that the conference provided “state-of-the-art knowledge about how to teach business ethics courses and integrate business ethics into existing curriculum.”

The 2005 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards recently named two Houghton Mifflin titles as Honor Books. The prestigious awards, first presented in 1967, recognize and reward excellence in literature for children and young adults.

Good Brother, Bad Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth , by James Cross Giblin, was named an Honor Book in the Nonfiction Category. Giblin compares and contrasts Edwin Booth with his brother John Wilkes Booth, the man best known for assassinating President Lincoln, and traces the events leading up to the shooting.

In the Poetry Category, A Wreath for Emmett Till, written by Marilyn Nelson and illustrated by Philippe Lardy, was also named an Honor Book. Composed in a rare style known as “a heroic crown of sonnets,” Nelson's poetry recalls the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till, a defining historical moment that helped spark the civil rights movement.

Past Houghton Mifflin nonfiction award-winners include An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy, Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado by Marc Aronson, and Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman.

For more information about this year's winners, visit http://hbook.com/awards/bghb/past.asp

Houghton Mifflin Reading author Dr. J. David Cooper and more than 650 Massachusetts elementary school students recently celebrated the importance of reading. Third- and fourth-grade students and teachers at Woodland Elementary School in Milford spent the day with the author, who along with Woodland principal Dr. Martha Colwell, urged them to “read, read, read,” especially over the summer. Colwell is also president-elect of the Massachusetts Reading Association. Houghton Mifflin donated more than 800 paperback books to the school, and Cooper participated in a roundtable discussion with teachers.

An internationally known educator, Cooper is senior author of Houghton Mifflin Reading, a program offering the latest in scientifically based, explicit instruction. Meeting a wide range of teaching and learning needs, Houghton Mifflin Reading provides powerful intervention resources, built-in assessment tools, and a wealth of leveled literature.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) presented Edusoft with a prestigious Codie Award for the Best Student Assessment Solution at their annual awards gala on May 25, 2005. The award celebrates achievement and vision in education technology, honoring the best computer-based or online solution for diagnostic assessments of K–12 content.

Edusoft, a division of Houghton Mifflin Assessment Group, provides practical, standards-based assessment services that make it easy for districts to focus instruction and improve achievement by collecting, analyzing, and acting on performance data. The Edusoft assessment platform offers immediate access to online results and customized instructional tools based on the automatic scoring of plain paper tests.

Now in their twentieth year, the Codie Awards is the longest-running awards program in the software and information industry. Chosen by journalist and peer judges, the awards recognize best-of-class products and services and provide a unique opportunity for companies to earn the praise of their competitors.

“This distinguished award represents thousands of hours of listening to teachers, principals, and administrators in large and small districts to deliver a product that meets their objective of improving performance for every student in every classroom, every day,” said Edusoft President Iwan Streichenberger.

To learn more about the awards on the SIIA website, click here.

The North Andover public school system recently selected Houghton Mifflin Math for all five of its elementary schools. Serving more than 4,000 students and located northwest of Boston, the district needed to improve math scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test, something they have been struggling with for the past two years. A committee of teachers and administrators selected the researched-based program in an effort to increase student performance.

Houghton Mifflin Math provides comprehensive support, engaging activities, and effective teaching models to ensure math achievement for every student. With a strong focus on skill building, problem solving, and concepts mastery, the program addresses every level of learning and offers built-in assessments to monitor progress. Customizable lesson plans allow teachers to personalize instruction and accommodate classroom needs.

The Namesake by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri is the Park City Library’s choice for the 2005 “One Book, One Community” program. Designed to unite people through the reading of a common book, the “One Book, One Community” project originated in 1998 at Seattle’s Washington Center for the Book. Since then, the program has made its way to communities nationwide and around the world, bringing people together through literature.

The Park City Library has run the community-wide reading event for the past two years with great success. This year’s activities include a discussion led by an assistant professor of South Asian history from the University of Utah.

Other communities around the country also value Lahiri’s writing, selecting The Namesake and her highly acclaimed collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, for similar programs in recent years.

Edusoft has partnered with Curriculum Advantage, Inc. to help educators create personalized learning plans for their students. The partnership will utilize Edusoft’s assessment resources, and Classworks, Curriculum Advantage's network-based system of K–12 reading and mathematics curriculum and learning tools.

Edusoft delivers a practical, standards-based assessment platform to help educators focus instruction where it is needed most and improve achievement for students in grades K–12. Its unique Paper-to-Web solution delivers immediate access to performance data and instructional tools. Classworks offers 8,600 learning activities from dozens of educational software programs, all of which are correlated with National Education Standards in math and language arts. This new partnership enables educators to customize curriculum and maximize a student's opportunity to succeed on their high-stakes tests.

"The combination of Classworks' teaching activities with Edusoft's assessment capabilities is a key component toward making formative assessment a powerful tool for improving student learning," said Iwan Streichenberger, president of Edusoft.

Click here to read the full press release. 

Houghton Mifflin Company recently launched Beyond the Book, an online leadership forum for educators and superintendents of pre-K–12.

This expanded website and e-newsletter service invites educators from across the country to share solutions to challenges and exchange ideas and best practices through peer-to-peer collaboration. Featuring the latest educational news, as well as case studies, commentary by respected authors and experts, educator insight articles, and strategies for success, Beyond the Book helps support strong leadership in our districts, schools, and classrooms.

To learn more about Beyond the Book and to subscribe to the weekly e-newsletter, visit www.beyond-the-book.com.

Billerica Public School District, northwest of Boston and serving more than 6,000 students, recently chose Houghton Mifflin Math for all six of its elementary schools. The program will provide the district with fully updated coursework aligned to new state and federal math standards. According to the Billerica Minuteman, C. Milton Burnett, assistant superintendent for instruction, thinks the program is concrete, well organized, and thorough, adding that it "is one of the state of the art math programs."

Houghton Mifflin Math is a dynamic, research-based program that provides comprehensive support to ensure math achievement, with a strong focus on skill building, problem solving, and concepts mastery for every level of learning.

Students at Franklin Elementary School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, are making positive literacy gains using Earobics Literacy Launch by Cognitive Concepts, Inc.

A scientifically based program, Earobics Literacy Launch features innovative software, engaging activities, and multimedia materials to provide individualized instruction in the five essential literacy skills identified by the National Reading Panel.

Franklin Elementary teacher Lori Freese studied the effect of Earobics instruction in her pre-kindergarten class throughout the 2003−04 school year. Her morning class participated in regular curricular activities and lessons, while her afternoon class supplemented their instruction with Earobics for twenty minutes, three times per week. Students who used Earobics consistently scored higher on Ready to Read, STAR Early Literacy, and the DIBELS assessments and showed greater improvement in foundation literacy skills than those who did not. According to Freese, the Earobics students also became more engaged in and enthusiastic about learning.

Chosen from over 140 products by more than thirty educator-judges, Edusoft’s assessment platform, Edusoft Version 2.4 , was awarded Technology & Learning Magazine’s prestigious Award of Excellence for Teacher Tools and Learning Opportunities.

The only proven, standards-based assessment platform that provides instant access to online student performance results and customized instructional tools, Edusoft Version 2.4 gives K−12 school districts, administrators, and teachers the power to use data to improve student performance immediately. The paper-to-web solution was lauded for its clean user interface, citing “the ease of use and depth of data management made it a very useful tool for monitoring student progress.”

Read the entire Awards of Excellence article in the December issue of Technology & Learning Magazine.

Through a partnership with the USA Football Tackle Reading program, Houghton Mifflin's School Division has helped to develop a nationwide public awareness campaign, using the game of football to promote reading, character development, and parent involvement.

This season, the campaign launched its Tackle Reading Website for Kids and the Tackle Reading Playbook on October 26, 2004, at Toussaint L'Ouverture Elementary School in Miami. Miami Dolphins All-Pro cornerback Sam Madison, along with the Miami Dolphins cheerleaders, kicked off the event, speaking with students about the importance of reading and writing. Becky Mulzer, vice president and director of reading initiatives for the School Division, demonstrated the new website, which features reading tips and goals, book recommendations, players' stories, and more.

Houghton Mifflin congratulates Jill Sayuri Nakamura, a first-grade teacher at Wishon Elementary School in Fresno Unified School District, for being named to the 2004 USA Today All-USA Teacher Team. USA Today recognized Jill for her ability to connect with each of her students, raising their expectations, and improving their test scores. Using Houghton Mifflin Reading, Jill's class significantly improved reading proficiency scores by 162%, with 76% of students reading at or above grade level.

Read more about Jill and the other nineteen All-USA Teacher Team representatives online at USA Today.

Elementary students in Montgomery Public Schools (MPS) made the largest reading gains of any school district in Alabama on the state-mandated DIBELS assessment, improving from 123rd to 17th out of 135 districts. District officials credit the improvement to the hard work of teachers and students and an overhauled literacy program, including instruction with Earobics Literacy Launch.

Earobics, from Cognitive Concepts, Inc., is a scientifically based early literacy program that uses cutting-edge software, print, audio, and video materials, and engaging classroom activities to build children's abilities in the essential literacy skills identified by the National Reading Panel. The award-winning program also includes specially designed tools that align Earobics instruction with DIBELS, providing teachers with strategies that directly target important assessment benchmarks.

After just one full year of using Edusoft assessment tools, teachers and administrators in Nacogdoches, Texas, are getting the results they need: an across-the-board increase of 15-20% in state test scores. One school in particular, Nettie Marshall Elementary, skyrocketed from a designation of Low Performing to Exemplary, with 100% of ESL students passing the state reading assessment.

Two years ago, Nacogdoches Independent School District (NISD) was looking for a flexible system that could align to their state's new testing format, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), and handle the assessment of 6,400 students in ten schools. What they found was Edusoft and its comprehensive assessment system. To learn more about NISD's success using Edusoft, read the complete case study (PDF).

Maryland's second-largest school district has selected Houghton Mifflin Reading for all of its 137 elementary schools. The adoption includes textbooks for all students in grades 2–5 and Houghton Mifflin Leveled Readers for all students in grades 1–5. Houghton Mifflin will also provide the district with customized classroom assessments and CD-ROM lesson planners, and will establish reading libraries in every classroom in the district.