Joined in 2023 
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63 About this deal
For 30 years, Tomorrow’s Warriors have built an incredible reputation as a leading development organisation for young jazz talent and creative producers of an exciting year round programme of concerts and tours, helping to enable a musical movement that is now recognised on the global stage. My inspiration for this came from my time as an art and kindergarten teacher in the alternative, mainstream and international school settings over the past twelve years. During that period, I noticed how little time in the academic day, if any, was dedicated to wellness practises for children and staff. If I had to say two more words that this book is about: Real Estate. But like, in the fullest possible sense. Acampora is amazing at doing the whole "house (or village) as psyche" thing: all the characters in this book are buying, selling, expanding, remodeling, designing, furnishing, inspecting, decorating, destroying, preserving -- and even installing avant-garde, vermin-themed art installations onto! -- their houses. And it all means something, and it's fabulous.
This serves as a sort of "plot acceleration mechanism" that gives the reader a sense of reading a novel rather than one of short stories, but also provides its characters with more layers and nuance than you'd expect on this type of genre. Moon Roof - Lois Hatfield, on her way to a party thrown by her husband’s boss, gets caught at an intersection and cannot decide when to go. Driving through a neighborhood, looking at the houses you pass by, do you ever stop and wonder about the lives of those who live there? Looking from the outside in, we never know about the problems people face, whether their lives are mundane or full of excitement and tension, what their desires and regrets are, and what drives them forward.
Curriculum
And because this resource has been created for teachers and home educators, by our experienced team of teachers and designers, you can rest assured that the content is relevant to Year 5 English. It would not be a portrait of a town if the residents were not watering at least a garden-full of secrets. she becomes aware of the hidden, parallel world beneath the mundane. Just beneath the surface of every defunct moment—finding a spot in the supermarket parking lot, waiting at a stoplight—lurks another moment, sexual, adulterous, waiting to be chosen. It shimmers faintly, a phosphorescent arc of lighter fluid ready to catch fire, detectable only to those attuned to it. She parks the car and watches the men and women going in and out through automatic the doors. Which of them are alight, secretly smoldering?Unfaithfulness is to be expected. Some marriages are strained, while others, surprisingly, appear to be strengthened by big changes. How about wanting to violate all medical ethics to perform a very strange and intimate act? Maybe show the world the face of a concerned citizen but indulge in a bit of pointed vandalism? There is plenty of imposturing going on here. Maybe parenthood is not for everyone, including some parents? Maybe nurture fears that go well beyond the understandable? A sense of the past permeates as well. There is enough moral ambiguity through the thirteen to spark book group debates aplenty. We believe that the child is the curriculum. We honor their innate desire to learn and we create a learning environment that supports their natural curiosity and passion for discovery. Technically considered a "novel in short stories," and if we're splitting hairs here, I'd say that's exaclty what a novel is, but on a greater scale; this one just perfectly aligned everything...and in all honesty, I'm not a huge fan of the short story. It's worth mentioning that Acampora does a great and NOT overdone or contrived job of creating subtle linkages between some of the stories and characters. This enhances everything and makes the reader do just the right amount of work. It's NOT one of those horrible affairs where everyone in the end Comes Together to stand around staring at the Grand Canyon or some shit, Being As One and marveling at the INTERCONNECTEDNESS.
Acampora does an excellent job creating a sense of a community, and although it's difficult at first to remember which characters were which as they showed up in future stories, once I did, I enjoyed catching another glimpse of them through the lens of another character or situation. Some of the characters are tremendously flawed, some of them are simply caught up in an unexpected or strange situation, and some are just trying to go about their daily lives. He understands now that every man keeps a detail or two in a neutral place inside his own brain, and the wise ones never enter that particular cabinet". The world depicted in Lauren Acampora’s stories seems reassuringly familiar, until it becomes unaccountably strange and unsettling. One moment we seem to be in Cheever’s Westchester, the next we plunge through the looking glass into realms that may remind some readers of George Saunders or Robert Coover or the David Lynch of Blue Velvet, though, inevitably, all resemblances prove to be superficial. Acampora is an original and The Wonder Garden is an outstanding debut.”—Jay McInerney, author of Bright Lights, Big CityDisclaimer: My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with a complimentary e-book copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The world depicted in Lauren Acampora's stories seems reassuringly familiar, until it becomes unaccountably strange and unsettling. One moment we seem to be in Cheever's Westchester, the next we plunge through the looking glass into realms that may remind some readers of George Saunders or Robert Coover or the David Lynch of Blue Velvet, though, inevitably, all resemblances prove to be superficial. Acampora is an original and The Wonder Garden is an outstanding debut."--Jay McInerney, author of Bright Lights, Big City
Bold attractions including a striking 35m Observation Wheel offering rare, spectacular views of London’s city skyline, accompanied by a new audio commission exploring ideas of family; a scented Wonder Garden in partnership with Jo Malone London featuring floral pathways and unique sensory breakout spaces; and futuristic Clubhouse in partnership with M·A·C Cosmetics sustainably designed by Automated Architecture (AUAR) Swarm- A rich couple commissions a retired teacher with artistic aspirations to design giant insects to cover every external wall of their colonial home. Wonder Garden will feature more than 70 rides and experiences, two arcade halls, 15 stores, 26 restaurants and more than 60 roaming acts and shows. Don't settle for a one-size-fits-all approach to education. Join our community of like-minded caregivers who prioritize connection, minimalism, and child-led learning. Discover the benefits of a complete, all-in-one curriculum designed to meet your child's needs. A smashing debut, with range, subtlety and bite. Reading Acampora, we’re in Cheever country, with hints of Flannery O’Connor.”—Jane Ciabattari, BBC.com
The way the book is structured helps keep the reader engaged as you keep finding that characters from previous stories suddenly make an appearance a few stories later.
About Jenny Broom
Full disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. From a teaching perspective, this book also has lovely cross-curricular links to science and geography, covering the themes of the environment and conservation including: John likes to arrive first. He enjoys standing quietly with a house before his clients arrive, and today, although he feels pinned beneath an invisible weight, he resolves to savor this solitary moment. It’s one of those overhauled ranches so common to Old Cranbury these days, swollen and dressed to resemble a colonial. White, of course, with ornamental shutters and latches pretending to hold them open. A close echo of its renovated sisters on Whistle Hill Road, garnished with hostas and glitzed with azaleas. He has seen too many of these to count… They'd come as a pair of anthropologists to masquerade among the natives, or so Mark had thought, to mirror their culture and borrow from its abundance.They were not supposed to adopt it, they were not supposed to blend." Acampora grew up in Darien, the inspiration for The Stepford Wives, so knows her suburban towns. In visiting Darien as an adult, she found that the houses seemed almost like characters.
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