Just Kids

Winner of the 2010 Non-Fiction National Book Award Patti Smith's evocative, honest and moving coming-of-age story of her extraordinary relationship with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe

It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation. Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer, and Robert Mapplethorpe would direct his highly provocative style toward photography. Bound in innocence and enthusiasm, they traversed the city from Coney Island to Forty-second Street, and eventually to the celebrated round table of Max's Kansas City, where the Andy Warhol contingent held court. In 1969, the pair set up camp at the Hotel Chelsea and soon entered a community of the famous and infamous—the influential artists of the day and the colorful fringe. It was a time of heightened awareness, when the worlds of poetry, rock and roll, art, and sexual politics were colliding and exploding. In this milieu, two kids made a pact to take care of each other. Scrappy, romantic, committed to create, and fueled by their mutual dreams and drives, they would prod and provide for one another during the hungry years. Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late sixties and seventies and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to fame.

A prelude to fame, Just Kids recounts the friendship of two young artists--Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe - whose passion fueled their lifelong pursuit of art. In 1967, a chance meeting between two young people led to a romance and a lifelong friendship that would carry each to international success never dreamed of. The backdrop is Brooklyn, Chelsea Hotel, Max's Kansas City, Scribner's Bookstore, Coney Island, Warhol's Factory and the whole city resplendent. Among their friends, literary lights, musicians and artists such as Harry Smith, Bobby Neuwirth, Allen Ginsberg, Sandy Daley, Sam Shepherd, William Burroughs, etc. It was a heightened time politically and culturally; the art and music worlds exploding and colliding. In the midst of all this two kids made a pact to always care for one another. Scrappy, romantic, committed to making art, they prodded and provided each other with faith and confidence during the hungry years--the days of cous-cous and lettuce soup. Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. Beautifully written, this is a profound portrait of two young artists, often hungry, sated only by art and experience. And an unforgettable portrait of New York, her rich and poor, hustlers and hellions, those who made it and those whose memory lingers near.

A dictionary of more than 1,400 illustrated and labeled objects and actions common to children

"A down-to-earth, inspiring book about the American promise fulfilled." —President Bill Clinton "Fascinating . . . . Made me wish I had been born in the Bronx." —Barbara Walters A touching and provocative collection of memories that evoke the history of one of America's most influential boroughs—the Bronx—through some of its many success stories The vivid oral histories in Arlene Alda's Just Kids from the Bronx reveal what it was like to grow up in the place that bred the influencers in just about every field of endeavor today. The Bronx is where Michael Kay, the New York Yankees' play-by-play broadcaster, first experienced baseball, where J. Crew's CEO Millard (Mickey) Drexler found his ambition, where Neil deGrasse Tyson and Dava Sobel fell in love with science early on and where music-making inspired hip hop's Grandmaster Melle Mel to change the world of music forever. The parks, the pick-up games, the tough and tender mothers, the politics, the gangs, the food—for people who grew up in the Bronx, childhood recollections are fresh. Arlene Alda's own Bronx memories were a jumping-off point from which to reminisce with a nun, a police officer, an urban planner, and with Al Pacino, Mary Higgins Clark, Carl Reiner, Colin Powell, Maira Kalman, Bobby Bonilla, and many other leading artists, athletes, scientists and entrepreneurs—experiences spanning six decades of Bronx living. Alda then arranged these pieces of the past, from looking for violets along the banks of the Bronx River to the wake-up calls from teachers who recognized potential, into one great collective story, a film-like portrait of the Bronx from the early twentieth century until today.

Second-grader Cindy is assigned to spend part of each day in the class for students with special needs, where she finds out that even though some kids may learn differently or have different abilities, they are all "just kids."

Now the classic novel by Mary Shelley is an illustrated storybook perfect for kids of all ages! Kid Classics: Frankenstein is fun and just the right amount of scary! On a stormy summer evening two centuries ago, Mary Shelley wrote the classic tale about a scientist and his monstrous creation. Now, here is the fun new just-for-kids version of Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein, abridged and retold while remaining true to Shelley’s original text. It’s a story that you can’t put down: After Victor Frankenstein discovers the secret to life and uses it to build an eight-foot-tall monster, he realizes he’s made a creature that he can’t take care of—or control! Frankenstein and the monster chase each other across Europe, along the way learning lessons about ambition, the effects of technology on our lives, judging others based on looks, and the healing powers of nature. With page after page of captivating illustrations, this magical hardcover will be the fought over favorite in your home and schoolroom!

Another title in the popular series.

Presents parents with stories, tips, and tools for ensuring that children with physical disabilities meet acceptable risks, face challenges, and feel like "one of the kids" while meeting the needs of the whole family.

In Just a Walk, a young boy named Chuck goes for a simple walk that turns into a day of crazy adventure. Chuck encounters animals, fish and birds that lead him on a wild journey through their various habitats.

First published in 1967, Stop-Time was immediately recognized as a masterpiece of modern American autobiography, a brilliant portrayal of one boy's passage from childhood to adolescence and beyond. Here is Frank Conroy's wry, sad, beautiful tale of life on the road; of odd jobs and lost friendships, brutal schools and first loves; of a father's early death and a son's exhilarating escape into manhood.

ABOUT THE BOOK Plenty has been written about Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, two of the more celebrated artists to emerge from the vibrant New York artistic circles of the ‘70s. Now Smith shares her story - or at least part of it - in her own words, with Just Kids, winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction. Smith’s Just Kids tells the tumultuous story of their romance, artistic self-discovery and eventual commercial success. Like all great autobiographies, her story is strewn with anecdotal snapshots and inner observations that would have been beyond the grasp of even the most dedicated biographer. It’s an intimate, tender account that, as the title suggests, sticks mostly to the duo’s formative years. In telling her own story, Smith also pulls back the lens to capture some of the energy of the era, a golden age ruled by icons like Andy Warhol (a major source of fascination for the young Mapplethorpe), Bob Dylan, and Lou Reed. Many of the main settings in the book - the Chelsea Hotel, Max’s Kansas City, CBGB - have become places of lore. MEET THE AUTHOR Adam McKibbin's work has appeared in a wide variety of magazines and websites, including The Nation, the Chicago Tribune, AlterNet, Paste and Punk Planet. He's worked in web editorial and social media management for years, and is a seasoned interviewer whose favorite subjects include David Lynch, Tori Amos and human rights journalist Mac McClelland. He studied creative writing at the University of Wisconsin and received the Award for Academic Excellence for his collected fiction. He's currently working on his first nonfiction book. Adam lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter, and can be found on Twitter at @TheRedAlert. EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK Just Kids begins with Patti Smith as an actual kid; she was a sickly child, getting herself through the day by losing herself in stacks of books and imagining herself walking in the footsteps of heroes like Rimbaud and Bob Dylan. At the earliest opportunity, she sets out for New York City with barely a dollar in her hand and nary a job prospect. Shortly thereafter, she meets a striking and self-assured young artist named Robert Mapplethorpe. Smith and Mapplethorpe become fast friends, then lovers, roommates and mutual muses. The early stretch of Just Kids documents a time when money was scarce but inspiration was abundant. Smith worked on her poetry while Mapplethorpe explored increasingly dark and sexualized themes in his collage art; they set out with fame and fortune squarely on their minds, but hadn’t yet found their mediums of choice. In each case, they found their calling (Smith in music, Mapplethorpe in photography) with the help of pestering from the other. Buy a copy to keep reading!

National Book Award-winner Patti Smith revisits her early years in this glittering memoir.

By working through the activities in I'm Not Bad, I'm Just Mad, children with anger control problems can develop better emotional and behavioral control. Kids will learn how to identify the things that make them angry, become better problem solvers, talk about their frustrations, and much more.

When Mouse and Elephant decide to go on the seesaw, Mouse needs a lot of help from other animals before they can go up and down.

Kids usually come to a time in their childhood when they wonder about life and how the human body works. Often times, however, parents do not have the knowledge, the resources or the creativity to teach their children about how the human body works. A book about human anatomy would relieve parents of that burden while enriching children with more knowledge.

This is an art therapy expression book for 5-8 year old children affected by parental or family members opioid abuse.