| Picture this: Teachers are using comics, now called 'graphic novels,' to captivate reluctant readers
Not long ago, about the only way a kid could get away with reading a comic book in school was to hide it inside the covers of a textbook. Now Roberta Kaiser, the media specialist at Nautilus Middle School on Miami Beach, not only stocks her shelves with them, but demand outstrips supply by a wide margin. ''I have to limit them to one at a time, but there are students who come in two to three times a day to return one and get another,'' Kaiser said. Before anybody explodes about kids reading comic books when they're supposed to be doing quadratic equations or studying Shakespeare, know that comic books have changed, and so has reading. Under the spiffier label of ''graphic novels,'' these bound books feature every stripe of hero and story. ''The themes and genres can range from science to biography, and from memoirs to yes, superheroes,'' said John Shableski of Diamond Book Distributors, which specializes in comics.
New Zealand Stocks Looking To Buck Wall Street Blues
(RTTNews) - New Zealand shares try Monday to buck the downward trend suggested by Wall Street's steep losses on Friday. New Zealand's sharemarket was one of the few in the Asia/Pacific region to gain ground on Friday, although the gains were small. The NZSX-50 index closed up 3.1 points or 0.09 percent at 3,582. Market turnover volume was valued at NZ$99.2 million. A handful of earnings results helped moved the market. Guinness Peat Group shares were higher by a penny, a day after reporting a 258 per cent rise in net profit. Shares in resins maker Nuplex shares increased .06, maintaining the momentum from Thursday's 5 per cent gain when it reported a 60 per cent rise in half year net profit. Among other stocks of interest, Air New Zealand lost .09 despite hiking its dividend by two thirds hiking its half year net profit by 58 per cent to NZ$115 million.Volume leader Telecom Corporation of New Zealand Market gave up early gains to close down .04.
Column: The Public Eye: The Great Debate of 2008
So far there have been many surprises in the contest for the 2008 presidential nomination. Six months ago, it appeared the probable candidates would be Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton; now it seems they will be John McCain and Barack Obama. Last year it appeared the leading issue would be the war in Iraq; now it's likely the great debate will be about the economy. In 1928 there were no debates between the incumbent Republican president, Herbert Hoover, and the Democratic challenger, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Nonetheless, by the time of the election, most Americans were aware of fundamental differences in their approach to solving the Great Depression. This fall, when Senator McCain debates Senator Obama, Americans will recognize a stark reality: Republicans have learned nothing in 80 years.
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