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Get inside the head of LeBron James: basketball star, activist, philanthropist, and one of the most influential athletes in the world.

This collection of quotes has been curated from LeBron James’s numerous public statements—interviews, social media posts, television appearances, and more. It’s a comprehensive picture of his legacy as one of the world’s most recognizable and influential athletes, specifically geared toward middle and high school readers. The quotes in the collection touch on sports, community, life lessons, opportunity, equality, justice, and more. This edition includes educational materials and resources for lesson plans designed to provoke discussion and thought for readers in grades 7–12 about LeBron James's ideas.

LeBron James’s meteoric rise to basketball fame started when he was just a teenager, being billed by Sports Illustrated as “The Chosen One” while he was still playing for his high school team in Akron, Ohio. He became the top overall selection for the 2003 NBA draft and signed an unprecedented $90 million endorsement deal with Nike before he ever played a professional game. James spent the first seven years of his career playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, with whom he would establish himself as a premier player in the league before going on to play for the Miami Heat and the L.A. Lakers. His unmatched athleticism and drive have led to multiple NBA championships, MVP awards, Olympic gold medals, and more points scored than anyone else in the history of professional basketball. Off the court, he has spoken up for racial equality, founded a school for at-risk children in his hometown, launched multiple media companies, and even tried his hand at acting.

Since emerging on the global stage, James has become a source of inspiration for people all over the world. Now, LeBron James: In His Own Words Young Reader Edition offers a unique look into the mind of one of the world’s most influential athletes by collecting over 100 of his most insightful quotes to create a comprehensive picture of LeBron James and his legacy for young readers everywhere.

Special educational materials for classrooms are available from Agate Publishing.

Get inside the head of Michelle Obama: author, lawyer, humanitarian, and the trailblazing first Black woman to serve as the First Lady of the United States.

This collection of quotes has been carefully curated from Michelle Obama’s numerous public statements—interviews, books, social media posts, television appearances, and more. It’s a comprehensive picture of her legacy as one of America’s most recognizable and influential women.

Now, for the first time, you can find Michelle Obama’s most inspirational, thought-provoking quotes in one place, providing an intimate and direct look into the mind of this beloved first lady.

Get inside the head of Michelle Obama: author, lawyer, humanitarian, and the trailblazing first Black woman to serve as First Lady of the United States.

This collection of quotes has been carefully curated from Michelle Obama’s numerous public statements—interviews, books, social media posts, television appearances, and more. It’s a comprehensive picture of her legacy as one of America’s most recognizable and influential women, specifically geared toward middle and high school readers. The quotes in the collection touch on education, friendship and community, life lessons, America, the role of First Lady, making change, inequality and injustice, and more. This edition includes educational materials and resources for lesson plans designed to provoke discussion and thought for readers in grades 7-12 about Michelle Obama's ideas.

Michelle Obama has been challenging others’ expectations since she was a young woman growing up on Chicago’s South Side. When a high school counselor told her, “I’m not sure you’re Princeton material,” Obama graduated as the salutatorian and went off to Princeton anyway. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Obama spent several years as an attorney at a prestigious Chicago law firm before committing her efforts to public service and community outreach. When her husband, Barack Obama, was elected president in 2008, she began a new chapter of her life as the first Black woman to serve as First Lady of the United States of America. While always conscious of the unique pressures and difficulties of her role, Obama made it her mission to present her authentic self to the American people. Her pride in and openness about the aspects of her identity that made her unusual among First Ladies—including her race, working-class upbringing, career path, and educational achievement—made her a figure beloved by the general public.

Since emerging on the global stage, Obama has become a source of inspiration for young people all over the world, largely due to her engaging authenticity and candor. Now, Michelle Obama: In Her Own Words offers a unique look into the mind of one of the world’s most influential women by collecting 200 of her most insightful quotes. Meticulously curated from interviews, speeches, statements, and other sources, Michelle Obama: In Her Own Words creates a comprehensive picture of Michelle Obama, her wisdom, and her legacy.

Special educational materials for classrooms are available from Agate Publishing.

Get inside the head of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, history’s second woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice.

This collection of quotes has been curated from Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s numerous public statements—interviews, court opinions, oral arguments from her time as a lawyer, speeches, and more. It’s a comprehensive picture of her legacy and her impact on American history, specifically geared toward middle and high school readers. The quotes in the collection touch on equality, the law, feminism, the United States justice system, education, and more. This edition includes educational materials and resources for lesson plans designed to provoke discussion and thought for readers in grades 7-12 about Ginsburg's ideas.

Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg earned respect and admiration over the course of her remarkable lifetime, during which she broke barriers and set her sights on the highest levels of achievement at every turn. Beginning with her graduation from Cornell as the highest-ranking woman in her class, and then her enrollment in Harvard Law School in 1956, where she was one of only nine women in a class of 500, she steadily moved up the ranks of the American legal system until she was appointed as the second woman in history to join the Supreme Court in 1993.

During her time on the Supreme Court, she became known for her fiery dissents, her fundamental work toward equality and fair treatment, and her eloquent thought-leadership. Even after her death in 2020, she serves as an inspiration to all and a role model for women everywhere.

Now, Ruth Bader Ginsburg: In Her Own Words offers a unique look into the mind of one of the world’s most influential women by collecting 200 of Ginsburg’s most insightful quotes. Meticulously curated from interviews, speeches, court opinions, dissents, and other sources, Ruth Bader Ginsburg: In Her Own Words creates a comprehensive picture of Ginsburg, her wisdom, and her legacy.

Special educational materials for classrooms are available from Agate Publishing.

Get inside the head of one of the most influential musicians of our time, a pop music phenomenon turned titan of industry and cultural icon: Taylor Swift.

This collection of quotes has been carefully curated from Swift’s numerous public statements—interviews, op-eds, social media posts, and more, specifically geared toward middle and high school readers. It’s a comprehensive picture of her meteoric rise to the top, her ever-savvy business sense, and her increasingly outspoken perspective on the music world and beyond. This edition includes educational materials and resources for lesson plans designed to provoke discussion and thought for readers in grades 7–12 about Taylor Swift’s ideas.

Swift’s catchy, chart-topping songs have propelled her to become one of the bestselling musicians of all time. But in the nearly 20 years she’s been making music, she has also amassed enough power to buck the norms of an industry notorious for controlling the images of its often very young female artists.

Her latest, unprecedented record deal gives her ownership of all her master records, the ability to dictate the terms of her albums’ streaming releases in order to maximize her profits, and a requirement that her label share proceeds from the sale of its stake in Spotify with its musicians. She has championed the rights of artists to earn fair royalties, and more recently, she has inspired tens of thousands of fans to register to vote.

Swift’s achievements have earned her spots on both Forbes’s Most Powerful Women and Time’s 100 Most Influential People lists. Now, for the first time, young readers find her most inspirational, thought-provoking quotes in one place.

Special educational materials for classrooms are available from Agate Publishing.

Economic anxiety and loss of trust in civic institutions are driving more and more people to political extremes. How did we get here, and how do we get our economic policies back on track before the democracies of the world derail?

From former Belgian minister of finance and bestselling author Johan Van Overtveldt comes a new analysis of the economic forces that have driven us to the brink of a democratic breakdown. The Icarus Curse offers a stark assessment of the current state of Western democracies, once celebrated as the pinnacle of political and economic success. With the demise of the Soviet Union and China's emergence onto the world stage, the Western model faced no viable challengers. However, three decades later, Western democracies find themselves under siege both externally and internally. Russia, Iran, and especially China openly challenge the liberal Western order, while internally, citizens increasingly question the democratic and free market system, leading to polarization and social unrest. The political elite in most Western democracies flew too close to the sun, and now they’re crashing.

In The Icarus Curse, Van Overtveldt argues that decades of Keynesian-inspired policies have led to policy exhaustion, with politicians fueling unrealistic expectations and accumulating debt. Despite central bankers' efforts to mitigate crises, the current policy model is unsustainable, leaving little room for significant change. Yet, there is hope for redemption: Van Overtveldt reviews the ideas of Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, and Paul Volcker to put forward ideas to redesign policies for a brighter economic future. 

It’s hardly an exaggeration to claim that over the last few decades, central bankers have achieved unprecedented status. Especially since the global financial crisis of 2008, the world holds its breath whenever they announce new policy interventions. Given the opaque nature of the money supply, in the eyes of most citizens, the “mystic hand” of central bankers is felt everywhere. Never before have central bank policies been so decisive, not only for financial markets but also for national economies and public welfare in general.

This book traces the way in which central bankers learned, unlearned, relearned and still have to learn the tricks of their trade. The lessons taught by nineteenth-century grands savants like Henry Thornton and Walter Bagehot, once instilled, were eventually neglected. This led directly to the policy mistakes that produced the Great Depression of the 1930s.

When the financial crisis of 2008 broke out, central bankers the world over summoned Thornton’s and Bagehot’s wisdom and acted accordingly. This re-learning saved the world from a repetition of the Great Depression. But when the worst of the financial crisis and ensuing recession were over, central bankers continued applying unconventional monetary policies—in some areas of the world, this even extended to negative policy interest rates and massive interventions in the bond markets, which resulted in constant injections of liquidity. Once the Covid-19 pandemic arrived, most central bankers doubled down on the intensity of these kinds of policies.

While the financial crisis required central bankers to act in decisive ways, it can no longer be denied that the consequences of these expansive monetary policies have become major issues. Central bank policies of the last decade and a half have resulted in a relentless build-up of leverage and debt; led to speculative bubbles in different kinds of markets; undermined the willingness of political authorities to put their fiscal houses in order; stimulated a “zombification” of the economy and the growth of shadow banking activities; and contributed to growing inequality around the world.

Central bankers are at a crucial turning point for the future of their profession, and even more for the future of our economy. New lessons have to be learnt. Our future depends on these being the right lessons.

Discover the power of relationship-building to enhance your leadership, boost your team’s well-being, and drive organizational success.

In today’s dynamic business environment, the success of any organization is deeply rooted in the quality of its internal relationships. In The Relationship-Driven Leader, psychologist and organizational behavior expert Dr. Karen Bridbord offers a revolutionary guide to career success and advancement, regardless of your industry, your company’s size, or your role. This groundbreaking book sheds light on how nurturing strong work relationships can lead to unmatched productivity and greater overall wellness throughout the organization and among its staff. Through compelling research and insightful case studies, Bridbord reveals the detrimental impact dysfunctional relationships can have on both personal and business achievements, and how to come back from “relationship system failure.” By rethinking workplace relationships, you can foster deeper connections within your team, resulting in enhanced cohesion and well-being for all members.

The Relationship-Driven Leader explores the profound influence of everyday interactions on team experience and team performance. Bridbord emphasizes the importance of “micro-moments” in leadership to spark significant improvements. This book empowers you to take the first step toward becoming the leader everyone aspires to work with by enhancing your leadership skills, boosting workplace productivity, and mastering innovative conflict-management techniques. By focusing on well-being through relationship-building, you can create a healthier, more engaged, and more productive team.