With a tear for the dark past, turn we then to the dazzling future, and, veiling our eyes, press forward. The long and weary winter of the race is ended. Its summer has begun. Humanity has burst the chrysalis. The heavens are before it. '€ Edward Bellamy 1888

This is a remarkable account of a remarkable individual's life. When he was signing my copy of The Bridge recently, David Remnick abruptly asked me about my Spitfire lapel pin.

Amanda Sands In a buzzing lecture hall at Harvard's Ed School, an elderly lady whispered to her old companion “It's wonderful¦to explain why she changed her mind. A couple of young men entered the room, nodding to seats in the last row. “Is that a good spot? one asked the other. “Yeah, the other replied, knowing they would need a place where they could discuss what they would hear, “we can kinda whisper to each other.

For those of us who wish to find cures for incurable diseases, who aspire to help others in ways most cannot, who desire to dedicate their lives for the wellbeing of others, Atul Gawande's book Better: A Surgeon's Notes On Performance offers a glimpse of the profession of doctors, underneath the social prestige and inside the operating room.

English teacher David Weintraub has never taught The Catcher in the Rye, but he remembers first reading the novel in his senior year of high school. It ruined his second semester.

By far, one of my most vivid memories from freshman year was the fateful day when I strolled into English class and, to my astonishment, saw an expletive scrawled in huge print across the whiteboard.

Junior Jenny Wong, Denebola editor David Han, and former Denebola editor Nina Gold interviewed Dr. John D. Stoeckle, who was a director of The Clinics at Massachusetts General Hospital and was a professor at Harvard Medical School for many years, about the issues of primary care, its progress, and its relation to today's health care debate.

Joseph Scozzaro A Walk Down Sesame Street: A Pop-up Book By Sesame Workshop In our house, we love monsters. Elmo, Cookie, Abby, Zoe, and all the rest. 

Marcia Okun & Aryeh Lieberman The Magician's Elephant By Katie DiCamillo Illustrated by Yoko Tanaka

Ted & Sara Dalicondro Suzy Goose and the Christmas Star Written and illustrated by Petr Horacek