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He's won the American Teacher Award, been awarded the National Medal of Arts, and made an honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire. For 24 years, Rafe Esquith has taught at an inner city school in Los Angeles, inspiring his fifth graders to excel far beyond the low expectations often placed on poor, immigrant children.

In a new book, Feet on Street: Rambles around New Orleans, humorist Roy Blount, Jr. celebrates the corners and characters of the city. Blount takes Debbie Elliott for a stroll through the French Quarter.

St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa is considered one of baseball's top strategists — and a likely resident of baseball's Hall of Fame. Pulitzer-winning author Buzz Bissinger's new book is about three games La Russa managed in a tense pennant race.

In a colorful new cookbook, Alabama chef Frank Stitt shares moutwatering recipes from his award-winning restaurant Highlands Bar and Grill. He talks with NPR's Debbie Elliot about the tradition of food in the South.

In The Harder They Fall, a new collection of stories of celebrity addiction and recovery, writers Gary Stromberg and Jane Merrill take readers through the spinning, drug-induced decades of the '60s and '70s.

A Civil War battle of Ball's Bluff, near Leesburg, Va., forms the backdrop for the opening scene of Geraldine Brooks' new novel, March. Its principal character, Capt. March, becomes undone by the evils of war and his own moral shortcomings.

The controversial, best-selling Egyptian novel The Yacoubian Building describes a country that is corrupt, unfair and thuggish. Now it's being made into a star-studded film.

After having his novel repeatedly rejected by publishing houses, writer Ron McLarty took his work straight to the people, and to the Internet. But now McLarty, a successful character actor who's been on both TV's Law and Order and on Broadway, has another challenge: attracting readers.

Linguist Christopher J. Moore has made a career of searching out some of the world's most "untranslatable" expressions — words from around the globe that defy an easy translation into English. Moore shares a few of his linguistic favorites from his new book In Other Words: A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World.

The winners of the most prestigious awards in children's literature have been announced. The Caldecott Medal is awarded to the best picture book, and the Newbery to the best children's book. Before the awards, were announced, one Illinois school held its own mock competition.