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Great-Uncle Lancelot, redoubtable explorer and enthusiastic naturalist, takes his niece and twin nephews on an extraordinary journey around the world, introducing them to a wide variety of animals.
The book that inspired the Academy Award–winning short film, from New York Times bestselling author and beloved visionary William Joyce. Morris Lessmore loved words. He loved stories. He loved books. But every story has its upsets. Everything in Morris Lessmore’s life, including his own story, is scattered to the winds. But the power of story will save the day. Stunningly brought to life by William Joyce, one of the preeminent creators in children’s literature, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a modern masterpiece, showing that in today’s world of traditional books, eBooks, and apps, it’s story that we truly celebrate—and this story, no matter how you tell it, begs to be read again and again.
Jeremy and his cat Aristotle must solve one more riddle to save the Enchanted Theater. Once again they travel through time and space. Once again they face their fears, this time deep in a maze beneath the ground and high in the sky above ancient Greece. If they succeed, the enchantment will be lifted. If they fail...
Two children travel back through time with their great uncle in his time machine, intending to rescue baby dinosaurs from evil villains.
"When an inventive mouse misses the biggest cheese festival the world has ever seen, he's determined to turn back the clock. But what is time, and can it be influenced? With the help of a mouse clockmaker, a lot of inventiveness, and the notes of a certain famous Swiss physicist he succeeds in traveling back in time. But when he misses his goal by eighty years, the only one who can help is an employee of the Swiss Patent Office, who turned our concept of space and time upside down."--Amazon.com
A poetic and nuanced exploration of the human experience of flight that reminds us of the full imaginative weight of our most ordinary journeys—and reawakens our capacity to be amazed. The twenty-first century has relegated airplane flight—a once remarkable feat of human ingenuity—to the realm of the mundane. Mark Vanhoenacker, a 747 pilot who left academia and a career in the business world to pursue his childhood dream of flight, asks us to reimagine what we—both as pilots and as passengers—are actually doing when we enter the world between departure and discovery. In a seamless fusion of history, politics, geography, meteorology, ecology, family, and physics, Vanhoenacker vaults across geographical and cultural boundaries; above mountains, oceans, and deserts; through snow, wind, and rain, renewing a simultaneously humbling and almost superhuman activity that affords us unparalleled perspectives on the planet we inhabit and the communities we form.
What do you get when you cross a bunch of odious toads and ornery fire-breathing birds with one parrot, a distressed dragon, a group of weasels, a troop of mermaids, a herd of unicorns, a band of gryphons, and three children? When Penelope, Simon, and Peter go to the beach, they get a surprise they'll never forget. A package washes ashore and begins to speak! The children open it up to reveal a talking parrot and spider who were kidnapped and sent away. Their home is Mythologia, where sunrise takes place all day long and magical creatures like Mooncalves and Will-o'-the-Wisps lived peacefully--until the evil Cockatrices decided to take over. And now the new rulers are threatening to turn it into a land of cruelty and fear. It's only a matter of time before the Cockatrices become all powerful. So with the help of a counterspy toad, Penelope, Simon, and Peter decide to do everything they can to help overthrow the wicked birds. But will they be able to survive a trip to Mythologia's scariest places and defeat the evil Cockatrices? For Penelope, Simon, and Peter, a day at the beach is the beginning of an unforgettable adventure. A big brown package washes ashore and begins to speak! Imprisoned inside are Parrot and his companion Ducibelle, a spider, exiles from the land of Mythologia, where magical creatures like unicorns, dragons, and mermaids live together happilyuntil the villainous cockatrices (half serpent, half rooster) take over and enslave the entire population. Can the children help defeat the evil cockatrices and restore peace to Mythologia?A charming, whimsical tour-de-force, The Battle for Castle Cockatrice is a classic story that fantasy readers will welcome back into print.A marvelously created fantasy. The Horn Book
A love of drawing and an understanding librarian help a struggling student find his voice in this quirky and creative ode to artistic expression, featuring a book within a book, from the brilliant minds that brought you The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore and The Numberlys. Billy loves to draw. He draws on books and on his homework and even on his math tests—he might not get the answer right, but doesn’t it look swell sitting in a boat at sea? His teacher doesn’t think so, and neither does the principal. But the librarian has an idea to help Billy apply his illustrations to his learning: a book-making contest! So Billy gets to work, reading everything he can about meteors, mythology, space travel, and…mucus? Yep, Billy’s book is about the world’s smartest booger, who stays tucked away until right when he’s needed—say, to solve multiplication problems, or answer questions from the President. Billy’s sure his story is a winner. But being a winner doesn’t mean you always win. Full of nostalgic references to a time when TV was black-and-white and Sunday newspapers had things called the funnies, this wildly fun story-within-a-story is based loosely on the childhood of children’s book legend William Joyce, and includes a sewn-in mini-book that tells the tale of the world’s smartest booger.
The Mockery Bird takes place on a tropical island called Zenkali. The island seems to be populated by the most eccentric people who came there from all around the world, along with the two indigenous tribes, the Fangoua and the Ginka. The Ginkas used to worship a dolphin god, while the Fangouas worshipped a strange avian, the Mockery Bird, which was hunted to extinction by the former French colonizers. Zenkali is ruled by King Tamalawala III, usually referred to as "Kingy" by his people. Peter Foxglove arrives to Zenkali to be the assistant of Hannibal Oliphant, Kingy's Political Advisor. Zenkali, once a British colony, is about to get self-government. They are also planning to construct a military base, an airport and a power station, and this will mean the flooding of a large, unexplored valley, owned by the villainous businessman, Looja. Peter, along with the beautiful Audrey Damien, visits the valley before it is totally destroyed, and makes a fantastic discovery: a small population of Mockery Birds still live in the valley. Peter's discovery attracts the attention of the world press, environmentalists, politicians and businessmen from all around the world, and this leads to a couple of adventures. Finally, Professor Droom, a biologist, discovers that the main and only agricultural product of Zenkali, the Amela tree is ecologically linked to the Mockery Birds (explained below), so the flooding of the valley will make the island's economy collapse. Consequently, the construction of the airport is cancelled.
If you loved My Family and Other Animals and can't get enough of the Durrells after the Corfu series, The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium is the book for you. It constitutes a series of anecdotal snippets and short stories including 'The Picnic', a laugh-out-loud account of an ill-fated Durrell family excursion, which should have been a relaxing, jolly affair. But with the Durrells things are seldom straightforward and on this occasion all that could go wrong did go wrong - except Gerald Durrell's sense of humour in recounting the tale. Other hilarious and surreal Roald Dahlesque stories ensue, including the critically acclaimed Gothic horror story 'The Entrance'.
