Comet's Nine Lives


Book Description

It all begins when Comet walks away from the lighthouse close to his birthplace on Nantucket Island. He visits a garden, a bookstore, a boat, and a party, and at each place he gets into trouble and loses one of his lives. Comet starts to worry. He longs for a home, a place where he’ll be safe. Will he find one before he uses up all nine lives?




Garfield, His 9 Lives


Book Description

Garfield lives his life to the fullest . . . 9 times! Cave Cat -- the first cat crawled out of the sea 10 million years ago. He was happy to be out of the water -- until he met Big Bob! The Vikings -- he was big, he was mean, he was a Viking. Garfield the Orange had looted a lot of cities, but none like St. Paul, Minnesota. Babes and Bullets -- Sam Spayed wasn't the best private investigator in the world, but he did have one terrific thing going for him -- a secretary who made a great cup of coffee. The Exterminators -- no mouse was safe from the exterminators. Catching mice was their life. It wasn't a pretty job -- especially the way they did it. Lab Animal -- specimen 19-GB was not happy at the prospect of being dissected, so he did something about it. What happened set the federal government on its ear. The Garden -- life was a carefree romp among hovering harmonicas for Cloey and the orange kitten . . . until they confronted the crystal box. Primal Self -- he was an ordinary house cat leading an ordinary existence. A shadowy memory from another time changed all that. Garfield -- the marvelous cat we all know and love. This is his life in a nutshell. Space Cat -- he was lost in space with a computer built by the lowest bidder. And, he was not about to let his life slip away that easily.




Berlioz the Bear


Book Description

A "Reading Rainbow" Feature Title Zum, zum, buzz.... zum, zum, buzz... What's that strange buzz coming from the double bass? Berlioz has no time to investigate, because he and his bear orchestra are due at the gala ball in the village square at eight. But Berlioz is so worried about his buzzing bass that he steers the mule and his bandwagon full of magicians into a hole in the road and gets stuck. Time is running out, and if a rooster, a cat, a billy goat, a plow horse, and an ox can't rescue the bandwagon, who can? As the suspense mounts, intricate borders reveal the village animals making their way to the square one by one. When the clock chimes eight, the animals, ready to dance, have filled the square-but there's no sign of Berlioz. Jan Brett's glorious illustrations invite the eye to linger over exquisite details and humorous nuances that enhance the story. This delightful cumulative tale is one that will be looked at again and again.




Cinders


Book Description

The story of Cinderella is transported to snowy Russia in Jan Brett's lavish style. One magical night, Cinders, the most picked upon hen in the flock, becomes the most loved by Prince Cockerel when she arrives at his ball looking so beautiful that even her bossy sisters don't recognize her. Jan travelled to Russia and readers will be in awe of the Ice Palace aglow under a deep blue moonlit sky, exquisite ball gowns on the comely pullets, uniforms with gold braids and buttons on the cockerels, striking Russian architecture transformed into ice in the borders, and a very funny flock of chickens who provide an appealing, original look at this snowy Cinderella. Readers will find these dressed up chickens comical as they pour over the extravagant setting, including a "WOW"-inducing double gatefold of chicken couples whirling around the ballroom. A feast for the eyes that is sure to become a perennial favorite.




Comet's Nine Lives


Book Description

It all begins when Comet walks away from the lighthouse close to his birthplace on Nantucket Island. He visits a garden, a bookstore, a boat, and a party, and at each place he gets into trouble and loses one of his lives. Comet starts to worry. He longs for a home, a place where he’ll be safe. Will he find one before he uses up all nine lives?




The Umbrella


Book Description

Jan Brett's New York Times bestselling picture book The Umbrella has all the rollicking fun of the woodland animals that crowd into a mitten in the snow in The Mitten. Only this time it's in a lush cloud forest as one by one, tree frog, toucan, kinkajou, baby tapir, quetzal, monkey, and jaguar crowd into an open, upside down banana umbrella until a tiny hummingbird lands and they all fall out. A shortened text for toddlers and simple Spanish phrases like "Hola!" add to the fun of reading aloud this lively board book.




Jan Brett's Snowy Treasury


Book Description

Collects four winter tales including the story of a runaway gingerbread baby, a child's lost mitten, and three polar bears visited by a young girl.




The 3 Little Dassies


Book Description

The Three Little Pigs with a twist! In the tradition of her bestseller The Three Snow Bears, Jan Brett finds inspiration for her version of a familiar story in Namibia, where red rock mountains and vivid blue skies are home to appealing little dassies and hungry eagles. Mimbi, Pimbi and Timbi hope to find "a place cooler, a place less crowded, a place safe from eagles!" to build their new homes. The handsomely dressed Agama Man watches from the borders as the eagle flies down to flap and clap until he blows a house down. But in a deliciously funny twist, that pesky eagle gets a fine comeuppance! Bold African patterns and prints fill the stunning borders, but it is the dassies in their bright, colorful dresses and hats that steal the show in this irresistible tale, perfect for reading aloud.




Constructing American Lives


Book Description

Nineteenth-century American authors, critics, and readers believed that biography had the power to shape individuals' characters and to help define the nation's identity. In an age predating radio and television, biography was not simply a genre of writing, says Scott Casper; it was the medium that allowed people to learn about public figures and peer into the lives of strangers. In this pioneering study, Casper examines how Americans wrote, published, and read biographies and how their conceptions of the genre changed over the course of a century. Campaign biographies, memoirs of pious women, patriotic narratives of eminent statesmen, "mug books" that collected the lives of ordinary midwestern farmers--all were labeled "biography," however disparate their contents and the contexts of their creation, publication, and dissemination. Analyzing debates over how these diverse biographies should be written and read, Casper reveals larger disputes over the meaning of character, the definition of American history, and the place of American literary practices in a transatlantic world of letters. As much a personal experience as a literary genre, biography helped Americans imagine their own lives as well as the ones about which they wrote and read.




Megacatastrophes!


Book Description

Acerbic dark humour meets hardcore science in this mind-boggling exploration of the nine worst ways the world could end Discover the mind-boggling science of the coming apocalypse! 'Curiously pleasurable… this will help you get your everyday problems into perspective.' Independent Which will get us first? The supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park? An asteroid hurtling through outer space? Black holes from CERN gobbling up the solar system? An army of deranged, super-intelligent AI? Or – who knows – alien invasion? Armed with lavish illustrations and their one-of-a-kind 'Catastrophometer', Dr David Darling and Dr Dirk Schulze-Makuch introduce the disasters you never saw coming, unpicking the science that makes them genuine possibilities, and providing everything from survival tips to danger ratings. So sit back, face the inevitable, and discover the delights of the nine oddest ways the world could end.