Alligator Wedding


Book Description

Down in the bayou in the marshy glades where the alligators slither and slide, on a warm summer night when the moon was bright an alligator took a bride. And what a night it is! Join a crowd of boisterous beasties for a rollicking night full of feasting and dancing as they celebrate the alligators' wedding as only the creatures of the bayou can. From belching toasts to the newlyweds, to doing the Big Beast Boogie, to throwing spicy rice, there's never a dull moment!




The Enchanted Alligator


Book Description

The Enchanted Alligator is a book about a royal family that lived in the Land of Royalties and Fairytales. The king and queen desired to have a child. The day came when they had a baby boy. The king and queen were happy to have a baby prince. All the servants were delighted to have such joy in the palace. The Witch of the Air was envious of the queens beauty, wealth and of her baby. She put a spell on the baby prince turning him into an alligator. When the alligator grew, he was placed in a large pond decorated with exotic flowers. His mother read to him and trained him to be a prince, hoping that someday the curse would be broken and he would rule the kingdom. The gardener had three daughters that liked to play with the alligator. When the alligator became a teenager he asked one of the girls to marry him, she rejected him. He asked the middle girl and she also rejected him. Eventually he found true love and the curse was broken. His beloved wife Selah called him Princes Allik. The witch threatened to put a curse on the queen and on the princes child. The gardener decided to use his resources and send the prince, princess Selah and their four year old daughter Zion into space in special suits. They landed on different planets, stars and constellations. Along the way they received gifts to share and teach by example in the Land of No Return. (The gifts represent the Beatitudes Mathew 5:3-11) Because they shared their gifts with the people of that land, they were able to go to the Land of Wonders. They returned to Fairyland with the found book of books that combats and defeats all evil.




A to Zoo


Book Description

Whether used for thematic story times, program and curriculum planning, readers' advisory, or collection development, this updated edition of the well-known companion makes finding the right picture books for your library a breeze. Generations of savvy librarians and educators have relied on this detailed subject guide to children's picture books for all aspects of children's services, and this new edition does not disappoint. Covering more than 18,000 books published through 2017, it empowers users to identify current and classic titles on topics ranging from apples to zebras. Organized simply, with a subject guide that categorizes subjects by theme and topic and subject headings arranged alphabetically, this reference applies more than 1,200 intuitive (as opposed to formal catalog) subject terms to children's picture books, making it both a comprehensive and user-friendly resource that is accessible to parents and teachers as well as librarians. It can be used to identify titles to fill in gaps in library collections, to find books on particular topics for young readers, to help teachers locate titles to support lessons, or to design thematic programs and story times. Title and illustrator indexes, in addition to a bibliographic guide arranged alphabetically by author name, further extend access to titles.




Alligator


Book Description

A novel that “does for Newfoundland what Empire Falls did for dying smalltown Maine and The Sportswriter did for suburban New Jersey” (Publishers Weekly). Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and a Globe and Mail Book of the Year St. John’s, Newfoundland, is a city whose spiritual location is somewhere in the heart of Flannery O’Connor country. Its denizens jostle one another in uneasy arabesques of desire, greed, and ambition, juxtaposed with a yearning for purity, depth, and redemption. Colleen is a seventeen-year-old would-be ecoterrorist, drawn inexorably to the places where alligators thrive. Her mother, Beverly, is cloaked in grief after the death of her husband. Beverly’s sister, Madeleine, is a driven, aging filmmaker who obsesses over completing her magnum opus before she dies. And Frank, a young man whose life is a strange anthology of unpredictable dangers, is desperate to protect his hot-dog stand from sociopathic Russian sailor Valentin, whose predatory tendencies threaten everyone he encounters. This debut novel, which moves with swiftness of an alligator in attack mode through the lives of these brilliantly rendered characters, examines the ruthlessly reptilian, and painfully human, sides of all of us. “Glints with wit and jarring insight.” —The Globe and Mail (Toronto) “An astonishing writer.” —Richard Ford




Poor Man's Provence


Book Description

For over a decade, syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson has been spending several months a year in Southwest Louisiana, deep in the heart of Cajun Country. Unlike many other writers who have parachuted into the swampy paradise for a few days or weeks, Rheta fell in love with the place, bought a second home and set in planting doomed azaleas and deep roots. She has found an assortment of beautiful people in a homely little town called Henderson, right on the edge of the Atchafalaya Swamp. These days, much is labeled Cajun that is not, and the popularity of the unique culture’s food, songs and dance has been a mixed blessing. The revival of French Louisiana’s traditional music and cuisine often has been cheapened by counterfeits. Confused pilgrims sometimes look to New Orleans for a sampler platter of all things Cajun. Close, but no cigar. Poor Man’s Provence helps define what’s what through lively characters and stories. The book is both personal odyssey and good reporting, travelogue and memoir, funny and frank. This beguiling place is as exotic as it gets without a passport. The author shares what keeps her coming home to French Louisiana. And as NPR commentator Bailey White observes in her foreword, "Both Rheta's readers and the people she writes about will be comfortable, well fed, highly entertained, and happy they came to Poor Man's Provence."




Matchmaker Marriage Mysteries: Books 1-2


Book Description

Gored of the Rings and Slay Misty for Me are the first two books in the Matchmaker Marriage Mysteries, the continuing adventures of Gladie Burger with all of the regular characters from the Matchmaker Mysteries. It’s perfect for fans of Miss Fortune, Stephanie Plum, and small-town, funny mysteries. Gored of the Rings It’s been three years since Gladie married Spencer and settled down as a full-time matchmaker. The three years have been quiet, filled with marital bliss and absolutely no murder. Without a mystery to solve, Gladie has grown bored, even as she has exceled as a matchmaker with more than a little psychic ability. Now, her Grandma Zelda has decided to expand the family business to wedding planning, and Gladie is going to be in charge of it. Her first customer wants a wedding with all the trimmings, including an axe-throwing room, a tractor parade, and a longhorn bull instead of a limo to the ceremony. When one of the wedding party winds up dead, a freak accident is blamed. But Gladie’s murder antennae are up, and she’s determined to prove that it’s murder and bring the killer to justice. Slay Misty for Me It’s September in Cannes, California, which means it’s apple season. The town is enjoying the festivities and the apple pie, but a series of vicious conspiracies has thrown suspicion on a number of the townsfolk. From someone listening to private conversations in their homes to a drug-running funeral home to mysterious words added to dictionaries and killer vacuum robots on the loose, it’s citizen against citizen in the usually idyllic town. But Gladie is trying to stay out of the chaotic conspiracies as she continues her wedding planning business. When she discovers a woman dead by marshmallows after a wedding, Gladie becomes entangled in a murder mystery that might be connected to the conspiracies and might even turn out to be the biggest conspiracy of them all.




Oliver and his Egg


Book Description

Read along with Hyperion! In this follow-up to Oliver and his Alligator, Oliver spots a rock on the playground. But it's not just any rock???he's sure it's a dinosaur egg. And once it hatches, he has the best new friend he could ask for. They sail to a deserted island and even launch into outer space. But as great as it is to travel with his dinosaur alone, something is missing....Follow along with word-for-word narration as Oliver realizes that it is even more fun when all of his friends bring their imaginations along for the ride!




The Jaguar's Heart


Book Description

Based on a true story, The Jaguar's Heart brings to life the first encounter of Maya and European in the 16th century. It tells the story of Gonzalo Guerrero, a Spanish sailor shipwrecked on the coast of Yucatan in 1511, between Columbus' discovery of the Americas and Cortez' conquest of Mexico. Maya lords enslave Guerrero and his fellow castaways, but he eventually gains his freedom. Encountering Ix Chan Can, the beautiful younger sister of the Maya lord Nachan Can, Guerrero chooses to remain among her people and win her love. Guerrero earns renown in a war against Nachan Can's enemies, and finally Ix Chan Can's hand. After they have two children, the only other still-living castaway, the clergyman Jeronimo de Aguilar, brings word of Cortez' landing. Guerrero refuses to rejoin his countrymen, cleaving to his family. But with Aguilar as interpreter, Cortez conquers the Aztecs, and the Spaniards inevitably return to impose their rule and religion on the Maya. Nachan Can now demands that Guerrero fight, and at last accepting that he must do so to protect his family, Guerrero tragically stakes his life for his adoptive people against ever-mounting odds. The Jaguar's Heart reveals the struggle of a man caught between cultures and conflicting loyalties at a pivotal moment in the history of the Americas. It is a book with the captivating setting of Gary Jennings' Aztec and its sequels, yet which reveals the humanity of both Spaniard and Indian, and with the compelling theme of W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear's Contact: The Battle for America series.




A Handbook of Play Therapy with Aggressive Children


Book Description

This book is the most comprehensive and detailed compilation of specific and practical techniques available for child and play therapists to draw on in the treatment of aggressive children. Written by two authors with a combined experience of over 50 years in the residential t...




A Year of Fear


Book Description

This eclectic overview of horror cinema offers up a collection of horror films for practically any occasion and literally every day of the year. For example, the author recommends commemorating United Nations Day (October 24) with a screening of The Colossus of New York, whose startling climax takes place at the U.N. Building. Each day-by-day entry includes the movie title, production year, plot summary and critique, along with a brief explanation of how the film fits into the history of that particular day and interesting anecdotes on the film's production.