A simplified and illustrated retelling of the exploits of the Anglo-Saxon warrior, Beowulf, and how he came to defeat the monster Grendel, Grendel's mother, and a dragon that threatened the kingdom.
The story of Sequoyah is the tale of an ordinary man with an extraordinary idea—to create a writing system for the Cherokee Indians and turn his people into a nation of readers and writers. The task he set for himself was daunting. Sequoyah knew no English and had no idea how to capture speech on paper. But slowly and painstakingly, ignoring the hoots and jibes of his neighbors and friends, he worked out a system that surprised the Cherokee Nation—and the world of the 1820s—with its beauty and simplicity. James Rumford’s Sequoyah is a poem to celebrate literacy, a song of a people’s struggle to stand tall and proud.
In 1802, Jean-Francois Champollion was eleven years old. That year, he vowed to be the first person to read Egypt’s ancient hieroglyphs. Champollion’s dream was to sail up the Nile in Egypt and uncover the secrets of the past, and he dedicated the next twenty years to the challenge. James Rumford introduces the remarkable man who deciphered the ancient Egyptian script and fulfilled a lifelong dream in the process. Stunning watercolors bring Champollion’s adventure to life in a story that challenges the mind and touches the heart.
A fable about a group of animals which strives to bring the perfect present to the Indian raja-king's birthday party. Discusses how the numerals we use originated in India.
Ibn Battuta was the traveler of his age—the fourteenth century, a time before Columbus when many believed the world to be flat. Like Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta left behind an account of his own incredible journey from Morocco to China, from the steppes of Russia to the shores of Tanzania, some seventy-five thousand miles in all. James Rumford has retold Ibn Battuta’s story in words and pictures, adding the element of ancient Arab maps—maps as colorful and as evocative as a Persian miniature, as intricate and mysterious as a tiled Moroccan wall. Into this arabesque of pictures and maps, James Rumford has woven the story not just of a traveler in a world long gone but of a man on his journey through life.
What was made of rags and bones, soot and seeds? What took a mountain to make? For the answer, travel back to the fifteenth century—to a time when books were made by hand and a man named Johannes Gutenberg invented a way to print books with movable type. Written as a series of riddles and illustrated in the style of medieval manuscripts by an award-winning author and artist, From the Good Mountain will intrigue readers of all ages. On every page there is something surprising to learn about how the very thing you are holding in your hands came to be.
Eighty years before Columbus, ships from China explored the world. One discovery the Chinese made is the chee-lin, known today as a giraffe. This rich storybook traces the journey of a chee-lin in a tale of captivity and struggle, friendship and respect. Full color.
Calabash Cat, a West African cat, sets out one day to find where the world ends. His adventures take him across a desert, grasslands, a jungle, and the ocean, until he finds what he is looking for. Illustrated in the style of the calabash engravers of the country of Chad, James Rumford’s original tale will keep you thinking long after you have closed the covers of this book—about our one world, and about seeking knowledge and finding wisdom.
After seeing a wounded creature on the beach, an animal like no one, Manu decides to nurse it back to health and becomes its valuable friend, one that will later return the favor during dangerous times, in a tale about the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands.
A history of the ancestors of Sydney & James Rumford, including the principal families of Grantham, Hendrickson, Jefferis, McDaniel, Nafzgar, Nookes, Scaife, & Way"--Back cover.
Do you know how people used to navigate in the past? There are lots of rules you can follow to be a master navigator. This is an engaging book for upper primary readers. Proceeds from this sale benefit not for profit organisation Library For All, helping children around the world learn to read. 10-12 years
Longtime San Francisco novelist Laurence Roy has arrived at the end of his writing career. During a period of thirty-five years, he's published dozens of novels - well received, highly regarded, warmly reviewed - though they have not led to great fame or fortune. He is a disciplined professional, devoted to his authorial routine. Writer's block is not part of his vocabulary. But at age sixty, he has abruptly realized that he's had enough of writing. All the same, he has one last novel left, and he has decided - with a sense of uncertainty, ambivalence, puzzlement - to spend six months writing in Paris. Although he cannot guess exactly what this new environment might do for him, he says goodbye to his wife and family, flies to Paris, and moves into a Left Bank apartment that a friend has lent him. As he settles into the neighborhood, he meditates on the long intellectual and creative history of Paris. At the same time he finds himself examining his own existence: his work, his age, his family, his life. What is it about Paris that always seems to lead visiting Americans to think and behave in new ways? He is mystified by this phenomenon, but he comes to treasure the new experience. As his youthful French language skills return to him, he explores the mysterious power of Paris, which somehow draws him forward in ways that he could not have foreseen. Will he finish his novel? Will he come to terms with his family, his professional life, the burdens of advancing age? In the voices of several narrators, Larry's story moves forward and backward in time, set in several international milieus - but Paris is always at the center. Do unpredictable adventures lie ahead? Only Paris knows.
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