A dynamic new story about how babies make their way in the world—and how grown-ups have tried to make sense of these tiny inscrutable beings. As a new parent, Nicholas Day had some basic but confounding questions: Why does my son find the straitjacket of his swaddling blanket comforting and not terrifying? How can he never meet a developmental norm and still be OK? And when will he stop sucking my finger? So he went digging for answers. They were not what he expected. Drawing on a wealth of perspectives—scientific, historical, cross-cultural, personal—Baby Meets World is organized around the mundane activities that dominate the life of an infant: sucking, smiling, touching, toddling. From these everyday activities, Day weaves together an account that is anything but ordinary: a fresh, surprising story, both weird and wondrous, about our first experience of the world. Part hidden history of parenthood, part secret lives of babies, Baby Meets World steps back from the moment-to-moment chaos of babydom. It allows readers to see infancy anew in all its strangeness and splendor.
Rocky Place is a short street in the coastal village of Wintersea. Attempting to regenerate their failing mariage Quentin and Lyn move there to live. One of their two children has become uncontrollable, further complicating their relationship. As they start life in their new house a dispute develops with their neighbours, a licentious family whose lives revolve round loud music, bumper stickers and sex. The problems that arise from this conflict start affecting other residents of Rocky Place, together with both the children and friends of the two families. In the heat of summer events become increasingly fraught, leading to a horrific tragedy that no one saw coming, but many could have stopped. “We're all to blame,” said Lyn. “Every one of us.”
A leopard cannot change its spots, but can a man change his life? Ray Ferris' career is on the skids while his nymphomaniac wife Susan manages to escape from his alcoholism, his cruelty and his miserly nature. As Ray fights his addiction he has a fortuitous meeting with a young street busker. Other characters enter both his and Susan's lives, as well as a strange windfall of cash that affects each of them in different ways. They gather at the debut concert of a newly-formed orchestra where a shocking accident leads to an unexpected conclusion. This is a story of love and humiliation, of diminished responsibility and survival, of musical talent and the many possibilities of second chances.
A “witty thriller” (The New York Times) for middle-grade readers about how the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre, how the robbery made the portrait the most famous artwork in the world—and how the painting by Leonardo da Vinci should never have existed at all. SIBERT MEDAL WINNER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Publishers Weekly • School Library Journal • Booklist • Kirkus Reviews • NPR • The New York Public Library • The Chicago Public Library • The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books On a hot August day in Paris, just over a century ago, a desperate guard burst into the office of the director of the Louvre and shouted, La Joconde, c’est partie! The Mona Lisa, she’s gone! No one knew who was behind the heist. Was it an international gang of thieves? Was it an art-hungry American millionaire? Was it the young Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, who was about to remake the very art of painting? Travel back to an extraordinary period of revolutionary change: turn-of-the-century Paris. Walk its backstreets. Meet the infamous thieves—and detectives—of the era. And then slip back further in time and follow Leonardo da Vinci, painter of the Mona Lisa, through his dazzling, wondrously weird life. Discover the secret at the heart of the Mona Lisa—the most famous painting in the world should never have existed at all. Here is a middle-grade nonfiction, with black-and-white illustrations by Brett Helquist throughout, written at the pace of a thriller, shot through with stories of crime and celebrity, genius and beauty.
A group of young boys steal a death mask from an antique store and face violent retribution. Inept criminals who dream of a big payday plot to kidnap a child. Four video store clerks venture into a freak Los Angeles snowstorm and discover that not all monsters are special effects. Two sisters convince themselves there's no reason to be afraid of Aunt Alice and her secrets, now that she's dead. An amnesiac suspects that the man who claims to love her may in fact be keeping her a prisoner. From riverside towns in the Midwest and a future Paris above the clouds, to ancient lycanthropes and vindictive pachyderms, this collection of supernatural terrors and heartbreaking reality from award-nominated Nicholas Day, author of Now That We're Alone and At the End of the Day I Burst into Flames, explores identity, addiction, love, and death. Plunge headfirst into fifteen tales of monsters, madness, and all the darkness human hearts can carry. Danger lurks around every corner, every decision a step closer to demise. Everybody gets what's coming to them in the end. But, of course, Nobody Gets Hurt.
What does nothing sound like? An offbeat history of John Cage’s 4’33”, a musical composition of blank bars, illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka. One night in 1952, master pianist David Tudor took the stage in a barnlike concert hall called the Maverick. A packed audience waited with bated breath for him to start playing. Little did they know that the performance had already begun. A rain patters. A tree rustles. An audience stirs. David was performing John Cage’s 4’33”, whose purpose is to amplify the ambient sounds of whatever venue it inhabits. That shocking first performance earned 4’33” plenty of haters; and yet the piece endures, “performed” by the smallest garage bands and the grandest symphonies alike, year after year. Its fans hear what John Cage hoped we would hear: “Nothing” is never silent, and you don’t need a creative genius, a concert hall, or even a piano to hear something worthwhile. All you have to do is stop and listen. Nicholas Day’s text is reverent with a healthy drop of humor, warm and refined; two-time Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka’s childlike pencil-on-watercolor artwork is uninhibited and electrifying, with all the visionary spirit of the work it chronicles. Guaranteed to spark generative thought and lively debate among readers of all ages, Nothing is not to be missed. A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
Charlie Gray and his wife Pam emigrate from England to South Africa, a country sinking under the scourge of apartheid, to start as an engineer in the gold mines. His life appears on the surface to be charmed, but he lives under the shadow of a terrifying instance of abuse in his childhood. Tragedies occur in his marriage and he is forced to leave. He moves, first to Nauru, then to Australia where his life begins to resemble that of the biblical character Job. Things happen to him, events beyond his control. He is powerless to stop them until he meets Emma, a distant cousin, and in a return to Scotland and the place where the story began he finally throws off the shackles of the past.
These are his final moments. In the little city of Wood River, Illinois, a man nicknamed Firecracker knows the end is near. The fire is coming, just like it came for his father, his grandfather, and who knows how many men. After all, folks in those parts have a short-term memory when it comes to history, and lots of stories have a tendency to go to the grave. Maybe the fire was always there. Maybe it came along when the oil refinery went up in 1907. Who can say? Sometimes, a yarn like this is as close to a history book as a Midwest community and its people are apt to get. When it happened to his father, the doctors only called it an accident. But Firecracker's mother had a name for it: spontaneous combustion. Firecracker knows there is no way to escape this Act of God, so he retreats into his memories. Past and present become one and the same. The veil of reality pulls away and Death arrives in time for one last conversation, where Firecracker comes to terms with the mysteries of his own life, and realizes that some questions are not nearly as important as the moments which spawned them. From the first line of the tale that sees his eyes explode to--moments and pages later--his whole body being consumed by flame, Firecracker experiences his life and loves through a succession of memories, reveals his friendship with Death, and talks about the men in his family's unfortunate predisposition. This is a yarn about life and death and spontaneous human combustion. This is a tale of a man with a fire inside him. At the End of the Day I Burst into Flames is a horror story about how beautiful love can be.
John Madden is born into a poor working class family. He has an abusive father, who acts like a puppeteer, an expert in mind control, while his mother is timid and subservient. At school he is mocked and bullied. but later, as an apprentice mechanic at TAFE, John meets Helen with whom he falls in love and marries. The question is: Will John turn out to be like his father? And if he does how will Helen react? And will she be able to escape from the marriage if she finds it necessary, for to leave is the hardest thing anyone ever has to do?
World War I did not end neatly with the Germans' surrender. After a dramatic week of negotiations, military offensives, and the beginning of a Communist revolution, the German Imperial regime collapsed. The Allies eventually granted an armistice to a new German government, and at 11:00 on November 11, the guns officially ceased fire -- but only after 11,000 more casualties had been sustained. The London Daily Express proclaimed it "the greatest day in history." Nicholas Best tells the story in sweeping, cinematic style, following a set of key participants through the twists and turns of these climactic events, and sharing the impressions of eyewitnesses including Adolf Hitler, Charles de Gaulle, Harry S. Truman, Anthony Eden, and future famous generals MacArthur, Patton, and Montgomery.
Marriage? Commitment? In Marla Evans' world, union has a totally different meaning. After everything they have been through, Marla's best friend, Stephanie is attempting to marry Reggie. Yes, the same Reggie. You notice it says, She is attempting. Isn't it normally the other way around? The BiG Day is going to be just that. Not your typical walking down the isle to be with the love of your life. It will be more like running down a street, attempting to take a life. But, what more could you ask for, in the world of the White Collar Woman? Like with anything, 3 is the charm. And with this 3rd installment of White Collar Woman, not even 3 has the same meaning (if you know what I mean). Relax. Sip. Explore. This is a world that you could only dream of. Or, not want to dream of. White Collar Woman 3: The BiG Day....
New approaches to a central area of Latter-day Saint belief The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other Christians have always shared a fundamental belief in the connection between personal salvation and the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. While having faith in and experiencing the atonement of Christ remains a core tenet for Latter-day Saints, some thinkers have in recent decades reconsidered traditional understandings of atonement. Deidre Nicole Green and Eric D. Huntsman edit a collection that brings together multiple and diverse approaches to thinking about Latter-day Saint views on this foundational area of theology. The essayists draw on and go beyond a wide range of perspectives, classical atonement theories, and contemporary reformulations of atonement theory. The first section focuses on scriptural and historical foundations while the second concentrates on theological explorations. Together, the contributors evaluate what is efficacious and ethical in the Latter-day Saint outlook and offer ways to reconceive those views to provide a robust theological response to contemporary criticisms about atonement. Contributors: Nicholas J. Frederick, Fiona Givens, Deidre Nicole Green, Sharon J. Harris, J.B. Haws, Eric D. Huntsman, Benjamin Keogh, Ariel Bybee Laughton, Adam S. Miller, Jenny Reeder, T. Benjamin Spackman, and Joseph M. Spencer
Those who witnessed it never forgot it: the great armada of Allied ships that filled the English Channel on D-Day, June 6, 1944. From battleships, cruisers, and destroyers down to the much smaller landing ships and landing craft, these nearly 7,000 vessels bombarded the Normandy coast, ferried men, tanks, and equipment across the channel, and landed 150,000 troops—under withering German fire—on Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches in a single day. In numbers and scope, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history. Meanwhile, some 12,000 aircraft flew above the sea, a dizzying assortment of fighters and bombers, transports, recon craft, and gliders. Taking off from air fields in England, they dropped thousands of paratroopers and even vehicles, bombed roads and German positions miles inland, provided vital intelligence, and attacked any German planes that were able to take to the skies. It was the largest single-day aerial operation in history. And yet these important—and impressive—aspects of D-Day haven’t received the coverage they deserve, having been overshadowed by the fighting on the beaches. Veronico assembles photos of both the air and sea components of the D-Day invasion, giving the sailors and airmen their due and giving modern readers a vivid sense of what this monumental day was like in the air and at sea.
Liverpool Docks, on Merseyside - a senseless strike threatens to delay the departure of an ocean liner. As the last of the passengers come aboard, the drama increases with the threatened walk-out of the stewards. Below deck, agitation and unrest mount as the tide water rises and the vital hour for sailing approaches.
How do Orthodox Christians celebrate Pascha (Easter) and Christmas? What is the purpose of the blessing of waters? How does the Orthodox liturgical year compare with Western Christianity? This book explores the meaning of the Orthodox liturgical year by analyzing the rituals, Bible readings, and hymns of the feasts. In addition to the main seasons and feasts—Lent, Holy Week, Pascha, Christmas, and feasts of Mary—the book discusses other feasts particular to Orthodox Christianity. Readers will learn about special themes on occasions like the Exaltation of the Cross and the Baptism of Rus’, and will discover the importance of domestic traditions like the Vasilopita and the Sviata Vechera (Holy Supper). This new book is an ideal guide for college-level readers and above seeking to understand the meaning of Orthodox liturgy.
Necrosaurus Rex tells the tale of Martin, a simple janitor, who takes an unfortunate trip through time, becomes a violent mutant, and the father of us all. There's 14 billion years crushed inside these pages, and most of them are pretty nasty. This book is a jet black rumination on the concept of miracles and the creation of the universe, a narrative whose lineage exists somewhere between Moravagine, Maldoror, and David Copperfield. Genesis, the Crucifixion, and Revelations reimagined as a transgressive nightmare. This is Necrosaurus Rex.
The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 was no run-of-the-mill misfortune-it was a watershed moment that shook the pillars of an inveterate social order and sent reverberations throughout the Western world. Earth, water, wind, and fire all conspired to produce a hellish catastrophe that lasted for a full five days and left Lisbon thoroughly annihilated. Nicholas Shrady's unique account of this first modern disaster and its aftereffects successfully articulates the outcome of the earthquake-the eighteenth-century equivalent of a mass media frenzy giving rise to a host of other fascinating developments, such as disaster preparedness, landmark social reform, urban planning, and the birth of seismology.
How do Orthodox Christians celebrate Pascha (Easter) and Christmas? What is the purpose of the blessing of waters? How does the Orthodox liturgical year compare with Western Christianity? Through an analysis of the feasts within the Orthodox Liturgical year, Denysenko explores how rituals, Bible readings and hymns form part of common festivals, such as Lent, Holy Week, Pascha, Christmas, and the feasts of Mary. He also discusses feasts particular to Orthodox Christianity, allowing readers to explore occasions such as the Exaltation of the Cross and the Baptism of Rus’, and discover the importance of domestic traditions like the Vasilopita and the Sviata Vechera (Holy Supper). Ideal for interested readers at college-level or above, This Is the Day That the Lord Has Made is an excellent guide for all seeking to understand the significance of Orthodox liturgy.
Worlds of information in a easily accessible form This series of six books investigates some of the most fascinating areas of the world we live in, ranging from science to religion, and covering each area in depth to give children a broader understanding of the environment they live in. Each book contains a table of contents, a glossary and an index.
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