"Our All About Reading program is unique in the world of language arts because it is the only multisensory reading program that will teach your child all the fundmentals of reading. We have no gaps--just a full, rich, research-centered program that is guaranteed to teach your child to read. Our pre-reading program teaches five essential pre-reading skills that we call the Big Five Skills. Research shows that these skills prevent reading failure by educating pre-readers in how language works--in essence, familiarizing children with written text and how it is used, so they are prepared to read. In Levels 1-4, our program will teach your child all five Key Components of Reading: Phonological Awareness, Phonics and Decoding, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Reading Comprehension. Every one of these components, when taught in concert with the others, is essential to your child's success in reading. This totally integrated approach to teaching reading ensures your child will not only learn to read with All About Reading, but will learn to read well. and since reading is at the heart of all learning, fluency in this skill is one of the most important gifts you can give your child."--Teacher's Manual, back cover

"The blue cat is like a knight on a quest. His quest is to find a hearth to fit the song the river taught him and to teach the owner of the hearth to sing that song"--Jacket.

Someone stole the key to the Black Cat Bookstore! Lucky for the store's owner, Mr. Brown, his clever cat, Cobweb, is on the case. Cobweb has a plan to scare the burglar away, and the ghost who lives in the bookstore is happy to help. There's only one problem-the burglar doesn't believe in ghosts. But maybe he'll change his mind once he meets the special ghost who lives in the Black Cat Bookstore.

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" is a short story that explores themes of guilt and perversity. The narrator, haunted by cruelty to his black cat and acts of domestic violence, is consumed by paranoia and madness. His attempt to conceal a crime leads to his own disgrace.

Valentine's Day is coming, and Mr. Brown's bookstore is so busy that he decides to hire someone to help out. Miss Button is perfect for the job. She loves books, she loves cats, and she even understands the special ghost in Mr. Brown's bookstore. There's only one problem. Mr. Brown and Miss Button like one another, but they're both too shy to say so! Fortunately, Cobweb the cat is there to help make sure that everyone has a happy Valentine's Day in this charming follow-up to The Bookstore Ghost and The Bookstore Burglar.

Flemming Flinders, a dapper greengrocer more often engrossed in a book than attuned to his turnips, dreams of adventure, fame, and fortune. When the wide-eyed Mr. Flinders finally sets out with high hopes, he finds himself living one of his fairy tales. But everyone he encounters the wart-nosed Drukamella, the beautiful young Ingaborg, and the talking crow with his nemesis, Signor Monteverdi is surely not. In Cobweb Castle, author Jan Wahl and illustrator Edward Gorey whisk readers along to watch Flemming bumble through the brambles of reality, illustrating the extent to which our imaginations can take us. Wahl's prose keeps readers privy as the adventure becomes more frenetic, but the fantasy ends nearly as it started with a swift bonk on the head. Fleming returns to his shop, dreaming.

All her life, Tante had heard tales about marvelous happenings on Christmas Eve. Animals might speak aloud. Bees might hum carols, or cocks crow at midnight. Tante wished she could witness a bit of Christmas magic, too. Everybody loves Christmas at Tante's. The old lady decorates a wonderful tree and makes certain to have something for all who come to visit, be it the nearby village children or the shy animals of the pine forest. The only creatures Tante overlooks are the spiders she has swept out of her cottage while cleaning. But the curious spiders want to come inside and see Tante's tree, too. When a midnight visitor lets them into the old lady's home, they unknowingly spin Tante the very gift she has longed for--a gift that has inspired the draping of tinsel on Christmas trees ever since. This Old World tale about the warmth and wonder of Christmas will leave children enchanted with the magical possibilities of the season.

Book 1 in the Fairy Animals of Misty Wood, a sweet, sparkly series about fairy animal friends!

Collects instructions drawn from the pages of String Figure Magazine explaining how to create such string "sculptures" as "Twinkling star," "Polar Bear," "Erupting volcano," and "Andromeda galaxy"