A heartening story that celebrates the power of dreaming and having fun, despite the difficulties we may encounter along the way. Despite having plenty of reasons to be sad, there’s always a smile on Isaac’s face thanks to the incredible stories his grandpa tells him, stories that helped him to forget about the illness that was stealing all of his curly blonde hair. Isaac is totally convinced that life is a wonderful game. He’s always dreaming about amazing places like Nuba, a kingdom where people are always happy. But unfortunately, there’s an enemy on the horizon in the land of laughter: the Lord of Noise, who threatens to destroy the happiness of the kingdom once and for all... Isaac’s LAUGH is a poignant tale that celebrates the joy of living despite the hurdles we must overcome along the way, reminding us that fun and bravery can build a world full of love and hope.

A little boy with Asperger's syndrome celebrates his differences while explaining how he often has more energy than other kids, has very acute senses, and says things that may be blunt but are never intended to be mean.

CHOICE2000 Outstanding Academic Title Comedy, tragedy, and religion have been intertwined since ancient Greece, where comedy and tragedy arose as religious rituals. This groundbreaking book analyzes the worldviews of tragedy and comedy, and compares each with the world's major religions. Morreall contrasts the tragic and comic along twenty psychological and social dimensions and uses these to analyze both Eastern and Western traditions. Although no religion embodies a purely tragic or comic vision of life, some are mostly tragic and others mostly comic. In Eastern religions, Morreall finds no robust tragic vision but does find significant comic features, especially in Taoism and Zen Buddhism. In the Western monotheistic tradition, there are some comic features in the early Bible, but by the late Hebrew Bible, the tragic vision dominates. Two millennia have done little to reverse that tragic vision in Judaism. Christianity, on the other hand, has shown both tragic and comic features—Morreall writes of the Calvinist vision and the Franciscan vision—but in the contemporary era comic features have come to dominate. The author also explores Islam, and finds it has neither a comic nor a tragic vision. And, among new religions, those which emphasize the personal self come close to having an exclusively comic vision of life.

The Bible's great Faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews chapter 11 honours Abel, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham as outstanding examples of faith and identifies the acts that qualified them for this prestigious list. Then we read, "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future" (Hebrews 11:20). Merely speaking a blessing? How does this act rate alongside Noah's building the ark or Abraham's leaving his country? "And thereby," believes Henderson, "hangs a tale." The first half of the book, By Faith Isaac, explores Abraham's faith journey and listens in to conversations between Abraham and Isaac as Abraham carefully passes on the faith lessons he has learned. When Abraham faces his greatest faith test, the sacrifice of his son, Isaac embarks on his own faith journey. After marrying Rebekah, Isaac has to learn a new lesson of faith-one which his forefathers had not had to deal with. Whether you love the Old Testament or struggle to read it, By Faith Isaac educates as it entertains, and at times borders on being devotional.

Isaac's parents laughed at the thought of them having a son in their old age. Abraham, his father, perhaps thought that God was displaying a sense of humor. Sarah, his mother, just laughed at the idea of her bearing a child at her age. Perhaps this laughter or nonchalant attitude toward their promised son has caused many to overlook the Isaac narratives. While Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as patriarchs, have significance as the fathers of the Christian family, attention has primarily been given to the narrative messages from Abraham and Jacob. Some suggest that the attention of Isaac is rightfully given to Joseph. It is important that we understand each of the patriarch's narratives individually and collectively so we can draw from the lessons of their connecting messages. Overlooking Isaac's message will cause you to miss the depth of his trauma on Mount Moriah and misunderstand the drama that plays out in the patriarchal family. Trauma and drama are not an Isaac-only issue. It is a family issue, and it requires the family's attention for their healing. This book emphasizes the often overlooked message and narrative of Isaac. Glancing over the narrative of Isaac will leave every believer exposed to needless drama in their lives.

Elizabeth Kraft radically alters our conventional views of early women novelists by taking seriously their representations of female desire. Reading fiction by Aphra Behn, Delarivier Manley, Eliza Haywood, Sarah Fielding, Charlotte Smith, Frances Burney, and Elizabeth Inchbald in light of ethical paradigms drawn from biblical texts about women and desire, Kraft demonstrates not only the centrality of female desire in eighteenth-century culture and literature but its ethical importance as well.

Iris and Isaac can't get comfortable in their snow nest and each blames the other. Off they stomp in opposite directions, but it's not long before they each realise that it's nicer to share things with a friend.