Chantel, Adam, Holly and Owen must help Equus, the great white horse, find his mate and foal and regain his magical talisman. But as the horse rises, so does the dragon. The age-old battle between good and evil threatens the bond between Chantel and Adam and endangers the quest. This is fantasy as its best, a story that raises hairs on the back of the neck and sends satisfying chills up and down the spine, a story that, while clearly drawn from the rich world of make believe, feels truer than true.

In this first volume in the Summer of Magic Quartet, Chantel, Adam, Holly, and Owen set out to help the Great White Horse Equus find his mate and regain his magic talisman.

"Talisman is a book about a book: It's the book that's never there when you wake up, no matter how hard you try to take it with you. The book you steal when you're too young to understand it's not the only copy in the world. Talisman is about hunger and magic, and the power of stories made solid."--Back cover.

In Volume Three of The Summer of Magic Quartet, Adam's turn to lead the adventure has arrived. The Wise One, Myrddin, needs Adam to retrieve his staff from the Crystal Cave deep inside Glastonbury Tor. The quest grows more dangerous, however, and fear rises. Equus and Ava are far away, the Lady will not wake, and Myrddin is in human guise, unable to use magic without alerting the Dark Being. The four children are on their own. And as the Dark Being approaches, the children discover that danger can find them even in their dreams.

Do you want to adapt your poem to a storybook that tells a story in words, and pictures-or only amplify the images that you create with words? Would you rather turn your poem into a picture book that tells a story with pictures? Will words take second place to illustrations? Decide first whether you will write a story book or a picture book. Then use the images in your poem to clarify your writing. You won't be able to read a picture book into a tape recorder or turn it into an audio book or radio play. You will be able to narrate a word book for audio playing. Start with an inspirational poem, proverb, or song lyrics. Ask children what makes them laugh. You can make something out of nothing. You can make a story out of anything intangible, such as an idea with a plan still in your mind. Capture your children's dreams, proverbs, song lyrics, and the surprise elements that make them laugh. Record imagination, "what-if" talk, and personal history. A folktale or story is something that could come from any place in the past, from science, or from nothing that you can put your hands on. What children want in a book, poem, or folklore is a cave where they can go to be themselves. When suspending belief, children still want to be themselves as they navigate fantasy. The story book becomes a den or tree house where children can go inside, shut the door, and play. Introduce children to poetry by showing how you transform your poem into a children's book by expanding and emphasizing significant events in the life story of one child. Poems, memorable experiences, significant life events or turning points are all ways to make something out of nothing tangible. You begin re-working a concept, framework, or vision. Here's how to write, publish, and promote salable material from concept to framework to poem to children's book-step-by-step.

This Medieval Princess in the Caucasus Mountains Seeks to Do Acts of Kindness My life adventure is resilience and to find a voice that resonates all of my confidence. Now in my youth just before I will become sixteen years of age, my confidence speaks all about lighting a wonderful brightness and walking out of the darkness of insatiable banalities. With the renewal of spring, the world is repaired, and the gardens bloom in my magnificent Alania. I walk up steep hills and ride far to remember each intimate glimpse of blooms on trees and to listen as waterfalls whisper. We have come up here all the way from Sarkel to remain here in the mountains, close to my childhood home. To insure my confidence, my voice, and my resilience, here I light the eternal flame to brighten the damp room. I am Raziet, now called Serakh. I am Karachaian-Balkarian, and from my grandfathers, of sweet Alania. I am partly Khazar and partly from the peoples that dwell by Mount Elbrus. I am all of them, all mixed together for generations. My many ancestors came from Persia, the Kavkaz, the Steppes, and beyond where the sky rides the moon. I am the tamga of the horse, the orchards, my pet wolf, and the open grasslands. And today, I am here, not where the Volga meets the Caspian, but with our friends and my cousin breathing deeply the sparkling air beneath my Mount Elbrus. We wait in our aoul. We are all of my magnificient Alania, and here now, in this land of orchards to the north, the scent of the birch trees, the patina, the starlight, my venture, value, and vision. Sit at my table and experience the eternal light of Khazaria and the rest of these mountains and rivers from the Caucasus to the seas of Pontus and Meotis. We are all one from many in the joy of life and we are here to do acts of kindness.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1878.