Young Esmeralda has decided to have a picnic. She and her brother Antonio set out to have a day of fun and food at the park... but can some raindrops signal the end for the picnic. This book is a fun, easy-to-read children's picture book by cartoonist Daniel Roberts.

A little girl and her family come together to prepare for warm weather while creating a special new addition to Grandmother's farm.

Robert Henry Wright Jr., a resident of the Idaho Panhandle since 1988, has published Apology to Grouse Creek, Book I of the Sandpoint trilogy, as a novel set in the Sandpoint, Idaho, area. Wright categorizes Apology to Grouse Creek as a love story, an action story, and as personal relations in an outdoor setting. Nathaniel lives on a high, mountain plateau where he has everything he wants, except for a woman. Esmeralda lives in a big city; she needs a place to hide. Esmeralda sees a personal ad for a woman in a newspaper, and she responds. Esmeralda and her child, Chico, join Nathaniel in the mountains, and the three meld into a family trinity. As the story unfolds, the reader learns that Nathaniel is a member of The Family, the most wealthy and influential family in the northern five counties of the Idaho Panhandle; and that there has been a lifelong rift between Nathaniel and his parents due to him not responding to their ambitions for him. The reader also learns that Esmeralda is a fugitive from a motorcycle gang at Los Angeles, and that the gang's leader has revenge on his mind. The antagonists, Rolf and Delpha, enter the story: They fear that a full-blown, planet-wide battle is inevitable between poverty and wealth. Consequently, Rolf installs himself and Delpha into a remote mountain location where he intends to build a fortress for defending his money and surviving the social cataclysm. However, Rolf soon learns that someone lives above and behind him, and his paranoia compels him to banish Nathaniel and Esmeralda from the plateau by any means necessary, including murder. To accomplish this objective, Rolf employs the forces of money; he uses Esmeralda's dubious past; ultimately, Rolf kills Nathaniel's dog an act that Nathaniel is not capable of forgiving. In addition to the primary plot, there is another storyline: Victoria and Stanislaus. She yearns to establish and operate a cooperative art gallery to promote artwork from the local artists. He is a sculptor with great promise, but with a perplexing reputation for rowdiness. Stanislaus and Victoria polarize the Idaho Panhandle when his statuette, The Harlot, is accepted by her gallery and offered for sale at Sandpoint for the astonishing price of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Apology to Grouse Creek

Just as Mexican national life has come to center on the sprawling, dynamic, almost indefinable metropolis of Mexico City, so recent Mexican cinema has focused on the city not merely as a setting for films but almost as a protagonist in its own right, whose conditions both create meaning for and receive meaning from the human lives lived in its midst. Through close readings of fourteen recent critically acclaimed films, this book watches Mexican cinema in this process of producing cultural meaning through its creation, enaction, and interpretation of the idea of Mexico City. David William Foster analyzes how Mexican filmmakers have used Mexico City as a vehicle for exploring such issues as crime, living space, street life, youth culture, political and police corruption, safety hazards, gender roles, and ethnic and social identities. The book is divided into three sections. "Politics of the City" examines the films Rojo amanecer,Novia que te vea,Frida, naturaleza viva, and Sexo, pudor y lágrimas. "Human Geographies" looks at El Callejón de los Milagros,Mecánica nacional,El castillo de la pureza,Todo el poder, and Lolo. "Mapping Gender" discusses Danzón,De noche vienes,Esmeralda,La tarea,Lola, and Entre Pancho Villa y una mujer desnuda.

In the newest cozy caper in the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Tourist Trap series, a new art studio has opened in the coastal California town of South Cove—but it’s about to turn into a crime scene. . . As the owner of Coffee, Books, and More, Jill Gardner likes to support other Main Street businesses, so she attends a paint-and-sip event where, sadly, her brushstrokes look more like blobs. It’s still a fun night of DIY crafts and full glasses of wine though—except for a disruption by a couple doing more sipping than painting. Jill’s police-detective boyfriend is on alert, but when a designated driver volunteers to take the drunken pair back to their bed and breakfast, everything seems resolved. Until the wife’s body turns up the next morning back in the studio. The victim, Nan, is from out of town, so it’s hard to imagine who’d have a motive aside from her spouse. Now, in between puzzling over her fortuneteller neighbor’s strange behavior, preparing for her best friend’s wedding, and pouring cups of java at the bookstore, Jill must uncover the secrets of Nan’s life and find out who wanted her out of the picture . . . Praise for Lynn Cahoon “I love the author’s style, which was warm and friendly . . . [A] wonderfully appealing series.” —Dru’s Book Musings on the Tourist Trap Mysteries “Well-crafted . . . Cat and crew prove to be engaging characters and Cahoon does a stellar job of keeping them—and the reader—guessing.” —Mystery Scene on A Story to Kill

Her heart’s desire would be her downfall. After spending her life in training, Esmeralda still can’t believe she’s been appointed to serve as the Vestal of Our Lady of Paris—the greatest temple on any planet in the Nine Circles. Her beauty and unrivaled ability to manipulate energy quickly catch the attention of Praetor Frollo, the grand magistrate of Paris, and High Seraph Phoebus, the greatest winged warrior in the solar system. But her dream of becoming the consort of one of those handsome, powerful males is forgotten the moment she lays eyes upon the hunchback secretly living in the temple. Kwazeem feels Esmeralda’s power as soon as she lands in his city. She awakens the primal energy that has lain dormant within him—and a possessive hunger that demands he claim her. But he’s a Fallen, a monster that would be destroyed on sight if the citizens of Paris discovered his existence. Worse still, Esmeralda’s Divine Light inflicts agony upon his already tortured body if he basks in it for too long. And yet… he cannot stay away from her. With Kwazeem’s mysterious condition and Esmeralda torn between her duties to the people and the sinful desires of her heart, is there any chance of them sharing a future?

In 1868, Renee Devereux is shipped to California so that she can change her destiny. Hiding the facts of her birth, her benefactor arranges to place her with a distance relative who owns a vast Spanish rancho. She becomes embroiled in Spanish traditions, arranged marriages, killings and subterfuge. Soon hate, murder, old traditions and Spanish pride take their toll on her gentle, sweet soul before she discovers just how much she needs the one person, who not only understands her but loves her unconditionally.

A story about family, loyalty, kindness and bravery, set against an all-too-possible future where climate change has forever changed the way we live. In a world where real bees are extinct, the quickest, bravest kids climb the fruit trees and pollinate the flowers by hand. Peony lives with her sister, Magnolia, and her grandfather on a fruit farm outside the city. All Peony really wants is to be a bee. Even though she is only nine — and bees must be ten — Peony already knows all there is to know about being a bee and she is determined to achieve her dream. Life on the farm is a scrabble, but there is enough to eat and a place to sleep, and there is love. Then Peony’s mother arrives to take her away from everything she has ever known. Peony is taken to the city to work for a wealthy family. Will Peony’s grit and quick thinking be enough to keep her safe? How to Bee is a beautiful and fierce novel for younger readers, and the voice of Peony will stay with you long after you read the last page. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6 Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.

All Things Flow is the third and final book of The Sandpoint Trilogy set in northern Idaho; it is the continuing story of the principal characters from Apology to Grouse Creek and Ten Percent Marriage plus a sprinkling of new ones. Two middle aged new-comers have arrived to live beside Grouse Creek for different reasons: Rhododendron to enjoy a late-life relationship with Mother Nature; and Elliot to build a house in the wilderness and then write a book about it for profit. Rhododendron soon discovers that she is confronted by a long suppressed grievance against her husband a grievance for which she ultimately sees no remedy except to move on with her life. Nathaniel is again drawn into the adversity that afflicts the world beyond his mountain home when a US Marshal appears at his log house with instructions for him and Esmeralda to pack-up and leave. The result of the marshal's visit is the jailing of Esmeralda and Chico, and the gun-shot wounding of Nathaniel as he escapes into the woods. Nathaniel's cousin Barry becomes despondent over the untimely death of his wife, a death that has left him with a precocious seven-year-old daughter to parent. One afternoon in a smoke filled blackcap patch, Barry and Rhododendron discover that each has a desperate hunger for the other and that neither is inclined to deny his appetites. Victoria receives a telephone message from a man who introduces himself as Dennis and tells her that he believes that the two of them could combine their efforts toward a mutual goal; that he has in mind two things: expanding the territory served by The Gallery from the upper five counties of the Idaho Panhandle to the whole wide world; and expanding The Gallery's product line to include all artistic endeavor. Dennis also mentions that Victoria is to consider the inordinate amount of money required for this venture to be no object she is to leave the money to him. Thus begins to flow a rapid stream of events: Nathaniel goes to Emily at Arrowhead Point to recuperate from his gun-shot wound and to plan his return to The Old Growth to defend his home. Emily takes advantage of Nathaniel's convalescence to paint his portrait. Barry resigns from the US Forest Service as the result of political chicanery and moves to Washington, DC, to work as the understudy for the senior senator from Idaho. Rhododendron divorces Elliot and moves to Spokane, Washington, to work for The Sierra Club and to be near Barry. Victoria accepts Barry's seven-year-old daughter as her change. Dennis and his life-long lover, Doris, inform Victoria that they want her to become the modern day Lorenzo de' Medici for the entire planet. Victoria is stunned by the radical changes looming before her should she accept Doris and Dennis's financial donation; but she cannot imagine not accepting the opportunity that is hers for the taking. By the end of the tale, readers have become aware of what Lucretius, the Roman poet and philosopher, had written centuries before: that no single thing abides but all things flow.

The Essential City Walking Guide for Over 30 Years Hundreds of public stairways traverse San Francisco’s boundless hills, revealing scenic vistas and linking colorful, diverse neighborhoods. Since 1984, Stairway Walks in San Francisco has been helping urban explorers discover the best of the City by the Bay via riser and handrail. Now in its ninth edition, this beloved guidebook by Mary Burk with Adah Bakalinsky includes three new walks, updates of classic favorites, and many new photographs. The amazing routes invite you to explore 35 featured walks that incorporate San Francisco’s magnificent stairway network, from Marshall Beach and Noe Valley to Lands End and Telegraph Hill. Lively route descriptions, at-a-glance Quick-Step summaries, and easy-to-read maps—as well as parking and public-transportation information—provide all the details you want to know. Plus, a comprehensive appendix lists all 600-plus stairways. Whether you want to learn about the city’s history and architecture, elevate your exercise routine, or just let your feet lead the way to new adventures, Stairway Walks in San Francisco has something for everyone.