From Publishers Weekly These seven gentle tales set in Minnesota and North Dakota and all written during the 1970s treat fans of novelist Hassler (A Green Journey; Jemmy) to the earliest fruits of his talent. Some are folksy portraits of small-town characters, while others are drier and more plot driven. Both the title story and "Resident Priest" feature crusty, 74-year-old Father Fogarty, a pastor who's leaving his parish after 23 years. In "Chief Larson," a seven-year-old Indian boy, known (rather improbably) only as "chief" on the reservation, rebels in a small but telling way against his white adoptive family. "Good News in Culver Bend" tracks two city reporters who travel to a small town and discover "the heart of Christmas." "Chase" and "Christopher, Moony, and the Birds" show how frustrated residents of small towns seek solace. The former, so brief it's nearly a prose poem, hints at Hassler's own adolescent discovery of his talent for fiction; the latter follows a lonely 50-year-old college professor as he goes on a consolatory walk with a student's awkward wife and child, watching "birds on family outings, hopping and halting on the grass." The cleverest story, "Yesterday's Garbage," follows a "garbologist" who finds the truth about a murder in a trash bin, and is then led to commit one himself. The publisher plans to issue Hassler's later short fiction in three more volumes, starting in the year 2000. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Readers will dig these books! Groovy Tubes offer more than just a book, they allow children to learn on many levels through reading & playing. An educational book, with fascinating facts, zany illustrations & photographs or realistic art, provides the base of this three-tiered package. Activities at the back of the book & a game board folded into the box with fact-filled quiz cards will provide hours of fun. The play creatures in the spine tube extend the learning in a tactile way, as all components work together to familiarize children with the subject matter. It's been millions of years since the last dinosaur roamed the Earth, but dinosaurs remain the subject of much fascination & study. Dino-Might! teaches what dinosaurs ate, where they lived & how they defended themselves. Also included are possible reasons for their extinction & a timeline that shows the different eras.

Our Story is a highly designed guided journal meant for entire families to fill out together. With superlative prompts, (“Who has the most persuasive arguments?”), prompts about the family history (“Where were you born? What city? What hospital? Was the moon full?”), and juicy secrets (“Who is your mortal enemy?”), this journal becomes a unique artifict when filled out, preserving not only the stories of your family but also the handwriting of its individual members. Whether you choose to fill out one prompt a year as a group, pass the journal around family gatherings, or mail it from household to household, the more people who contribute their stories and perspectives to the journal, the more precious it becomes. Each spread contains a single prompt with plenty of room to respond—so whether it’s just a single family unit tackling the journal or an entire extended family, there is space for everyone to contribute. Our Story is both a fun activity and a gift to future generations who will cherish reading how their ancestors joked, loved, laughed, cried, and lived.

Christmas is an enduring celebration that unites generations. We share so much of ourselves and our memories during the holiday festivities, and A Keepsake Christmas is designed to help capture that loving nostalgia. This gift book is fashioned for those of us who, especially during the Christmas season, long to weave our relationships into a richly textured fabric of love and community, creating the kind of sanctuary in our homes that expresses the love in our hearts. In their warm, personal style, Alice and Susan have created a collection holiday stories, poignant quotes, poems, vignettes, and favorite carols dispersed throughout the text that are cozy as candlelight.

Fascinating personal histories are revealed through the stories of cherished objects, in this anthology celebrating the meaningful mementos of our lives. Amber Lanier Nagle has always been interested in keepsakes, whether her own or those she encounters in her friends’ homes. Seemingly ordinary items—a glass bluebird, a pocketknife, a dime-store locket, a faded fishing lure, a dented cake pan, a model train car—become priceless treasures when their stories are uncovered. In Project Keepsake, Nagle collects the tales of these objects and their beloved memories from contributors near and far. “Why do you keep this?” Nagle asks. “Where did it come from?” And then she listens as the stories pour out. Told in first-person by both seasoned and aspiring writers, every essay in the anthology is unique—yet each reveals common threads that connect us all and celebrate the glorious human experience.

To find more information about Rowman and Littlefield titles, please visit www.rowmanlittlefield.com.

This volume captures 20 of the best short stories from 13 American Catholic writers over the past 75 years. Spanning most of the 20th century, the stories in this collection deal with many of the issues brought into the spotlight with Vatican II.

Once Upon A Time, before Atheneum in New York took a chance on an unknown author and published Staggerford (1977), Jon Hassler wrote a number of short stories that introduce many of the characters in his later novels. Only a handful of these stories had appeared in print (mostly in small literary magazines) until we published our best-selling Keepsakes and Other Stories.

Winner of the 1999 Drue Heinz Literature PrizeSelected by Charles JohnsonThese nine stories are teeming with people on the margins, where destitute New Yorkers and determined immigrants are as much at the mercy of social services, media attention, opportunistic politicians, and "quality-of-life" campaigns as they are prey to grinding poverty, dangerous streets, and their own haunting memories. Delving into Lucy Honig's fiction, one is willingly drawn into an intimacy with these resilient, but flawed characters—among them, a woman who cleans a beauty salon, a high school kid who's lost a parent, a runaway Cambodian bride, an actress, and a homeless woman. Crossing paths, these difficult characters often misunderstand and sometimes demean each other, yet they also redeem and rescue one other in odd and unexpected ways. In The Truly Needy, Lucy Honig has created a heartbreaking, imaginative world that is the American urban landscape.

Gilbert's libretti of the comic operas composed by Arthur Sullivan are hugely well known, and lines such as "e;let the punishment fit the crime"e; have entered the English lexicon - but his short stories also deserve to be rediscovered by the modern reader. This collection, carefully curated by the secretary of the W.S. Gilbert Society, brings together the best of these sharp, clever, comical tales - many of which are published here for the first time since their first appearance in ephemeral magazines - enriched with the author's own illustrations. The stories feature many of the powerful motifs so associated with his work - fairies, elixirs, magic - and a wide variety of characters - from burglars to barristers and shopkeepers to gentlemen. This volume is shot through with the observational wit which drove Gilbert and Sullivan's works to fame, and constitutes a hugely enjoyable companion for fans of the pair's theatrical oeuvre.