On the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Honour List 2014 2013 Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award Honor Book 2013 Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award nominee Forest of Reading's Golden Oak 2014 winner 2014 Silver Birch Express Award nominee OLA 2012 Best Bet - Picture Books category A city boy finds a stamp that unlocks his imagination; a country boy is captivated by stories. When they grow up, the two boys take different paths--one becomes a prison guard, the other works in a factory--but their early childhood passions remain. When the country boy's stories of hope land him in prison, the letters and stamps sent to him from faraway places intrigue the prison guard and a unique friendship begins.

This book is a collection of short stories designed to be used for reading practice and entertainment for home and classroom readers. It consists of 50 mostly fictional stories in several different interest areas. The areas include adults, boys and girls, animals, strange happenings, directions, lifelike objects, humor, and others. Many of these stories contain an introduction of factual information followed by a fictional story. In selected stories, there is another story following it that is related to it in some way. I have been associated with education most of my life, from being a teacher, a counselor, and a sales representative for a company whose main business was selling to the education market. Then for many years that followed, I have worked as a developer of educational software in reading, writing, and math. My favorite part of developing was always the creation of new stories, and that is why I decided to put this new book together.

Describes and lists current prices for thousands of stamps