With magnificent dioramic illustrations, Gilbert Ford captures the joy, creativity, and determination behind the invention of an iconic, one-of-a-kind toy: the Slinky! One day, a spring fell from the desk of Richard James, an engineer and a dreamer. Its coils took a walk…and so did Richard’s imagination. He knew right away that he had stumbled onto something marvelous. With the help of his wife, Betty, Richard took this ordinary spring and turned it into a plaything. But it wasn’t just any old trinket—it was a Slinky, and it would become one of the most popular toys in American history.

With magnificent dioramic illustrations, Gilbert Ford captures the joy, creativity, and determination behind the invention of an iconic, one-of-a-kind toy: the Slinky! One day, a spring fell from the desk of Richard James, an engineer and a dreamer. Its coils took a walk…and so did Richard’s imagination. He knew right away that he had stumbled onto something marvelous. With the help of his wife, Betty, Richard took this ordinary spring and turned it into a plaything. But it wasn’t just any old trinket—it was a Slinky, and it would become one of the most popular toys in American history.

Provides facts about the chocolate chip cookie inventor, and imagines what could have led her to develop the Toll House cookie recipe, which include a possible cooking disaster, an ingredient substitution, and an original idea.

"I've got you, and you've got me - so we'll be all right" . . . One day, adventurous Mouse sets off to find the moon with his Marvellous Moon Map, leaving his worried friend Bear behind. But as the Woods get darker, and the weather gets worse, Mouse soon realizes that he needs more than just the Moon Map to find his way . . . An emotional and atmospheric tale of true friendship, beautifully told by Teresa Heapy with stunning illustrations from Waterstones-Prizewinning David Litchfield

Stanley is excited about Crazy Hair Day at his school, until he discovers that he has gotten the date wrong and it is actually Class Picture Day, but his classmates come to his rescue in a show of solidarity. Jr Lib Guild. 15,000 first printing.

The Mysterious Messenger is a rich middle grade urban fantasy debut starring young psychic Maria de la Cruz, by the award-winning artist Gilbert Ford. Eleven-year-old Maria de la Cruz is trapped under the thumb of Madame Destine, her pseudo-psychic mother. Destine is a bona fide con artist who will stop at nothing to swindle her customers into believing she can communicate with the dead. But Maria, unlike her mother, has a big secret—she really can communicate with the dead, most frequently with a ghost named Edward who has been her only friend since she was a child. It’s not long before this clairvoyant young sleuth gets wrapped up in an epic journey that combines bookish mystery with the literary movement of the Beat poets and art and jazz history. Maria may have the power to unlock extraordinary secrets, but can she find the treasure Edward sends her clues about? More importantly, can she find true friendship? This smart, big-hearted debut novel is perfect for fans of Book Scavenger, Winterhouse, and The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street. Christy Ottaviano Books

In some 30 pieces, ranging in length from a single paragraph to nine pages, Ducornet explores the bonds of marriage and female friendship, takes on the worlds of art and academe, plays with language, spins fairy tales, and looks to a future of limited sensory experience in which a generation lacks mouth, tongue, and teeth. In "Poet," an insomniac titles her book The Greenhouse as Gas Chamber after accepting a grant from the Fossil Fuel Foundation; in the title story, a shopping trip intended to find "one marvelous thing" has unintended consequences, and in "The Dickmare", a bivalve, increasingly unhappy with her husband and at the height of her beauty after shedding her shell, contemplates her future.

Marvellous Ways is eighty-nine years old and has lived alone in a remote Cornish creek for nearly all her life. Lately she's taken to spending her days sitting on a mooring stone by the river with a telescope. She's waiting for something - she's not sure what, but she'll know it when she sees it. Drake is a young soldier left reeling by the Second World War. When his promise to fulfil a dying man's last wish sees him wash up in Marvellous' creek, broken in body and spirit, the old woman comes to his aid. A Year of Marvellous Ways is a glorious, life-affirming story about the magic in everyday life and the pull of the sea, the healing powers of storytelling and sloe gin, love and death and how we carry on when grief comes snapping at our heels.

A vibrant and eclectic collection from a stunningly mature young poet "The world—the time has come to say it, though the news will not be welcome to everyone—has no intention of abandoning enchantment altogether." Roberto Calasso's words in Literature and the Gods remind us that, in an age of reason, of mechanization, of alienation, of rote drudgery, we still seek out the transcendent, the marvelous. Ange Mlinko's luminous fourth collection is both a journey toward and the space of that very enchantment. Marvelous Things Overheard takes its title from a collection of ancient rumors about the lands of the Mediterranean. Mlinko, who lived at the American University of Beirut and traveled to Greece and Cyprus, has penned poems that seesaw between the life lived in those ancient and strife-torn places, and the life imagined through its literature: from The Greek Anthology to the Mu'allaqat. Throughout, Mlinko grapples with the passage of time on two levels: her own aging (alongside the growing up of her children) and the incontrovertible evidence of millennia of human habitation. This is an assured and revealing collection, one that readers will want to seek refuge in again and again.

"An absorbing portrait of the Arthurian age." —San Francisco Chronicle Among the first to look at the story of Camelot through Guinevere's eyes, Woolley sets the traditional tale in the time of its origin, after Britain has shattered into warring fiefdoms. Hampered by neither fantasy nor medieval romance, this young Guinevere is a feisty Celtic tomboy who sees no reason why she must learn to speak Latin, wear dresses, and go south to marry that king. But legends being what they are, the story of Arthur's rise to power soon intrigues her, and when they finally meet, Guinevere and Arthur form a partnership that has lasted for 1500 years. This is Arthurian epic at its best—filled with romance, adventure, authentic Dark Ages detail, and wonderfully human people. Praise for Persia Woolley's Guinevere Trilogy "Original...accurate in detail...Child of the Northern Spring is rich and sweet." —New York Times "Vivid...dramatic...once again we are captivated by the magic of the legend that has long fed our appetite for pageantry and romantic adventure." —Washington Post "Vividly re-creates sixth-century Britain in the throes of change...Child of the Northern Spring portrays a sensitive young woman who will appeal to modern readers." —Publishers Weekly "Richly textured, evoking the sights and sounds of castle and countryside, the qualities of knight and servant. Highly recommended." —Library Journal