When sixteen-year-old Brent Bishop inadvertently causes the death of a young woman, he is sent on an unusual journey of repentance, building wind toys across the land. In his most ambitious novel to date, Newbery winner Paul Fleischman traces Brent's healing pilgrimage from Washington State to California, Florida, and Maine, and describes the many lives set into new motion by the ingenious creations Brent leaves behind. Paul Fleischman is the master of multivoiced books for younger readers. In Whirligig he has created a novel about hidden connections that is itself a wonder of spinning hearts and grand surprises.

THE WHIRLIGIG MAKER'S BOOK covers everything you need to know to get started in the craft and hobby of making animated whirligigs. Materials, tools, and techniques are detailed and full-size patterns and step-by-step instructions and illustrations are given for making fifteen unique animated whirligigs: Dove; Folk Rooster; Flying Unicorn; Girl Gymnast; Penguins on Teeter-Totter; Dancing Man; Unicycling Roadrunner; Carousel; Kids on Teeter-Totter; Trampoline; Ferris Wheel; Unicyclist; Flying Duck; Acrobats; and Clown. The projects were selected to introduce you to whirligig making and then take you on to an advanced skill level. The Author Jack Wiley earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1968, did exercise physiology teaching and research, and has written fifty published books. Dr. Wiley first became interested in making whirligigs in the late 1980s, and has designed and built hundreds of them since then. THE WHIRLIGIG MAKER'S BOOK is the result of this interest and experience.

Just south of Williamstown, if you take a left at the Red Lion Inn, there’s an off-season part of Berkshire County where no one locks their doors, just in case someone comes home who’s forgotten their key. In this quiet corner of Western Massachusetts, a motley cast of strangers from a dying young woman’s past find one another on a night when they need each other most. THE WHIRLIGIG is a sparkle-dark, rollicking, rural romance about Death, Time, Mistaken Identity, Chance, Sex, Chancy Sex, and mostly, mostly Love.

Claypole is not ‘a large man’. He is a fat man. A fat man with thin limbs, like an egg with tentacles. And life is not going well. He’s alone, idle, and on the brink of a medical crisis when a childhood acquaintance makes him an offer he can’t understand, can’t talk about, but ultimately can’t refuse. A week later, he finds himself in the wilds of Scotland, plunged into an eccentric community at war over a wind farm. And he’s supposed to be a backer, but he has no idea what side he’s on, even though it may bag him a lot of money. All he wants is to look like a hero in front of the woman with the bright blue eyes who brought him here. To do so he must run the gauntlet of a family with many dark secrets, some dangerous hippies and their hallucinogenic potions, and the wilderness itself with all its threats and dangers. Whirligig is a raucous, joyous, often poignant comedy about the redemptive power of the countryside. Written with peerless wit, it’s a timely fable that takes its place within the tradition of the Great English Comic Novel. It’s The Wicker Man as told by P.G. Wodehouse.

It's the embodiment of a lost soul that pauses before the split-log saltbox; thoughts of his broken life droning through an adrenaline-induced haze. The road behind him is wrought with death, guilt, shock, and heartache a series of events that his keenest of nightmares couldn't have conjured. All he can hope for now is a place to fi nd solace; refuge from a world gone mad. Eyeing the puff s of white smoke that rise from the flagstone chimney like dissipating answers to life's great mysteries, Jeremy takes in a deep breath of the clean mountain air, then releases it along with the last of his apprehension over revisiting his alliance with the enigmatic albino who dwells within. The Whirligig Dance delves into the struggling maturation of the human entity via that of its main character, Jeremy Van Hutton. Feel the pain of his betrayal, the joy of his discovery, and the sense of wonder that plagues him even as it cradles his soul.

Rev. ed. of: Whirligigge of time. Leiden: Leiden University, 2004.

Zdenek Stribrny, an internationally respected Shakespeare scholar, was Professor of English and American Studies at Charles University, Prague, until the Russian occupation of 1968. He was reinstated after the Velvet Revolution of 1989. This volume, prefaced by a new autobiographical introduction, collects papers on Shakespeare, most of which were written originally in English, from various periods of his eventful career. Their two main themes are the role of Time and the Czech critical and theatrical response to Shakespeare, with special emphasis on the various ways in which, during an era of censorship, productions offered coded political readings of the plays. Zdenek Stribrny is Professor Emeritus of English and American Studies at Charles University, Prague. Lois Potter is Ned B. Allen Professor of English at the University of Delaware.

The New York Times bestseller that makes scientific subjects both understandable and fun: “Every sentence sparkles with wit and charm.” —Richard Dawkins From the Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times science journalist and bestselling author of Woman, this is a playful, passionate guide to the science all around us (and inside us)—from physics to chemistry, biology, geology, astronomy, and more. Drawing on conversations with hundreds of the world’s top scientists, Natalie Angier creates a thoroughly entertaining guide to scientific literacy. For those who want a fuller understanding of some of the great issues of our time, The Canon offers insights on stem cells, bird flu, evolution, and global warming. For students—or parents whose kids ask a lot of questions about how the world works—it brings to life such topics as how the earth was formed, or what electricity is. Also included are clear, fascinating explanations of how to think scientifically and grasp the tricky subject of probability. The Canon is a joyride through the major scientific disciplines that reignites our childhood delight and sense of wonder—and along the way, tells us what is actually happening when our ice cream melts or our coffee gets cold, what our liver cells do when we eat a caramel, why the horse is an example of evolution at work, and how we’re all really made of stardust.