Synopses & Reviews
Fine Life for a Country Mouse covers the concepts Appreciating Differences and Family.
Based on Aesops beloved fable, City Mouse, Country Mouse, this book is a must have for classroom and at-home reading. Shy Tillie Mouse has invited her city-slicker cousin, Oliver, to visit her home in the country. But Oliver is bored by the country. So, Tillie decides to visit Oliver in the city. Everything is so luxurious. Until . . . theres a cat! Stomping feet! A vacuum cleaner! The woes of city life are too much for Tillies nerves, and she returns home, happy and content to be back in her simple cottage in the country.
Synopsis
Pins and Needles Share a Dream covers the concepts Friendship and Problem Solving.
Quill-less Pins is too embarrassed to leave his house to play with Needles. Needles finally convinces Pins to tell him what happened--and just hearing Pins's dream makes Needles so scared his quills fall out, too! This sweet 8x8 is a perfect bedtime story about friendship and caring for one another, even in the most embarrassing times.
Synopsis
In February 1778, at the height of the Revolutionary War, the American representative from Massachusetts, John Adams, is sent on a secret mission to France. It is dangerous to cross the Atlantic in winter, but the situation is desperate-the colonies need France's help against the British army. Adams is accompanied by his ten-year-old son, Johnny. Together, father and son must weather an angry ocean, perilous sea battles, and other dangers to help the colonies achieve freedom.
Vivid illustrations and a fast-paced narrative bring to life this little-told story of a character-defining event in the lives of two future presidents.
Synopsis
"I think I can! I think I can!" The classic tale of the little engine who wasn't afraid to try. Here is a delightful adaptation of one of the best-selling children's books of all time with a vocabulary specially geared for beginning readers.
Synopsis
Since 1933, The Story About Ping has captivated generations of readers, but never before has it been available in a mass-market paperback format. No one can deny the appeal of the book's hero, Ping, the spirited little duck who lives on a boat on the Yangtze River. Ping's misadventures one night while exploring the world around his home form the basis of this timeless classic, which is brought to life by Kurt Wiese's warm and poignant illustrations.
Synopsis
Exposing children to a diverse range of literary and informational texts, the Core Concepts program helps develop important literacy and cognitive skills necessary to meet many of the Common Core State Standards. Did you know that every year hundreds of thousands of monarch butterflies migrate 2,500 miles to Mexico for the winter? It takes four generations of butterflies to make the trip, and only the fourth generation lives longer than three weeks. Follow a beautiful butterfly as she makes her journey down to Mexico!
About the Author
"I did not have the kind of childhood most people would choose to write about. It was happy and uneventful, with only the occasional bump in the night to keep me on my toes. In my spare time, however, I often imagined myself in various stories -- as
Mighty Mouse,
Robin Hood,
Popeye or
Superman.
"I always liked to make up stories, especially lying in bed at night before I fell asleep.
"It was not until I was twenty that I actually took up ceative writing. One of my favorite parts of the process was imagining myself in various characters' shoes, even if those characters - dragons for example - didn't wear shoes at all. A year later, in 1975, I graduated from Hamilton College and began a six-month internship at the New York Times Book Review.
"Since then I have been a full-time writer for children. I married my wife, Joan, in 1984,and we settled in my hometown of Lexington, Massachusetts, where we live with our two sons, Andrew and Peter.
"When I feel like I've spent enough time hunched over my computer, I like to play soccer and softball, and read books written by other people."
copyright © 2000 by Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved.