The film follows the story of an ex-marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on a distant planet filled with exotic life forms. As an avatar, a human consciousness in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. The Art of Avatar, the companion book to this epic 3-D action adventure, explores the developmental and conceptual art used by the creative team to create the original world of Avatar. With over 100 exclusive full-color images including sketches, matte paintings, drawings, and film stills, The Art of Avatar reveals the process behind the creation of set designs for the imaginative vistas, unique landscapes, aerial battle scenes, bioluminescent nights, and fantastical creatures. Interviews with art directors, visual effects designers, animators, costume designers, and creature makers bring insight into this creative process. The Art of Avatar brings readers behind the scenes of this unprecedented moviegoing experience.

    Their contagious energy economical storytelling, and rambunctious humor set the stage perfectly for the ward-winning films that follow. They also harken back to a bygone era of showmanship, when serials and shorts summoned and focused movie watchers' attention for the big show to follow. In The Art of Pixar Short Films, respected animation journalist Amid Amidi examines the legacy of short filmmaking at the Emeryville, California, studio in interviews with the directors, producers, artists, and animators who created For the Birds, Lifted, and eleven other iconic shorts.More than 250 full-color illustrations, pencil sketches, storyboards, photographs, and final rendered frames showcase the vision of a talented group of artist, as well as their storytelling prowess; these films often foego dialogue in favor of communicating with emotion (Luxo Jr.), music (Boundin' and One Man Band), and perfectly time pratfall humor (Knick Knack).This beautifully desiged and studiously researched book is a strong addition to animation and film scholarship, an intimate tour inside the most admired animation studio at work today.

    Brooding images and dramatic 3-D scenes rise from the pages as the evil Count Dracula works his sinister spells on a new generation. Reluctant readers, horror fans, and pop-up collectors will marvel as Dracula, the world's most popular and feared vampire, literally jumps off the page in search of victims. With multiple interactive elements on every page, readers will undoubtedly shriek as they watch a cemetery's mist inch toward them, and, just when they've caught their breath, try to keep in the sunlight as a stake is finally plunged into the heart of the villain. A superb example of paper engineering, this classic pop-up tale offers an interactive, blood-curdling experience while remaining true to the author's original version.

    Fraught with emotional honesty, this captivating collection of lyrical and narrative poems chronicles the struggles of the figurative Persephone in three parts—the abduction, descent to the underworld, and return. Townsend turns a shrewd eye to her own experiences, as well as to the lives of other women, to offer an unflinching yet deeply compassionate exploration of such themes as girlhood and the vulnerability of the motherless; the demons of depression, addiction, and abuse; as well as passion, aging, and celebration of the natural world.            Although the poems traverse dark emotional territory at times, the picture that emerges ultimately is one of revelation and wisdom. Persephone in America is above all a journey of the soul, following the narrator as she explores what it means to be a woman in America, at times descending into darkness, only to emerge into redemption and realize “time’s sweet and invincible secret—that everything repeats—and we watch it.” Townsend’s candid portrait of female loss and discovery seeks to illuminate the truths inherent in myth, and the awakenings that hide in our darkest moments.    Persephone, Pretending                                                 (Madison, Wisconsin) When the news says that the girlwho had been missing almost four days,only to be found in a marshy areaat the edge of our medium-sized city,was faking it all along, I wonderedwhat made her do it.  I'd seenher face—bright smile, dark eyes—on a flier masking-taped to a pillarat the airport the week before,felt the involuntary frissonof the curious, then only fearat the thought of a girl abductedin this place once voted"America's most livable city." She must have wantedsomething she couldn't name,that good girl with good gradeswho looks like so many girlsin my own classes, but who keepschanging her story.  It happenedhere; no, it happened there; no,I really just wanted to be alone.Then she turns her face away,tired of telling her tale,not sure what to make up nextor where invention will take her. “Fictitious victimization disorder,”Time magazine claims, but I wonderwhat else, imagining her in the marsh,cold, unrepentant, powerless, her mindgone muddy with lack of sleep,no way out of this lie she almostbelieves, or the lies ahead,nothing but memory of the rope,duct tape, cough medicine,and knife she bought at the PDQwith her own cash, wantingto be taken by someone so badly,she takes us, she does it to herself.