It is a story of vision and bravery, fierce determination, and tragic martyrdom.Diane Stanley's extraordinary gift to present historical information in an accessible and child-friendly format has never been more impressive, nor her skillful, beautifully realized illustrations (here imitating medieval illuminated manuscripts) more exquisite. Recommended in Catholic Mosaic Materials Publisher.

    The house has an expressive face of windows and doors, and even the feelings of a person, so she’s sad when she’s surrounded by the dirty, noisy city’s hustle and bustle: “She missed the field of daisies / and the apple trees dancing in the moonlight.” Fortunately, there’s a happy ending, as the house is taken back to the country where she belongs.

    She is cool and streetwise, too, and afraid of no one. It's easy for her to watch out for her little, first-grade brother, Andrew. But their mother, a legal professional and a widow, is concerned about crime and drugs in her children's Chicago school. She moves them all to a smaller and, she hopes, smaller town.Yolanda, at first, is scornful of her new town. And Andrew, who never talks much, is having trouble learning to read. What he loves to do is play on the old harmonica given to him as a baby by his father to teethe on and which he's kept blowing ever since. He can imitate any sound he hears, like bacon sizzling, or express any mood he feels, like the freshness of an early morning. Yolanda understands that that's the way he "talks." She is convinced Andrew is a true genius with a great musical gift. But no one else believes it--not her mother, nor Andrew's teachers, not even wonderful Aunt Tiny in Chicago. Yolanda sets out to open up adult eyes, a task whose strategies will call on far more than her physical toughness. Her plans crystallize on a visit back to Chicago to enjoy the great annual blues festival with Aunt Tiny.Carol Fenner, whose previous book "Randall's Wall" has reached a wide audience throughout the country, has created a daring heroine in Yolanda and a warm portrayal of an African-American family in a story that moves with mounting intensity to a dramatic, believable, and a wholly satisfying conclusion.

    This childhood favourite is perfect for reading aloud before going to bed or avoiding a bath.

    At its best, he feels, it reveals marvelous imaginations at work in the telling of memorable tall tales. And sometimes it goes even further and presents you with an idea that changes your whole view of things. "There's a story in this collection, " says Blishen, "that will leave you aware for the rest of your life that you may have got everything right about a situation...except the one really imporant detail.The boy, the dog, and the spaceship / Nicholas Fisk --Invisible in London / H.G. Wells --Dragon of Pendor / Ursula Le Guin --Bobo's star / Glenn Chandler --Yellow hands / T.H. White --Specimen / Tim Stout --Of Polymuf stock / John Christopher --Hurled into space / Jules Verne --Goodbye to the moon / Monica Hughes --Shot from the moon / Arthur C. Clarke --Fun they had / Isaac Asimov --Fight between lizards at the center of the earth / Jules Verne --Last man alive / M.P. Shiel --How we were tracked by a tripod / John Christopher --War of the worlds / H.G. Wells --Homecoming / Stephen David --All Summer in a day / Ray Bradbury --Greenville's planet / Michael Shaara --Fear Shouter / Jay Williams --Wind from the sun / Arthur C. Clarke