This retelling brings to life King Arthur and the adventures of his Knights, from the quest for the Holy Grail to the final tragedy of the Last Battle.

    The Butterfly That Stamped, and How the Alphabet Was Made..

    We weren't allowed to touch the box. The stories I heard as a little boy faded to a hazy dream, and my drawings from that time make no sense. I cannot decipher them. It was not until I myself had gone far, far away and received the message from my father that I became interested in the red box again . . .In New York, Peter Sis receives a letter from his father. "The Red Box is now yours," it says. The brief note worries him and pulls him back to Prague, where the contents of the red box explain the mystery of his father's long absence during the 1950s.Czechoslovakia was behind the iron curtain; Vladimir Sis, a documentary filmmaker of considerable talent, was drafted into the army and sent to China to teach filmmaking. He left his wife, daughter, and young son, Peter, thinking he would be home for Christmas. Two Christmases would pass before he was heard from again: Vladimir Sis was lost in Tibet. He met with the Dalai Lama; he witnessed China's invasion of Tibet. When he returned to Prague, he dared not talk to his friends about all he had seen and experienced. But over and over again he told Peter about his Tibetan adventures. Weaving their two stories together - that of the father lost in Tibet and that of the small boy in Prague, lost without his father - Sis draws from his father's diary and from his own recollections of his father's incredible tales to reach a spiritual homecoming between father and son. With his sublime pictures, inspired by Tibetan Buddhist art and linking history to memory, Peter Sis gives us an extraordinary book - a work of singular artistry and rare imagination. This title has Common Core connections.Tibet Through the Red Box is a 1999 Caldecott Honor Book and the winner of the 1999 Boston Globe - Horn Book Award for Special Citation.

    and Mrs. Crow, who live in a cottonwood tree. The hungry Rattlesnake that lives at the bottom of the tree has a nasty habit of stealing Mrs. Crow's eggs before they can hatch, so Mr. Crow and his wise friend, Old Man Owl, devise a sneaky plan to trick him. This funny story of cleverness triumphing over greed, similar in tone and wit to the work of A. A. Milne, shows a new side of a great writer.

    Did you ever wonder how the dwarves felt after Snow White ditched them for the prince? Do you sometimes wish Cinderella hadn't been so helpless and petite? Prepare to see fairy tales from a completely new angle!

    Now available again after three decades, DON'T BUMP THE GLUMP! and Other Fantasies was originally published in 1964, the same year as his most famous picture book, THE GIVING TREE.

    The golem's task was to vanquish those who persecuted the Jews of Prague, and he performed it almost too well. Retold from traditional sources and accompanied by masterly cutpaper illustrations, Golem is a dramatic tale of supernatural forces invoked to save an oppressed people. It offers a thought-provoking look at the consequences of unleashing power beyond human control.Winner of the 1997 Caldecott Medal.

    Mighty Isis struggles to save her beloved brother in Ancient Egypt, and White Buffalo Woman instructs the Sioux tribe on how to worship Mother Earth.

    She single-handedly defeats the fearsome bear known as Thundering Tarnation, wrestling him from the top of the Great Smoky Mountains to the bottom of a deep lake. Caldecott Medal-winning artist Paul O. Zelinsky's stunning folk-art paintings are the perfect match for the irony, exaggeration, and sheer good humor of this original tall tale set on the American frontier.A Caldecott Honor BookAn ALA Notable BookA Time magazine Best Book of the YearA New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of the YearWinner of the Boston Globe/Horn Book AwardA Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year

    With wit, sublime humor, and beautiful art, The Secret Lives of Princesses introduces a bevy of royal daughters to the court of young readers.  While it alludes to some of their more famous sisters, this large and lusciously illustrated compendium presents such unique and unforgettable characters as the petite Princess Claire Voyant, who can see very far into tomorrow (but muddles her predictions); Princess Oblivia, who forgets everything and misses all her appointments; Princess Tangra-La, who does the tango, the fandango, and any dance that comes her way; and Princess Babbling Brooke, who chatters on and on about everything and nothing. Plus, you’ll learn about such princessy matters as the language of fans; coats of arms; and how not to offend dangerous fairies who cast evil spells.Poetic, often humorous, and always enchanting, this is the perfect collection for princess-loving girls who long for more than just the traditional fairy tale.

    Fifteen-year-old Corinna Stonewall — the only Folk Keeper in the city of Rhysbridge — sits hour after hour with the Folk in the dark, chilly cellar, "drawing off their anger as a lightning rod draws off lightning." The Folk are the fierce, wet-mouthed, cave-dwelling gremlins who sour milk, rot cabbage, and make farm animals sick. Still, they are no match for the steely, hard-hearted, vengeful orphan Corinna who prides herself in her job of feeding, distracting, and otherwise pacifying these furious, ravenous creatures. The Folk Keeper has power and independence, and that's the way she likes it.One day, Corinna is summoned by Lord Merton to come to the vast seaside estate Cliffsend as Folk Keeper and family member — for she is the once-abandoned child he has been looking for. It is at Cliffsend that Corinna learns where her unusual powers come from, why she is drawn to the sea, and finally, what it means to be comfortable in her own skin. Written in the form of a journal, The Folk Keeper is a powerful story of a proud, ferociously self-reliant girl who breaks out of her dark, cold, narrow world into one of joy, understanding, and even the magic of romance.

    They were seated on a bench built around a giant acacia tree that grew just at the edge of the bluff. Below them rolled the blue waves of the great Pacific. A little way behind them was the house, a neat frame cottage painted white and surrounded by huge eucalyptus and pepper trees. Still farther behind that - a quarter of a mile distant but built upon a bend of the coast - was the village, overlooking a pretty bay.

    He and his wife raised the girl, Pearl, as their own daughter, never allowing themselves to wonder long about where she came from — or notice her silver hair, usually pale skin, and wide, dark blue eyes.Pearl grows from a mysterious child into an unusual young woman, not always welcomed in the village. As all the other girls her age find husbands, she has only one friend to ease her loneliness. One very special, secret companion: Prince James.But their friendship is shaken when trouble erupts in the kingdom — a conspiracy against the royal family combines with an evil enchantment from beneath the sea. Now, just when Pearl and James need each other most, bewitching magic and hints about Pearl's past threaten to tear them apart...forever.

    "Executed with chromatic splendor--a unique combination of brilliance and restraint".--The Horn Book. Full-color illustrations.

    After her royal father decides to retire and become a wood carver, Princess Paulina has no idea what to do with herself. She can't survey the kingdom from her leaky cottage roof, and no one waves back when she proceeds through the town on her father's cart.When she hears that a neighboring queen is seeking a bride for her son, Prince Drupert, Paulina sees her chance to get back to princessing. But it will take all her wit and determination to pass the Queen's tests. . . . and in the end, maybe there are better fates than a royal marriage.Full of tongue-in-cheek references to stories like Rapunzel, Snow White, and the Princess and the Pea, this fractured fairy tale is an hilarious twist on traditional tales in which a young woman's practicality, good humor, and intelligence let her shape her own happy ending-- with extra cheese and all the toppings her heart desires.