Children's Books for Everyone
Noah's Ark - The True Story
NOAH'S ARK-THE TRUE STORY is a dynamite, timely (climate change!) and hilarious retelling of the famous story from the perspective of the animals. The story opens with Homer's first public appearance. Not your ordinary dog, scientists have dramatically increased Homer's intelligence and fitted him with a computerized voice box. Homer announces he wants to serve as a bridge between human's and the other species, to set us humans straight so to speak and he has traced our misunderstanding of animals to its beginning, the story of Noah's Ark. The first thing we got wrong, Homer explains, was making Noah the hero of the story. The real hero is Noah's dog, Cali.
And so Homer starts the true story of Noah's Ark:
The earth began undergoing cataclysmic climate changes. Only the animals notice. The great kingdoms: the meat and plant eaters, the winged and hoofed creatures and the scavengers meet in a wide open meadow upon hearing the call of the wild in a dream time to devise a plan. (The winged creatures have sounded the alarm that the drought will end with a devastating flood.) It is young Cali's first time at an assembly of the kingdoms. Each kingdom has an anointed leader: Thor, an eagle, Liza, a lioness, Meg, an elephant, Big Al, a gorilla and One Eyed Jack, a coyote. Americus is a magnificent stallion who has been captured by the humans and endures an unkind, terrible fate upon having injured the despotic and cruel King Lott. The only time Americus runs free now is in his dreams and so, the scene begins with the animals waiting for the much-loved horse.
The animals decide they need a giant ark and a human to build it. They select the kindest human they know of, someone who has a deep fondness for the four legged and winged creatures. This is Noah. Still, just in case Noah won't do their bidding, and realizing that God is the one creature the human's love more than themselves, they decide Jojo, the parrot, who speaks the human language, will pretend he is God, and command Noah to build an ark for the animals.
So the story begins. Numerous heartwarming and amusing characters tell this fast paced, fun and funny story of Noah's ark. It is full of unexpected surprises, twists and turns, while always staying with the deeper themes and meaning of the original version of the famous biblical story. And did I mention that the ending packs a wild punch?
Read an excerpt from Noah's Ark - The True Story here.
The Rainbow Witch
Briefly, this fun and funny, utterly improbably story centers on Merry, the Rainbow Witch who recruits three children, Cammie, a thirteen year old, Einstein, a ten year old and little Jaime to the fantastic land of Semit End to help battle the impending Darkness, a well drawn metaphor for the post 9/11 trouble of our times. Semit End is populated by numerous hilarious and heart warming characters: the cynical Cat and the noble Bear Dog, whom Merry gives voices too, Joe, the selfish and childish king, who celebrates his birthday everyday with big parties and lots of presents because he forgot his real birthday and he doesn't want to miss it, his faithful friend, Pip, the poet of Semit End who never speaks because he lives his poetry (saying the most with the least), the astronomer of Semit End who searches the stars for heaven: "We know it's up but where?" and all the other witches of Semit End: Ariel, the Wing Witch and her feathered friends, Tew Pord, the water witch, Esmerelda, the forest witch and Firestone, the bad witch. Along the way the children discover the true nature of love, the fantastic magic in Joe's castle, all about fun, why wise men are often not, the essential difference between bad and evil and most important, how to stop the Darkness.
Read an excerpt from The Rainbow Witch here.
Heaven One Mile
Young Hope's father dies in the war and this is the story of her journey to understand what this means. Hope's mother falls apart upon her husband's death and pretty much abandons Hope to indifferent maids, and magical old Aunt Gabby, whose reality is always uncertain. ("Aunt Gabby's been in my father's family for centuries," Hope explains to a group of amused adults at one of her mother's many parties.) Thankfully, having sensed his fate, Hope's father sent his daughter Ben, a teddy bear and his lively companionship eases the depths of Hope's sadness and missing.
The first half of the story covers Hope's first four letters to her missing father and the adventures accompanying the special delivery of these treasures to heaven; each letter marks the shifting stages of grief. Still, Hope's struggle comes to a crisis when now Ben begins to lose his stuffing. Aunt Gabby sends Hope and Ben into the dream world to find the answer to the age old question. What happened to Hope's father turns into the question of what will happen to Ben when his stuffing runs out.
This becomes an exciting and hilarious adventure where Ben and Hope meet numerous engaging and memorable characters, each of whom holds the answer to this important question from one of the great religions or paradigms: the Holy Cow, Jumping Jack, Lhamo the lama, the Red Balloon, Davey the old lion, Sonny the donkey, Mo, a beautiful black stallion and finally the old Professor. And did I mention the ending packs a powerful surprise? This unique and goofy story is bound to charm and comfort both children and adults, basically anyone who has ever lost a loved one, which, let's face it, covers all of us.