Picture Book

Hooray for Summer!

It is a hot summer afternoon. A frog is hiding tiredly in the shade. Nothing is stirring. Even the grass and flowers are still.

Suddenly the birds are flocking overhead. The small animals are racing for shelter. Then the rain starts pouring down. The sky is as dark as night. Thunder booms. Lightning cracks and flashes.

Mick, Mack, and Molly are caught in the midst of one of the most mysterious and magical moments of summer: a sudden summer thunderstorm. It can be scary; but for the three squirrel children, safe and dry in a cave, it brings new friends.

Buddha

Many centuries ago, in a kingdom in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, a miraculous child was born to the king and queen. The young prince, Siddhartha, was raised in the greatest luxury, sheltered from all pain and ugliness. But one day Siddhartha left the palace and saw, for the first time, human suffering and death. He knew then that he must relinquish everything– his family, his wealth, his position– to discover the Truth of life and death. With only a few humble possessions, he began a remarkable spiritual journey that ended many years later under a bodhi tree. There he finally discovered the Truth and became an Enlightened One, a Buddha. The Buddha taught the Truth and the path to inner peace for forty-five years, attracting thousands of disciples. Today millions of people around the world live by his teachings.Demi’s exquisite illustrations, inspired by the paintings and sculptures of several Asian cultures, are layered with meaning; each brush stroke has a special significance. Demi, herself a Buddhist, brings her devotion to the teachings of the Buddha and her vast knowledge of his life to this comprehensive picture-book biography of an extraordinary spiritual leader.

Liu and the Bird: A Journey in Chinese Calligraphy

This innovative book combines the story of Liu, who goes off to visit her grandfather, with a rebus-style look at the evolution of the Chinese written language from pictures to modern calligraphy characters.

Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci

A biography of Leonardo Fibonacci, the 12th century mathematician who discovered the numerical sequence named for him.

Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian

This book documents the work of a young girl, Maria Merian, who lived during the Middle Ages and disproved the theory of spontaneous generation by observing caterpillars as they spun cocoons and emerged as butterflies and moths in the spring.

Remembering Crystal

Crystal had lived in the garden for many years and she was growing old–Zelda was just starting out in life and though she was young, she and Crystal were best friends, but one day Crystal was not in the garden, she had died; in this gentle, beautifully illustrated story, children learn, with Zelda, that true friendship is a gift that doesn’t die.