Set against the moody backdrop of eleventh-century Scotland, Gareth Hinds’s captivating, richly illustrated interpretation takes readers into the claustrophobic mind of a man driven mad by ambition. An evil seed takes root in the mind of Macbeth, a general in the king’s army, when three witches tell him he will one day be king. At the urging of his wife, he resolves to take the throne by the most direct path: a dagger in the heart of King Duncan.
Mr. Stink stank. He also stunk. And if it was correct English to say he stinked, then he stinked as well. . . .Ó Chloe sees Mr. Stink every day, but sheÕs never spoken to him. Which isnÕt surprising, because heÕs a tramp, and he stinks. But there’s more to Mr. Stink than meets the eye (or nose) and before she knows it, Chloe has an unusual new friend hiding in her garden shed. As Chloe struggles to keep Mr. Stink a secret, and her dad tries to hide a secret of his own, the stage is set for an epic family confrontation. But there’s one other person with an extraordinary secret Mr. Stink himself.
Although this is based on the Grimm Brothers’ The Fisherman and His Wife, the author shifts the setting to Aztec society and reshapes the story so that the fisherman’s good wishes come from a wise old sea turtle. Shortly after he frees the sea turtle from his net, the modest fisherman first asks for four fish–a huge bounty as he usually only catches two–but his wife has other ideas. Her greed forces the fisherman to ask for a stone house and riches and the kingship of the Aztec people. But when she asks to become a god, neither she nor her husband is prepared for how the sea turtle will respond to the wish.
