A parent's guide to dealing with a child suffering from learning disabilities draws on the author's own experience of coping with a son diagnosed with dyslexia, revealing the challenging and rewarding odyssey of teaching David how to read and the impact of that journey on the mother-son relationship.

Laugh-aloud humor abounds when David can't resist bugging his big brother. In this funny romp, David careens from one mischievous antic to the next... until he finally wins his brother's approval. Little-brother antics have never been so endearing -- or true to life! David Shannon's beloved character in his bestselling book No, David! captures the attention and hearts of young children as few characters can. Readers relish David's exuberance, defiance, and wildly energetic curiosity, and when there's trouble, you can bet "David did it!" Now he's taunting his older brother by eating his Halloween candy, making a bathroom mess, and following him up the tree house. "You're too little!" won't stop David's tricks in this all-time "read it again" favorite. With millions of copies in print and four sequels, No, David! hit the ground running in 1998 and was a Caldecott Honor Book, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book, and a classic for 20 years. Based on a book the author wrote and illustrated when he was five, David captures the timeless no-no's familiar to every child. Grow Up, David! is nothing short of exhilarating.

Starting from David's response to Nathan's parable in 2 Sam 12, this book employs an original synthesis of literary, linguistic and psychoanalytic theory to explore the impact of the biblical text on its readers. It draws parallels between the relationships of speaker to utterance, texts to reader and father to son in arguing for an underlying "anxiety of utterance" as the source of textual power. Biblical scholars will find stimulating readings of many problematic narratives as well as a detailed investigation of the poetics of the biblical oath. The theoretical account of the role of characters in mediating the interaction between text and reader will be of interest to all students of literature. Its provocative insights into the relationship between God, language, masculinity and authority raise important questions for theology and gender studies.

Where do you begin with a writer as original and brilliant as David Foster Wallace? Here — with a carefully considered selection of his extraordinary body of work, chosen by a range of great writers, critics, and those who worked with him most closely. This volume presents his most dazzling, funniest, and most heartbreaking work — essays like his famous cruise-ship piece, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," excerpts from his novels The Broom of the System, Infinite Jest, and The Pale King, and legendary stories like "The Depressed Person." Wallace's explorations of morality, self-consciousness, addiction, sports, love, and the many other subjects that occupied him are represented here in both fiction and nonfiction. Collected for the first time are Wallace's first published story, "The View from Planet Trillaphon as Seen In Relation to the Bad Thing" and a selection of his work as a writing instructor, including reading lists, grammar guides, and general guidelines for his students. A dozen writers and critics, including Hari Kunzru, Anne Fadiman, and Nam Le, add afterwords to favorite pieces, expanding our appreciation of the unique pleasures of Wallace's writing. The result is an astonishing volume that shows the breadth and range of "one of America's most daring and talented writers" (Los Angeles Times Book Review) whose work was full of humor, insight, and beauty.

“Hilarious. . . . It’s Cliff Notes for Scripture—screenplay by Plotz, story by God. . . . In the end, though, the book is made by the spirit of the writer.” — The New York Times Book Review “Like the Bible itself, Good Book contains multitudes—it is by turns thought-provoking, funny, enlightening and moving.” — A. J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically “Plotz is a genius writer.” — Franklin Foer, author of How Soccer Explains the World A whip-smart, laugh-out-loud tour through the most important book in the world, a book most people have never read: the Bible.

In Lonely on the Mountain, Louis L’Amour’s solitary wandering Sackett brothers make a stand together—to save one of their own. The rare letters Tell Sackett received always had trouble inside. And the terse note from his cousin Logan is no exception. Logan faces starvation or a hanging if Tell can’t drive a herd of cattle from Kansas to British Columbia before winter. To get to Logan, he must brave prairie fires, buffalo stampedes, and Sioux war parties. But worse trouble waits, for a mysterious enemy shadows Sackett’s every move across the Dakotas and the Canadian Rockies. Tell Sackett has never abandoned another Sackett in need. He will bring aid to Logan—or die trying.

The editors illustrate how book history studies have evolved into a broad approach which incorporates social and cultural considerations governing the production, dissemination and reception of print and texts.