From the illustrator of the Melvin Beederman, SUPERHERO series comes a story about a masked hero and his trusty steed. Together they save Halloween from ruthless toilet paper–tossing mummies and pumpkin-sucking vampires. No siree, Halloween won’t be canceled anytime soon, not while the Halloween Kid’s around. With a rootin’ tootin’ Halloween monster–shootin’ text and retro-modern illustrations, The Halloween Kid will lasso in readers both young and old. Because who doesn’t love a hero who defends the right to trick or treat? Yee-Ha-lloween!

Ten timid ghosts are visited by Santa Claus and learn what Christmas feels like.

The Real Parenting Experts Speak Out! For this invaluable book, Tom McMahon mounted a nationwide media campaign and gathered a wealth of tested and proven child raising tips from experienced parents in over three hundred cities across the country. Here are more than one thousand of the best, reflecting every aspect of parenting -- inside tips today's busy parents all too often don't have time to share with their family and friends. Discover fresh, unique, creative ideas that are fun, thrifty, easily accessible and pediatrician-approved for health and safety: PLAYTIME -- from indoor activities to outdoor play to coping with clutter and cleanup MEALTIME -- how to feed baby, deal with your finicky eater and dine out without losing your mind HEALTH AND SAFETY -- taking medicine painlessly, soothing colicky babies, visiting the doctor, and more DISCIPLINE -- three easy steps that short-circuit big problems before they begin! BEDTIME -- from putting baby to bed to quieting bumps in the night ON THE GO -- travel and vacations, errands and shopping made easy SELF ESTEEM AND RELATIONSHIPS -- promoting healthful self-respect and respect for others From baby basics to easy toilet training to teaching your children responsibility and more, here are fast, fabulous "fixes" that work!

The Kid and the Keepers: Dream Visions chronicles the fantastic adventures of its young, trumpet-playing protagonist, Jeru “the Kid” Johnstone. The action opens with Jeru petitioning his father for permission to quit his instrument during their weekly trip from his private lessons in Harlem. He struggles sorely to express his dissatisfaction and finds a welcomed diversion in a strange bird that distracts him so completely that he abandons his appeal. Later, the bird visits Jeru’s house, enters his open bedroom window, summons him with a wink, and hops into his trumpet’s bell. Seconds later, Jeru “falls through” his trumpet and comes to a stop at the New York’s A train of the 1940s. This train that inspired a jazz standard (“Take the A Train”) takes the two adventurers to Harlem where Jeru follows the bird and a small group of musicians to Minton’s Playhouse, the place where bebop jazz was created. While there, he befriends Dizzy Gillespie and gains insight and perspective about jazz musicians and their music. In addition, during various dream visions, he learns important things about himself. The most important lessons occur during his dream of a trip to a jazz Camelot, where he confronts and defeats the practice monster, the entity that chokes and feeds on the passion and ambition of jazz musicians until they become uninspired and abandon their art. Later he meets Buddy Bolden (the creator of jazz) and Louis Armstrong, among other prominent jazz musicians. Before his journey home, he recognizes and embraces his role as a keeper of not only jazz music but also of family history, roots music, faith, and other aspects of cultural heritage. His adventures, both those in present day Harlem and in Harlem of the 1940s, enable him to confront various fears and to become a more confident, learned, and ambitious character.

Halloween Village is filled with ghosts, skeletons, Frankenstein, werewolves, jack-o-lanterns, and all the features of this scary October holiday. Pat and Dave want to make sure everyone is having fun and getting candy. But as they journey through the village, they realize something unusual is about to happen. Wearing black clothes with a pumpkin on his head, the Halloween Man, who has been in the woods for six hundred years, emerges from the trees. This mysterious man introduces Pat and Dave and their family to Halloween Center, another place where people can experience what Halloween is all about. The boys must choose which place of Halloween they like the best. A chapter book for young readers, The Halloween Nightmare explores four regents, telling the story of how the beginning of Halloween occurred and delves into the spookiness of Halloween.

“Scott O'Connor speaks softly and somehow manages to make something beautiful of unspeakable matters... a voice so insistently stirring, you want to lean in close to catch every word.” —The New York Times Book Review “Astonishing... Introducing an amazing new talent to the world of fiction.” —Library Journal (Starred Review) “O'Connor's prose is as beautifully terse as his plot... like the inevitable waking from a halcyon dream.” —Booklist “When it is over you wish you could read it all for the first time, again. That is how good this book is.” —Crimespree Magazine A heartfelt, gripping novel from the critically acclaimed author of A Perfect Universe, Half World, and Among Wolves. A year has passed since Lucy Darby's unexpected death, leaving her husband David and son Whitley to mend the gaping hole in their lives. With the looming uncertainty of Y2K, David is haunted by questions pertaining to the events of Lucy's death and Whitley—an 11-year-old social pariah who still believes his mother is alive—enlists the help of his small group of misfit friends to bring her back. As David continues to lose his grip on reality and Whitley's sense of urgency grows, the two begin to uncover truths that will force them to confront their deepest fears about each other and the wounded family they are trying desperately to save.

Whether used for thematic story times, program and curriculum planning, readers' advisory, or collection development, this updated edition of the well-known companion makes finding the right picture books for your library a breeze. Generations of savvy librarians and educators have relied on this detailed subject guide to children's picture books for all aspects of children's services, and this new edition does not disappoint. Covering more than 18,000 books published through 2017, it empowers users to identify current and classic titles on topics ranging from apples to zebras. Organized simply, with a subject guide that categorizes subjects by theme and topic and subject headings arranged alphabetically, this reference applies more than 1,200 intuitive (as opposed to formal catalog) subject terms to children's picture books, making it both a comprehensive and user-friendly resource that is accessible to parents and teachers as well as librarians. It can be used to identify titles to fill in gaps in library collections, to find books on particular topics for young readers, to help teachers locate titles to support lessons, or to design thematic programs and story times. Title and illustrator indexes, in addition to a bibliographic guide arranged alphabetically by author name, further extend access to titles.