The Silent World of Mr. Grumblebee centers around Mr. Grumblebee, an ornery older man resistant to the changing world around him. He has a special disdain for the noise created in his energetic neighborhood. In a twist of fate, Mr. Grumblebee is granted peace and quiet when he loses his ability to hear. This unexpected change causes Mr. Grumblebee to wish for all the clatter that he had found so appalling back.

A series of fun poetry collections on a wide variety of topics from water and minibeasts to transport and green issues, previously published as Conkers Poems, within the Oxford Poem Tree. This is a further set of ten books in the popular series which includes Ghost Poems, Egg Poems, Star Poems and Monkey Poems.

Poetry can be daunting and hard to understand, but it doesn't have to be. I feel a poet has an obligation to write in a way that everyone can understand. Poems should flow softly through a poet's words, their meanings gently caressing the heart and mind of its reader. If a poem comes from the heart, it will reach other hearts, and this is what I've tried to do with the poetry in "Anatomy of a Poet." CJ Heck "Like a rose with many petals and sharing its sweet aroma, this is how I see and feel about the love of my life, CJ Heck. She is my electric blue-eyed girl. She can be both a little girl, or a strong woman, whenever and wherever the situation calls for it. She is both sensuous and exciting, and soft and affectionate. Tragedy struck her life early with the death of her husband in Vietnam. This experience laid open the very core of her heart and soul and opened the channel to a well of compassion and sensitivity that waited deep within. Her pain was the fertilizer that helped her bloom as a writer. CJ's poetry is not a surface observation, but a soulful interpretation of the events and people that inspired her. She writes both eloquently and simply of things that touch her heart, things she wants to share. She is gifted at painting a picture with words on the heart and imagination of others, thereby communicating not just an image, but a life experience. I feel very honored to have been asked to write this introduction and share my feelings about CJ Heck. She is the water for my soil, the sunlight for my petals and the nurturer of my growth. Sit back, open your heart and enjoy the journey as revealed through her words, images and emotions. You are blessed by this opportunity to know her in words, as I know her in life." Robert S. Cosmar, Author "This is my kind of poetry. Direct, beautifully expressed and without a hint of pretension." Allison Cassidy "CJ is predominately viewed as a writer of works for children, but CJ now carries over her approach to more adult themes. In doing so, she presents a profound world that is deeply sad, incredibly humorous and sometimes very intimate." Joseph Daly "I love learning new words, especially when they are explained with such diaphanous clarity. Whether she talks of love, children, life, or any other subject, CJ's words are always clear and harmonious. She makes us forget that easy to read is hard to write." Marc Mimouni (London, United Kingdom) "CJ Heck is a very talented author. Her words are enlightening and charismatic to people of all ages. It is a privilege and honor to read her prolific pen." Janet Caldwell (Managing Editor, Inner Child Magazine

Young Mayzie McGrew becomes a worldwide sensation when a daisy grows out of the top of her head, and everyone attempts to get rid of it.

Gulp, gulp, gulp: one toy after another disappears into the mouth of the hungry wolf. Now he's almost full, just a last little fly for dessert--uh-oh! The Wolf and the Fly combines story and guessing game. Together you can guess which object on the shelf will be eaten next, then, when everything re-emerges, the game starts anew. This is an original and delightful guessing, memory, observation and naming game from award-winning author and illustrator Antje Damm, whose The Visitor was a New York Times Illustrated Book of the Year.

Before Game Change there was What It Takes, a ride along the 1988 campaign trail and “possibly the best [book] ever written about an American election” (NPR). Written by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and New York Times–bestselling author Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes is “a perfect-pitch rendering of the emotions, the intensity, the anguish, and the emptiness of what may have been the last normal two-party campaign in American history” (Time). An up-close, in-depth look at six candidates—George H. W. “Poppy” Bush, Bob Dole, Joe Biden, Michael Dukakis, Richard Gephardt, and Gary Hart—this account of the 1988 US presidential campaign explores a unique moment in history, with details on everything from Bush at the Astrodome to Hart’s Donna Rice scandal. Cramer also addresses the question we find ourselves pondering every four years: How do presumably ordinary people acquire that mixture of ambition, stamina, and pure shamelessness that allows them to throw their hat in the ring as a candidate for leadership of the free world? Exhaustively researched from thousands of hours of interviews, What It Takes creates powerful portraits of these Republican and Democratic contenders, and the consultants, donors, journalists, handlers, and hangers-on who surround them, as they meet, greet, and strategize their way through primary season chasing the nomination, resulting in “a hipped-up amalgam of Teddy White, Tom Wolfe, and Norman Mailer” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). With timeless insight that helps us understand the current state of the nation, this “ultimate insider’s book on presidential politics” explores what helps these people survive, what makes them prosper, what drives them, and ultimately, what drives our government—human beings, in all their flawed glory (San Francisco Chronicle).