Super Fun

This entertaining guide shows youngsters how to draw rib-tickling portraits of ogres, fiends, and other fanciful characters. Step-by-step diagrams and blank practice pages help them create a one-eyed centipede; a hairy, fanged monster with duck feet and horns; a scowling, four-legged fright that's literally all head; and 27 other comical creatures.

Hundreds of proven hands-on activities, carefully outlined and using inexpensive materials, emphasize learning by doing, encourage creativity, and afford opportunities to develop responsibility. Organized into 19 thematic units (from "Marvelous Me" to "Summertime and the Sun") and correlated to the school-year calendar, the activities cover key curriculum areas such as language arts, math, and science; they also involve art, music, cooking, movement, block play, and role plays. Jargon-free and clearly written, the book is also a great resource for parents. Grades preK-K. 302 pages. Good Year Books. Second Edition.

Whether they picture a three-eyed purple behemoth or a creepy creature with horns, this exciting book guides readers through creating their ideal gruesome monster. Using the different materials and drawing styles introduced, readers can make their monsters ready to jump off the page and start some mayhem. Step-by-step instruction and easy-to-follow language makes creating terrifying creatures fun and accessible for young artists of all skill levels.

The life of best-selling young adult horror author R.L. Stine including his childhood, the evolution of his writing career, and his popularity with both boys and girls.

For fans of Rene Denfeld and Shari Lapena comes a rich, atmospheric family drama set in the 1980's following the disappearances of two paperboys from a small midwestern town. It's August 1984, and paperboy Christopher Stewart has gone missing. Hours later, twelve-year-old Sammy Cox hurries home from his own paper route, red-faced and out of breath, hiding a terrible secret. Crystal, Sammy's seventeen-year-old sister, is worried by the disappearance but she also sees opportunity: the Stewart case has echoes of an earlier unsolved disappearance of another boy, one town over. Crystal senses the makings of an award winning essay, one that could win her a scholarship - and a ticket out of their small Iowa town. Officer Dale Goodkind can't believe his bad luck: another town and another paperboy kidnapping. But this time he vows that it won't go unsolved. As the abductions set in motion an unpredictable chain of violent, devastating events touching each life in unexpected ways, Dale is forced to face his own demons. Told through interwoven perspectives--and based on the real-life Des Moines Register paperboy kidnappings in the early 1980's--The Monsters We Make deftly explores the effects of one crime exposing another and the secrets people keep hidden from friends, families, and sometimes, even themselves.