You'll giggle with glee as these crazy creatures with silly skills twist your tongue!

Bright and silly illustrations bring The Marvelous Monsters Talent Show to life, where performing monsters will amaze and astound you. At least until it's time for bed. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the hottest ticket in town! Filled with hair-raising acts from high divers to tightrope walkers, The Marvelous Monsters Talent Show is sure to amaze and delight youngsters. The bright illustrations in this picture book bring a troupe of monsters to life. A surprise ending will leave readers giggling, and convinced that any monsters who might be lurking in the closet aren't so scary after all.

The fantastic hardback of The Marvellous Monster Muddle sold at a paperback price! With pops, flaps, tabs and a special hologrpahic cover finish.

Brandon Jeffery’s summer started out with a bang—as in, a friend crashed his car and now he has to work two jobs to pay it off. It’s at Fascination Street Records that he’s introduced to a beautiful but quiet girl named Marvel. She’s new to Hidden Cove and looking for a summer job, so Brandon secretly strikes a deal with their boss to work for free so she can be hired. When a classmate is found murdered, however, their summer takes a turn for the mysterious. Brandon’s friend Devon is sure he knows just who’s to blame: the creepy recluse of the town quarry. But the police have few leads, and Brandon has the sneaking suspicion he’s being watched. That’s not what’s in the forefront of on his mind, though. More than trying to pay off his car to his unemployed, alcoholic father and protecting Seth Belcher from the school bullies, he’s determined to date Marvel. He doesn’t understand why they seem so close and she refuses to date him, but as the mystery behind her tragic past begins to unravel, Marvel finally confesses her reason: God has revealed she’s destined to die saving others—and it’s going to be soon.

The Monster in the Machine tracks the ways in which human beings were defined in contrast to supernatural and demonic creatures during the time of the Scientific Revolution. Zakiya Hanafi recreates scenes of Italian life and culture from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries to show how monsters were conceptualized at this particular locale and historical juncture—a period when the sacred was being supplanted by a secular, decidedly nonmagical way of looking at the world. Noting that the word “monster” is derived from the Latin for “omen” or “warning,” Hanafi explores the monster’s early identity as a portent or messenger from God. Although monsters have always been considered “whatever we are not,” they gradually were tranformed into mechanical devices when new discoveries in science and medicine revealed the mechanical nature of the human body. In analyzing the historical literature of monstrosity, magic, and museum collections, Hanafi uses contemporary theory and the philosophy of technology to illuminate the timeless significance of the monster theme. She elaborates the association between women and the monstrous in medical literature and sheds new light on the work of Vico—particularly his notion of the conatus—by relating it to Vico’s own health. By explicating obscure and fascinating texts from such disciplines as medicine and poetics, she invites the reader to the piazzas and pulpits of seventeenth-century Naples, where poets, courtiers, and Jesuit preachers used grotesque figures of speech to captivate audiences with their monstrous wit. Drawing from a variety of texts from medicine, moral philosophy, and poetics, Hanafi’s guided tour through this baroque museum of ideas will interest readers in comparative literature, Italian literature, history of ideas, history of science, art history, poetics, women’s studies, and philosophy.

Experiment, learn, and imagine as you make the 20+ spinning, swimming, flying, and lurking creatures of Marvelous Makeable Monsters. What can a makeable monster do? They motor, inflate, wobble, drool, soar, and one of them can even do push-ups. Add a pair of wings, subtract a tentacle...the best thing about these monsters is that they're part experiment, part imagination, and 100 percent customizable. Author Sam Haynor draws on his experience with the San Francisco Exploratorium, Oakland Toy Lab, Goldieblocks, and designing STEAM curriculum to create projects packed with features. While, on the outside, most appear to be built completely from common craft materials, they contain circuits, levers, projectile-launchers, puzzles, and much more. The projects are safe and fun for younger kids working with adults, and most of them can be tackled by middle-graders with minimal adult help. Every land is filled with discovery: The Castle of Clouds features high-flying creatures that soar like airplanes and spin like helicopters. Dive into the sea and you'll find find fishy monsters illuminating the deep, while others motor across the surface. The Beastly Big Top is way more exciting than a human circus, with monsters that wobble around the ring (and toss things right back out). Carefully creep through the haunted caves, past monsters that build webs and lurk in the dark. This unique project book built for open-ended exploration is perfect for crafternoons, homeschool activities, and parties.