"One of my earliest memories is lying on the floor in front of the kitchen fire, drawing..." Michael Foreman During the war, paper was in short supply but, the large biscuit tins delivered to his Mum's shop were lined with white paper. The tins were about twelve inches square, so unfolded, the paper would be four feet long. Perfect for drawings of marching soldiers and convoys of tanks, the village traffic of his childhood. This is a celebration of Michael's life as a master storyteller and illustrator told through his own autobiographical tales, diary extracts, original sketches and illustrations from his award-winning publications. Beginning with his childhood in wartime Suffolk and his early career as a young artist, and culminating with his collaborations with world-famous authors Terry Jones, Michael Morpurgo and Quentin 'BLOOMIN' Blake, this book showcases his 'greatest hits', and reveals the places, stories and people that inspired him along the way. Divided into three parts: Memories of Childhood (Looking through War Boy, After the War Was Over and War Game.) Far-Flung Places (Looking through Treasure Island, Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland, Wizard of Oz, World of Fairy Tales and Classic Fairy Tales.) Friends and Collaborators (Looking through Eric the Viking, Fairy Tales, Nicobobinus, Animal Tales, Fantastic Stories, Arthur, Robin Hood, Joan of Arc, Billy the Kid and Farm Boy.) 'I have been lucky with writers. None have been real trouble. Some I never met. Some I meet only after the book is finished, and some, the easiest to get along with, are the dead ones. Most become friends.' Michael Foreman

Together, Leon Garfield and Michael Foreman have produced a literary and illustrative tour de force that pays homage to the world's most celebrated playwright.

This book addresses a variety of issues through the examination of heroic figures in children's popular literature, comics, film, and television.

Accompanying CD-ROM contains: McGraw-Hill children's literature database; a student study guide; and practical resources.

The invaluable grade-by-grade guide (kindergarten—sixth) is designed to help parents and teachers select some of the best books for children. Books to Build On recommends: • for kindergartners, lively collections of poetry and stories, such as The Children’s Aesop, and imaginative alphabet books such as Bill Martin, Jr.’s Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Lucy Micklewait’s I Spy: An Alphabet in Art • for first graders, fine books on the fine arts, such as Ann Hayes’s Meet the Orchestra, the hands-on guide My First Music Book, and the thought-provoking Come Look with Me series of art books for children • for second graders, books that open doors to world cultures and history, such as Leonard Everett Fisher’s The Great Wall of China and Marcia Willaims’s humorous Greek Myths for Young Children • for third graders, books that bring to life the wonders of ancient Rome, such as Living in Ancient Rome, and fascinating books about astronomy, such as Seymour Simon’s Our Solar System • for fourth graders, engaging books on history, including Jean Fritz’s Shh! We're Writing the Constitution, and many books on Africa, including the stunningly illustrated story of Sundiata: Lion King of Mali • for fifth graders, a version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream that retains much of the original language but condenses the play for reading or performance by young students, and Michael McCurdy’s Escape from Slavery: The Boyhood of Frederick Douglass • for sixth graders, an eloquent retelling of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and the well-written American history series, A History of US . . . and many, many more!

Even though we instruct our children not to lie, the truth is that lying is a fundamental part of children’s development—socially, cognitively, emotionally, morally. Lying can sometimes be more compassionate than telling the truth, even more ethical. Reading specific children’s books can instruct child readers how to be guided by an etiquette of lying, to know when to tell the truth and when to lie. Equally important, these stories can help prevent them from being prey to those liars who are intent on taking advantage of them. Becoming a critical reader requires that one learn how to lie judiciously as well as to see through others’ lies. When humans first began to speak, we began to lie. When we began to lie, we started telling stories. This is the paradox, that in order to tell truthful stories, we must be good liars. Novels about child-artists showcased here illustrate how the protagonist embraces this paradox, accepting the stigma that a writer is a liar who tells the truth. Emily Dickinson’s phrase “telling it slant” best expresses the vision of how writers for children and young adults negotiate the conundrum of both protecting child readers and teaching them to protect themselves. This volume explores the pervasiveness of lying as well as the necessity for lying in our society; the origins of lying as connected to language acquisition; the realization that storytelling is both lying and truthtelling; and the negotiations child-artists must process in order to grasp the paradox that to become storytellers they must become expert liars and lie-detectors.