The Adventures of Alexander Gator: Book One: Alexander and the Little People by Wanda R. Thurston As the third child of thirteen, author Wanda R. Thurston, was her mother¿s little helper. Changing diapers and rocking crying babies became something to look forward to as she grew to have three of her own, helped with six grandchildren, and anticipated all the new little ones. Through her own struggles with learning, the anxiety of peer pressure, and watching the constant worry of fitting in cross the little faces of so many, she developed a desire to show the kids a different approach. She wanted to explain in a different way - to make learning and coping a little easier. The Adventures of Alexander Gator is about learning. Alexander Gator is different. He is not like the other alligators ¿ and he likes it that way. He doesn¿t want to be like them. Alexander wants to learn and wishes he could be like the little people he sees each day sitting around a campfire. He is quiet when he sneaks by so he can hear them talk. Although the other alligators think Alexander is weird, it doesn¿t take long for them to be glad that he is. About the Author Wanda R. Thurston was born in Louisa, Kentucky and moved with her family to Dayton, Ohio, to an area now known as Riverside. She learned, at an early age, that being different is not fun. Moving her own family to Hobbs, New Mexico, for work, then again to Victorville, California, she has witnessed the changes in children as life became less about working hard to learn for their future and more about what to do to impress others just to stay safe.

The Old Lady, her Magical Mouse, a Brindle London Squatting Cat, a Yak, and Alexander, the smiling alligator, lived together on a hill without any friends until the thirty-day rain endangered the town below them.

Akimbo goes to the rescue of a zoologist who is injured on his father's game preserve.

'The Alexander Trilogy contains some of Renault's finest writing. Lyrical, wise, compelling: the novels are a wonderful imaginative feat' SARAH WATERS In the final novel of her stunning trilogy, Mary Renault vividly imagines the life of Alexander the Great, the charismatic leader whose drive and ambition created a legend. Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three, leaving behind an empire that stretched from Greece and Egypt to India. After Alexander's death in 323 B.C. his only direct heirs were two unborn sons and a simpleton half-brother. Every long-simmering faction exploded into the vacuum of power. Wives, distant relatives and generals all vied for the loyalty of the increasingly undisciplined Macedonian army. Most failed and were killed in the attempt. For no one possessed the leadership to keep the great empire from crumbling. But Alexander's legend endured to spread into worlds he had seen only in dreams. 'Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us through an alien landscape that moves and delights us' - HILARY MANTEL 'The Alexander Trilogy stands as one of the most important works of fiction in the 20th century . . . it represents the pinnacle of [Renault's] career . . . Renault's skill is in immersing us in their world, drawing us into its strangeness, its violence and beauty. It's a literary conjuring trick like all historical fiction - it can only ever be an approximation of the truth. But in Renault's hands, the trick is so convincing and passionately conjured' Antonia Senior, The Times

How does one deal with despair? Are joy and despair irreconcilable? How does the joy and despair of Jesus Christ relate to our joy and despair? Continuing to explore the implications of the vicarious humanity of Christ as he did in The God Who Believes, Christian Kettler investigates the christological implications of the all too human phenomenon of despair. All people experience the pain of personal loss and lack, of the meaninglessness of existence. We also desire and covet joy, as difficult as it is often to define or maintain. Jesus was both "the man of sorrows" and one who "for the joy set before him endured the cross" (Heb 12:2). Can we think of the despair of Christ and the joy of Christ as both being vicarious, in our place and on our behalf, and thus have a theological way to possess joy in the midst of despair as well as to have a more robust theology of the atonement? Drawing on wide-ranging resources from Augustine, Calvin, Karl Barth, and T. F. Torrance to Bob Dylan, the fantasy writer Ray Bradbury, and Ed Wood, the director of Plan Nine from Outer Space, Kettler seeks to bring Trinitarian and incarnational theology deep into our flesh, filled with real despair and joy, and find that Jesus is there, with his own despair, there to lift us up with his own joy.

Princess Praline, a beautiful Persian cat, overhears a conversation by her owners about the newest fashion craze to hit New Orleans...shiny red alligator shoes. Knowing that could only mean trouble for her alligator friends down in Bayou Black, Princess Praline and her best friend Mint Julep, set out one night to warn Garfield Gator, Governor of Bayou Black, of the impending trouble. Along the way, they meet various swamp friends who help them make their journey from the City of New Orleans to the swamp lands of Bayou Black to warn the alligators. I am 88 years old from Pearl River, Louisiana, located on the edge of the Honey Island Swamp. I have 6 children, 11 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. I love telling stories using local swamp animals and a mixture of French words, come alive in the minds of young children.