Birthday presents for mothers are never right-they're always too big, too small, or the wrong color. So when a young girl's mother simply asks for a homemade birthday cake, the girl thinks her troubles are over. Her happiness quickly disappears, though, when she hears the name of the cake her mother wants. The girl knows she won't find a High Rise Glorious Skittle Skat Roarious Sky Pie Angel Food Cake recipe in The Joy of Cooking. It will take a secret ingredient, a clumsy uncle, a grand piano, and some angelic visitors to help the girl make this wonderful gift for her mother. But baking it is only half the adventure; the biggest surprise is yet to come. Nancy Willard is the prize winning author of more than 20 books for children, and received the Newbery Medal in 1982. Her delectable tale of food, magic and love is as heavenly as the gorgeous birthday cake.
Newbery Medalist Nancy Willard is the author of many award-winning children's books. In this lyrical story, a man falls in love with a broom and they dance through the sky together-until one night the broom is stolen from its home. Someone else wants the powers of the broom for himself. Will the man be able to find his beloved broom and dance once again?
Sam Theopolis entered the Woolman household like a clown with treasures up his sleeve. He kept the absent-minded Jessie from permanently checking out of reality, and he brought an inconceivable joy to Jessie's younger daughter and grandson. But just when the current of their lives seemed smooth and untroubled, tragedy struck like a squall. With eccentric characters reminiscent of Anne Tyler, Willard takes the reader on a quirky journey of the heart.
Anatole's adventure begins and ends quietly beside the rosy brick dollhouse in Uncle Terrible's living room. But everything in between the beginning and the end is like a 3-dimensional comic strip dream. Anatole is the only one who can rescue Uncle Terrible and his friend Rosemarie from the wizard Arcimboldo's enchantments. Everything depends on the outcome of a wacky game of checkers, the unweaving of a magical cloak, and a slightly dopey bat.
The wallpaper above Anatole's bed is dotted with islands and shepherds and small boats decorated with roses. While gazing at the figures one afternoon, Anatole is sucked into the wallpaper itself. Includes the stories Gospel Train and The Wise Soldier of Sellebak.
A young soldier during World War II attempts to save his own life and the lives of his boyhood friends by making an unusual wager with death: he pits his local sandlot team against some of the greatest baseball players of all time.
