Asleep In The Sun

When the sun goes down for the night, all the creatures in the natural world know it's time to rest. The breeze grows still, the leaves stop shaking, and the bird and squirrel return to their nests. Even an active little boy finally grows tired after a long day of play. It is time for bed. Caldecott Award winner Paul O. Zelinsky illustrates this bedtime story adapted from an Armenian song. The repetitive, rhyming text, and the slowly darkening pictures, gently lull a child to sleep.

Annotation "Younger than Umberto Saba and Eugenio Montale but older than Pier Paolo Pasolini, who championed him, Sandro Penna has been virtually unknown in the English speaking world. With abruptness and clarity, these exquisite and sometimes disturbing lyrics come at you as if they had just been discovered, taken directly from the secret hand of the poet. In Peter Valente's extraordinary "variations" of texts dating from 1927 until Penna's death in 1977, the transmission is electric." Ammiel Alcalay Peter Valente's first encounter with Sandro Penna's poetry was while translating Pier Paolo Pasolini. At the time Valente was reading a biography on Pasolini and learned of his close friendship with Penna. Pasolini insisted that among serious readers of poetry Penna could not be ignored. Born in Perugia on June 12, 1906, Sandro Penna lived most of his life in Rome (he died there on January 21, 1977), except for a brief period in Milan where he worked as a library clerk. When Pasolini arrived in Rome in 1950 he sought out Penna to "show him around." He knew that Penna was in love with the same ragazzi who prowled the outskirts of Rome. In his poetry Penna clearly says who he is and how he feels. That is a rare enough quality these days. He moves away from the trappings of identity toward an honest expression of love. In Penna's work the beautiful is not conscious of itself and is therefore erotic: "Is not the beauty of those who are unaware of their beauty / more beautiful than those who are aware?" He is critical of those who hide their desires behind a thin facade of modesty: Here they are, these lords of life. They are very modest, indeed. Even with their senses fully aroused, they manage to offend no one. Penna never hid his sexuality in interviews. He once told a reporter (who probably had to pay dearly for the interview), "I am not a homosexual. I am a pederasta ... Homosexuality is a privilege." Penna's homosexuality is complicated in one sense by a moral dilemma: The problem of sex consumes my entire life. I wonder at each moment whether I am doing the right thing or the wrong. But there is another sense in which Penna accepts the impossibility of a moral resolution to his "problem" and instead turns this negative to a positive value: There are always boys in my poems. But I do not know how to speak of anything else. Everything else is just a tedious noise. I am unable to sing of Good Deeds. Since his poems chiefly concern homosexual love, they face being relegated to a gay-only ghetto of readers or to another ghetto that even homosexuals avoid: pederastia. This is a problematic issue in the United States where scandal surrounding sexual orientation is still prevalent. But more importantly, there are no glamorous pronouncements or concern with gender politics in Penna's poetry. You also won't find a vision of historical process or a mass of physical details. What you will find is an attachment to everyday reality. Penna's poetry is candid, uncluttered, minimalist, and of profound lyrical intensity and as Pasolini, a great supporter of Penna's work, wrote in the 1970 preface to Penna's collected poems, he is, "perhaps the greatest and most joyful ... Italian poet."

The sun, the breeze, the leaves, the bird, the squirrel, and the child all grow tired after a long day and go to sleep.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

2013 Randolph Caldecott Honor Award In this magical bedtime story, the lyrical narrative echoes a Runaway Bunny - like cadence: "Does everything in the world go to sleep?" the little girl asks. In sincere and imaginative dialogue between a not-at-all sleepy child and understanding parents, the little girl decides "in a cocoon of sheets, a nest of blankets," she is ready to sleep, warm and strong, just like a tiger. The Caldecott Honor artist Pamela Zagarenski's rich, luminous mixed-media paintings effervesce with odd, charming details that nonsleepy children could examine for hours. A rare gem.

#1 bestselling author Stephenie Meyer makes a triumphant return to the world of Twilight with this highly anticipated companion: the iconic love story of Bella and Edward told from the vampire's point of view. When Edward Cullen and Bella Swan met in Twilight, an iconic love story was born. But until now, fans have heard only Bella's side of the story. At last, readers can experience Edward's version in the long-awaited companion novel, Midnight Sun. This unforgettable tale as told through Edward's eyes takes on a new and decidedly dark twist. Meeting Bella is both the most unnerving and intriguing event he has experienced in all his years as a vampire. As we learn more fascinating details about Edward's past and the complexity of his inner thoughts, we understand why this is the defining struggle of his life. How can he justify following his heart if it means leading Bella into danger? In Midnight Sun, Stephenie Meyer transports us back to a world that has captivated millions of readers and brings us an epic novel about the profound pleasures and devastating consequences of immortal love. An instant #1 New York Times BestsellerAn instant #1 USA Today BestsellerAn instant #1 Wall Street Journal BestsellerAn instant #1 IndieBound BestsellerApple Audiobook August Must-Listens Pick "People do not want to just read Meyer's books; they want to climb inside them and live there." -- Time "A literary phenomenon." -- New York Times