Balderdash

Newly graduated Chiara Candel & Patrick Craig are recruited to teach Creative Reasoning to sixth graders in Colorado.

This rollicking and fascinating picture book biography chronicles the life of the first pioneer of children's books—John Newbery himself. While most children's books in the 18th century contained lessons and rules, John Newbery imagined them overflowing with entertaining stories, science, and games. He believed that every book should be made for the reader's enjoyment. Newbery—for whom the prestigious Newbery Medal is named—became a celebrated author and publisher, changing the world of children's books forever. This book about his life and legacy is as full of energy and delight as any young reader could wish.

Discussing everything from God to Santa Claus, Prozac to the Taliban and beyond, the author asserts that ethics is balderdash.

Discover the fascinating stories behind the words and phrases we use every day. English is now the worlds most popular second language, understood by over 700 million people across the globe. Its use is amazingly broad: not only is it the language of Chaucer and Shakespeare, but also of hip-hop, international business and the internet (over 80% of home pages are in English). So where exactly do English words come from? They come from everywhere. English is a vast, rambling conglomeration of words and phrases from a huge variety of times and places, and every word has its own intriguing history. Balderdash & Piffle is a guidebook an entertaining look at what falls out of the chaotic family tree of English words when you uproot it and give it a damn good shake. Shaking the tree is writer, humourist and word-sleuth Alex Games. If youve ever wondered who first used cuppa in print, what language gave us shampoo, when we started saying window, where minging comes from, what Shakespeare had to say about geeks and why berk is really, really rude, youll find it all (and much more) inside. Youll also have the chance to do your own word-sleuthing, through the BBC Wordhunt appeal. Who knows if you have written evidence of a bouncy castle from before 1986, you could even re-write history

A brief on my vision on why I would write a stark eye view of the political arena. Sometimes I can't help but have strong feelings that the Lord and my Guarding Angel Michael is constantly on my shoulder watching over me and nudging me on. I'll cite an example that happened to me back when G.W. Bush and AI Gore were in the final throes of trying to determine who was the real elected President. Florida was the center of the crisis. Well about one a.m. in the morning I woke up with a word in my head. I had no idea where it came from. I had never heard it - wasn't sure why it was there- since I hadn't seen it before. It frustrated me to the point of looking it up in the new world dictionary. After hunting for the word that I was unsure of the spelling, I found the word Conflagration which meant a great and destructive fire. My frustration led me to the computer and I started typing an article. At approximately 9 am, I had completed an article that was ready for the opinion page of the Vero Beach Press Journal newspaper. My creativity had turned a great destructive fire into a destructive verbal fire. As an aside, this is one of many reasons for arriving at the book title- "POLITICAL BALDERDASH." Buy it, read it, you'll like it!

Balderdash & Piffle: One Sandwich Short of a Dog's Dinner is a thrilling ride through the provocative, bewildering and often downright bizarre world of language and etymology. From the brash jargon of celebrity magazines to the delicacies and feints of the euphemism, author and word-sleuth Alex Games has uncovered the remarkable stories that lie behind some of our best-loved words and expressions. By grouping words into distinct themes - such as put downs and insults, the vocab of fashionistas and the lingo of dodgy dealings - Balderdash & Piffle looks at the English language in a fresh and revealing light. Who was the original Jack the Lad? What is the tragic story behind the expression Sweet F.A.? Balderdash & Piffle will show you where thugs come from, why 'barmy' once had more to do with your beer than your brain, and how a little bit of 'hanky-panky' could literally work magic. From the 'Cloud-cuckoo-land' of Aristophanes to the town of Balaclava, this is a funny but rigorously researched account of English words and their origins. Drawing together sources as diverse as William Shakespeare, David Cameron and the Burnham-on-Sea Gazette, Alex Games recalls the trends, innovations and scandals that have produced some of our most familiar but least explored words and phrases. Accompanying a brand new series of the hit BBC television programme Balderdash & Piffle - and containing all the results of the 'Wordhunt' from the first series -this entertaining book is a treasure trove for English-language lovers everywhere.

When a retired wizard is summoned to brighten up the dreary kingdom of Gray, he finds a very colorful solution. Holes in the pages highlight various colors and give clues about what is going to happen next.