Chicago Treasure

Chicago has many treasures. The Magnificent Mile and Wrigley Field, wonderful public art and parks, beautiful bridges and skylines. But the true heart and the real treasure of the city are its children. This book is devoted to Chicago's children. Come along as they travel to worlds within worlds, becoming storybook characters who follow the Yellow Brick Road, sip tea in Wonderland, tame a tiger, live in a shoe, climb a magic beanstalk to bring home a golden-egg-laying hen, turn a frog into a prince, meet fairies and dragons. Continue as they step into painted canvases to inhabit scenes from other times and places. After climbing down from those framed worlds, they explore the city, high-fiving the victorious Chicago Bears, joining penguins at the theater, and leaping across State Street Bridge aboard African impalas. The kids are the story. The book is their adventure. Its door swings open. . . For kids of all ages. 168 pages and 150 illustrations. Unlimited dreams.

The tale begins over three-hundred years ago, when the Fair People—the goblins, fairies, dragons, and other fabled and fantastic creatures of a dozen lands—fled the Old World for the New, seeking haven from the ways of Man. With them came their precious jewels: diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls... But then the Fair People vanished, taking with them their twelve fabulous treasures. And they remained hidden until now... Across North America, these twelve treasures, over ten-thousand dollars in precious jewels, are buried. The key to finding each can be found within the twelve full color paintings and verses of The Secret. Yet The Secret is much more than that. At long last, you can learn not only the whereabouts of the Fair People's treasure, but also the modern forms and hiding places of their descendants: the Toll Trolls, Maitre D'eamons, Elf Alphas, Tupperwerewolves, Freudian Sylphs, Culture Vultures, West Ghosts and other delightful creatures in the world around us. The Secret is a field guide to them all. Many "armchair treasure hunt" books have been published over the years, most notably Masquerade (1979) by British artist Kit Williams. Masquerade promised a jewel-encrusted golden hare to the first person to unravel the riddle that Williams cleverly hid in his art. In 1982, while everyone in Britain was still madly digging up hedgerows and pastures in search of the golden hare, The Secret: A Treasure Hunt was published in America. The previous year, author and publisher Byron Preiss had traveled to 12 locations in the continental U.S. (and possibly Canada) to secretly bury a dozen ceramic casques. Each casque contained a small key that could be redeemed for one of 12 jewels Preiss kept in a safe deposit box in New York. The key to finding the casques was to match one of 12 paintings to one of 12 poetic verses, solve the resulting riddle, and start digging. Since 1982, only two of the 12 casques have been recovered. The first was located in Grant Park, Chicago, in 1984 by a group of students. The second was unearthed in 2004 in Cleveland by two members of the Quest4Treasure forum. Preiss was killed in an auto accident in the summer of 2005, but the hunt for his casques continues.

You are not holding a book; it's a treasure map to unlock the hidden gems of Chicago's neighborhoods. Chicago Scavenger invites you on an interactive mission to explore 17 neighborhoods across the city. Decipher the clues and track down the photos leading you to over 300 little-known museums, vibrant public artworks, nature areas, overlooked historical markers, charming cafes, architectural oddities, and more. Visit the nation's first Black art museum and a B&B run by monks. Raise a glass at Chicago's smallest bar and take a stroll down a real yellow brick road. From Pullman to Rogers Park, seek the thrill of discovery in Chicago's unique and diverse neighborhoods.Surprising stories and fun memories await you on this adventure. Urban explorers, foodies, culture enthusiasts, history geeks, and anyone curious about Chicago can put their skills to the test. Solve the riddles solo, team up with your family, or challenge friends with this mysterious and exciting way to experience Chicago. Author and travel writer Jessica Mlinaric brings her years of research, countless hours of exploring, and passion for Chicago to this one-of-a-kind quest. Come with an open mind and prepare to be amazed at the tales that you uncover. Once you embark on this epic Chicago scavenger hunt, you hold the key to connecting with the city like never before.

"You will enter A Century of Progress for the first time perhaps like an explorer-curious and eager-penetrating an amazingly rumored domain in search of treasure." -Official Guide Book to the Fair, 1933 One century after Chicago's incorporation, the city hosted the 1933 World's Fair, which was so successful it was held over for 1934. Aptly named "A Century of Progress," the fair confirmed Chicago's emergence as a major American city. Like the phoenix from the ashes, Chicago emerged from its devastating fire of 1871 as one of the most architecturally significant and aesthetically inviting cities in the world. On 424 lakeside acres located on Chicago's near south side, the Fair brought together innovators and inventors from around the world. Chicagoans hosted visitors from all corners of the globe, commemorating human progress, despite the Great Depression that was devastating the nation's economy.

Single father Jake Rodgers's daughter isn't happy about moving to tiny Treasure Creek, Alaska. So the former big-city businessman trades his suits for hiking boots and he books a father-daughter wilderness tour to acclimate her. But Veronica isn't buying it. Perhaps guide Casey Donner is just the person to help the girl appreciate the Klondike state's natural beauty. But could tomboy Casey, in her ponytail and cargo pants, also be what this city boy needs for a lifetime of love?

"This book examines travel to Mexico during the Porfiriato (the long dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz 1876-1911), focusing especially on the role of travelers in shaping ideas of Mexico as a logical place for Americans to extend their economic and cultural influence in the hemisphere. Overland travel between the United States and Mexico became instantly faster, smoother, and cheaper when workers connected the two countries' rail lines in 1884, creating intense curiosity in the United States about Mexico, its people, and its opportunities for business and pleasure. As a result, so many Americans began to travel south of the border during the Porfiriato that observers from both sides of the border began to quip that the visiting hordes of tourists and business speculators constituted a "foreign invasion," a phrase laced with irony given that it appeared at the height of public debate in the United States about the nation's imperial future. These travelers created a rich and varied record of their journeys, constructing Mexico as a nation at the cusp of modernity but requiring foreign intervention to reach its full potential"--

In the discussions and debates surrounding liturgical music of the past fifty years, music theorists, critics, and historians have contributed little, and their counsel has rarely been sought. Whenever the matter of liturgical music arises, most often in parishes, but sometimes in episcopal conferences or in the academy or in Vatican documents, the nature of the music, as music, almost never affects the discussion. With Sacred Treasure, Joseph Swain, a distinguished musicologist and accomplished performer, attempts to change that. He offers a theory for building authentic traditions of liturgical music for Roman Catholic parishes. This book is an exercise in pragmatic music criticism. By providing a rational basis for evaluating the essential issues, Swain seeks to show how a spiritually wholesome stability might supplant the confusion. Sacred Treasure shows how the hard facts of music must be taken into account in any holistic conception and any lasting form of liturgical music.

A young slacker decides to live her life according to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic adventure: “A rollicking tale, shameless, funny and intelligent” (The New York Times). When a college graduate with a history of hapless jobs (ice cream scooper, gift wrapper, laziest ever part-time clerk at The Pet Library) reads Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Treasure Island, she is dumbstruck by the timid design of her life. When had she ever dreamed a scheme? When had she ever done a foolish, overbold act? When had she ever, like Jim Hawkins, broken from her friends, raced for the beach, stolen a boat, killed a man, and eliminated an obstacle that stood in the way of her getting a hunk of gold? Convinced that Stevenson’s book is cosmically intended for her, she redesigns her life according to its Core Values: boldness, resolution, independence, and horn-blowing. Accompanied by her mother, her sister, and a hostile Amazon parrot that refuses to follow the script, our heroine embarks on a domestic adventure more frightening than anything she’d originally planned. Treasure Island!!! is the story of a ferocious obsession, told by an original voice—“insane, hilarious, and irreverent” (Alice Sebold). “Highly original . . . will keep you entertained in spite of (or more accurately, because of) its toxic narrator.” —Library Journal “A hoot.” —Kirkus Reviews