Flora S Magic House

Friendship and calm under pressure save the day! When a lonely doll’s wish to see the world comes true, she realizes that friendship matters most of all. A German picture book classic back in print for the first time since 1986. The little doll Flora is lonely and sad because she can’t travel the world like her best friend Robert the Bird. To cheer her up, Robert invites two of his best friends over—Magic Box, a boastful fellow with a box for a head, and Humpty Dumpty, the shy Englishman in the shape of an egg. Magic Box, who says he can make anything with his magic scissors, snips a house out of paper for them to have a party. But when a storm comes and puts them all in danger, it’s Humpty Dumpty who comes to the rescue. Back in print, this thoughtful and adventurous story is a classic of European children’s literature.

With playful text and vibrant art, Gabriel Alboroz's Flora’s Tree House is a unique picture book about imagination for all children learning to appreciate a sibling’s strengths, as well as their own. Siblings Flora and Will couldn’t be more different. Flora brings epic fantasies to life in drawings and paintings, which she then hangs in her tree house. Will’s adventures live in his mind as he leaps from trees and swings twigs like they're swords. Will has never been in Flora's tree house, but one day, his curiosity gets the better of him—what exactly is his sister doing up in there? In one joyful afternoon, Flora and Will’s imaginations collide, and sister and brother discover that playing together is always more fun.

Growing up the son of agnostics, John Koessler saw a Catholic church on one end of the street and a Baptist on the other. In the no-man’s land between the two, this curious outside wondered about the God they worshipped—and began a lifelong search to comprehend the grace and mystery of God. A Stranger in the House of God addresses fundamental questions and struggles faced by spiritual seekers and mature believers. Like a contemporary Pilgrim’s Progress, it traces the author’s journey and explores his experiences with both charismatic and evangelical Christianity. It also describes his transformation from religious outsider to ordained pastor. John Koessler provides a poignant and often humorous window into the interior of the soul as he describes his journey from doubt and struggle with the church to personal faith

As a St. Louis resident, Brooke S. Foster knows the best ways to experience the Gateway City, from must-see sights like the Gateway Arch and the City Museum to great Northern Italian cuisine on the Hill. Foster provides travelers with unique trip strategies to help organize their visit, such as Blues, Barbecue, and Beer: A Legendary St. Louis Weekend; and From the Butterfly House to the Gigantic Slide: St. Louis with Kids. Including experienced advice on checking out the Victorian-era mansions in Lafayette Square, exploring the revived nightlife of downtown St. Louis, and seeing live music at the Blue Note in nearby Columbia, Moon St. Louis gives travelers the tools they need to create a more personal and memorable experience.

A “fascinating, poignant” biography of the WWII veteran who, while confined to an asylum, became one of the great outsider artists of modern times (The Scotsman). In September 1939, groups of horsemen in battledress cantered down a broad, grassy plain on the western edge of Europe. The young men of the Western Isles of Scotland were going to war again. They included a tall, shy twenty-four-year-old named Angus MacPhee. Angus returned from war alive but in chronic mental pain, and was referred to the asylum in Inverness, where he spent the next fifty years of his life. During his time at Craig Dunain Hospital, he retreated into his own silent world, and did not speak again until shortly before his death. But “the quiet big man,” as he was known, spent his time creating a huge number of objects out of woven grass, sheep’s wool, and beach leaves—mostly clothes, caps, and hats—which he then let decay or deliberately burned. Only after an art therapist discovered his miraculous creations were some of them preserved for posterity. And only then did Angus MacPhee come home to South Uist, where he died a year later. The Silent Weaver is a rich, moving and enthralling exploration of mental health, the creative process, human frailty, and ancient traditions.

Sex in animals has been known for at least ten thousand years, and this knowledge was put to good use during animal domestication in the Neolithic period. In stark contrast, sex in plants wasn't discovered until the late 17th century, long after the domestication of crop plants. Even after its discovery, the "sexual theory" continued to be hotly debated and lampooned for another 150 years, pitting the "sexualists" against the "asexualists". Why was the notion of sex in plants so contentious for so long? "Flora Unveiled" is a deep history of perceptions about plant gender and sexuality, beginning in the Ice Age and ending in the middle of the nineteenth century, with the elucidation of the complete plant life cycle. Linc and Lee Taiz show that a gender bias that plants are unisexual and female (a "one-sex model") prevented the discovery of plant sex and delayed its acceptance long after the theory was definitively proven. The book explores the various sources of this gender bias, beginning with women's role as gatherers, crop domesticators, and the first farmers. In the myths and religions of the Bronze and Iron Ages, female deities were strongly identified with flowers, trees, and agricultural abundance, and during Middle Ages and Renaissance, this tradition was assimilated into Christianity in the person of Mary. The one-sex model of plants continued into the Early Modern Period, and experienced a resurgence during the eighteenth century Enlightenment and again in the nineteenth century Romantic movement. Not until Wilhelm Hofmeister demonstrated the universality of sex in the plant kingdom was the controversy over plant sex finally laid to rest. Although "Flora Unveiled" focuses on the discovery of sex in plants, the history serves as a cautionary tale of how strongly and persistently cultural biases can impede the discovery and delay the acceptance of scientific advances.