How Many Howdys

Join Olie, Zowie, Billy, Pappy, and the whole Rolie Polie gang on a whirligig of an adventure as they count from 1 to 10.

Puppetry has become a significant force in contemporary theatre and thousands of puppets from various cultures and time periods have been collected by scholars, enthusiasts, and curators, who wisely realized that these material images can teach us much about the societies for which they were created. This book consists of essays by the curators of the most significant puppet collections in the United States and by leading scholars in the field. In addition to the descriptive and analytical essays on the collections, the book includes an overview of American puppetry today, a history of puppetry in the United States, and essays on the theater of Julie Taymor, the Jim Henson Company, Howdy Doody's custody case, puppet conservation, and the development of virtual performance space. The fourteen collections discussed include those of the Smithsonian Institution, the Harvard University Theatre Collection, the Brander Matthews Collection at Columbia University, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. Appendices provide a listing of additional puppetry collections and a filmography of puppetry at the New York Public Library Donnell Media Center. The work concludes with a bibliography and index and is illustrated with many beautiful photographs of puppeteers and puppets on display and in performance.

A funny friendship turns serious in this haunting book about secrets, lies, and what it means to be a true friend. “Rusty, I swear to howdy, if you tell a soul...” Joey Banks is a walking adventure. He’s funny, daring, mischievous—and frequently in trouble. Or he would be if anyone found out about half the stuff he’s done. But Rusty Cooper knows how to keep a secret. And Joey’s the best friend he’s ever had. But then comes a secret that is at once too terrible to tell and too terrible to keep. A secret so big it threatens to eat them alive. What would a true friend do now? Wendelin Van Draanen has written a richly layered book that offers a thought-provoking look at the boundaries of friendship and what it really means to be true.

Two thirteen-year-old boys share neighborhood adventures, complaints about their older sisters, family secrets, and even guilt that bind them together in a special friendship.

Howdy Folks! I'm Fuster Buskins is a collection of the humorous stories and song poems of hillbilly comedy character Fuster Buskins, as played by actor/singer/songwriter and banjo picker Darrell Sroufe. In an over twenty-five year career of entertaining at southern theme parks; major entertainment venues; doing road tours throughout America; performing on national radio and television programs; and recording several albums played on radio stations in the United States and Europe, Fuster Buskins built quite a large repertoire of material. As his shows ran from one to two hours in length, Fuster's stories and poem songs were cut, changed, added to and discarded over the years. Now, in this volume alone they all appear with enough material to fill a book and enough good old time southern humor to fill hearts with laughter for years to come!

Author Desi Downey had never been out of the States and rarely out of the Midwest when her husband's job was transferred to China. Without a clue--and virtually overnight--Downey was thrust into a new and bewildering existence. Ni Howdy is Downey's nitty-gritty, down-to-earth, and hilarious account of how she triumphed over the trials and tribulations of becoming accustomed to daily life in a foreign country. From the horror of her first encounter with the primitive "squatty potty" to the difficulties of grocery shopping, Downey paints a vivid and humorous picture of her experiences. With no-holds-barred candid wit, Downey writes frankly about herself, her fellow expatriates, and the Chinese people, zeroing in on both the differences and similarities of two vastly different cultures. Dispelling all those old stereotypical myths about East vs. West, Ni Howdy brings two incredibly diverse cultures together with laughter and heartwarming anecdotes.

Literacy, Media, Technology considers the continued significance of popular culture forms such as postcards, film, television, games, virtual worlds and social media for educators. Following multiple pathways through technological innovation, the contributors reflect on the way in which digital and portable devices lead to new and emerging forms of reading, participating and creating. Rejecting linear conceptualisations of progression, they explore how time is not linear as technological advances are experienced in multiple ways linked to different personal, social, political and economic trajectories. The contributors describe a range of practices from formal and informal education spaces and interrogate some of the continuities and discontinuities associated with literacy, media and technology at a time when rapidly evolving communicative practices often meet intransigence in educational systems. The chapters adopt diverse forms: historical perspectives, personal story and reflection, project reports, document analysis, critical reviews of resources, ethnographic accounts, and analyses of meaning-making within and beyond educational institutions. Together, they provide multiple insights into the diverse and fluid relationships between literacy, media, technology, and everyday life, and the many ways in which these relationships are significant to educational research and practice.

Where they walked was somewhat holy ground without the benediction of sprinkled holy water or eggs Benedict by a church that serves the hungry and without the benediction of anything holy. However, that sanctified ground was unknown to the duo to be holy at all. As a matter of fact, it lay in front of their willing feet that thread it. Nonetheless, the ground they thread was predestined and set apart like some sanctified spiritual eclipse that would cause a shadow by a passing moon somewhere onto the earth, and so their shadow did appear on earth, not because of prediction or being holy but by being "matter of factuality!" Their spiritual eclipse was inverted because of a weird type of light covered every inch of earth that their eyes could see. Because of their type of light, the entire species of earthly bats became totally blind. They also had to wear dark glasses like movie stars, carry a parasol like Michael Jackson, and were advised by a bat committee to liberally spread sunscreen on every inch of their batty skin! Holy Batman! The jokers who thwarted reality and destiny were real, more real than cartoons, and twice as real as characters of a fiction novel. "How real were they, Batman?" "Very real, Robin." And so the comedy begins.