The Osbick Bird

Emblus fingby's life was changed forever with the unexpected arrival of the osbick bird. The two became inseparable companions, enjoying card games, musical interludes, and sunset strolls. They took tea together, passed the time making arts and crafts, and perhaps only occasionally had disagreements. Their curious relationship came to an end only with the utmost display of loyalty. Find meaning where you will among the twinkling rhymes and crosshatched lines: Is this tender tale a primer on friendship, or possibly an examination of an artist and his muse? Though short in length, the story is sure to linger long in your imagination.

Donald encounters a difficulty when a splinter enters the calf of his leg.

This hilariously readable collection of classic nonsense poetry, delightfully illustrated throughout, is a showcase of comic talent and sheer silliness. The Everyman Book of Nonsense Verse features an eclectic spectrum of contributors ranging wildly from Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll to Hilaire Belloc, Ted Hughes, Ogden Nash, and Shakespeare, with illustrations by Mervyn Peake, Quentin Blake, Emma Chichester Clark, Spike Milligan, and the deliciously sinister Edward Gorey. Such old favorites as “The Owl and the Pussycat” are accompanied by “Macavity: The Mystery Cat” and “Jabberwocky,” while Ted Hughes’s “Wodwo” sits alone by the bank of a stream in a state of innocence and curiosity that mirrors a child’s sense of wonder at the universe. Whether sweetly funny or deliciously naughty, these masterpieces of the art of the absurd will charm readers both young and old.

This fun book shows readers how to make standalone fantasy character figures with polymer clay. Readers will learn about materials, special precautions and quick, simple techniques; then they will get 3 step-by-step demonstrations including an Elf, Dragon and Bird. Each demonstration shows how to make accurate figures, from beginning supports to sculpting the head (including eyes, chins, noses, brows, lips, cheeks, mouths, ears, makeup and hair) bodies, baking and costuming.

Drawings (including thirty-two pages in color), captions, and verse showcasing Gorey's unique talents and humor. "The Glorious Nosebleed," "The Utter Zoo," "The Epiplectic Bicycle," and fourteen other selections.

The delightful tales and theatrical drawings of Edward Gorey (American, 1925-2000) reflect a special kind of genius for what is left unwritten and unseen. In Gorey's vaguely Victorian world of well-tended gardens and opulent estates, smoke-belching factories and fog-shrouded streets, nothing seems certain or quite as it should be. Chaos lurks just beneath life's tidy surface, occasionally erupting in surprising events with unexpected, often horrific consequences. But when tragedy befalls Gorey's quirky cast of characters-hapless waifs, dusty dowagers, scheming tycoons, and unhinged maidens-somehow we can't keep from laughing. Far from casting us into the abyss, Gorey reminds us to contemplate mortality with a smile. In Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey, more than 175 reproductions include samples from Gorey's books, illustrations produced for other writers, theatrical sets and costume designs, and a wealth of individual pieces, many never before published. Sketches, typewritten manuscripts, doodles, and musings join the generous selection of finished works. Published on the occasion of the first retrospective of Edward Gorey's work, at the Brandywine River Museum, Elegant Enigmas is a tribute to a master artist and writer, who with murderously dry humor created a body of work singular in its brilliance and charm.