Varmints

When tall buildings and loud noise drown out the sounds of bees in the grass and birds in the sky, one soul cares enough to start over again and help nature thrive.

Once, the only sounds to be heard were the buzzing of bees in the grass, the murmuring of moles in the earth, and the song of birds in the sky. These warmed the hearts of those who cared to listen - until the others came to fill the sky with a cacophony of noise. With dramatically lit artwork and a spare, intriguing text, Varmints tells of a pastoral world in need of protection and of the souls who love it enough to ensure its regeneration. AUTHOR: Helen Ward trained at the Brighton School of Art, winning the first Walker Prize for Children's Illustration in her final year. Having twice won the National Art Library Award, her books for Templar include 'Aesop's Animal Fables', 'King of the Birds', 'Varmints' and 'The Cockerel and the Fox', short-listed for the 2003 Kate Greenaway Medal.

With dramatic artwork and a spare, intriguing text, Varmints tells a mysterious tale of a pastoral world in need of protection and of the souls who love it enough to ensure its regeneration. Full color.

Opie and Ned are adrift in the Old West, searching for the man who shot their Ma. These two youngsters only have each other, but with all their squabbling it's a miracle they still have that. When they get wind of the mysterious Pa ("crime kingpin of the West!"), Opie and Ned suddenly have something new: a mission. But tracking down the elusive (and deadly) Pa is going to take all the wiles these two kids have, and some new friends to boot. Clever, explosive, and deeply moving by turns, Varmints is a perfect middle-grade comedy graphic novel. Hirsch brings an old-school Western style to bear on a story full of nuance, humor, and surprises.

In this compilation are included: forms of speech now obsolete or provincial in England which survive in the U.S.; words and phrases of distinctly American origin; nouns which indicate quadrupeds, birds, trees, articles of food, etc. that are distinctly American; names of persons, classes of persons, and of places; words which have assumed new meanings; words and phrases with earlier American examples than in English writers.

By the celebrated author of Canada Reads Finalist Indian Horse, a stunning new novel that has all the timeless qualities of a classic, as it tells the universal story of a father/son struggle in a fresh, utterly memorable way, set in dramatic landscape of the BC Interior. For male and female readers equally, for readers of Joseph Boyden, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas King, Russell Banks and general literary. Franklin Starlight is called to visit his father, Eldon. He's sixteen years old and has had the most fleeting of relationships with the man. The rare moments they've shared haunt and trouble Frank, but he answers the call, a son's duty to a father. He finds Eldon decimated after years of drinking, dying of liver failure in a small town flophouse. Eldon asks his son to take him into the mountains, so he may be buried in the traditional Ojibway manner. What ensues is a journey through the rugged and beautiful backcountry, and a journey into the past, as the two men push forward to Eldon's end. From a poverty-stricken childhood, to the Korean War, and later the derelict houses of mill towns, Eldon relates both the desolate moments of his life and a time of redemption and love and in doing so offers Frank a history he has never known, the father he has never had, and a connection to himself he never expected. A novel about love, friendship, courage, and the idea that the land has within it powers of healing, Medicine Walk reveals the ultimate goodness of its characters and offers a deeply moving and redemptive conclusion. Wagamese's writing soars and his insight and compassion are matched by his gift of communicating these to the reader.

Deadlands: The Weird West, Pinnacle's award-winning game of supernatural horror in the Old West continues to roll along. In 2000, new products allow players to take on the role of operatives for the Agency, wrestle with the curses of lycanthropy and vampirism, and learn the secrets of the latest developments in the New Science. This terrific tome gives Marshals a whole stampede of new abominations to throw at unsuspecting posses. You'll even find profiles on some of the giants of horror, like Dracula, Frankenstein, and Springheel Jack. As if that weren't enough, this 128-page sourcebook also contains rules for lycanthropic and vampiric player characters. -- "Masquerade" our saddle-pillows.