Wander In Wonder

What is it like to find yourself at home while far away in the world? For one curious lamb, it's an enchanting secret, an ongoing nighttime adventure through the world of her dreams. But what will mama think? Follow the story of a little lamb's journey to find courage, strength, wisdom, and kindness in a world full of wonder.

"I wonder as I wander, out under the sky. . ." Annie Morgan wonders about a lot of things. She wonders why her mother had to die. She wonders how she and her wandering preacher father will pay for gas and food when they're just as poor as everybody else. Finally she finds a way to express all her wonderings in a haunting song sung to a small crowd on the courthouse steps. This charming story, beautifully illustrated by Ronald Himler, tells how the beloved Appalachian Christmas carol "I Wonder As I Wander" may have come to be written.

Open the gates of the Wonder Garden to explore five of Earth's most extraordinary habitats, each filled with incredible creatures and epic scenery. Trek through the Amazon Rainforest, travel to the Chihuahuan Desert, dive in the Great Barrier Reef, delve deep into the Black Forest and stand on the roof of the world - the Himalayan Mountains - to see nature at its wildest. Breathtaking, engraved illustrations bring to life Earth's spectacular Wonder Garden.

Louisville native John Jacob Niles (1892–1980) is considered to be one of our nation’s most influential musicians. As a composer and balladeer, Niles drew inspiration from the deep well of traditional Appalachian and African American folk songs. At the age of sixteen Niles wrote one of his most enduring tunes, “Go ’Way from My Window,” basing it on a song fragment from a black farm worker. This iconic song has been performed by folk artists ever since and may even have inspired the opening line of Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe.” In I Wonder as I Wander: The Life of John Jacob Niles, the first full-length biography of Niles, Ron Pen offers a rich portrait of the musician’s character and career. Using Niles’s own accounts from his journals, notebooks, and unpublished autobiography, Pen tracks his rise from farm boy to songwriter and folk collector extraordinaire. Niles was especially interested in documenting the voices of his fellow World War I soldiers, the people of Appalachia, and the spirituals of African Americans. In the 1920s he collaborated with noted photographer Doris Ulmann during trips to Appalachia, where he transcribed, adapted, and arranged traditional songs and ballads such as “Pretty Polly” and “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair.” Niles’s preservation and presentation of American folk songs earned him the title of “Dean of American Balladeers,” and his theatrical use of the dulcimer is credited with contributing to the popularity of that instrument today. Niles’s dedication to the folk music tradition lives on in generations of folk revival artists such as Jean Ritchie, Joan Baez, and Oscar Brand. I Wonder as I Wander explores the origins and influences of the American folk music resurgence of the 1950s and 1960s, and finally tells the story of a man at the forefront of that movement.

In the pitch dark of an African night, the Land Rover gets stuck and as we disembark, the touristy demonstrations of native rituals we saw an hour earlier, to appease forest gods for safe passage, became a reality. Henry, the driver, was quite nonchalant about the whole situation and instructed us in clear terms that we need to follow the defined protocol and instructions; one, we will walk in a single file with Henry in the front and Amen at the rear; two, whatever happens, no one will break the file and run, and three; stay close together, and whatever else you do, do not run! For the love of God, don’t anyone run. Cats love a running mouse, you see. It was then that Henry performed the ritual that he had demonstrated to us just an hour earlier. He picked up some grass, knotted it, broke it, and threw it over his head, muttering some prayers in his native tongue. It gave me goosebumps then. With a shout of ‘let’s go’, he just started walking. And so, the march began. Wander through all this and more. Across continents. Different habitats. On exotic travel destinations. When life is on the edge.

New York Times bestseller In their first book, the Junk Gypsies—sisters and stars of the popular Texas-born brand and HGTV show—combine big dreams, stories of roadside treasures found, and down-home design projects inspired by epic makeovers for friends like Miranda Lambert, Billie Joe Armstrong, and Sadie Robertson. Amie and Jolie Sikes, the Thelma and Louise of the design world, are the Junk Gypsies: a family with an addiction to flea markets, wanderlust, and Americana inspired design. In their world, cowgirls are heroes, road trips last forever, and junk is treasured. Beginning with a little bit of faith and a whole lot of heart and soul, the sisters travelled the back roads of America like gypsies, collecting roadside trinkets and tattered treasures while meeting kindred spirits and lively characters along the way. With a mix of hippie, rock n’ roll, southern charm, and big dreams, these small-town Texas girls became restless wanderers and owners and operators of their dream business and bohemian brand, Junk Gypsy. Filled with stories from their unique journey as well as DIY projects and bohemian inspired designs, Junk Gypsy is a tribute to all the rowdy gypsies, crafty junkers, free-spirited romantics, and true-blue rebels who have ever dared to dream big.

In I Wonder as I Wander, Langston Hughes vividly recalls the most dramatic and intimate moments of his life in the turbulent 1930s. His wanderlust leads him to Cuba, Haiti, Russia, Soviet Central Asia, Japan, Spain (during its Civil War), through dictatorships, wars, revolutions. He meets and brings to life the famous and the humble, from Arthur Koestler to Emma, the Black Mammy of Moscow. It is the continuously amusing, wise revelation of an American writer journeying around the often strange and always exciting world he loves.