Johnston's (It's About Dogs) ode to a much-loved teddy in desperate need of repair essentially divides into two distinct parts. "What a fine monkey," the grocer tells the young heroine when she brings her favorite toy shopping, not...
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Tony Johnston, Author , illus. by Ted Lewin. Putnam $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-22659-5
When the Western frontier beckons, a New England man gathers his wife and three children for a demanding journey by covered wagon. Johnston's (That Summer, reviewed Mar. 18) straightforward narrative gives readers a generous sampling of the...
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Tony Johnston, Author . Scholastic/Blue Sky $15.95 (160p) ISBN 978-0-439-32462-5
Johnston's (Any Small Goodness: A Novel of the Barrio
) loopy tale opens in the Egyptian desert, where Ramose, the 4000-year-old mummy of a boy who died of the plague when he was 10, listens helplessly as grave robbers steal his mummified mother
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Tony Johnston, Author Bantam Books for Young Readers $4.99 (0p) ISBN 978-0-553-35354-9
Millinery mayhem interferes with this witch's daily routine; according to PW , ``The recurrent rhyme in Johnston's fast-paced, nonsensical tale will poke little readers' funny bones and keep them alert to the next happening.'' Ages 3-7. (Oct.)
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Tony Johnston, Author . Harcourt $16 (134p) ISBN 978-0-15-205292-8
The sword is a bejeweled spoon and the stone is the bathroom wall in Johnston's (The Worm Family
) lighthearted Arthurian spoof centering on a 10-year-old heroine. Martha Snapdragon lives with her janitor father in the boiler room of the Horace...
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Tony Johnston, Author . Roaring Brook/Brodie $16.95 (184p) ISBN 978-1-59643-113-3
Johnston (The
Ghost of Nicholas Greebe
), well known for her witty picture books, writes a compelling, sometimes harrowing coming-of-age story that explores racial tensions in small-town Tennessee during the early ’50s. All his life,...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Friso Henstra, Illustrator Tambourine Books $14 (1p) ISBN 978-0-688-10749-9
Gaston Pompicard, an artist who once worked for kings, uses the first snow of winter to sculpt likenesses of the neighborhood children. As he says, ``A sculptor for kings is a fine thing to be. But a sculptor for friends is finer.'' When the last...
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Tony Johnston, Author, James Warhola, Illustrator, James Warhola, Author Putnam Publishing Group $15.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-23021-9
What becomes a Bigfoot most? This silly twist on a favorite fairy tale clears up that question (and more) with humor and style. The Bigfoot prince is looking for a wife. But his perfect mate must meet some stringent criteria: she must be odoriferous,
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Tony Johnston, Author, Harvey Stevenson, Illustrator HarperTrophy $4.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-443388-4
Grandpa helps Little Rabbit overcome his fear of the night. Ages 2-5. (Jan.)
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Tony Johnston, Author, Harvey Stevenson, Illustrator HarperCollins Publishers $15 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-021239-1
Snuggling in bed with his one-eyed stuffed bunny, Little Rabbit cannot sleep. ``Outside, the night was big and dark, and he felt very small.'' Counting the mice scurrying on the rafters overhead doesn't help--nor does the sight of ``something on...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Elisa Kleven, Illustrator Harcourt Children's Books $16 (32p) ISBN 978-0-15-250988-0
Young Miguel and his friends rally to save the giant maguey plant in their pueblo. After all, the maguey has been not just a place to play and meet neighbors-it has also provided Miguel and his family with roofing for their adobe and thread to...
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Tony Johnston, illus. by Hadley Hooper. Roaring Brook/Porter, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-62672-256-9
It’s a glorious day in a classically styled park: big trees line the avenues, and water sparkles in a fountain. Visiting with her mother, Lizzie encounters an elegantly dressed elderly gentleman who is walking his dog, Cecile. The dog seems nice,...
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Tony Johnston, illus. by David Walker. Scholastic Press, $8.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-545-20143-8
In this upbeat story, a ginger-haired boy eagerly imagines all that awaits him in first grade: wowing the teacher with his counting skills, playing with his friends, and more. Johnston’s verses are a mixed bag, exuding an almost stream-of-consciousne
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Tony Johnston, Author, Wendell Minor, Illustrator , illus. by Wendell Minor. HarperCollins $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-027742-0
As stylish and sleek as cats themselves, this appealing book should capture the attention of feline fanciers young and old. The title does not refer to a question addressed to
a cat, but instead poses the question "What is
a cat?" The poet,
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Tony Johnston, illus. by Wendell Minor. Roaring Brook/Porter, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-59643-727-2
Johnston’s (The Cat with Seven Names) homage to the giant sequoias of California opens at dawn, as one of these towering trees “watches the/ clearing/ quietly/ fill with/ deer. He watches the/ sky/ burn blue at/ the rim.” Spare verse describes the...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Terry C. Johnston, Author, L. Politi, Illustrator Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P $14.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-15-249350-9
Well-crafted stories sprinkled with Spanish and set in Mexico depict the antics of a personable if pesky family parrot. Lorenzo lives by a simple code: whatever he does, he does to protect and enrich the lives of his people. To approaching visitors,
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Tony Johnston, Author, Thomas B. Allen, Illustrator Putnam Publishing Group $15.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-399-22644-1
While the preceding books target adults as well as older children, Tony Johnston's Once in the Country: Poems of a Farm take aim at a younger set. Her brief, simple poems are plain-spoken, casual and evocative. From an ode to overalls, to imagining...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Ed Young, Illustrator Putnam Publishing Group $14.95 (31p) ISBN 978-0-399-21402-8
Written in celebration of these gentle giants of the sea, Whale Song is a simple but breathtaking counting book. Lyrical text by Johnston (The Quilt Story, The Witch's Hat, etc.) draws the reader into the depths of the ocean, into the quiet blue-gree
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Tony Johnston, Author, Ed Young, Illustrator Putnam Publishing Group $5.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-22408-9
Shimmering with the colorations of the deep, this poetic work proposes that the whales' resonant songs are actually the creatures' way of counting. Ages 3-6. (Sept.)
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Tony Johnston, Author, Ed Young, Illustrator Gibbs Smith Publishers $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-87156-491-7
""Day is done./ Twilight comes./ The sun goes down/ and streaks the clouds/ with flame."" Johnston (The Barn Owls) lyrically evokes the end of desert heat and the beginning of shadows at the close of day as Young's (Lon Po Po) opening spreads of a...
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Tony Johnston, illus. by Christine Davenier. Charlesbridge, $16.95 (36p) ISBN 978-1-58089-381-7
Like the sailor with a love interest in every port, this feline hero has persuaded several households that he’s a stray in need of feeding—despite his truly impressive girth. Johnston (Laugh-Out-Loud Baby) gives each of the cat-lovers a distinctive (
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Tony Johnston, Author, Tomie dePaola, Illustrator Putnam Publishing Group $6.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-698-11650-4
Singling out the gleeful illustrations, PW said that this colorful book's heroine ""is set to take her place in wicked-witch history."" Ages 4-8. (Sept.)
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Tony Johnston, Author, Tomie dePaola, Illustrator Putnam Publishing Group $16.99 (1p) ISBN 978-0-399-22788-2
Together again, Johnston and dePaola team up to transport Baba Yaga, one of Russia's great folklore figures, to the American Southwest. Incarnated here as Alice Nizzy Nazzy, the child-eating witch lives in an adobe hut perched on ""skinny roadrunner
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Tony Johnston, Author, Tomie dePaola, Illustrator Putnam Publishing Group $15.99 (1p) ISBN 978-0-399-22258-0
The folklore of Mexico inspires this impressive collaboration by the talented creators of The Badger and the Magic Fan and Pages of Music . After clever Rabbit sneaks into a field one evening and feasts on the biggest chiles, the farmer sets up a...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Tomie dePaola, Illustrator Putnam Publishing Group $13.95 (30p) ISBN 978-0-399-21945-0
Johnston contributes a lively text and dePaola performs his customary artistry in this retelling of a cheerful Japanese folktale. A badger comes across three tengu (goblin) children playing with a magic fan that can make noses lengthen and then...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Tomie dePaola, Illustrator, Tomie DePaola, With Putnam Publishing Group $13.95 (30p) ISBN 978-0-399-21436-3
A painter and her son visit the small but beautiful island of Sardinia. While the woman paints the mountains, hills, bays and sheep, her son Paolo is as free as the wind. One day a shepherd offers them fogli di musica pages of music, a thin, hard...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Tony DiTerlizzi, Illustrator , illus. by Tony DiTerlizzi. S&S $15 (48p) ISBN 978-0-689-83835-4
Three droll vignettes make up Johnston's (The Iguana Brothers) appealing launch of the Alien & Possum beginner reader series, which introduces two very different pals. After Possum (wearing a spiffy bowler hat) observes a spaceship crash...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Tony DiTerlizzi, Illustrator Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing $15 (48p) ISBN 978-0-689-83836-1
Alien & Possum: Hanging Out by Tony Johnston, illus. by Tony DiTerlizzi, continues the quirky relationship between two very different friends, first introduced in the beginning reader Alien & Possum: Friends No Matter What. PW lauded the ""springy
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Tony Johnston, Author, S. D. Schindler, Illustrator, Henry Ed. Lynch, Illustrator Dial Books $14.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8037-1648-3
A peaceful death is no guarantee of a tranquil afterlife, at least not in this gleefully chilling picture book by a master storyteller. In a prime ghost-story setting--a colonial Massachusetts valley ""dark with trees, threaded with rivers, and...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Susan Guevara, Illustrator , illus. by Susan Guevara. Holiday $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-2012-4
Guevara's (Chato's Kitchen
) gentle acrylics temper 26 poems about war by Johnston (P Is for Piñata
, reviewed above), whose imagery pulls no punches. Many of her poems are set squarely in the middle of combat, addressing victims (&#
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Tony Johnston, Author, James Ransome, Illustrator Tambourine Books $17 (0p) ISBN 978-0-688-13457-0
Ransome's (Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt; Freedom's Fruit) light-drenched oil paintings set off this poetic tale of a Carolina boy who is born into slavery and longs to be free. The wagon is the story's central metaphor; built by the skilled...
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Tony Johnston, Author, James Ransome, Illustrator Mulberry Books $5.95 (40p) ISBN 978-0-688-16694-6
This ""beautifully constructed"" story about a boy born into slavery and freed after the Civil War gives readers ""an intimate, affecting look at a pivotal time in American history,"" said PW. Ages 5-up. (Jan.)
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Tony Johnston, Author, Barry Moser, Illustrator , illus. by Barry Moser. Harcourt $16 (32p) ISBN 978-0-15-201585-5
This spare tale of two brothers, one terminally ill, sounds familiar but is uncommonly moving. The boys revel in the freedom that summer brings—until the younger falls ill on the Fourth of July and quickly grows worse. "Joey was leaving,&#
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Tony Johnston, Author, Margot Tomes, Illustrator Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) $4.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-15-277256-7
Enhanced by Tomes's typically rusticated palette, this droll tale stars an old lady who makes several bones about her Halloween search for the perfect ingredient. Ages 4-8. (Aug.)
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Tony Johnston, Author, Ora Eitan, Illustrator Tambourine Books $15 (32p) ISBN 978-0-688-13456-3
A little wild parrot appears one day before a beaming blonde girl and squawks a ``little wild word (`Hello!'),'' then sings a ``little wild song.'' The child, in turn, feeds him ``little wild seeds'' and offers him some of her ``little plump plum.''
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Tony Johnston, Author, Leonard Jenkins, Illustrator , illus. by Leonard Jenkins. Holiday $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1623-3
The unusual locale, genial storytelling and edgy, mixed-media art differentiate this Christmas tale. As he does every year, Juma wishes to see Father Christmas, who has never come to their remote village. (And why not, those who still believe in...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Mark Teague, Illustrator Scholastic $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-590-47468-9
Not since Frog and Toad has there been so fetching a pair of friends as Tom and Dom, iguana brothers living south of the border. Really three tales in one, Johnston's (Amber on the Mountain) hilariously deadpan narrative offers snappy dialogue and...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Tom Pohrt, Illustrator, Tracey Campbell Pearson, Illustrator Farrar Straus Giroux $15 (64p) ISBN 978-0-374-35648-4
In this book of 34 poems, Johnston (The Magic Maguey) records her observations during a trip to the Gal pagos, which in a note she characterizes as a place ""wild and vast and stark, looking out over the endless and shining skin of the sea.""...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Robert Duncan, Illustrator Dial Books $14.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8037-1219-5
The theme of Johnston's heartwarming story is apparent--``You can do almost anything you fix your mind on''--but her deceptively simple telling boasts believable characters and deft construction. There's never been a school in Amber's mountain...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Robert Duncan, Illustrator Puffin Books $6.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-14-056408-2
An illiterate child in a mountain community learns to read and write. ""Johnston knits this story together with recurring themes, lyrical images and picturesque and convincing dialogue,"" said PW in a starred review. Ages 4-8. (May)
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Tony Johnston, Author, Jeanette Winter, Illustrator Harcourt Children's Books $14 (56p) ISBN 978-0-15-222863-7
Readers take a ringside seat during the preparation for and observance of Mexico's three-day celebration of the dead in this dazzling little volume. Winter's (Josefina) dust jacket (resembling a Mexican paper cutout) integrates a silhouetted skull...
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Tony Johnston, Author, G. Brian Karas, Author Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers $8.99 (1p) ISBN 978-0-679-84701-4
Three young sheep leap onto their bikes for a day in the country in this winning and energetic picture book. Spiffy in tweed pantaloons and color-coordinated backpacks, they are soon caught up in the promise of adventure. Their progress is...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Fabricio VandenBroeck, Illustrator , illus. by Fabricio VandenBroeck. Charlesbridge/Talewinds $6.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-88106-372-1
The title refers to Carlos's nickname for his grumpy uncle, who admits he is too afraid to learn "el Blah-Blah," or English. But the man's outlook turns sunny when he and Carlos make a deal: Carlos will teach him English and his...
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Tony Johnston, illus. by Stacy Innerst. Harcourt, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-15-206145-6
Using the scant facts available, Johnston (My Abuelita) offers a loose, tall-tale account, "stretche[d] to near popping," of how Levi Strauss came to be credited with creating the blue jeans that still bear his name. Strauss traveled from New York...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Stacy Innerst, Illustrator , illus. by Stacy Innerst. Harcourt $16 (40p) ISBN 978-0-15-205011-5
"Rejoice in who you are! Rejoice in who everyone else is!" trumpets this uplifting tale of a dauntless Worm family. Seven Worms, all "highly skinny and squiggly and long," love each other but are chased from every place they set up...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Cheng-Khee Chee, Illustrator , illus. by Cheng-Khee Chee. Lerner/Carolrhoda $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-57505-752-1
The sound of Christmas chimes from "an icicle-pointed steeple" calling a community together to celebrate "this calm and holy night," in Johnston's (Cat, What Is That?
) joyful picture book. People young and old (and very cold!)...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Ron Mazellan, Illustrator , illus. by Ron Mazellan. Charlesbridge $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-57091-547-5
Set in WWII Poland and inspired by a true story of a Jewish family, Johnston's (Uncle Rain Cloud
) stirring tale opens on a wistful note: "I cannot remember/ my father's face,/ or my mother's,/ but I remember their love,/ warm and...
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Tony Johnston, illus. by Stephen Gammell. S&S/Wiseman, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4424-1380-1
A baby’s inaugural laugh—“That small spill of happiness,” as Johnston (Levi Strauss Gets a Bright Idea) felicitously puts it—is so infectiously joyful that it makes everyone in the tyke’s rural, tumbledown community come running. But laughing on...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Eleanor Taylor, Illustrator , illus. by Eleanor Taylor. S&S $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-689-85641-9
Taylor's (No Trouble at All
) pencil and watercolor illustrations brim with humor, action and kid-pleasing details, but Johnston's (The Quilt Story
) unremitting country and western rhymes sometimes overspice the slim plot. The title fowl is
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Tony Johnston, Author, Victoria Chess, Illustrator Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) $5 (32p) ISBN 978-0-15-201387-5
Two snake brothers learn to share in a book filled with ""reams of comic details,"" said PW, commenting also upon the ""peppy dialogue"" and ""vibrant visuals."" Ages 4-8. (Oct.)
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Tony Johnston, Author, John Parra, Illustrator , illus. by John Parra. Sleeping Bear $17.95 (40p) ISBN 978-1-58536-144-1
Textural folk art paintings visually exude Mexico in this abecedary. Two- to four-line verses introduce topics from A to Z; wide sidebars for each are packed with interesting facts and anecdotes conveying different aspects of the nation's...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Yuyi Morales, Illustrator, Tim O'Meara, Photographer , illus. by Yuyi Morales. Harcourt $16 (32p) ISBN 978-0-15-216330-3
Morales (Just in Case
), winner of this year's Pura Belpré Award, does some wonderful work with handmade puppets and digitally enhanced photography. In fact, the images are so vivid that Johnston's (Voice from Afar: Poems of Peace
)
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Tony Johnston, Author, Deborah Kogan Ray, Illustrator Charlesbridge Publishing $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-88106-981-5
The hushed tones of this poetry book describe the lives of generations of owls, who have lived in a redwood barn for ""one hundred years/ at least."" Johnston (An Old Shell: Poems of the Galapagos) evokes the rhythms of an owl's life through...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Tony Johnson, Author, Lloyd Bloom, Illustrator Gibbs Smith Publishers $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-58685-180-4
First published in 1988, Yonder by Tony Johnston, illus. by Lloyd Bloom, uses a plum tree to trace the generations of a 19th-century farm family. ""There comes the farmer with a brand-new bride,/ Riding down the hills that roll forever."" Bloom's
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Tony Johnston, Author, Warren Ludwig, Author, Warren Ludwig, Illustrator Putnam Publishing Group $15.99 (1p) ISBN 978-0-399-22330-3
This vivacious picture book gives an engaging Western slant to the familiar tale of ``The Princess and the Pea.'' When Farethee Well, ``a young woman of bodacious beauty,'' inherits her father's considerable estate, a parade of men seek the comely...
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Tony Johnston, Author, Stephanie Garcia, Illustrator Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P $14.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-15-257769-8
Garcia's complex, mixed-media dioramas give considerable heft to Johnston's quiet tale about a Mexican woman enjoying the birds in her garden. The old lady delights in the ladroncillos that fly away with bits of tortilla or pieces of broom or ribbon
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Tony Johnston, Author, Brad Sneed, Illustrator Dial Books $15.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8037-0801-3
When Grandpa laughed, ``everything near him shook like a train was passing through,'' and when he sang, ``the house hopped like a cricket and the pictures jumped on the walls.'' So says the narrator of this gentle book about the relationship between
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Tony Johnston, illus. by Jim LaMarche. S&S/Wiseman, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4424-7251-8
A dark-haired girl sits alone in the woods, observing the behavior of animals from a platform up in a tree. Each animal that ventures into the clearing is getting ready for winter’s cold. Though the foliage glows, food is becoming harder to find: “Th
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Tony Johnston, Author, K. Gibson, Editor, S. D. Schindler, Illustrator Puffin Books $5.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-14-056267-5
In a starred review, PW praised this ""gleefully chilling"" picture book, observing that it can be ""either as spooky or as silly as the audience desires."" Ages 5-8. (Sept.)
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Tony Johnston, Author, Guy Porfirio, Illustrator , illus. by Guy Porfirio. Rising Moon $15.95 (24p) ISBN 978-0-87358-785-3
"Clear moon, snow soon./ An old man in red will come to visit/ when I'm in bed." Johnston's (Cat, What Is That?) rhythmic account of a boy's anticipation on Christmas Eve borders on slight, but Porfirio (Happy Birthday, America!)
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Tony Johnston, Author, Tim Raglin, Illustrator , illus. by Tim Raglin. S&S $15.95 (40p) ISBN 978-0-689-83789-0
Two fretful peasants, who wail "Boo-hoo-hoo!" when their baby stops eating, get the title's advice from a broomstick-riding crone. "The secret is—yak juice! Only that will save the brat," the toothless woman says. Papa, a...
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Tony Johnson, Author, Terry C. Johnson, Author, Tony Johnston, Author Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P $13.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-15-276100-4
Angered by his brother's selfishness, Slither sneaks into Joe's room and wrecks his favorite toys; both brothers' subsequent remorse leads to an improved relationship. Such events could make for another predictable and preachy tale of sibling...
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Tony Johnston, illus. by Amy June Bates. Candlewick, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7636-7993-4
An entire category of growing-up picture books is really more for parents than for children, embracing sentimentality too avidly, but this volume hits the emotional mark with a genuine grace that doesn’t turn saccharine. The title sets up the...
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Tony Johnston, illus. by Emily Dove. S&S/Wiseman, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5344-1208-8
Readers may be reminded a little of Finding Nemo in this story of one jellyfish brother who is determined to find and rescue another. Orphaned undersea siblings Spencer and Vincent “love each other to the very core of their jelly” and celebrate...
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Tony Johnston and María Elena Fontanot de Rhoads. Amulet, $17.99 (192p) ISBN 978-1-4197-3363-5
In this often wrenching story about Manuel, a 12-year-old boy from Oaxaca, Mexico, the authors convey what motivates him to leave his poverty-stricken life to ride “the Beast” (a train heading to the U.S. border) and the hardships he faces during...
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Tony Johnston, illus. by Jim LaMarche. S&S/Wiseman, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-5344-2979-6
The girl who narrates this wistful idyll by Johnston (Loving Hands) lives with her grandmother amid rolling grassland. She has long dark hair and a starry-eyed expression, and she dreams of seeing a puma one day. (Her Gram calls it a “long-dream,...
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Jin Wang with Tony Johnston, illus. by Anisi Baigude. Random House/Schwartz, $16.99 (112p) ISBN 978-0-5935-6361-8
With Johnston (Ten Owies), debut author Wang recounts cheerful memories from her childhood in this captivating chapter book memoir. In 1982, mischievous eight-year-old Wang lives without electricity
or running water in Nan Ba Zi, a rural
Chinese...
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Tony Johnston, illus. by Wendell Minor. Holiday House/Porter, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-4159-4
Plenty of books celebrate the power and fun of words. Johnston and Minor, the team behind Cat, What Is That?, seek to remind readers that without letters, there wouldn’t be any words. Because letters can be arranged in seemingly endless combinations,
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