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The Widow's Broom
''The Widow's Broom'' is a 1992 children's novel by the American author Chris Van Allsburg. A film version to be directed by Sam Weisman was briefly in production in 2004. Plot summary The story involves a widow named Minna Shaw. One evening, a witch falls from her broom when it suddenly loses the ability to fly, causing the witch to crash-land in the garden near Minna Shaw's house. Minna Shaw takes her in until she recovers, and when she does, the witch calls a friend to "drive" her home, leaving her own broom behind. Minna Shaw discovers the broom is still in her house and leaves it alone but is startled, and more than a little afraid, when it comes to life later that evening. She discovers that the broom is harmless, as all it does is sweep, but she teaches it how to feed the chickens, chop wood, and play the piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are cover ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chris Van Allsburg
Chris Van Allsburg (born June 18, 1949) is an American illustrator and writer of children's books. He has won two Caldecott Medals for U.S. picture book illustration, for ''Jumanji'' (1981) and ''The Polar Express'' (1985), both of which he also wrote, and were later adapted as successful motion pictures. He was also a Caldecott runner-up in 1980 for ''The Garden of Abdul Gasazi''. For his contribution as a children's illustrator, he was a 1986 U.S. nominee for the biennial International Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition for creators of children's books. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Michigan in April 2012. Life and career Van Allsburg was born on June 18, 1949 to a Dutch family in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, the second child of Doris Christianen and Richard Van Allsburg. He has a sister named Karen, born in 1947. His family lived in an old farmhouse, but when he was three years old, they m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City. Paleo-Americ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Children's Literature
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's literature can be traced to traditional stories like fairy tales, that have only been identified as children's literature in the eighteenth century, and songs, part of a wider oral tradition, that adults shared with children before publishing existed. The development of early children's literature, before printing was invented, is difficult to trace. Even after printing became widespread, many classic "children's" tales were originally created for adults and later adapted for a younger audience. Since the fifteenth century much literature has been aimed specifically at children, often with a moral or religious message. Children's literature has been shaped by religious sources, like Puritan traditions, or by more philosophical and scienti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fantasy Novel
Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fantasy literature may be directed at both children and adults. Fantasy is a subgenre of speculative fiction and is distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the absence of scientific or macabre themes, respectively, though these genres overlap. Historically, most works of fantasy were written, however, since the 1960s, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music and art. Many fantasy novels originally written for children and adolescents also attract an adult audience. Examples include ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', the '' Harry Potter'' series, '' The Chronicles of Narnia'', and ''The Hobbit''. History Beginnings Stories invo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Houghton Mifflin
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as star (as, for example, in ''the A* search algorithm'' or '' C*-algebra''). In English, an asterisk is usually five- or six-pointed in sans-serif typefaces, six-pointed in serif typefaces, and six- or eight-pointed when handwritten. Its most common use is to call out a footnote. It is also often used to censor offensive words. In computer science, the asterisk is commonly used as a wildcard character, or to denote pointers, repetition, or multiplication. History The asterisk has already been used as a symbol in ice age cave paintings. There is also a two thousand-year-old character used by Aristarchus of Samothrace called the , , which he used when proofreading Homeric poetry to mark lines that were duplicated. Origen is kn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hardcover
A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as case-bound) book is one bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other cloth, heavy paper, or occasionally leather). It has a flexible, sewn spine which allows the book to lie flat on a surface when opened. Modern hardcovers may have the pages glued onto the spine in much the same way as paperbacks. Following the ISBN sequence numbers, books of this type may be identified by the abbreviation Hbk. Hardcover books are often printed on acid-free paper, and they are much more durable than paperbacks, which have flexible, easily damaged paper covers. Hardcover books are marginally more costly to manufacture. Hardcovers are frequently protected by artistic dust jackets, but a "jacketless" alternative has increased in popularity: these "paper-over-board" or "jacketless" hardcover bindings forgo the dust jacket in favor of printing the cove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wretched Stone
''The Wretched Stone'' is a children's picture book written and illustrated by the American author Chris Van Allsburg Chris Van Allsburg (born June 18, 1949) is an American illustrator and writer of children's books. He has won two Caldecott Medals for U.S. picture book illustration, for ''Jumanji'' (1981) and ''The Polar Express'' (1985), both of which he a .... Plot summary Told from the perspective of Captain Randall Ethan Hope, the crew of the ''Rita Anne'' finds a strange, glowing, cubic stone on an exotic island. After taking the strange object aboard their ship, the crew becomes obsessed with the stone, abandoning many of their former interests and leaving the captain wondering how to shake the crew out of their stupor. Gradually, the glowing stone turns the entire crew (except the captain) into grinning apes. Afterwards, the "Rita Anne' nearly sinks. On July 30th, they are rescued by another ship that drops them off at a harbor in "Santa Pengal". It is told in a 'jo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sweetest Fig
''The Sweetest Fig'' is a children's fantasy picture book written in 1993 by the American author Chris Van Allsburg. It tells a story of an affluent, cold-hearted French dentist who eats a fig which makes his wildest dreams come true. Plot summary Monsieur Bibot is a wealthy dentist. He lives alone in Paris, France, in a fancy apartment with his dog, Marcel, whom he often mistreats and abuses. One day, an impoverished old woman stops by Bibot's office to have her tooth extracted. After removing the tooth with a pair of pliers, making little effort to lessen the pain of the operation, Bibot is angry when the woman is unable to pay his fee in cash. Instead, she pays him by giving him two figs which she claims will make his dreams come true. Bibot scoffs at the thought of magical figs and refuses to give her any painkillers. Later that evening, Bibot proceeds to eat one of the figs as a midnight snack. He soon discovers that the old woman is right: Bibot finds himself walking Marce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Weisman
Sam Weisman is an American film director. He has directed the films '' D2: The Mighty Ducks'', '' Bye Bye Love'', ''George of the Jungle'', '' The Out-of-Towners'', '' What's the Worst That Could Happen?'', and '' Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star''. Weisman is a 1973 graduate of Brandeis University's MFA program in Acting and Directing. He earned a BA in Music History from Yale University, where he was a member of the second longest running a cappella group in the nation, The Society of Orpheus and Bacchus. His brother was the film producer David Weisman. Sam Weisman is married to former ''Knots Landing'' actress Constance McCashin, with whom he has two children: Marguerite Weisman, an editorial assistant an editor at Penguin Random House, and Daniel Weisman, formerly a music manager, who managed Capital Cities, Wale and Mike Posner, now in wealth management. Filmography * '' Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star'' (2003) * '' What's the Worst That Could Happen?'' (2001) *'' The Out ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. It was invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700. Description The word "piano" is a shortened form of ''pianoforte'', the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument, which in turn derives from ''clavicembalo col piano e forte'' (key cimbalom with quiet and loud)Pollens (1995, 238) and ''fortepiano''. The Italian musical terms ''piano'' and ''forte'' indicate "soft" and "loud" respectively, in this context referring to the variations in volume (i.e., loudness) produced in response to a pianist's touch or pressure on the keys: the grea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1992 American Novels
Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Mesopotamia is partitioned into two Roman provinces divided by the Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Osroene. * Emperor Septimius Severus lays siege to the city-state Hatra in Central-Mesopotamia, but fails to capture the city despite breaching the walls. * Two new legions, I Parthica and III Parthica, are formed as a permanent garrison. China * Battle of Yijing: Chinese warlord Yuan Shao defeats Gongsun Zan. Korea * Geodeung succeeds Suro of Geumgwan Gaya, as king of the Korean kingdom of Gaya (traditional date). By topic Religion * Pope Zephyrinus succeeds Pope Victor I, as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Children's Fantasy Novels
A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority. Children generally have fewer rights and responsibilities than adults. They are classed as unable to make serious decisions. ''Child'' may also describe a relationship with a parent (such as sons and daughters of any age) or, metaphorically, an authority figure, or signify group membership in a clan, tribe, or religion; it can also signify being strongly affected by a specific time, place, or circumstance, as in "a child of nature" or "a child of the Sixties." Biological, legal and social definitions In the biological sciences, a child is usually defined as a person between birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. Legally, the term ''child'' may refer to anyone below th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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