1987

The Barrel-Pup

The Barrel-Pup

Original title: Бочонок собачонок Boris Zakhoder’s The Barrel-Pup is a joyful collection of poems filled with humor, imagination, and that unmistakable spark of childlike wonder. Here live an elephant, a bear, a goat and, of course, countless dogs and puppies. They are not just animals, but characters with their own […]

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Halloween A B C

Halloween A B C

Halloween ABC (Eve Merriam, illustrations by Lane Smith) is a darkly playful alphabet book of twenty-six short poems, each keyed to a Halloween word. Published in 1987, the volume pairs Merriam’s rhythmic, often macabre verses with Smith’s moody, painterly images; the illustrations (oil on board) use shadow and a restricted […]

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The witch’s hand

The witch’s hand

George notices a strange, crumpled brown thing pinned to the wall in his father’s studio. When he asks what it is, his dad warns him — it’s too scary to tell. Of course, that only makes George more curious. What follows is a story about a midnight visit from a […]

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