Böcker av Barry Wolverton

Written with style and heart by Wolverton Hill and illustrated with whimsical art by Laura Carlin, this love letter to Edward Lear brings him wonderfully to life for young readers. Edward Lear popularized the limerick as we know it and invented the modern literary genre of nonsense, made famous by Lewis Carroll. But did you know that as a teenager, he was a natural history artist on par with John J. Audubon? He has a memorial in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, placing him among the UK's most important authors. Yet even still, Lear seems underappreciated. This picture-book biography will change all of that. Not only does it tell of what Lear did, it also shows who he was by conflating the naturalistic and nonsense, as Lear himself did, and by daring to be both fanciful and playful, for the facts of a life alone can never give you the full picture of a person. Lear liked children and children liked Lear, for they shared an innate sense of play and silliness, as well as a tolerance for the absurd and unusual. As Lear understood so well, it's not just fun to be silly, but a sense of play is foundational to a resilient life. And of course, nonsense as practiced by Lear was a sharp weapon of satire against rigid Victorian conformity. Whether in his keenly observed work as a natural history painter or in his nonsense verse, Lear animated the world through a deep sense of empathy, and it is in this way that author and illustrator Hill and Carlin deliver Lear to us. Rich backmatter includes some Lear poems and paintings, a chronology, and notes from the author and illustrator.

An engrossing fantasy, a high-seas adventure, an alternate history epic?this is the richly imagined and gorgeously realized third book in acclaimed author Barry Wolverton's Chronicles of the Black Tulip, perfect for fans of The Glass Sentence and the Books of Beginning series.After the harrowing and life-changing events at the Dragon's Gate, Bren wants nothing more than to make his way back to England. Finding the answers to the great mysteries he'd been chasing only found him questioning why he'd ever pursued them in the first place, and now he's lost his best friend, forever. There's nothing left for him but to return home and hope his father hasn't given up on him.But just because Bren is done with adventure does not mean adventure is done with him. On his way to escape from China, Bren is gifted a rare artifact, with a connection to a place no one has set foot upon. Soon he's fallen in with a mysterious Indian noblewoman bent on discovering an ancient power and leading her country against colonial rule.The only way home, it seems, is through helping her?and as Bren wonders what she's willing to sacrifice in order to return home a hero, he must ask himself the same questions.

Does the Vanishing Island really exist? And if so, what treasure—or terrible secret—was hidden by its disappearance?It's 1599, the Age of Discovery in Europe. But for Bren Owen, growing up in the small town of Map on the coast of Britannia has meant anything but adventure. Enticed by the tales sailors have brought through Map's port, and inspired by the arcane maps his father creates as a cartographer for the cruel and charismatic map mogul named Rand McNally, Bren is convinced that fame and fortune await him elsewhere. That is, until his repeated attempts to run away land him a punishment worse than death—cleaning up the town vomitorium.It is there that Bren meets a dying sailor, who gives him a strange gift that hides a hidden message. Cracking the code could lead Bren to a fabled lost treasure that could change his life forever, and that of his widowed father. But to get there he will have to tie his fate to a mysterious Dutch admiral obsessed with a Chinese legend about an island that long ago disappeared from any map.Before long, Bren is in greater danger than he ever imagined, and he will need the help of an unusual friend named Mouse to survive. Barry Wolverton's thrilling adventure spans oceans and cultures, brings together the folklore of East and West, and proves that fortune is always a double-edged sword.