New Releases by Pamela Allen

This is a little mystery story. It begins in the middle of the night, when everyone is asleep in their beds. Can you tell how it's going to end?

The Diva's Gift to the Shakespearean Stage traces the transnational connections between Shakespeare's all-male stage and the first female stars in the West. The book is the first to use Italian and English plays and other sources to explore this relationship, focusing on the gifted actress who radically altered female roles and expanded the horizons of drama just as the English were building their first paying theaters. By the time Shakespeare began to write plays, women had been acting professionally in Italian troupes for two decades, traveling across the Continent and acting in all genres, including tragicomedy and tragedy. Some women became the first truly international stars, winning royal and noble patrons and literary admirers beyond Italy, with repeat tours in France and Spain. Elizabeth and her court caught wind of the Italians' success, and soon troupes with actresses came to London to perform. Through contacts direct and indirect, English professionals grew keenly aware of the mimetic revolution wrought by the skilled diva, who expanded the innamorata and made the type more engaging, outspoken, and autonomous. Some English writers pushed back, treating the actress as a whorish threat to the all-male stage, which had long minimized female roles. Others saw a vital new model full of promise. Faced with rising demand for Italian-style plays, Lyly, Marlowe, Kyd, and Shakespeare used Italian models from scripted and improvised drama to turn out stellar female parts in the mode of the actress, altering them in significant ways while continuing to use boys to play them. Writers seized on the comici's materials and methods to piece together pastoral, comic, and tragicomic plays from mobile theatergrams - plot elements, roles, stories, speeches, and star scenes, such as cross-dressing, the mad scene, and the sung lament. Shakespeare and his peers gave new prominence to female characters, marked their passions as un-English, and devised plots that figured them as self-aware agents, not counters traded between men. Playing up the skills and charisma of the boy player, they produced stunning roles charged with the diva's prodigious theatricality and alien glamour. Rightly perceived, the diva's celebrity and her acclaimed skills posed a radical challenge that pushed English playwrights to break with the past in enormously generative and provocative ways.

Alexandre et ses quatre frères et sœurs partent se promener avec leur maman. « Restez près de moi, faites attention ! » cancane la maman d'Alexandre, mais Alexandre ne reste pas près de sa maman et Alexandre ne fait pas attention...Non mais quel étourdi ! A partir de 3 ans.

In a study that explodes the assumption that early modern comic culture was created by men for men, Pamela Allen Brown shows that jest books, plays, and ballads represented women as laugh-getters and sought out the laughter of ordinary women. Disputing the claim that non-elite women had little access to popular culture because of their low literacy and social marginality, Brown demonstrates that women often bested all comers in the arenas of jesting, gaining a few heady moments of agency. Juxtaposing the literature of jest against court records, sermons, and conduct books, Brown employs a witty, entertaining style to propose that non-elite women used jests to test the limits of their subjection. She also shows how women's mocking laughter could function as a means of social control in closely watched neighborhoods. While official culture beatified the sheep-like wife and disciplined the scold, jesting culture often applauded the satiric shrew, whether her target was priest, cuckold, or rapist. Brown argues that listening for women's laughter can shed light on both the dramas of the street and those of the stage: plays from The Massacre of the Innocents to The Merry Wives of Windsor to The Woman's Prize taught audiences the importance of gossips' alliances as protection against slanderers, lechers, tyrants, and wife-beaters. Other jests, ballads, jigs, and plays show women reveling in tales of female roguery or scoffing at the perverse patience of Griselda. As Brown points out, some women found Griselda types annoying and even foolish: better be a shrew than a sheep.

Do you love to color and relax? Enjoy 30 Beautiful full-page illustrations of Mandalas and their environments. Covered with paisleys, circles, flowers and other wild magical patterns, these wonderful mandala image scenes are from all kinds of backgrounds and witty designs. Let us take you on a journey designed to relieve stress and bring relaxation and fun for those who love to color from beginner to experienced colorists. Look out for more Coloring Books for Adults from this Author

Once upon a time a little old man, a little old woman, a small boy and a small girl went to spend the day by the river. The little old man wanted to catch a big fish and soon there was a tug-tug-tug on his line . . . Find out what happens next? From much-loved picture-book creator comes another delightfully playful story for all to share.

The Authentic Spiritual Leadership model encourages development of leaders who demonstrate a combination of authentic and spiritual leadership behaviors. This book has practical implications for leaders and organizations interested in confronting the current crisis in leadership regarding leadership ethics and leadership accountability. Diverse organizations require leaders who actually demonstrate how this unique approach contributes to a renewed focus on the well-being of people, psychological well-being, ethical well-being, sense of purpose, meaning, calling, and spiritual, moral, authentic, transparent and socially responsible behaviors. Organizations seeking to provide spiritual leadership development training could incorporate spiritual leadership into the design. But combining spiritual, authentic, ethical, and transformational leadership models into the training would also determine if other leadership styles exist within the organizational framework. Additional value should include study of spiritual leadership in one of the fastest-growing and sustainable corporations in the twenty-first century: The Mega Church. This book encourages development of a mega church corporate model as the new organizational form that includes authentic spiritual leadership and other leadership styles. The mega church is the new corporation of the twenty-first century, challenging leaders to join what Scharmer (2009) describes as a cultural-spiritual shift toward the rise of a new consciousness in models of leadership.

Benjamin Russel Hanby was a Civil War era composer of hymns, anti-slavery and temperance songs. Ben grew up in a household where his father was a Bishop of the United Brethren Church and operated their home as a stop on the Underground. Later Ben worked in Chicago for Root and Cady, a leading Civil War era music publisher. In his short life, Ben published over 80 songs including the Christmas favorite "Up on the Housetop." This biography of Benjamin Hanby was originally written and self-published by his son Brainerd Hanby. Brainerd did extensive family history research and collected information and letters from people who had known his father. This edition has been indexed and republished by the Westerville (Ohio) Historical Society, managers of Hanby House Historic Site.

Outside the wind blew. Ooooh! The trees groaned. Ahhhhh! And the tiny wooden house creaked. Eeeeeek! Inside, a delicious roast dinner was cooking. The little old man was expecting visitors. The little old woman said no one would come. Who was right? Come inside where it's cosy and warm, and wait . . . You might get a big surprise. Here is a gentle story about home and hearth, about the comfort of ritual, and about opening your heart to the possibilities of life. From the one and only Pamela Allen.

With all Pam's trademark simplicity of line and characterisation, this is the perfect book to share with the littleies in your life. Together you can choose... are you happy or grumpy? Will you cry or will you sing? Straightforward comparative text about feelings with clean, clear art.

'Wow - if you asked me to choose ten fabulous and favourite New Zealand children's picture books, I would present you with this anthology' --Magpies In The Puffin New Zealand Children's Treasury are ten favourite stories from some of New Zealand's best-loved authors and illustrators. These enduring tales have stood the test of time, enchanting readers large and small with their colourful characters and memorable lines. They belong on every Kiwi kid's bookshelf. Between these covers you will find: My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes - Eve Sutton and Lynley Dodd Who Sank the Boat? - Pamela Allen The Kuia and the Spider - Patricia Grace and Robyn Kahukiwa A Summery Saturday Morning - Margaret Mahy and Selena Young The Tree Witches - Gwenda Turner A Booming in the Night - Ben Brown and Helen Taylor My Brown Bear Barney - Dorothy Butler and Elizabeth Fuller A Dragon in a Wagon - Lynley Dodd Mrs Wishy Washy''s Farm - Joy Cowley and Elizabeth Fuller A Pukeko in a Ponga Tree - Kingi M. Ihaka and Dick Frizzell

The little old man looked up at the moon. 'Does the sky go on forever and ever?' he asked. 'Where do we come from? Where do we go? Why are we here?'In this touching story, one of Australia's most celebrated author-illustrators takes young readers on a journey that asks some of life's big questions. Playful and thought-provoking by turns, The Little Old Man Who Looked Up at the Moontouches on universal themes and will spark many a conversation between young and old

Hetty the cat wakes up, yawns, washes behind her ears, and pops through her cat flap into the bright sunlight. And what does she find in the big wide world? One plate of baked beans, two pork pies, three lamb chops - and that's just the beginning! This charming counting book follows Hetty on her big day out.

In the winter, we love to visit Uncle Peter and his dog Millie at the beach. But the day we took our dog Danny with us, everything went wrong! Until Toby had a good idea . . .

Shake it baby, shake it! is a lively session with bouncing and upbeat dance songs. This Bright Bubs session includes scarf, ball and percussion play to stimulate your baby's senses. Your baby will enjoy the circle dances, attentive massage, playful finger plays and gentle rocking.

Meet the people who lived and worked and played along the Mighty Mississippi 150 years ago.

The premise of Awakening to the Spirit Within is that all beings are connected by a spiritual energy which forms the essence of who they truly are. Eight paths, which facilitate an awakening to this essence, are explored: Native American Spirituality, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Kabbalah, Jesus and the Christ Within, Sufism, and The New Thought Movement. Practice exercises and references are also included. This book highlights some of the unique gifts which various spiritual traditions have to offer our world. In addition, it explores the mystical threads of connection which underlie them. Like the title suggests, it also gives ways of listening to guidance from within. The author includes messages from her own inner guidance in an effort to illustrate how this may occur. Her openness provides more warmth and intimacy than is usually found in such a book. In these uncertain times, there has been an upsurge of interest in books related to spirituality, religion, and mysticism. People are looking for ways to heal, rather than destroy, our planet. That is why this book, and others like it, are so timely and important in moving us closer to our shared goal of creating a more peaceful and harmonious world.

Cuthbert loves being the centre of attention, but when his mum and dad bring home four baby sisters no-one seems to have time for him anymore. Cuthbert wishes for someone big and bad to play with and, out at sea, in their dreams, three pirates hear his call.

Mary Elizabeth tells the boys that there is a monster at her house - but they (foolishly) don't believe her! 2-6 yrs.