New Releases by Reg Down

Kimber had a pig. Yes, she did-a real pig! It was foisted on her by her mother, the one who brooks no nonsense or takes no for an answer. The pig, a mere piglet at first, grows. And grows. And grows. Meanwhile, it has to be fed, groomed, petted and taken to school-all by Kimber, of course. Contrary to expectation, the pig is a hit at school ... until he meets the school inspector. Then things get serious, very serious, until Kimber (and the pig) end up in court. However, her sworn foe and ardent admirer, Dakota, comes to the rescue (more or less)-him and the rest of the country. Freely based on a real young lady who had a real pig in her bedroom, Kimber''s Pig is a lively and amusing tale, suitable for grade two through grade five.

Summer is almost over and Tom Nutcracker is soon to go to school. But deep in the forest on his father''s farm two gnomes called Pine Cone and Pepper Pot are worried. What if the school does not teach Tom his letters properly? What if the teacher messes the alphabet up? Then Tom might spell the Pine Cone as NEPI NOEC, or Pepper Pot as PREPREP TOP. He might even spell the famous Tiptoes Lightly as TOESPIT THIGLLY. That would be a disaster. A huge disaster! So the two gnomes, with the help of Tiptoes Lightly and Farmer John, set out to teach Tom his letters. Tom''s younger sister, June Berry, insists on being taught too, and never will they, or anyone else who reads this tale, forget their ABC''s - or their LMNOP''s or QRST''s either. Whether your child knows their alphabet or not Pine Cone and Pepper Pot guarantee that they will see the letters and their shapes with new and creative eyes. The Alphabet is filled with stories, songs, pictures, plays and adventures silly and bold. The Alphabet is a large format, full color book, suitable for children from late kindergarten to grade three - and for teachers or homeschoolers seeking to enrich the art of learning to write. PS - the humorous use of the word ''learned'' instead of ''taught'' in the subtitle, while colloquial, is correct. It dates from circa 1300 and extends into our times. I am in the learned company of Shakespeare, Disraeli, Wodehouse et al. in its use. :)

Pinrut takes off from the turnip field, uprooting himself and wandering through nine lives in America, Canada, China, New Zealand, New Guinea, Mars and Wobbles. He becomes the poster boy for the anti-GMO movement.

A book for children who love animals! Jayne is a cat, raised as a dog. Found as a new-born she is brought up with a litter of puppies. Jayne does not turn out to be just any kind of dog, she is the top dog, the main-man dog, the king-of-the-castle dog. She holds her tail up straight when she walks and brooks no nonsense. When they go for a stroll everyone has to stay behind her: her brothers and sisters, her doggy-daddy and doggy-mommy, even the human she keeps as chief backscratcher and can opener.Jayne is a tough cookie-as tough as nails and as cool as cucumbers come-as she proves in (almost) all her adventures: with Big-Bad and Bengal Bob, flying and skydiving, as lifesaver extraordinaire and later as mayor of the great city of New Philawashingyork. The Adventures of Jayne is a fun tale for family reading or for children to read themselves. Suitable for grades 1 to 5.

Adam and Sophia are twins. Sophia has wings and Adam doesn''t. One day their parents leave. “Don''t go into the forest,” they said, but Adam did. Adam gave his word, and broke it. Now he is lost and alone, and his voice is gone. Sophia flies overhead and drops a piece of paper. It flutters into the forest. Except for a lock of hair the paper is blank. Immediately, adventures and experiences unfold for Adam, some common, some extraordinary, some unearthly and beautiful. Letters appear on the paper as Adam wakes up to his ''alphabet''. Slowly, painfully, joyously Adam wins back his word. Adam''s Alphabet is an alphabet tale unlike any written before. Multilayered and broad, it reads as a children''s story, but underneath run deeper waters that adults can plumb for profit and pleasure if they take delight in the spoken word. Adam''s Alphabet is suitable for children aged 7 to 12.

Tiptoes Lightly loves the sea, and when Farmer John and his children, Tom Nutcracker and June Berry, drive to the seaside for Thanksgiving she goes along with them. Tom and June discover a freshly uncovered cave in the bluffs that run along the shore. They call it their Treasure Cave just for fun, but then find seven beautiful pearls and a finely wrought golden chain buried in the sand. Tiptoes sets out to find the story behind the pearls, and soon a delicate web of tales begins to unfold. Stretching back to the creation of the world, they weave together until Tiptoes and the children are caught up in the ongoing drama between the Sea King and his lovely daughter. This Tiptoes Lightly book is the ''oldest'' of her tales and is best suited for children from grade one through grade four.

Alf''s parents loose their home in the great financial downturn of the early twenty-first century. They take Alf and his friend, Siggy, to a visiting carnival to have a bit of fun. Alf and Siggy get stuck in a dilapidated Hall of Mirrors and end up miles away with the beer belly owner and his amply x-sized mum. That''s when Alf discovers a portal in the Hall of Mirrors. It leads to a world turned completely inside out to ours. In Instar, the sun lies at the center of a great sphere, waxing and waning during the day, and vanishing at night. They meet the slim and beautiful Mia, who takes them into her tilting—the tall, slender buildings that rise above the forest and sway with the wind. The tiltings, however, are surrounded by a high defense wall with vicious spikes on top. Living in the day is fine, or so it seems to an outsider, but when night comes the gates are shut against the darkling beasts that rage outside. Filled with drama and humor,The Darkling Beasts is a cautionary tale; it addresses some of the great issues that we and the upcoming generation will have to face. Suitable for grade 7 into adulthood.

Summer has come and Farmer John builds a great woodpile for the Midsummer''s Eve festival. Tom Nutcracker and June Berry''s whole school is coming to celebrate. June Berry forgets a basket (with a cookie inside) by the oak tree when they are helping their dad build the wood pile. A small detail to us, perhaps, but one which leads Jeremy Mouse on a merry dance as Jemima Mouse tries to preserve the cookie for the festival. Meanwhile, Pine Cone and Pepper Pot are not opening their door to anyone other than Tiptoes (and even then only reluctantly). Their beards, it seems, are entangled. This sends Tiptoes all over the forest to find a way to get pine resin out of beards. Then there is the problem of Ompliant the Elephant. What are Tom and June to do with him? How will they keep him out of sight? But the clever kids come up with a wonderful idea to hide a pachyderm in plain sight. Finally, the Summer Queen begins to appear here and there, and in the end joins the festival and tells ''The Tale of Turana'' before mysteriously vanishing before the crowd.

From the author of The Tales of Tiptoes Lightly and twelve other children''s books comes a collection of forty-two stories for children. Inside you''ll find nature tales, riddle tales, fables, fairy tales, poems, and creation myths both serious and sanguine. With scores of illustrations and drawings, this book is a must-have for family reading whenever a story is needed - which is at least once a day! Suitable for children from kindergarten through grade four.

Sir Gillygad is a knight, a doughty knight who rides about on his trusty frog called Gorf. They sally forth on adventures bold and exciting: to the Twinkle, to Holey Hill, to the Plain of Dreams-even as far as World''s End. Then rumors are heard, rumors of an egg, a Gruesome Egg with two leggs, a left leg and a right leg, and the leggs are bird''s leggs-which makes sense in an eggy sort of way.The egg is haunting the Daark Forest, close to the Mumbly Mews and the gerwine Greneff. So off Sir Gillygad gallops (well, hoppedy-hops), there to meet and confront this unique and remarkable beast. Sir Gillygad and the Gruesome Egg is an adventuresome tale, suitable for children aged 9 to 12 or thereabouts-and adults too, if they are still young at heart and open to the wonders that speak of the mystery of becoming.

Explores the inner life of color in a way that only eurythmy and the initiation science of Rudolf Steiner make possible. What appears is a world of incredible richness, depth and beauty in the most common, unlikely and unexpected of places - gesture. Gesture reveals the human soul, and the fabric of the soul is color; as a result, we find that the soul''s infinite expressiveness, with all its goodness, pathos, waywardness and humor, is intimately woven through with color experiences. The underlying eurythmic gestures of speech and music are also explored, and we learn to experience how the color chords underlying gesture are themselves a structured, musically-ordered language. And when we approach color via gesture, we find inner laws, relationships and dynamics which allow us to gain, via artistic activity, not only a deeper understanding of color as a while, but also a conscious foothold in the axtral and etheric worlds.--Cover.

The Bee who Lost his Buzz is the illustrated first adventure of The Tales of Tiptoes Lightly. It follows Tiptoes and Jeremy Mouse as they help Bee whose buzz has been snagged by grumpy Mr. Cactus. After an adventure with Pine Cone and Pepper Pot the gnomes, Jeremy Mouse finds a Worm who''s lost his squirm and cannot wiggle back into the safety of his home under the ground. The next day, along with the gnomes, they sail down Running River to the ocean to help Octopus untangle his legs. He''s too young to count them properly (he can only count to seven) and whenever he tries he gets them hopelessly mixed up. The Bee who Lost his Buzz is an innocent and magical tale suitable for reading to young children or for young children to read.

A young shepherd hears a cricket singing at his feet. The cricket speaks to him and foretells that the coming winter will be both special and especially cold. Then he disappears back into the grass.The winter is indeed especially harsh, but on a star-studded night the cricket and the shepherd boy make their way to a manger huddled low between two hills. There they find a mother and father with a child who radiates light and warmth into the world.This innocent and warmhearted nativity tale is intended for parents to read to their children at Christmas time. While the story itself is timeless, this tale is most suitable for children from preschool to grade four or five.

It is spring and Running River is in full flood. Tiptoes Lightly and Jeremy Mouse visit Greenleaf the Sailor and they venture forth in Greenleaf''s newly made boat. Soon they are joined by Pine Cone and Pepper Pot the Gnomes and together they search for the Lost Lagoon the frogs have been so beautifully singing about. Meanwhile, back home, Farmer John reads The Adam Tales to Tom Nutcracker and June Berry. Later, Tom rides off in the night until he too comes to the Lost Lagoon. What happens on this night, with its majestic, rising moon, is filled with a wonder and magic that won''t soon be forgotten.

A book for all teachers as well as for Eurythmists, Reg Down describes the graceful way that children can be treated with dignity and respect for the special mission each child is born to realize. Any teacher can read the first half of this book and feel inspired to call to a student''s higher self. The book is especially helpful in reaching adolescents. The second half of the book is specifically about teaching the art of Eurythmy and is equally useful in that rewarding realm of pedagogy.

Pine Cone and Pepper Pot the gnomes make Tiptoes Lightly a birthday present of one table and three chairs for her little acorn house - a seemingly simple task for gnomes... !!!

The magical, humorous, earnest and droll adventures of Tiptoes Lightly and her friends as spring arrives at Farmer John''s.

The adventures of Tiptoes Lightly and her friends as they journey through the autumn and winter festivals.

The adventures of Tiptoes Lightly, who lives in an acorn high up in the branches of a Great Oak Tree.