New Releases by Claire Huchet Bishop

Lafayette: French-American Hero by Claire Huchet Bishop and Maurice Brevannes He was nineteen years old, wealthy beyond imagination, and adored by French society. He had a beautiful wife, a glittering future, and every comfort the aristocracy of eighteenth-century France could offer. And yet, when the distant thunder of revolution reached his ears from across the Atlantic Ocean, the young Marquis de Lafayette did something extraordinary. He risked everything. He defied his king, abandoned his privileges, and sailed into the unknown to fight for a cause that was not his own, in a land he had never seen, for a people desperate for freedom. This is the story of one of history's most remarkable acts of courage, idealism, and sheer audacious belief in something greater than oneself. Claire Huchet Bishop and Maurice Brevannes bring Lafayette's incredible journey to vivid, breathing life, tracing the arc of a man who bridged two worlds and helped shape two nations. From the drawing rooms of Versailles to the frozen encampment at Valley Forge, from the thunderous battlefields of the American Revolution to the turbulent upheavals of France's own struggle for liberty, this book captures the full emotional sweep of a life lived at the intersection of history. Readers will feel the bone-deep cold of those desperate winter campaigns, the soaring hope of a young idealist standing shoulder to shoulder with George Washington, and the painful complexity of a man who returned home to find his own country teetering on the edge of chaos. The friendship between Lafayette and Washington pulses at the heart of this narrative, a bond forged in sacrifice and sustained by mutual admiration that transcended language, culture, and distance. This book matters because Lafayette matters, and his story speaks directly to our own hunger for leaders driven by principle rather than self-interest. In an age that often feels short on heroes, here is a man whose biography reads like the most compelling fiction while remaining stubbornly, gloriously true. Readers young and old will come away with a deepened understanding of the fragile, hard-won origins of American liberty and the remarkable individuals who gave everything to secure it. This is history told with passion, humanity, and an unshakeable sense of wonder at what one determined person can accomplish when guided by genuine conviction.

It’s bad news when you wake up in the morning and find you’ve lost your head, especially if it’s an especially agreeable and handsome head, but there you go, such things happen. In any case, the man who loses his head in The Man Who Lost His Head isn’t about to grin (that is, if he could grin) and bear it. No, he’ll make himself a new one, and starting with a pumpkin and moving on to a parsnip and finally picking up a block of wood, he sets about getting it just right. Still, for all his efforts, it somehow isn’t right. It isn’t the head he had before. It turns out that only a brash bold boy can save the man who lost his head from losing it altogether.Claire Huchet Bishop’s charming parable is illustrated by the great Robert McCloskey, whose books for children include One Morning in Maine, Blueberries for Sal, and the Caldecott Medal–winning Make Way for Ducklings.

After climbing the high slopes of the French Alps to tend his family's cows, ten-year-old Marcel is faced with a difficult dilemma--obey his father or help a friend.

The classic story about five clever brothers, each with a different extraordinary ability is "a dramatic retelling of an old Chinese tale." (The New York Public Library)." . . . when Bishop makes the tall brother stretch, the sea-swallower work, or the robust one hold his breath, young children will laugh and laugh."--"New York Herald Tribune Books." Full color. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Georgette, the dancing French hen, involves her human friends in a lot of trouble.

A biography of the eighteenth-century musical prodigy who discovered the piano at age three, played for the Empress of Austria at age six, and grew up to be a great composer, unrecognized however in his own times.

Petros, a young Greek guide, gives Susan, a little American tourist, a unique present.

Ten year old Nicholas and his parrot save the family from being evicted from their home during a cold winter in Paris. Grades 4-6.

Andre Girard and his princiapl rival, Fernand, make up their minds to become professional racing cyclists in the hope of one day qualifying to ride in the famous Tour de France.

Twenty school children hide ten Jewish children from the Nazis occupying France during World War II.

The story of Bernard, patron Saint of travelers and skiers. Son of the proud Baron de Menthon, Bernard runs away on the eve of his wedding to join the Church.

An absorbing reweaving of the legends about Rabrab, the friendly giant who became Saint Christopher.

A young boy in postwar Paris is unsure of what to do with a box of pancake flour he receives as a gift.