Most Popular Books by Diane Fox

Basic concepts in a picture book with flaps.

Say hello to Snip and Snap - two busy, funny and engaging crocodile friends. They might look the same, but they like very different things: Snip likes blue but Snap prefers red; Snip loves fruit while Snap would always rather have cake! Snip and Snap find their cupboards are bare, so they decide to do some shopping. Snip only wants to buy the things they really need, but Snap wants to buy EVERYTHING! How will the two friends carry all their shopping home? This fun-filled rhyming story is the perfect introduction to numbers from one to ten. With sturdy flaps to lift and a fantastic fold-out ending, this book is ideal for sharing and exploring with young children.

Wheelyworld has come to a standstill! The fuel tanker hasn''t arrived and everyone is grinding to a halt. Only one little car is nifty and economical enough to save the town. Monty the rally car is the pluckiest car around, he''s also one of the bravest.

Say hello to Snip and Snap - two busy, funny and engaging crocodile friends. They might look the same, but they like very different things: Snip likes blue while Snap prefers red; Snip loves fruit while Snap would always rather have cake! Today, Snip and Snap are planning to go out for a picnic. But while Snap is ready for any kind of weather, Snip just doesn''t know what to wear! Will the pair ever get to enjoy their picnic treat? A bright, fun-filled introduction to the weather with sturdy flaps to lift and a fantastic fold-out ending.

In rollicking, fast-paced verse and colourful illustrations with strategic die-cut flaps, dinosaurs hunt for the largest poo. The queue of dinosaurs searching gets longer, the poos get larger, and so do the flaps. Young children and parents will enjoy the quest and the unexpected ending, in this humorous book that combines two popular and particularly relevant subjects.

Piggy Wiggy wants to make a surprise for Teddy. Can you guess what it is? He takes one mixing bowl. Now he needs two small bags of flour. Count with Piggy Wiggy as he makes the most elaborate birthday cake ever

PiggyWiggy and his beloved toy, Teddy, build a house, putting to use their knowledge of triangles, circles, ovals, and squares. Joining the well-received What Color is That, PiggyWiggy? and Count to Ten, PiggyWiggy! this sturdy board book is filled with more than solid information- it is bursting with intense color and overflowing with good humor.

What can you do with letters of the alphabet? Just about anything!

Today is race day - the most exciting day in the Wheelyworld calender. Enzo the racing car is hot favourite to win, but his best friend, Roddy, plans to give him the race of his life. And they''re not the only ones who want to win the cup. Jake the Snake is revving his engine, and he''s a car who never plays by the rules.

PiggyWiggy, his beloved toy, Teddy and all their friends sample space flight con brio! They are properly outfitted, they know how to make repairs to their spaceship, and they are eager to make friends with aliens. They are, in fact, nearly ideal astronauts- trained and ready and fit -as long as they get back to Earth in time for breakfast!

It''s a sunny day and Snip and Snap are at the playground. Snip likes spinning on the roundabout while Snap prefers whizzing down the slide. But Snip and Snap have saved the very best treat until last. What can it be? This fun-filled rhyming story is the perfect introduction to learning about opposites. With sturdy flaps to lift and a fantastic fold-out ending, this book is ideal for sharing and exploring with young children.

Et si j''étais un courageux pompier ? Je pourrais grimper à la grande échelle, jouer avec le beau gyrophare ou secourir un ourson malheureux... Pin-pon, attention Willy arrive !

Many children with cerebral palsy walk with a stiff knee gait, or a reduction and delay in swing phase knee flexion, which causes tripping or energy-inefficient compensatory movements. Since over-activity of the rectus femoris muscle is frequently implicated as the cause, a common treatment is transfer of the distal end of the rectus femoris from its insertion on the patella to a location behind the knee. Outcomes, though positive on average, vary among individuals, with some patients demonstrating unimproved or worsened knee flexion postoperatively. This variability is due in part to insufficient understanding of the biomechanical causes of stiff-knee gait and the functional effects of surgical treatment. The goal of this dissertation was to clarify the causes of stiff-knee gait and examine the biomechanical mechanism of improvement following rectus femoris transfer surgery. Swing-phase rectus femoris activity is commonly thought to cause of stiff-knee gait, despite evidence that many patients have excessive knee extension moments in preswing rather than swing phase. We compared the effects of preswing to swing phase activity of the rectus femoris on peak knee flexion in swing by creating and analyzing musculoskeletal simulations of subjects with stiff-knee gait. We found that in six out of ten subjects preswing rectus femoris activity had at least a 90% higher effect on peak knee flexion than swing phase rectus femoris activity, suggesting that preswing rectus femoris activity is an important factor limiting knee flexion in some subjects and should be examined to better determine the factors leading to stiff-knee gait. To understand how other muscles, besides rectus femoris, may limit knee flexion in stiff-knee gait, it is first necessary to understand how muscles coordinate successful swing phase knee flexion in unimpaired gait and how muscle contributions change with walking speed, since many stiff-knee subjects walk slowly. We analyzed simulations of unimpaired subjects walking at different speeds to determine the muscles that accelerated and decelerated knee flexion prior to swing. We found that preswing knee flexion acceleration was achieved primarily by the hip flexor muscles with help from biceps femoris short head, suggesting that weakness in these muscles may contribute to stiff-knee gait. Vasti and soleus decelerated knee flexion, suggesting over-activity in these muscles may contribute to stiff-knee gait. We also investigated the mechanism of improvement following rectus femoris transfer surgery. We altered the geometry of rectus femoris and simulated the dynamics of the swing phase of subjects with stiff-knee gait after different surgical procedures. Analysis of the simulations demonstrated that knee flexion may be improved with a reduction of the knee extension moment generated by the rectus femoris, even if the muscle is not converted to a knee flexor. This dissertation clarifies preswing rectus femoris activity as a cause of stiff-knee gait, demonstrates the functional mechanism of improvement following transfer surgery, and informs future research investigating other potential contributors to stiff-knee gait.