New Releases by Diane Stanley

William Shakespeare was the son of a glovemaker, a small-town boy with a grammar school education. Yet he grew up to become the greatest English-speaking playwright in the world. Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare is both his story and that of a great art rediscovered in the modern world.

Drama had been forgotten since the days of ancient Greece, but it reemerged in Elizabethan London with the building of the first modern theater. Its impact can still be imagined today. There were the theaters, open to the weather and featuring neither sets nor curtains, but equipped with dramatic special effects. There were the companies of actors--the leading men, the comedians, the boys who played women's roles--and the playwrights who gave them all lines to say.

Best of all, there was William Shakespeare, who rubbed shoulders with noblemen and royalty as well as with the rowdy crowds at the foot of the stage. He was suspected of involvement in a treasonous rebellion, and his last play literally brought down the house when cannon effects set fire to the famous Globe theater and it burned to the ground.

Award-winning collaborators Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema have once again created a feast of words and pictures to celebrate the life of a remarkable person from the pages of history: William Shakespeare, a man for all time."

It started with jelly worms...

Kids all over the country are acting strangely after reading the latest books in the mega-popular Chillers series. First, it's the seemingly innocent Jelly Worm fad. But it quickly turns sinister, with exploding headaches sweeping the nation, and then a serpent surprise that lands several kids, including Franny's little sister, in the hospital.

Franny is convinced that I. M. Fine, author of the Chillers books, is behind it. With the help of her friend Beamer, she is determined to track down the mysterious author and find out once and for all if the books really are causing all the trouble. After all, a book can't be that dangerous, can it?

In this spirited new version of a classic fairy tale, we meet a determined heroine with a mind of her own. Can she help it if everyone she invites over is too bossy or too boring or too snobby or too rough? What Goldie desperately wants is a friend she can love with all her heart. And one day, she finds one who's just right.

When it was first published, The Last Princess: The Story of Princess Ka'iulani of Hawai'i won many honors for its sensitive text and brilliantly colored illustrations. A 1991 American Library Association Notable Book, it also won the Carter G. Woodson Award from the National Council Social Studies.

In this reissued edition of an inspired collaboration, author Fay Stanley, writing her only children's book, and daughter Diane Stanley, the celebrated author and illustrator, tell the touching, bittersweet story of Princess Ka'iulani and open a window onto a nation's history that is often forgotten.