New Releases by Russell Hoban

Celebrate Christmas with the inspiration for the beloved Jim Henson film. In 1977, when Jim Henson debuted the now-classic film Emmet Otter''s Jug-Band Christmas, few knew it was based on a story written and illustrated by Russell and Lillian Hoban, creators of Bread and Jam for Frances and other treasured children''s books. With an enduring score by the great Paul Williams, the movie remains a holiday tradition in homes across North America. Here is the book that started it all, a beautiful gift edition that will thrill Muppets fans young and old. Inspired by the classic tale "The Gift of the Magi," the story begins in a poor country cottage, as Emmet Otter dreams of buying Ma a piano for Christmas, while Ma dreams of buying Emmet a guitar. When a village talent contest is announced, both imagine their dreams coming true. But what they don''t imagine finding is their real reward — the power of love, family, and hope in hard times. It is a story that reaches into a reader''s heart and reminds us all that fortune favors the brave. A Bank Street College of Education Best Children''s Book of the Year "[A] welcome reissue of the Hobans'' 1971 story . . . Colorful illustrations of the close-knit animal community contain plenty of warmth." —The Horn Book

"Like the fantasies of Tolkien, Thurber, E. B. White, The Mouse and His Child is filled with symbolism and satire, violence and vengeance, tears and laughter." -- The New York Times The images stay with you long after the book is done: the toy mouse and his father, on a journey together joined hand in hand; Manny Rat, the nefarious lord of the junkyard, stalking the toy mice for their clockwork parts; Uncle Frog, spouting wisdom and nonsense from within a glove; and the Bonzo Dog Food dog, repeating himself endlessly on a label, fading away to the last visible dog...Russell Hoban''s novel is many things: a stirring adventure story, a sharp-witted comedy, and the moving tale of a father and son struggling to return to a state of grace.Called one of the great works of children''s literature of the twentieth century -- but with an audience that spans ages and times -- The Mouse and His Child has been lovingly re-illustrated by Caldecott Medalist David Small for a new generation and a new millennium.

When Kleinzeit, an advertising copywriter whose name means either ''hero'' or ''smalltime'', depending on who you ask, picks up a sheet of yellow paper in the London Underground, he doesn''t suspect that it will cause him to be fired from his job and admitted to hospital with geometrical pain in his hypotenuse. In Hospital Ward A4, Kleinzeit discovers he is not alone: his fellow patients also suffer from nonsensical but possibly deadly ailments which all have something strange in common. With the help of the beautiful night nurse and armed with a glockenspiel and a paperback of Thucydides, Kleinzeit escapes from hospital and finds himself plunged headlong into a wild and flickering netherworld of mystery involving the Underground, an enigmatic red-bearded man, a key, sheets of yellow paper, and Death himself ... A hilarious, surreal and completely unpredictable novel about one man''s search for reality, "Kleinzeit" (1974) is one of Russell Hoban''s best-loved works. ''Hoban is as funny and unusual as any writer around ... "Kleinzeit" is a sort of holy fool, a fierce, lonely intelligence desperately trying to make sense of a hopeless world. A tour de force.'' - "Evening Standard" ''Hoban is an extraordinarily talented novelist, an original mind in the era of mass-produced philosophers.'' - "Irish Times" ''Delightful ... "Kleinzeit"''s language is forever astonishing.'' - "Boston Globe"

Discovering that his soon-to-be-born first offspring, a soonchild, cannot hear the World Songs from her mother''s womb, Sixteen-Face John, an Arctic Circle shaman, embarks on a fantastical journey to different eras and in the forms of animals and demons to find the songs that will inspire the soonchild''s birth.

New novel by prolific British novelist Russell Hoban

Re-issued to coincide with the centenary of Messiaen''s birth, The Messiaen Companion was the first major study to appear after the composer''s death in April 1992. It was the first book to offer both a complete survey of Messiaen''s extraordinary achievements and a comprehensive guide to his music, also examining in detail the enduring inspiration which Messiaen derived from his religious faith and from his lifelong passion for ornithology and the natural world. The contributors, all of whom have made a special study of the composer, include two biographers of Messiaen and a number of the foremost interpreters of his music. Messiaen''s influential teaching is recalled in essays by three of his pupils (Pierre Boulez, George Benjamin, and Peter Hill), and the composer is also remembered in a remarkable and moving contribution from his widow and devoted musical companion, the pianist Yvonne Loriod.

Francisca ha estado ahorrando para poder comprar un juego de vajilla para el té. Pero Telma la ha engañado con una ganga y ahora Francisca tiene el juego de té equivocado y nada de dinero. ¿Podrá Francisca recuperar su dinero?

''Russell Hoban is one of our greatest, timeless novelists'' The Times

A Russell Hoban Omnibus presents four of Hoban''s novels: the haunting The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz; the popular Turtle Diary (which was made into a movie starring Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley); Pilgermann; and his newest work, Mr Rinyo-Clacton''s Offer, a brilliant Faustian comedy published here for the first time in the United States. Book jacket.

After receiving a blow to the head from a bully at school and a mysterious puzzle from a melancholy magician, twelve-year-old Nick enters a strange and frightening reality that changes his life.

La manecilla larga del reloj senala las 12 y la pequena las 7. Es la hora de acostarse de Francisca. Pero antes tiene que beber un vaso de leche y recibir un beso de papa y otro de mama.

Famed for her many adventures, Frances made her debut with this title over thirty years ago. In this first Frances book, the little badger adroitly delays her bedtime with requests for kisses and milk, and concerns over tigers and giants and things going bump in the night. Long a favorite for the gentle humor of its familiar going to bed ritual, Bedtime for Frances is at last available with the warmth of full color enriching Garth Williams’s original nuanced and touching art. ‘Here is the coziest, most beguiling bedtime story in many a day.’—Kirkus Reviews (pointer).

The Little Brute Family members eat gravel for breakfast, never say "please" or "thank you" and kick, yell, punch, and shove. But one day everything changes when Baby Brute finds a "lost good feeling" wandering around in a field of daisies and brings it home. Full-color illustrations. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Jim Hedgehog, who likes heavy metal music, buys a cassette tape and a musical instrument from Mr. Strange, which lead him to a haunted castle.

John''s obsession with drawing monsters takes him to a doctor, where a startling discovery is made about the degree of reality of John''s drawings.

SUMMARY: A mouse eats a marzipan pig left behind the sofa, and eats the pig''s feelings of loneliness as well. The mouse is eaten by an owl, who also eats the mouse''s strange emotions, and so the chain of events continues.

A little boy loses all the fights he has with his best friend until his father gives him some good advice.

Written in an idiosyncratic yet authentic voice, an ingenious account describes Riddley Walker''s attempt to understand the past and the present of a world which continues to exist two thousand years after the ultimate catastrophe occurred

Frances Books.

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Arthur Crocodile cannot seem to learn table manners until his sister brings her new girlfriend to visit.

One day Thelma tricks Frances into buying her old plastic tea set. Thelma says there are no backsies on the bargain. Can Frances come up with a plan that will change her friend''s mind? Outstanding Children''s Books of 1970 (NYT)

The Mole family learns about Christmas and builds a chimney so that Santa Claus will be able to visit them.

When Albert and his buddies have a "no girls" baseball game, Frances and her sister organize a "Best Friends Outing -- No Boys."