Best Selling Books by Tony Johnston

Sprinkled with Spanish and infused with love, "My Abuelita" is a glorious celebration of language, the love of a grandparent, and the power of story. Full color.

AV2 Fiction Readalong by Weigl brings you timeless tales of mystery, suspense, adventure, and the lessons learned while growing up. These celebrated children’s stories are sure to entertain and educate while captivating even the most reluctant readers. Log on to www.av2books.com, and enter the unique book code found on page 2 of this book to unlock an extra dimension to these beloved tales. Hear the story come to life as you read along in your own book.

As the heat of the desert day fades into night, various nocturnal animals, including bats, coyotes, and snakes, venture out to find food.

In Beast Rider, award-winning author Tony Johnston and psychotherapistMaria Elena Fontanot de Rhoads “offer a sympathetic, illuminating portrait of the challenges faced by one undocumented immigrant” (Publishers Weekly, Starred Review). Twelve-year-old Manuel leaves his small town in Mexico to join his older brother in Los Angeles. To cross the US border, he must become a “beast rider”—someone who hops on a train. The first time he tries, he is stopped by the Mexican police, who arrest and beat him. When he tries again, he is attacked by a Mexican gang and left for dead. Just when Manuel is ready to turn back, he finds new hope. Villagers clothe and feed him, help him find work, and eventually boost him back onto the train. When he finally arrives in LA and is reunited with his brother, he is elated. But the longer he’s there, the more he realizes that something isn’t right. Thrilling and heartfelt, Beast Rider is a coming-of-age story that reveals how a place and its people help to define you.

Publisher Description

This version of the familiar story in which a mistreated step-child finds happiness with the "man" of her dreams is set in the old-growth forest and features Bigfoot characters.

Science Fiction Film examines one of the most enduring and popular genres of Hollywood cinema, suggesting how the science fiction film reflects attitudes toward science, technology, and reason as they have evolved in American culture over the course of the twentieth century. J. P. Telotte provides a survey of science fiction film criticism, emphasizing humanist, psychological, ideological, feminist, and postmodern critiques. He also sketches a history of the genre, from its earliest literary manifestations to the present, while touching on and comparing it to pulp fiction, early television science fiction, and Japanese anim. Telotte offers in-depth readings of three key films: Robocop, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and THX 1138, each of which typifies a particular form of science fiction fantasy. Challenging the boundaries usually seen between high and low culture, literature and film, Science Fiction Film reasserts the central role of fantasy in popular films, even those concerned with reason, science, and technology.

When a treasured teddy bear becomes so worn that it is mistaken for a monkey, a little girl and her mother decide to restore Bear to "his good old self."

Living in the Bloggins School boiler room isn''t glamorous, but that''s life for Martha Snapdragon, daughter of the beleaguered janitor. Life only gets weirder when Martha realizes bizarre events are afoot at the school. There''s the dastardly dealings of evil principal Dr. Klunk and school bully Rufus. There''s the dozen dancing eggs and the misbehaving dragons, property of the mysterious science teacher. And then there''s the strangest thing of all: a giant golden spoon that simply appears one day, stuck in the wall of the school bathroom. Although everyone tries, only Martha is able to extract the spoon from the wall--an act that leads her to a destiny far beyond her meager life in the boiler room. Tony Johnston''s funny, magical story spoofs the legend of The Sword in the Stone—and conveys some poignant truths about teaching, leadership, and the responsibilities we have to one another.

In this whimsical picture book with illustrations by beloved award-winning illustrator Tomie dePaola, the classic Russian Baba Yaga witch story gets an American twist. In Santa Fe, young Manuela finds herself in the cooking pot of Alice Nizzy Nazzy. Can she escape the hungry witch’s clutches? Manuela bravely tries to win her freedom unaware of one important rule: witches don’t like the taste of good children.

Follows the adventures of three bicyclists as they ride through the countryside.

A little goblin has a series of frightening experiences while walking through the woods to his grandmother''s house.

Thanatourism is an important new overview of the growing field. It introduces more rigorous scholarship, new philosophical perspectives and a wealth of empirical material on the contemporary and historical consumption of death with case studies designed to stretch and challenge current discourse.

The great sculptor Gaston Pompicard creates a snow sculpture for his friends the children, and then later he receives a similar gift from them during the last snow of winter.

With rollicking rhyme and lots of energy, Johnston shares the story of a chicken on a mission. And at the end there''s a joyful surprise--just right for the Easter holiday. Full color.

When a young girl''s beloved, exuberant grandfather becomes forgetful, she helps him by singing their favorite song.

One of the largest pictorial surveys available contains rare illustrations of jewelry, metalwork, glass ceramics, textiles, architecture, furniture, and other objects. 579 photographs display jewelry by Lalique, Mucha-designed watch, stained glass by Gaudin, interiors by Hohlwein, plus pendants, iron doors, reliefs, flatware, more.

The narrator describes the excitement of having the train pull into the town of Jacksonville, Texas, when he was a boy.

An old black man finds a baby abandoned in a dumpster and raises him in a rough Los Angeles neighborhood to know both African American and Mexican American ways.

Eddie''s best friend Sparky saves the day when Eddie''s prized collection of bugs is eaten by one of the exhibits at the school science fair.