Books with author Grandpa John

A 15-year-old girl named Jessie voices typical—and not so typical—teenage concerns in this unique, hilarious collection of poems. Her musings about trying out new makeup and hairstyles, playing volleyball and cello, and dealing with her annoying younger brother are never boring or predictable. Who else do you know who designs her own clothes and writes poetry to her cat? Jessie’s a girl with strong opinions, and she isn’t shy about sharing them. Her funny, sarcastic take on high school life is revealed through concrete poetry: words, ideas, type, and design that combine to make pictures and patterns. The poems are inventive, irreverent, irresistible, and full of surprises—just like Jessie—and the playful layout and ingenious graphics extend the wry humor.

A 15-year-old girl named Jessie voices typical—and not so typical—teenage concerns in this unique, hilarious collection of poems. Her musings about trying out new makeup and hairstyles, playing volleyball and cello, and dealing with her annoying younger brother are never boring or predictable. Who else do you know who designs her own clothes and writes poetry to her cat? Jessie’s a girl with strong opinions, and she isn’t shy about sharing them. Her funny, sarcastic take on high school life is revealed through concrete poetry: words, ideas, type, and design that combine to make pictures and patterns. The poems are inventive, irreverent, irresistible, and full of surprises—just like Jessie—and the playful layout and ingenious graphics extend the wry humor.

One day Santa called us, THE MUSH-MICE, with something important to say. He wanted to give us another purpose, other then playing all day. For each Christmas Eve we fill sacks with candy for each girl and boy. Santa knew that candy, not clothes, will give them great joy. The biggest thrill for them, other then candy or cookies filled with honey, is finding the one who has his sack filled with money. A jelly bean trail will help the children to find, all the sacks of candy that we sit on or leave behind. The sack filled with money will be the hardest to see. It can be anywhere from behind a chair to under the Christmas tree. So when Christmas Eve is here and the excitement is getting the best of you. Look around for jelly beans that are left by Number One, Three, or Two.

Galileo, Einstein, Curie, Darwin, Hawking — we know the names, but how much do we really know about these people? Galileo gained notoriety from his battle with the Vatican over the question of heliocentrism, but did you know that he was also an accomplished lute player? And Darwin of course discovered the principle by which new species are formed, but his bold curiosity extended to the dinner table as well. (And how many people can say they've eaten an owl!) In Eureka! John Grant — author of Debunk It!, Discarded Science, Spooky Science and many others — offers fifty vivid portraits of groundbreaking scientists, focusing not just on the ideas and breakthroughs that made them so important but also on their lives and their various...quirks.

Littlenose lives long, long, ago, when fierce wild animals roam the land, and it is very cold. His home is a cave, his clothes are made of fur, and his pet is a woolly mammoth called Two-Eyes. It is Crocus Day—the Neanderthal version of April Fools’ Day—and Littlenose has plenty of tricks up his sleeve. How long will his tribe tolerate his mischievous antics? These five stories feature all the chaos Littlenose can handle, including a wild forest bull on the rampage; an invasion of mammoths; and a new pet for this precocious caveboy: Squeaky the mouse. Whether he's tricking his cousins, dealing with a herd of woolly mammoths, or playing with his new pet mouse, you can always count on Littlenose to have a good joke up his sleeve!