Books with author James Vance Marshall

Everything you are about to read is true; even when you think it isn’t. The characters in this book aren’t characters, but real people who did these crazy, weird, and wonderful things while I, the bartender, witnessed it all. If you are a bar patron who’s always wondered what the bartender is thinking, here’s your chance to look behind the curtain. If you loved Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, you’ll love Barflies. Get the bartender’s side of the story.

A plane crashes in the vast Northern Territory of Australia, and the only survivors are two children from Charleston, South Carolina, on their way to visit their uncle in Adelaide. Mary and her younger brother, Peter, set out on foot, lost in the vast, hot Australian outback. They are saved by a chance meeting with an unnamed Aboriginal boy on walkabout. He looks after the two strange white children and shows them how to find food and water in the wilderness, and yet, for all that, Mary is filled with distrust.On the surface Walkabout is an adventure story, but darker themes lie beneath. Peter’s innocent friendship with the boy met in the desert throws into relief Mary’s half-adult anxieties, and the book as a whole raises questions about what is lost—and may be saved—when different worlds meet. And in reading Marshall’s extraordinary evocations of the beautiful yet forbidding landscape of the Australian desert, perhaps the most striking presence of all in this small, perfect book, we realize that this tale—a deep yet disturbing story in the spirit of Adalbert Stifter’s Rock Crystal and Richard Hughes’s A High Wind in Jamaica—is also a reckoning with the mysteriously regenerative powers of death.

The second edition of the popular James Marshall’s Shipwrecks of Lake Superior is updated and redesigned to best present the engaging collection of maps, photos (historical and color) and accounts of the boats that once sailed the Greatest of Lakes. Will keep “wreckies” young and old turning pages. NEW THIS EDITION: The story of the last big wreck on Lake Superior - the Mesquite - and the latest theories on why the Edmund Fitzgerald went down.

Readers will delight in James Marshall’s award-winning classic tales of George and Martha—two beloved, wise, and hilarious hippos! Story Number One: Split Pea Soup Oh, no! Martha made split pea soup again! How can George tell Martha that he hates split pea soup without hurting her feelings?Story Number Two: The Flying Machine When George’s flight does not go as planned, Martha knows just the right thing to say.

Three more George and Martha stories just right for early readers.Story Number One: The Tub Martha teaches George a little lesson about privacy.Story Number Two: The Mirror Martha’s bad habit is getting on George’s nerves. He hatches the perfect plot to cure her vanity.Story Number Three: The Tooth Oh, no! George has an accident that changes the way he looks. Luckily, Martha knows just what to say to cheer up her friend.

Sensible Harriet has to rescue silly Winnie from the clutches of Mr. Johnson, who Winnie fails to recognize as a fox. Never were two chickens more different than Harriet and Winnie. Harriet kept busy with many hobbies, while flighty Winnie was often bored. So when that sly fox Mr. Johnson happened by Winnie’s garden, she couldn’t resist the chance to live a little and climbed into the basket of his balloon. Now it’s up to Harriet to save her foolish friend from Mr. Johnson’s fricassee pot—and there are chases galore, hairsbreadth escapes, clever disguises, and lots more tomfoolery before she does. James Marshall’s clever wit and lively sense of the absurd keep this hilarious romp rollicking along from start to cliff-hanging finish.

James Marshall’s outrageous wit brings new life to old classics and to original limericks by Marshall himself. Readers young and old will delight in wacky interpretations of “Fuzzy Wuzzy Was a Bear” and classic jump-rope rhymes like “Teddy Bear” and “Cinderella.” This treasure trove of nonsensical verse will have you laughing out loud and begging for more.

Mary and her young brother Peter are the only survivors of an aircrash in the middle of the Australian outback. Facing death from exhaustion and starvation, they meet an aboriginal boy who helps them to survive, and guides them along their long journey. But a terrible misunderstanding results in a tragedy that neither Mary nor Peter will ever forget . . .