Books with author James Rumford

In this fictional account of the discovery of the Hawai-ian Islands, James Rumford takes us back more than fifteen hundred years to meet five Polynesian brothers who are about to explore a new world. After a long journey to their new home, the young- est brother, Manu, soon discovers what appears to be a wounded dog on the beach. But it is like no dog he or his brothers has ever seen before—it has flippers for legs, a fish’s tail, and the body of a dolphin! Gentle Manu nurses this strange animal back to health, and a bond of friendship and aloha embraces them and protects them when danger comes. Throughout this sequel to The Island-below-the-Star, Rumford’s vibrant watercolors show us the unique life forms that have evolved in the Hawaiian Islands: birds, plants, and fish that exist nowhere else on earth. And with this visual story comes an important reminder: to care for Hawai`i and for our Island Earth as well.

Calabash Cat, a West African cat, sets out one day to find where the world ends. His adventures take him across a desert, grasslands, a jungle, and the ocean, until he finds what he is looking for. Illustrated in the style of the calabash engravers of the country of Chad, James Rumford’s original tale will keep you thinking long after you have closed the covers of this book—about our one world, and about seeking knowledge and finding wisdom.

What was made of rags and bones, soot and seeds? What took a mountain to make? For the answer, travel back to the fifteenth century―to a time when books were made by hand and a man named Johannes Gutenberg invented a way to print books with movable type. Written as a series of riddles and illustrated in the style of medieval manuscripts by an award-winning author and artist, From the Good Mountain will intrigue readers of all ages. On every page there is something surprising to learn about how the very thing you are holding in your hands came to be.

According to Herodotus, an Ancient Greek historian, a Phoenician named Cadmus brought the alphabet to Greece. In the ancient myths, Cadmus was a hero who fought a ferocious monster and founded the city of Thebes. Cadmus was so famous that his deeds were told and retold throughout the ancient world.In this modern retelling, James Rumford uses the alphabet that Cadmus brought to Greece to recount the hero’s own story. Part truth, part fancy, this different kind of alphabet book takes its reader on a journey to the distant past, when our letters were not just marks to record sounds but were pictures of eyes and hands, doors and fences, giant teeth and . . . monsters.

What was made of rags and bones, soot and seeds? What took a mountain to make? For the answer, travel back to the fifteenth century—to a time when books were made by hand and a man named Johannes Gutenberg invented a way to print books with movable type. Written as a series of riddles and illustrated in the style of medieval manuscripts by an award-winning author and artist, From the Good Mountain will intrigue readers of all ages. On every page there is something surprising to learn about how the very thing you are holding in your hands came to be.

This is the story of a king named Njoya [enjoy-ah], who ruled the small African kingdom of Bamum in the grasslands of Cameroon at the turn of the twentieth century. When the German colonial army marched into his kingdom, Njoya had to find a way to help his people maintain their identity—and their dignity—in the face of great change. In the entire history of Mankind, there have been few leaders like Njoya. He created a writing system, built schools, and fostered art, business, and agriculture. James Rumford, with the rich browns of the gourd pictures of Africa, tells this triumphant story and how in the worst of times, like a star in the darkest of nights, there was man who shone even more brightly.

Calabash Cat, a West African cat, sets out one day to find where the world ends. His adventures take him across a desert, grasslands, a jungle, and the ocean, until he finds what he is looking for. Illustrated in the style of the calabash engravers of the country of Chad, James Rumford’s original tale will keep you thinking long after you have closed the covers of this book—about our one world, and about seeking knowledge and finding wisdom.

Island below the Star: a poem of praise for the peoples of the Pacific. “See, my brothers, that bright star up there. There’s an island below it. Let us sail to it.” Little Manu was the first to speak. “I’ll go with you,” he said. And so begins the story of how the first people sailed to Hawai‘i, crossing vast stretches of ocean without compass or map to discover new lands. Island below the Star is a revised edition of The Island-below-the-Star, which was published in 1998 and praised in The New York Times as one of the ten best children’s books of that year. Island below the Star is also published in the Hawaiian language under the title Ka ‘Aina ma lalo o ka Hoku. James Rumford, who makes his home in Honolulu, has written and illustrated over twenty books since his first book, The Cloudmakers, was published in 1996. His books have been translated into over a half dozen languages and have received numerous awards for excellence in illustration, story, and design.

Egyptian hieroglyphs—ancient, mysterious, elegant—have fascinated people for thousands of years. In this book are the most common hieroglyphs—the ones the Egyptians used to spell out their words. Each hieroglyph is taken from a 3500-year-old papyrus written by an unknown scribe who left us with some of the most beautiful handwriting ever to have been discovered. James Rumford presents each hieroglyph with bold illustrations and shows how each letter was formed. In this way, anyone at any age can copy the elegant style of this ancient scribe and go back to a time when A was an Egyptian vulture, B was a leg, and C was a neatly folded piece of linen cloth.