Books with author Joe Bergeron

On the distant planet Rral, a group of teenage friends chafe beneath the limitations imposed on their society by unknown forces. They believe their heritage is the stars, but on a world where commerce is conducted by wooden sailing ships, how are they to achieve it? Then a strange streak of fire descends from the heavens...This is chronologically the first novel set in the Endurian Universe, a place where large-scale characters engage in large-scale conflicts on multiple worlds of science and magic.

The second Lyttle Lies book featuring Sam Lyttle, the small boy who tells BIG lies. Fans of Tom Gates willl love this laugh-out-loud stinky story from well-known cartoonist Joe Berger. It's the school holidays and Sam and his best friend can't wait to see Cry Wolfe, the first movie starring their favourite crime-fighting hero. But Sam's mum has set him a challenge. He can only go and see the movie IF, and only if, he can make it through the entire holiday without telling a single fib. Can Sam go six whole weeks, without a single porky!? WARNING: contains fibs, farts and zumba-dancing mums Praise for The Pudding Problem: ‘‘… truly funny, with verbal, visual and fart jokes appealing not only to those who find reading heavy going.’ Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times’ Children’s Book of the Week 'Offers a fairly high level of subtly, sensitivity and sophistication.’ Financial Times ‘Comic-strip frames, drawn with energy and silliness, are interspersed with a smattering of text, all the way to the entertaining twist. [Sam’s] arrival is to be welcomed.’ The Sunday Times

Volume 5 in the Endurian Universe series tells how the Space Mariners from the planet Rral first visit Earth, why they flee from it, and how they eventually decide to return to assist the failing human race. It also tells how Rouse Farewell, a New Zealand mental patient, frees herself from the limitations of nature and provides an example of a better way.

A boy must untangle the web of lies he’s created in order to prove his innocence in this humorous and cheeky illustrated middle grade novel that’s perfect for “fans of Timmy Failure and Big Nate” (Kirkus Reviews).Sam Lyttle is prone to stretching the truth. Most of his lies are harmless; tall tales and the product of an overactive imagination. So when Sam is summoned to explain a strange discovery—a ping-pong ball in a jar of peanut butter—and denies involvement, no one believes him. Then more seemingly unrelated peculiarities emerge, and Sam categorically denies any knowledge of those, too. In between these mysterious accusations, and with evidence mounting against him, Sam ruminates on the different sorts of lies he has told using examples from his past. Meanwhile, two pounds of potatoes wind up in the washing machine. Sam comes to a decision: he decides it is time to come clean about this latest tangled web. He gathers his family to hear the truth. The whole truth. Or is it? Could it be that this final “truth” is, in fact, another lie?

"Extraordinary. . . . Berger is a hero of biology who deserves the highest honors that science can bestow."—Tim Flannery, New York Review of Books On the Tibetan Plateau, there are wild yaks with blood cells thinner than those of horses’ by half, enabling the endangered yaks to survive at 40 below zero and in the lowest oxygen levels of the mountaintops. But climate change is causing the snow patterns here to shift, and with the snows, the entire ecosystem. Food and water are vaporizing in this warming environment, and these beasts of ice and thin air are extraordinarily ill-equipped for the change. A journey into some of the most forbidding landscapes on earth, Joel Berger’s Extreme Conservation is an eye-opening, steely look at what it takes for animals like these to live at the edges of existence. But more than this, it is a revealing exploration of how climate change and people are affecting even the most far-flung niches of our planet. Berger’s quest to understand these creatures’ struggles takes him to some of the most remote corners and peaks of the globe: across Arctic tundra and the frozen Chukchi Sea to study muskoxen, into the Bhutanese Himalayas to follow the rarely sighted takin, and through the Gobi Desert to track the proboscis-swinging saiga. Known as much for his rigorous, scientific methods of developing solutions to conservation challenges as for his penchant for donning moose and polar bear costumes to understand the mindsets of his subjects more closely, Berger is a guide par excellence. He is a scientist and storyteller who has made his life working with desert nomads, in zones that typically require Sherpas and oxygen canisters. Recounting animals as charismatic as their landscapes are extreme, Berger’s unforgettable tale carries us with humor and expertise to the ends of the earth and back. But as his adventures show, the more adapted a species has become to its particular ecological niche, the more devastating climate change can be. Life at the extremes is more challenging than ever, and the need for action, for solutions, has never been greater.

Sam Lyttle learns that sometimes the truth can hurt just as much as a lie in this follow-up to the humorous and cheeky illustrated middle grade novel The Pudding Problem which Kirkus Reviews calls perfect for “fans of Timmy Failure and Big Nate.” School’s out, and a long, hot summer of endless fun beckons for Sam and Charlie. Except that no sooner has it begun than they’re wishing it away in anticipation of Cry Wolfe, the first Wolfe Stone movie, which opens at the end of the season. Sam’s mom issues him a challenge: if, and only if, Sam can make it through the entire vacation without telling a single fib, he will be allowed to see his crime-fighting hero on the big screen. Six whole weeks, without a single lie?! No problem. Until the small matter of a tray of snowball cakes in the fridge with a Sam-sized footprint in them threatens to end Sam’s dreams of cinema heaven. Can he continue to steer clear of lying, while not having to reveal the actual reason he was in the fridge, in the dark, standing on a table to get to the top shelf to hide ‘the thing that shall never be named?’

Cosmic Cat focuses on the mystery and beauty of the night sky and its effect on the imagination. The story concerns Maria, a little girl who finds herself removed from her city environment and brought to a place where her companions are mountains, trees, and the stars. Here she meets a strange blue kitten whose brief presence in her life forever changes the way she looks at the world around her.This is a story for all ages, good for reading to your kids, good for learning a little bit about astronomy. It features 42 pages of dazzling original artwork by award-winning artist Joe Bergeron.

A boy must untangle the web of lies he’s created in order to prove his innocence in this humorous and cheeky illustrated middle grade novel that’s perfect for “fans of Timmy Failure and Big Nate” (Kirkus Reviews).Sam Lyttle is prone to stretching the truth. Most of his lies are harmless; tall tales and the product of an overactive imagination. So when Sam is summoned to explain a strange discovery—a ping-pong ball in a jar of peanut butter—and denies involvement, no one believes him. Then more seemingly unrelated peculiarities emerge, and Sam categorically denies any knowledge of those, too. In between these mysterious accusations, and with evidence mounting against him, Sam ruminates on the different sorts of lies he has told using examples from his past. Meanwhile, two pounds of potatoes wind up in the washing machine. Sam comes to a decision: he decides it is time to come clean about this latest tangled web. He gathers his family to hear the truth. The whole truth. Or is it? Could it be that this final “truth” is, in fact, another lie?

A boy must untangle the web of lies he’s created in order to prove his innocence in this humorous and cheeky illustrated middle grade novel that’s perfect for “fans of Timmy Failure and Big Nate” (Kirkus Reviews).Sam Lyttle is prone to stretching the truth. Most of his lies are harmless; tall tales and the product of an overactive imagination. So when Sam is summoned to explain a strange discovery—a ping-pong ball in a jar of peanut butter—and denies involvement, no one believes him. Then more seemingly unrelated peculiarities emerge, and Sam categorically denies any knowledge of those, too. In between these mysterious accusations, and with evidence mounting against him, Sam ruminates on the different sorts of lies he has told using examples from his past. Meanwhile, two pounds of potatoes wind up in the washing machine. Sam comes to a decision: he decides it is time to come clean about this latest tangled web. He gathers his family to hear the truth. The whole truth. Or is it? Could it be that this final “truth” is, in fact, another lie?

"Extraordinary. . . . Berger is a hero of biology who deserves the highest honors that science can bestow."—Tim Flannery, New York Review of BooksOn the Tibetan Plateau, there are wild yaks with blood cells thinner than those of horses’ by half, enabling the endangered yaks to survive at 40 below zero and in the lowest oxygen levels of the mountaintops. But climate change is causing the snow patterns here to shift, and with the snows, the entire ecosystem. Food and water are vaporizing in this warming environment, and these beasts of ice and thin air are extraordinarily ill-equipped for the change. A journey into some of the most forbidding landscapes on earth, Joel Berger’s Extreme Conservation is an eye-opening, steely look at what it takes for animals like these to live at the edges of existence. But more than this, it is a revealing exploration of how climate change and people are affecting even the most far-flung niches of our planet.Berger’s quest to understand these creatures’ struggles takes him to some of the most remote corners and peaks of the globe: across Arctic tundra and the frozen Chukchi Sea to study muskoxen, into the Bhutanese Himalayas to follow the rarely sighted takin, and through the Gobi Desert to track the proboscis-swinging saiga. Known as much for his rigorous, scientific methods of developing solutions to conservation challenges as for his penchant for donning moose and polar bear costumes to understand the mindsets of his subjects more closely, Berger is a guide par excellence. He is a scientist and storyteller who has made his life working with desert nomads, in zones that typically require Sherpas and oxygen canisters. Recounting animals as charismatic as their landscapes are extreme, Berger’s unforgettable tale carries us with humor and expertise to the ends of the earth and back. But as his adventures show, the more adapted a species has become to its particular ecological niche, the more devastating climate change can be. Life at the extremes is more challenging than ever, and the need for action, for solutions, has never been greater.

KEEPING PAYROLL DOWN is always the most important underlying principle at Walmart. For some managers it is more important than safety, morality, ethics and legality. The numbers are staggering. With 1.5 million Associates earning an average pay of about $10 per hour, the basic payroll is $15 million per hour. Limiting raises to tiny amounts goes right to their bottom line.Associates are the “Lowest Common Denominator” in the Walmart profit equation. Every possible tactic is used against Associates during evaluations to limit raises. They structure the setting of the reviews to employ every psychological advantage. They like to use the element of surprise. The amount of a raise is determined before the review happens without any input, testimony or protest, from the Associate.I expected this sort of behavior from a large company vastly experienced in evaluating employees. After all, they perform over 2 million evaluations a year on Associates alone. But what I didn't expect were some of the sneaky and underhanded ways the managers accomplished their sworn duty to limit pay increases. And they did these devious things in ways that were difficult to detect and verify.After the dirty tricks they pulled on me during my first few evaluations, I realized I had to beat them at their own game. As the meager raises persisted, it became a quest to get the maximum raise at my next review. This is the true story of how I finally got Walmart to give me the maximum raise of sixty cents per hour.By exposing the dirty tricks Walmart uses to limit raises to cut payroll costs, I hope to give every Associate powerful tools to use at their future evaluations. Perhaps this documentation of my experience will help with the current efforts to improve the lives of the downtrodden and beaten Associates.All proceeds from the sale of this book will be used to buy me a hot tub.