Books with author John Parr

The story of Freddy's First Christmas centers on a friendly field mouse named Freddy. Freddy has many bird friends and is envious of their ability to fly. When the weather turns cold, Freddy seeks shelter in a nearby house where he meets a Christmas tree angel named Angie. Angie suffers from old tattered wings but is otherwise a fine angel. On Christmas Eve, Freddy finds a misplaced letter to Santa from Billy, the boy who lives in that house. Freddy devises a plan to use his bird friend feather collection to repair Angie's wings so they can fly to the North Pole and deliver the lost letter to Santa in time to save Christmas for Billy. But once airborne, they become lost but are saved by a shooting star named Scooter who whisks them to the North Pole where Santa saves the day. In the process of helping Billy and Angie, Freddy learns that by helping others, he too was rewarded by friendship and realizing his dream of flying.

A story for children, parents and families depicting the real and metaphysical rewards of building extraordinary relationships.Johnny, a troubled boy and victim of taunts from self-centered peers, learns lessons from Manny, an eccentric, old man who mentors him through a dramatic metamorphosis. Through a series of mysterious encounters, their tumultuous yet heart-warming friendship transforms the boy from self-doubting to confident, from panic-stricken to empowered.Manny's maxim is compelling: Some relationships block our personal dreams. Others catapult us to greatness. He conveys this to Johnny in his unique, irrepressible way: "Remember kid. You're only as sane as the people you choose to love."The perplexing character of this wise, aging guru unfolds throughout the story, and the startling truth about him is revealed in the final encounter with Johnny. With Manny at his side, the boy grasps his greatest athletic goal and is simultaneously shaken by a convergence of supernatural events.

In the final decades of the twenty-first century, mankind's ambitions colonized the moon and Mars and created a "technological" Tower of Babel. But during the period known as the Fifty Years of Prosperity, the Time of Horrors came without warning. The Age of Horrors brought about the Orbs, mysterious anomalies that appeared in space, unleashing storms of cataclysmic proportions throughout the solar system. On Earth, the golden age of modern humanity came to a crashing end, plunging the world into chaos. At a time when mankind thought it had the promise of immortality within its grasp, that promise was stolen away. Once humanity traveled the heavens as gods, but now, if it hopes to survive, it must cower like moles in the shadows. But not everyone on Earth has surrendered to that fate. Two groups emerge from the rubble of civilization, and the bitter spiritual battle that has simmered for millennia intensifies beyond belief. One group is bent on displacing God, while another seeks to reunite the fallen and disenfranchised. One blames God for all the earth's woes, and the other sees mankind's alienation from God as the root cause of the Age of Horrors. In the quiet between the battles, a third group emerges to investigate the Orbs. Mankind's fate depends upon an orphan and a woman known only as the Psalter. As they enter the realm of the Deepest Darkness, they uncover the truth about a power that evil dreads.

With his breathtaking 1973 breakthrough performance in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets De Niro forged an enormously fruitful collaboration—resulting in Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas, films which, alongside his roles in the likes of The Godfather Part Two, The Deer Hunter, and Once Upon a Time in America, read like a list of the top Hollywood films of the last 30 years. As a method actor De Niro lives and breathes his roles, notoriously gaining 60lbs for Raging Bull and learning to play the saxophone for New York, New York, while in recent years, films such as Analyze This and Meet the Parents have found him honing a previously unheralded talent for comedy acting. Offscreen, De Niro is notoriously reluctant to discuss his life, though his relationships with supermodels such as Toukie Smith and current wife Grace Hightower have often made the news. His forays into the director's chair as well as setting up his own production company, TriBeCa Productions, have seen him more willing to discuss his work, and he's been vocal about his politics. He is an active supporter of the Democrat Party, lending his support to Barack Obama, and has pledged to revitalize the TriBeCa region of New York following September 11.