Books with author John Bemelmans Marciano

The first book in an exciting new chapter book series by John Bemelmans Marciano and Caldecott medalist Sophie Blackall. Welcome to Benevento, an ancient town famous for its witches!The children of Benevento have to be careful and clever to evade the clutches of such witches as the Manalonga, the Janara, and the Clopper, who hide in wells and under bridges, fly at midnight, and play tricks during Mischief Season.Five cousins – Primo, Emilio, Rosa, Maria Beppina, and Sergio – share adventures and narrow escapes, and discover astonishing secrets as they outwit the witches in each exciting story. Book #1 Mischief Season: a Twins StoryThe Janara are wrecking the farm with their nightly mischiefs. Father blames Rosa for everything that goes wrong, and it’s up to the Twins and their friends to find a way to stop the Janara. Will some mysterious advice from an unexpected source be the solution to their problems?

The third book in an exciting new chapter book series by John Bemelmans Marciano and Caldecott medalist Sophie Blackall. Welcome to Benevento, an ancient town famous for its witches!The children of Benevento have to be careful and clever to evade the clutches of such witches as the Manalonga, the Janara, and the Clopper, who hide in wells and under bridges, fly at midnight, and play tricks during Mischief Season.Five cousins – Primo, Emilio, Rosa, Maria Beppina, and Sergio – share adventures and narrow escapes, and discover astonishing secrets as they outwit the witches in each exciting story. Book #3Beware the Clopper!: a Maria Beppina StoryMaria Beppina, the timid tag-along cousin, is always afraid that the Clopper, the old witch who chases the children, will catch her. And then one day she decides to stop—just stop—and see what the Clopper will do.

The Benevento cousins return for more adventures in the ancient town that's famous for its witches!The Benevento children are excitedly preparing for the annual Boar Hunt, where the prize of the Golden Tusk is given to the ten-year old who catches the boar. No girl has ever competed, but Rosa is determined to take part -- and win! She refuses to stay home and help take care of the new baby and cook and clean. She will just have to run away.Life was very different in Benevento of the 1800s, and John Marciano's clever story and Sophie Blackall's charming illustrations bring the town, its people, and its past to vivid life.

On May 25, 2012, President Obama announced that the United States would spend the next thirteen years – through November 11, 2025 – commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War, and the American soldiers, “more than 58,000 patriots,” who died in Vietnam. The fact that at least 2.1 million Vietnamese – soldiers, parents, grandparents, children – also died in that war will be largely unknown and entirely uncommemorated. And U.S. history barely stops to record the millions of Vietnamese who lived on after being displaced, tortured, maimed, raped, or born with birth defects, the result of devastating chemicals wreaked on the land by the U.S. military. The reason for this appalling disconnect of consciousness lies in an unremitting public relations campaign waged by top American politicians, military leaders, business people, and scholars who have spent the last sixty years justifying the U.S. presence in Vietnam. It is a campaign of patriotic conceit superbly chronicled by John Marciano in The American War in Vietnam: Crime or Commemoration?.A devastating follow-up to Marciano’s 1979 classic Teaching the Vietnam War (written with William L. Griffen), Marciano’s book seeks not to commemorate the Vietnam War, but to stop the ongoing U.S. war on actual history. Marciano reveals the grandiose flag-waving that stems from the “Noble Cause principle,” the notion that America is “chosen by God” to bring democracy to the world. Marciano writes of the Noble Cause being invoked unsparingly by presidents – from Jimmy Carter, in his observation that, regarding Vietnam, “the destruction was mutual,” to Barack Obama, who continues the flow of romantic media propaganda: “The United States of America … will remain the greatest force for freedom the world has ever known.”The result is critical writing and teaching at its best. This book will find a home in classrooms where teachers seek to do more than repeat the trite glorifications of U.S. empire. It will provide students everywhere with insights that can prepare them to change the world.

Alexander Baddenfield is a horrible boy—a really horrible boy—who is the last in a long line of lying, thieving scoundrels. One day, Alexander has an astonishing idea. Why not transplant the nine lives from his cat into himself? Suddenly, Alexander has lives to spare, and goes about using them up, attempting the most outrageous feats he can imagine. Only when his lives start running out, and he is left with only one just like everyone else, does he realize how reckless he has been.With its wickedly funny story and equally clever illustrations, this is dark humor at its most delicious.

"As Marciano is descended from Ludwig Bemelmans, so might Alexander Baddenfield be descended from Madeline's nemesis-turned-friend Pepito 'The Bad Hat.'"*Alexander Baddenfield is a horrible boy—a really horrible boy—who is the last in a long line of lying, thieving scoundrels. One day, Alexander has an astonishing idea. Why not transplant the nine lives from his cat into himself? Suddenly, Alexander has lives to spare, and goes about using them up, attempting the most outrageous feats he can imagine. Only when his lives start running out, and he is left with only one just like everyone else, does he realize how reckless he has been.With its wickedly funny story and equally clever illustrations, this is dark humor at its most delicious.*Review from School LIbrary Journal