Books with author Stephen Manes

From the author of Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!, here's the hilarious sequel to Hooples on the Highway: Alvin Hoople can't face Halloween without the annual haunted house in the neighbors' garage. But when that neighbor's steaming cauldron blows a hole in the wall of that garage two weeks before Halloween, it looks as though the haunted house just won't happen this year. Then Alvin has a brainstorm: They can have the haunted house in his garage. His parents aren't thrilled with the idea, but Alvin has made up his mind. Still, he hasn't counted on coming up against Mr. Goralski, the neighborhood grouch; spiteful Dwight, who wants to sabotage the plans; or a pesky little sister who won't disappear.Will Halloween turn into a real horror show? Alvin wonders if he can work it all out before his nerves unravel and he goes as mad as his ghouls and monsters!

Is it possible? Can an ordinary human being really become a perfect person in three short days? Milo Crinkley thought so. What gave him the idea was a book that fell on his head one day at the library--a book with the impressive title Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! The author, Dr. K. Pinkerton Silverfish, did look kind of weird, but he claimed to be the world's leading authority on perfection. Milo took the book home and followed its instructions. He liked the idea of being perfect. Perfect people never had their parents nag at them. Perfect people never had to take the blame for rotten tricks their sisters played. Perfect people never needed erasers. Perfect was obviously the perfect thing to be! Did Milo become a perfect person in just three days? More important, can you? Do you think we're going to answer all your questions here when we want you to read this hilarious book?Winner of five kid-voted statewide awards! California Young Reader Medal Charlie May Simon Award (Arkansas) Georgia Children's Book Award Nene Award (Hawaii) Sunshine State Award (Florida)

This is the latest edition of the world’s foremost annual showcase of horror and dark fantasy fiction. Here are some of the very best short stories and novellas by today's finest exponents of horror fiction—including Kim Newman, Neil Gaiman, China Miéville, Paul McAuley, Glen Hirshberg, Ramsey Campbell and Tanith Lee.The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 16 also contains the most comprehensive overview of horror around the world during the year, lists of useful contact addresses and a fascinating necrology. It is the one book that is required reading for every fan of macabre fiction.

Is it possible? Can an ordinary human being really become a perfect person in three short days? Milo Crinkley thought so. What gave him the idea was a book that fell on his head one day at the library--a book with the impressive title Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! The author, Dr. K. Pinkerton Silverfish, did look kind of weird, but he claimed to be the world's leading authority on perfection. Milo took the book home and followed its instructions. He liked the idea of being perfect. Perfect people never had their parents nag at them. Perfect people never had to take the blame for rotten tricks their sisters played. Perfect people never needed erasers. Perfect was obviously the perfect thing to be! Did Milo become a perfect person in just three days? More important, can you? Do you think we're going to answer all your questions here when we want you to read this hilarious book?Winner of five kid-voted statewide awards! California Young Reader Medal Charlie May Simon Award (Arkansas) Georgia Children's Book Award Nene Award (Hawaii) Sunshine State Award (Florida)A personal message from Dr. K. Pinkerton Silverfish, world's leading expert on perfection:● Maybe you think it's all a lot of baloney. Maybe you think nobody can become perfect in three short days. Well, maybe you should think again!● Here's my no-risk guarantee: Try this book for just three days. If you're not absolutely delighted with the results, you can go soak your head. Now, what could be fairer than that?● I won't be satisfied until every man, woman, and child on the face of the earth completes my amazing crash course in perfection. So, remember: If you don't read this book, I'm going to tell on you!

'I started reading and couldn’t put it down till I’d finished it, which is always an indication of a great book.' Amazon reviewer.'It is a cross between Indiana Jones, Harry Potter and, I reckon, Lord of the Rings. It has all the best elements of each of them. It will hold you, it will entertain you, and it will surprise you'. Amazon reviewer.'Do not bandy words with me, woman!' he shrieked, his spit fizzing like acid as it splattered the stone around the window. 'You are nothing. I could squash you with a thought if I wished. You live only as long as I might find you useful in aiding my escape from this place.' Teenage twins, Luke and Alice Goodnight, live an idyllic life in modern-day rural England. However, when Luke discovers a mysterious object in an old book, a disastrous chain of supernatural events ensues. Recruiting their elderly aunt, Augustine Cherrybrum, an eccentric sorceress, only makes things worse for the twins when her curiosity gets the better of her. Something truly evil is stirring in an ancient mine under a nearby wood. Luke and Alice will need all the help they can get to fight it. Can a retired Special Forces soldier, and a secret society of Arthurian knights, founded by Merlin fifteen hundred years ago, aid the twins in their perilous quest?

From the author of Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!How many things can go wrong on a summer vacation? The Hooples are about to find out!Alvin Hoople just can't wait to get to Philadelphia. He'll see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and the U.S. Mint, where rumor has it they give out free samples. Better yet: a Phillies baseball game. It's Bat Night, where every fan gets a full-sized souvenir!The trip is fun at first, with Monsterburgers, Mr. Clam, and cows that give chocolate milk all part of what looks like a great vacation. But once the Hooples get on the superhighway, everything seems to go wrong. Alvin's little sister Annie keeps losing Lambie, her favorite stuffed toy. The weather threatens to get everybody all wet. And then there's the worst problem of all: car trouble.A ride in a tow truck is definitely a hoot, but it's no Phillies game. Will things ever get back to normal? And will Alvin get his souvenir bat at the end of the most hilarious car trip ever?Drive in and see!

Set against the backdrop of the Atlantic slave trade, this book traces the development, exhibition and final disposition of one of J.M.W. Turner's greatest and most memorable paintings. Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901) in Great Britain produced unprecedented wealth and luxury. For artists and writers this period was particularly noteworthy in that it gave them the opportunity to both praise their country and criticize its overreaching ambition. At the forefront of these artists and writers were men like J.M.W. Turner, Dickens, Thackeray, Tennyson, and John Ruskin, who created some of the most enduring works of art while exposing many of the social evils of their native land. The book also analyzes the man behind the painting. Aloof, gruff and mysterious, Turner resisted success. He worked as a solitary artist, traveling to Europe, sketching towns along the way, studying nature, and transferring his experiences to finished paintings upon his return to London. The son of a barber, he grew up in London and experienced many of the social issues of the age: slavery and freedom, poverty in the slums, monarchy and democracy, stability and anarchy. He was a poet of nature and its innumerable mysteries.