Books with author Tom Johnston

Riomo Books: Love Learning To Read---- Skills. Confidence. Enjoyment. ----Short Vowel Shorts: The First Five Multi-word Books Your Child Can "Read On My Own"Is your child ready to read? If they know all their letter sounds, they can sound out (decode) and read these very short, confidence-building stories for children. Fat Cat vs. Bad Bat is the third phonics story in this series and utilizes only the short vowel a.This very short story can just be a silly interaction between a cat and a bat that helps children hop into reading, or it could provide an opportunity to talk about how our actions can affect others, consequences of our actions, ways we can respond rather than retaliation and how seeking to understand one another might change the way we treat others. Bad Bat is rude to/bullies Fat Cat. How will Fat Cat feel? How will Fat Cat respond? What do you think happens next? How could this interaction have been different?Short Vowel Shorts is a series of five phonics books for kids that can help them gain confidence as they learn how to read. The books are designed to be an engaging compliment to word family or phonics worksheets and other reading activities. They don’t contain any sight words/tricky words, so children who know all their letter sounds but haven’t learned sight words yet can sound out (decode) the words and read them, initially with help from a parent or teacher, and then by themselves.Each story contains only one short vowel sound, so children are only deciphering one vowel sound for the whole story rather than a mix of multiple vowel sounds.The aim of Short Vowel Shorts is to provide parents and teachers with an option for a phonics step between single letter sounds/word families and short stories that contain sight words and a mix of multiple vowel sounds. With original full color illustrations and in story format, Short Vowel Shorts can be an engaging supplement to word families that will have children gaining skills, confidence, and enjoyment as readers, and saying: "Can I Read-It-On-My-Own?" and then: “I just Read-It-On-My-Own!”No sight words/tricky words.Full color original illustrations.Fun characters and stories.Builds Skills, Confidence & Enjoyment

Award-winning picture-book author Tony Johnston presents the poignant story of a loving Mexican-American family in East L.A. in her first novel for young readers.Los Angeles is a place of movie stars and fast cars and people who are too rich and people who are too poor. An area of freeway chases and drive-bys and death. But there's another L.A., one where warmth and humor and humanity pervade. Where a tacqueria sign declares: "One cause, one people, one taco." This L.A. is a place where random acts of generosity and goodwill improve the lives of the community. Any Small Goodness is a novel filled with hope, love, and warmth.

When the Nazis invaded Poland, a family is split apart. The parents are sent to one concentration camp, their son to another. Only his father's gift, a harmonica, keeps the boy's hopes alive and, miraculously, ensures his survival.Tony Johnston's powerful story, inspired by the life of a Holocaust survivor, is enhanced by Ron Mazellan's luminous artwork.A testament to the human spirit and the transcendent power of music.

The riveting memoir of a Vietnam War helicopter pilot.“When you step into a Huey with Tom Johnson, you’re in for the real thing. No one has previously captured the Vietnam helicopter experience with such gripping authority.”—Robert F. Dorr, author of Chopper From June 1967 to June 1968, Tom Johnson accumulated an astonishing 1,600 flying hours piloting the UH-1 “Iroquois”—better known as the “Huey”—as part of the famous First Air Cavalry Division. His battalion was one of the most decorated units of the Vietnam War, and helped redefine modern warfare. Johnson’s riveting memoir takes us into key battles and rescue missions, including those for Hue and Khe Sanh. In harrowing detail, he tells of being shot down in the battle of A Shau Valley, of surviving enemy attacks during the Tet Offensive, and of a death-defying nighttime river rescue, in which only the bare feet of soldiers hanging off the Huey’s skids kept the helicopter from plunging under water. From dangerous missions to narrow escapes, Johnson’s memoir vividly captures the adrenaline rush and the horror of war, and takes you on a ride you’ll never forget.

Helicopter pilots in Vietnam kidded one another about being nothing but glorified bus drivers. But these “rotor heads” saved thousands of American lives while performing what the Army classified as the most dangerous job it had to offer. One in eighteen did not return home. Tom A. Johnson flew the UH-1 “Iroquois” — better known as the “Huey” — in the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion of the First Air Cavalry Division. From June 1967 through June 1968, he accumulated an astonishing 1,600 flying hours (1,150 combat and 450 noncombat). His battalion was one of the most highly decorated units in the Vietnam War and, as part of the famous First Air Cavalry Division, helped redefine modern warfare. With tremendous flying skill, Johnson survived rescue missions and key battles that included those for Hue and Khe Sanh and operations in the A Shau and Song Re valleys, while many of his comrades did not. His heartfelt and riveting memoir will strike a chord with any soldier who ever flew in the ubiquitous Huey and any reader with an interest in how the Vietnam War was really fought.

Inside Tim Johnston's Irish Girl, readers will find spellbinding stories of loss, absence, and the devastating effects of chance—of what happens when the unthinkable bad luck of other people, of other towns, becomes our bad luck, our town. Taut, lucid, and engrossing, provocative and dark—and often darkly funny—these stories have much to offer the lover of literary fiction as well as the reader who just loves a great story. “It’s dark in here, but brilliant. Tim Johnston is as wise as he is original, and his stories are impossible to forget.”—David Sedaris "This is white-knuckle prose; it means what it says and it says what it means. Not that I count words, but when an image can be etched in fewer than ten, I sit up and take notice. When an image is limned in fewer than five words, I pretty near shiver. The stories in Irish Girl provide more shiver per page than most stories provide in twenty."—Janet Peery, judge and author of The River Beyond the World

School's out in Big River, Iowa, and Tex Donleavy, a kid who keeps his nose in the books and his deformed right hand deep in his pocket, is looking forward to a blissful summer in the company of Linda Volesky, the vivacious beauty who happens to be his father's girlfriend. Instead, Tex gets dumped on his mother's doorstep, where Farley Dickerson, the big oaf she's just married, and his two kids have made themselves at home. Nobody's more surprised than Tex, then, when he discovers he likes his new stepfather, that he actually wants to spend the summer at Mom's, and that he - Tex Donleavy - is going to play ball on Farley's Little League team. And then there's the plucky and brooding Jack, Farley's daughter, who becomes Tex's closest ally, as well as his greatest source of confusion. In all, it's shaping up to be a summer full of surprises - though nothing can prepare Tex for the biggest surprise of all, a secret so terrible that it will change the lives of every member of his family.Through his careful, lyrical prose, Tim Johnston expertly balances the pain of inching toward maturity with sly humor, making his fiction debut an auspicious occasion.

A professional wrestling take on the classic "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" story. Each little wrestler in the story is hit with a move and then decides to move onto another task like gardening, bike riding, and calling their grandmothers. At the end, the tired little wrestler left goes to sleep! A great story for children who are learning to count, love wrestling, or enjoy saying fun words like "Quebradora en toda lo alto."