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Books published by publisher Cadwallader and Stern

  • Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet

    Stephen Manes

    Hardcover (Cadwallader and Stern, Sept. 7, 2011)
    The internationally acclaimed new book that takes you behind the scenes to reveal how ballet really happens: In a scuffed-up studio, a veteran dancer transmits the magic of an eighty-year-old ballet to a performer barely past drinking age. In a converted barn, an indomitable teacher creates ballerinas as she has for more than half a century. In a monastic mirrored room, dancers from as near as New Jersey and as far as Mongolia learn works as old as the nineteenth century and as new as this morning. Snowflakes zooms in on an intimate view of one full season in the life of one of America's top ballet companies and schools: Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet. But it also tracks the Land of Ballet to venues as celebrated as New York and Monte Carlo and as seemingly ordinary as Bellingham, Washington and small-town Pennsylvania. Never before has a book taken readers backstage for such a wide-ranging view of the ballet world from the wildly diverse perspectives of dancers, choreographers, stagers, teachers, conductors, musicians, rehearsal pianists, lighting directors, costumers, stage managers, scenic artists, marketers, fundraisers, students, and even pointe shoe fitters--often in their own remarkably candid words. The book follows characters as colorful as they are talented. Versatile dancers from around the globe team up with novice choreographers and those as renowned as Susan Stroman, Christopher Wheeldon, and Twyla Tharp to create art on deadline. At the book's center is Peter Boal, a former New York City Ballet star in his third year as PNB's artistic director, as he manages conflicting constituencies with charm, tact, rationality and diplomacy. Readers look over Boal's shoulder as he makes tough decisions about programming, casting, scheduling and budgeting that eventually lead the calm, low-key leader to declare that in his job, "You have to be willing to be hated." Snowflakes shows how ballet is made, funded, and sold. It escorts you front and center to the kick zone of studio rehearsals. It takes you to the costume shop where elegant tutus and gowns are created from scratch. It brings you backstage to see sets and lightingwi come alive while stagehands get lovingly snarky and obscene on their headsets. It sits you down in meetings where budgets get slashed and dreams get funded-and axed. It shows you the inner workings of Nutcracker, from kids' charming auditions to no-nonsense marketing meetings, from snow bags in the flies to dancing snowflakes who curse salty flurries that land on their tongues. It follows the tempestuous assembly of a version of Romeo and Juliet that runs afoul of so much pressure, disease, injury, and blood that the dancers begin to call it cursed. Snowflakes uncovers the astounding way ballets, with no common form of written preservation, are handed down from generation to generation through the prodigious memories of brilliant athletes who also happen to be artists. It goes on tour with the company to Vail, Colorado, where dancers contend with altitude that makes their muscles cramp and their lungs ache. It visits cattle-call auditions and rigorous classes, tells the stories of dancers whose parents sacrificed for them and dancers whose parents refused to. It meets the resolute woman who created a dance school more than fifty years ago in a Carlisle, Pennsylvania barn and grew it into one of America's most reliable ballerina factories. It shows ballet's appeal to kids from low-income neighborhoods and board members who live in mansions. Shattering longstanding die-for-your-art clichés, this book uncovers the real drama in the daily lives of fiercely dedicated union members in slippers and pointe shoes-and the musicians, stagehands, costumers, donors and administrators who support them. Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet brings readers the exciting truth of how ballet actually happens.
  • Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!

    Stephen Manes

    Paperback (Cadwallader & Stern, Jan. 12, 2018)
    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)
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  • Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet

    Stephen Manes

    eBook (Cadwallader & Stern, Sept. 16, 2011)
    The internationally acclaimed new book that takes you behind the scenes to reveal how ballet really happens: In a scuffed-up studio, a veteran dancer transmits the magic of an eighty-year-old ballet to a performer barely past drinking age. In a converted barn, an indomitable teacher creates ballerinas as she has for more than half a century. In a monastic mirrored room, dancers from as near as New Jersey and as far as Mongolia learn works as old as the nineteenth century and as new as this morning. "Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear" zooms in on an intimate view of one full season in the life of one of America's top ballet companies and schools: Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet. But it also tracks the Land of Ballet to venues as celebrated as New York and Monte Carlo and as seemingly ordinary as Bellingham, Washington and small-town Pennsylvania. Never before has a book taken readers backstage for such a wide-ranging view of the ballet world from the wildly diverse perspectives of dancers, choreographers, stagers, teachers, conductors, musicians, rehearsal pianists, lighting directors, costumers, stage managers, scenic artists, marketers, fundraisers, students, and even pointe shoe fitters--often in their own remarkably candid words. The book follows characters as colorful as they are talented. Versatile dancers team up with novice choreographers and those as renowned as Susan Stroman, Christopher Wheeldon, and Twyla Tharp to create art on deadline. At the book's center is Peter Boal, a former New York City Ballet star in his third year as PNB's artistic director, as he manages conflicting constituencies with charm, tact, rationality and diplomacy. Readers look over Boal's shoulder as he makes tough decisions about programming, casting, scheduling and budgeting that eventually lead the calm, low-key leader to declare that in his job, "You have to be willing to be hated." "Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear" shows how ballet is made, funded, and sold. It escorts you front and center to the kick zone of studio rehearsals. It takes you to the costume shop where elegant tutus and gowns are created from scratch. It brings you backstage to see sets and lighting come alive while stagehands get lovingly snarky and obscene on their headsets. It sits you down in meetings where budgets get slashed and dreams get funded--and axed. It shows you the inner workings of Nutcracker, from kids' charming auditions to no-nonsense marketing meetings, from snow bags in the flies to dancing snowflakes who curse salty flurries that land on their tongues. It follows the tempestuous assembly of a version of Romeo and Juliet that runs afoul of so much pressure, disease, injury, and blood that the dancers begin to call it cursed. The book uncovers the astounding way ballets, with no common form of written preservation, are handed down via the prodigious memories of brilliant athletes who also happen to be artists. It goes on tour with the company to Vail, Colorado, where dancers contend with altitude that makes their muscles cramp and their lungs ache. It visits cattle-call auditions and rigorous classes, tells the stories of dancers whose parents sacrificed for them and dancers whose parents refused to. It meets the resolute woman who created a dance school more than fifty years ago in a Carlisle, Pennsylvania barn and grew it into one of America's most reliable ballerina factories. It shows ballet's appeal to kids from low-income neighborhoods and board members who live in mansions. Shattering longstanding die-for-your-art clichés, this book uncovers the real drama in the daily lives of fiercely dedicated union members in slippers and pointe shoes--and the musicians, stagehands, costumers, donors and administrators who support them. "Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet" brings readers the exciting truth of how ballet actually happens.
  • Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!

    Stephen Manes

    language (Cadwallader & Stern, Feb. 8, 2014)
    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 MedalCharlie May Simon Award (Arkansas) Georgia Children's Book AwardNene 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!
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  • Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet

    Stephen Manes

    Paperback (Cadwallader and Stern, Sept. 4, 2012)
    The internationally acclaimed book that takes you behind the scenes to reveal how ballet really happens:In a scuffed-up studio, a veteran dancer transmits the magic of an eighty-year-old ballet to a performer barely past drinking age. In a converted barn, an indomitable teacher creates ballerinas as she has for more than half a century. In a monastic mirrored room, dancers from as near as New Jersey and as far as Mongolia learn works as old as the nineteenth century and as new as this morning. Snowflakes zooms in on an intimate view of one full season in the life of one of America's top ballet companies and schools: Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet. But it also tracks the Land of Ballet to venues as celebrated as New York and Monte Carlo and as seemingly ordinary as Bellingham, Washington and small-town Pennsylvania. Never before has a book taken readers backstage for such a wide-ranging view of the ballet world from the wildly diverse perspectives of dancers, choreographers, stagers, teachers, conductors, musicians, rehearsal pianists, lighting directors, costumers, stage managers, scenic artists, marketers, fundraisers, students, and even pointe shoe fitters--often in their own remarkably candid words. The book follows characters as colorful as they are talented. Versatile dancers from around the globe team up with novice choreographers and those as renowned as Susan Stroman, Christopher Wheeldon, and Twyla Tharp to create art on deadline. At the book's center is Peter Boal, a former New York City Ballet star in his third year as PNB's artistic director, as he manages conflicting constituencies with charm, tact, rationality and diplomacy. Readers look over Boal's shoulder as he makes tough decisions about programming, casting, scheduling and budgeting that eventually lead the calm, low-key leader to declare that in his job, "You have to be willing to be hated." Snowflakes shows how ballet is made, funded, and sold. It escorts you front and center to the kick zone of studio rehearsals. It takes you to the costume shop where elegant tutus and gowns are created from scratch. It brings you backstage to see sets and lighting come alive while stagehands get lovingly snarky and obscene on their headsets. It sits you down in meetings where budgets get slashed and dreams get funded--and axed. It shows you the inner workings of Nutcracker, from kids' charming auditions to no-nonsense marketing meetings, from snow bags in the flies to dancing snowflakes who curse salty flurries that land on their tongues. It follows the tempestuous assembly of a version of Romeo and Juliet that runs afoul of so much pressure, disease, injury, and blood that the dancers begin to call it cursed. Snowflakes uncovers the astounding way ballets, with no common form of written preservation, are handed down from generation to generation through the prodigious memories of brilliant athletes who also happen to be artists. It visits cattle-call auditions and rigorous classes, tells the stories of dancers whose parents sacrificed for them and dancers whose parents refused to. It meets the resolute woman who created a dance school more than fifty years ago in a Carlisle, Pennsylvania barn and grew it into one of America's most reliable ballerina factories. It shows ballet's appeal to kids from low-income neighborhoods and board members who live in mansions. Shattering longstanding die-for-your-art clichés, this book uncovers the real drama in the daily lives of fiercely dedicated artists in slippers and pointe shoes-and the musicians, stagehands, costumers, donors and administrators who support them. Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet brings readers the exciting truth of how ballet actually happens.
  • Hooples on the Highway

    Stephen Manes

    language (Cadwallader & Stern, April 13, 2012)
    From the author of Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!, here's the story of the wildest family road trip ever . . .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!
  • Chicken Trek

    Stephen Manes, Ron Barrett

    language (Cadwallader & Stern, May 29, 2012)
    How much chicken can one human eat? Oscar Noodleman is about to find out!From the author of Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! and the artist who created Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, this new Kindle edition includes the entire classic book, plus two free bonuses: Chicken Trek: The Screenplay (not yet a major or even minor motion picture) and the author's revelations about this book's fowl history.The story? Oscar owes his weird inventor cousin $49,462.37--plus tax. His cousin needs the money to avoid a horrible fate. The only way out is for Oscar to win the Bagful o' Cash prize in a coast-to-coast chicken-eating contest.Trekking across America in his cousin's amazing Picklemobile, Oscar stuffs down more than two hundred chicken meals. But an evil seer with a huge appetite, a grudge against Oscar's cousin, and a taste for fowl play is hot on the drumstick trail herself.Will Oscar sprout feathers? Will the ChickenSniffer, the RemDem(tm) and his cousin's other crazy inventions save the day? Feast on this tale and cackle at the fine-feathered fun!
  • Make Four Million Dollars by Next Thursday!

    Stephen Manes

    eBook (Cadwallader & Stern, Dec. 25, 2012)
    Here's the best-selling sequel to the hilarious Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!Is is possible? Can an ordinary kid become a multimillionaire in one short week?Jason Nozzle thought so. What gave him the idea was a book he dug up in the park--a book called Make Four Million Dollars by Next Thursday! The author, Dr. K. Pinkerton Silverfish, didn't look like a multimillionaire, but he claimed to be the world's leading authority on getting rich quick.Rich! The more Jason thought about it, the better it sounded. Jason took the book home and tried to follow its instructions. But that wasn't as easy as it seemed.Did Jason become four million dollars richer in a matter of days? More important, can you? You'll find the hilarious answers here. Once again, noted author Stephen Manes teams up with noted authority K. Pinkerton Silverfish--and you'll laugh all the way to the bank!
  • The Hooples' Haunted House

    Stephen Manes

    language (Cadwallader & Stern, May 2, 2012)
    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!
  • The Obnoxious Jerks

    Stephen Manes

    eBook (Cadwallader & Stern, March 29, 2012)
    Who are the Obnoxious Jerks?A: The weirdest band of total misfits ever seen at any known high school in the free world.B: Amateur comedians whose routines include kazoos, used chewing gum, and gooey lemon meringue pies.C: Members of a club whose Official Ice Cream Flavor is Nuts to You.D: A disorganized organization whose exploits are required reading for anybody with a sense of humor.All of the above--and more . . . And now they fit into your Kindle!There are jerks in every high school. The Obnoxious Jerks are found only at Ullman Griswold Memorial High (or, as they prefer to call it, UGH). They specialize in pranks (better known as "jerk-outs") designed to show how ridiculous some school rules can be. Which means the detention hall sometimes becomes the Jerks' unofficial meeting room.Then something happens to shake up Jerkdom: A girl known as "Iceberg" Freeze asks to join the all-male club-that's-not-a-club. It's not long before she finds herself at the center of the greatest jerk-out ever--one that involves picket signs, mass demonstrations, and guys wearing skirts.What's acceptable behavior? What's worth fighting for? The Obnoxious Jerks twist, bend, and break the rules to find out. And in the process learn a lot about questioning not only the outside world, but also themselves.
  • That Game from Outer Space

    Stephen Manes, Tony Auth

    language (Cadwallader & Stern, Aug. 30, 2012)
    From the author of Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! and the Pulitzer prize-winning illustrator of Uncle Pirate:The giant video game that appears one day in Pete's Pizza Palace is the strangest one Oscar Noodleman has ever seen. It looks more like a rocket ship than a game. There's not a word of English on it anywhere; everything from the control panel to the coin slot is labeled in some strange language that seems to use squiggles instead of letters. And when he and Pete finally figure out how to get it working, they discover the loudest game they've ever heard.But as the screen pops out to wrap around Oscar's head and he gets deeper into the game, he discovers levels and challenges unlike any he's ever seen. He begins to wonder if this isn't just a game, but a real rocket from outer space. Some colorful bugs run down the screen and into the coin slot. And that's when things start getting downright weird . . .
  • The Hooples' Horrible Holiday

    Stephen Manes

    language (Cadwallader & Stern, May 9, 2012)
    From the author of Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!, here's the hilarious sequel to Hooples on the Highway and The Hooples' Haunted House:Thanksgiving! Turkey! Pumpkin pie! Parades! Alvin Hoople and his family are off to his grandparents' house to celebrate. But everything from freeway traffic to airplane food makes it look like the day will never arrive. Even the Pilgrims on the perfect Thanksgiving cake barely survive the trip.But that's nothing compared to the chaos at grandmother's house when a giant blizzard knocks out the power for miles around. With aunts and uncles and cousins and parents gathered for the big day, suddenly there's no TV, no heat, no lights, no stove . . . no turkey!But if the Pilgrims could get along without electricity, so can the Hooples. With a houseful of clever people and some wild imagination, they come up with the wildest newfangled old-fashioned Thanksgiving ever!