Books published by publisher David R Godine

Winner, New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book Award Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year More than any other public space in New York City, Times Square is the place where Americans have gathered, in good times and in bad, to catch up on the latest news, to mark historic occasions, or just to meet a few friends. From the Stock Market crash in 1929 to the celebrations marking the end of the Second World War, to annual New Year’s Eve festivities with the iconic descending lighted ball, the square and its tower have been an integral part of our history. One Times Square explores the story of this fascinating intersection, starting when Broadway was a mere dirt path known as Bloomingdale Road, through the district’s decades of postwar decay, to its renewal as a glittering tourist-friendly media mecca. Joe McKendry’s meticulous watercolors take readers behind the famous Camel billboard to find out how it blew smoke rings over the square for 25 years, to the top of the Times Tower to see how the New Year’s ball has made its descent for over 100 years, and onto construction sites as buildings grow up around One Times Square to dwarf what once ranked among the tallest buildings in the world.

Living in a "home hand-built" on the Alaskan coast, the man who "trades with the sea" combs the silent dawn beaches each morning for driftwood and cast-off items. For this quiet man, each find has its own story, its own past and dignity. Every day after gathering his treasure - and leaving behind those gifts "that are best never held" - he returns home where he carves a small figure from the driftwood, a gift for the sea. This beautiful - and beautifully illustrated - story is a quiet hymn celebrating man and nature in harmony. Children and ecology-minded adults alike will find much to enjoy in Shannon's spare text and Azarian's elegant woodcut art.

This playful alphabet, lush with surprising details and limned in delicate colors, was inspired by that familiar and beloved nursery companion the alphabet block. As reimagined by artist Judy Pelikan, each letter of the alphabet takes possession of its own face, covering, carving, painting, and manipulating the surface of the block in a variety of inventive and unexpected ways.Pelikan approaches humble wooden cubes as points of entry into a magical world, one of surprising objects, exotic animals, intimate landscapes, and delicate balances. Every face is decorated with images related to its letter: the Painter's Pointillist block introduces a Pitcher and Pearls and one-Point Perspective, while a Tolstoy Tome straightens a Teetering Tea Table (set with a complete, and minute, Tea service). And some are not quite blocks at all: a Folded strip of Film follows sandy Footprints past a Friend's cowrie shell while a quartet of Jaunty Jacks squares up to form a miniature house of cards. Each page offers up its own intriguing and challenging little world, a combination of the best of Kate Greenaway's color and form and M.C. Escher's mystery and visual disconnects.On the verso, facing each block, is the upper and lower case letter, redrawn after the forms of Paul Renner's simple, modern Futura typeface, elegant counterpoints to the fascinating, minutely detailed pencil-and-watercolor illustrations. This is small enough for a child to handle, and sophisticated enough for an adult to appreciate. It is a little bijou of a book.

The Swallows break a promise to their mother and the four young sailors find themselves drifting out to sea―and then sweeping across to Holland in the midst of a full gale!The Swallows only meant to sail within an estuary on a borrowed boat. They didn’t mean to get stranded in the fog, lose their anchor in a storm, and be driven out into the North Sea. John is nearly swept overboard, their ship almost capsizes―and Susan really regrets not doing as their mother asked. And their father, Navy Commander Ted Walker, is due back from his posting in Hong Kong any time and they might miss seeing him. Family, resourcefulness, and sailing, too: Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series has stood the test of time. More than just great stories, each one celebrates independence and initiative with a colorful, large cast of characters. We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea (originally published in 1937) is the seventh title in the Swallows and Amazons series, books for children or grownups, anyone captivated by a world of adventure, exploration, and imagination.

This beloved short story a classic coming-of-age tale by the author of The Country of the Pointed Firs is gloriously illustrated with pencil drawings by Maine artist Douglas Alvord. Sylvia, a city girl more at home with animals than with people, has come to the Maine Woods to live with her grandmother. One summer afternoon in the late 1800s, her life is changed forever when she meets an attractive young ornithologist searching for birds to snare, stuff, preserve, and display. With consummate literary skill, Jewett dramatizes the storm of emotions Sylvia feels both for this young man and for the natural world, and especially for the rare white heron the ornithologist is so eager to possess. Mr. Alvord's pictures are as delicate as Sylvia's emotions and as precise as Jewett's descriptions of Sylvia's inner struggle.