Books published by publisher NYRB Kids

An American Wind in the Willows, this charming tale of Mr. Lobster and his underwater and dry land friends celebrates curiousity and having an open mind, and will be sure to delight children and parents.Whether you are five or one hundred and five, chances are you’ve never met a lobster as learned and charming as Mr. Lobster—and he’d be the very first to tell you so. Mr. Lobster has evaded the fisherman’s trap for decades, but life in his corner of the ocean seems duller by the day. The time has come to seek new adventures, new friends, and even—gasp!—new, dry lands. Dry land is of course perilous for a saltwater-dwelling creature, as are the folks you can meet there, like badgers, bears, birds, and snakes. But Mr. Lobster has a way of turning every enemy into a dear friend and of escaping the scrapes his curiosity gets him into.An American Wind in the Willows, The Curious Lobster stories have been delighting a small and devoted fellowship of readers for going on eighty years. Sweet but not cloying, instructive but not didactic, they acknowledge the challenges of getting along with others and celebrate the possibilities of a life lived beyond the normal swim of things.This edition collects all of Richard W. Hatch’s Mr. Lobster stories, originally published in two volumes The Curious Lobster and The Curious Lobster’s Island.

Newbery Medal-winning author Nancy Willard's trilogy of adventure tales, now in one volume. Children won't be able to put down these stories of the journeys of a boy and his orange cat, Plumpet.Anatole has a knack for seeking and finding adventure, often with Plumpet, his orange cat, who is accustomed to ghost trains, amnesiac soldiers, flying horses, and wallpaper portals, just a few of the enchantments encountered along the way. From his perilous search for wild fennel to cure his grandmother’s asthma, to his high-stakes game of checkers to save his uncle from a wizard’s evil spell, Anatole’s missions will keep young readers turning the pages of this omnibus edition of the Newbery Medal–winning author Nancy Willard’s trilogy of fantasy tales: Sailing to Cythera, The Island of the Grass King, and Uncle Terrible. David McPhail’s pen-and-ink illustrations throughout are beautifully detailed engagements with Willard’s world of make-believe. Anatole may be small but he is determined to right the wrongs he finds in each of the lands he enters. Whether kindness or evil will prevail is a matter of suspense, but Anatole is always on the side of the light.

Now in paperback The Magic Pudding is a pie, except when it’s something else, like a steak, or a jam doughnut, or an apple dumpling, or whatever its owner wants it to be. And it never runs out. No matter how many slices you cut, there’s always something left over. It’s magic. But the Magic Pudding is also alive. It walks and it talks and it’s got a personality like no other. A meaner, sulkier, snider, snarlinger Pudding you’ve never met. So Bunyip Bluegum (the koala) finds out when he joins Barnacle Bill (the sailor) and Sam Sawnoff (the penguin bold) as members of the Noble Society of Pudding Owners, whose “members are required to wander along the roads, indulgin’ in conversation, song and story, and eatin’ at regular intervals from the Pudding.” The Magic Pudding rivals The Stinky Cheese Man as one of the craziest books ever written for young readers.

Imagine how shocked you would be if, like ten-year-old Colin Mason, you were the oldest (smartest, best) kid in a family of four, and then you found out that all these years, without knowing it, you’ve had an older sister, an “awful, awful, bad, bad, girl—Loretta Mason Potts.” Who? What? Wait! ... But this is only the first of many surprises that lie in store for Colin, as things get curiouser and curiouser very fast. Loretta (a glum gangly girl and so very very rude!) comes home and before you know it, Colin is secretly following her down a hidden tunnel that leads from a bedroom closet to an astonishing castle, where a charming and beautiful countess keeps court attended by a dapper and ever-obliging general, and in this world everybody loves Loretta (especially when she’s rude), so much so that they’re begging her to stay with them forever. What is the secret behind this mysterious other world and how does it connect to the many secrets in the Mason family? It’ll take a spellbinding, hair-raising adventure, involving not just Colin and Loretta but their mother and the rest of the family, to work that out.

By a recipient of the Carnegie Medal for British children's books, a whimsical classic featuring talking gnomes and magical woods that will appeal to fans of The Wind in the Willows."This is a story about the last gnomes in Britain. They are honest-to-goodness gnomes, none of your baby, fairy-book tinsel stuff, and they live by hunting and fishing, like the animals and birds, which is only proper and right." --From the author's introductionOn the banks of the Folly Brook, inside an old oak tree, live the last three gnomes in Britain: Sneezewort, Baldmoney, and Dodder. Before their fourth brother, Cloudberry, disappeared upstream seeking adventure, they lived happily and peacefully among their woodland friends. But now spring has come and the brothers start thinking about spending the summer traveling upstream to find Cloudberry. Before long they've built a boat and set off for unknown lands, where they find themselves involved in all kinds of adventures with new friends (wood mice, water voles, badgers) as well as with enemies (two-legged giants). A classic of British literature, BB's The Little Grey Men has much in common with Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, though as BB acknowledges in his introduction, the talking gnomes are only part of the story. The true plot, which BB, an unparalleled naturalist, brings thrillingly to life is the magic of the woods and streams, the beauty of unspoiled nature and of the great diversity of living things.