Books in Sunburst Book series

Brave Irene is Irene Bobbin, the dressmaker's daughter. Her mother, Mrs. Bobbin, isn't feeling so well and can't possibly deliver the beautiful ball gown she's made for the duchess to wear that very evening. So plucky Irene volunteers to get the gown to the palace on time, in spite of the fierce snowstorm that's brewing-- quite an errand for a little girl.But where there's a will, there's a way, as Irene proves in the danger-fraught adventure that follows. She must defy the wiles of the wicked wind, her most formidable opponent, and overcome many obstacles before she completes her mission. Surely, this winning heroine will inspire every child to cheer her on.Brave Irene is a 1986 New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year.

Tiffky Doofky, garbage collector for the town of Popville, is proud of his calling, and quite a gay dog into the bargain. One fine spring morning, while he's making his rounds, it comes to him that something special is going to happen. Madame Tarsal, the fortuneteller, confirms his hunch and predicts that he will meet his true love that very day--before the sun goes down! "Nothing you can do can keep it from happening," she quacks, and the excited Tiffky kisses her right on the bill. The day turns out to be far from ordinary, but not in the way Tiffky Doofky, or even Madame Tarsal, had expected. A bad-tempered witch is at work here, though she looks just like a harmless old biddy, with her bicycle and red babushka. Tiffky's adventures under her spell take him so far from Popville and so close to sunset that he begins to despair of ever meeting his beloved. He even decides that Madame Tarsal ought to get a new crystal ball. But just as the sun is touching the horizon, Tiffky has his most perilous encounter, and it brings an ending entirely satisfactory to all.

Paper John moves to a little town by the edge of the sea and makes his living folding beautiful paper flowers, birds, and boats. HE is so skilled he even makes a paper house to live in. And he is so gentle and good-natured that the townsfolk all agree he could get along with the devil himself. But when a devil comes to town, Paper John's skill and patience is put to the test as he does battle with the devil and his one devilish trick. Lively full-color paintings add to all the fun.David Small is the illustrator of many books for children, including Anna and the Seven Swans, a Booklist Editor's Choice and a School Library Journal Best Book for 1984. His most recent book, Imogene's Antlers, is a 1986 Reading Rainbow Feature Selection. This is his first book with Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Mr. Small lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

On a scorching July day in 1950, a fabulous fat man drives into Wetumka, Oklahoma. F. Bam Morrison is selling tickets to Bohn's United Circus Shows, and the townspeople are buying―all, that is, except ol' man Swank, who says F. Bam Morrison is a two-faced weasel. Smitten with Morrison, ten-year-old Bobbie Jo Hailey―and mean Clara Jean Knox, whom she befriends―unwittingly joins the effort to bamboozle Wetumka. When Bobbie Jo realizes her mistake, Morrison is on his way out of town, leaving her disappointed but intact―and greatly enriched by her relationship with the flimflam man. Lovingly illustrated by Eileen Christelow, Darleen Bailey Beard's delightful story is based on a real episode in Wetumka's history, still celebrated annually as Sucker Day!

"We are at Shine, on the first day, " says Pattie, when, as the youngest member of the group, she is given the honor of naming the new settlement. Refugees from the dying planet Earth, they, along with other ships, have been sent into space in the hope that some of them will survive to continue the human race. But the success of Shine remains doubtful as crops fail and provisions brought from Earth dwindle. Even the excitement surrounding the hatching of the giant moth people from the "boulders" in Boulder Valley doesn't make the group forget the hopelessness of the situation. It isn't until Pattie and her sister Sarah make an important discovery that survival becomes a certainty.

"A professional storyteller, Fang uses the tales she heard, read, and loved as a child in Shanghai. Now she has written down nine of those stories whose origins are legends, novels, and operas hundreds of years old. Dramatic, humorous, and touching by turns, the stories often concern difficulties overcome by characters who are kind or clever, or both...A fine, flavorful collection."-Starred/Booklist