Library
Devon Blosch
Collection Total:
118 Items
Last Updated:
Jan 1, 2010
The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho My Heart Is Afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky."Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams."Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. The Alchemist is such a book. With over a million and a half copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has already established itself as a modern classic, universally admired. Paulo Coelho's charming fable, now available in English for the first time, will enchant and inspire an even wider audience of readers for generations to come.

The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist.

The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories have done, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, above all, following our dreams.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: A Pop-up Adaptation
Lewis Carroll Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is Robert Sabuda's most amazing creation ever, featuring stunning pop-ups illustrated in John Tenniel's classic style. The text is faithful to Lewis Carroll's original story, and special effects like a Victorian peep show, multifaceted foil, and tactile elements make this a pop-up to read and admire again and again.
America the Beautiful: A Pop-up Book
Every Robert Sabuda pop-up is a marvel, but America the Beautiful is singularly remarkable for its inspired interpretation of the classic American anthem. Each page presents a magnificent pop-up featuring a line from the first (and best known) verse of "America the Beautiful." Sabuda has included the song in its entirety, featuring mini pop-ups, in a small booklet on the final page. Beginning with the Golden Gate Bridge, and ending with a spectacularly regal Statue of Liberty, Sabuda's America the Beautiful is a lovely keepsake that also serves as a patriotic primer for teaching young ones about America. —Daphne Durham

Amazon.com's The Significant Seven
Master paper engineer Robert Sabuda answers the seven questions we ask every author.

Q: What book has had the most significant impact on your life?

A: Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel. I specifically remember feeling as if I'd become a grown-up reader because many of the pages did not have pictures.

Q: You are stranded on a desert island with only one book, one CD, and one DVD—what are they?

A: The Stand by Stephen King
Madonna's Greatest Hits
Strangers with Candy: Season One

Q: What is the worst lie you've ever told?

A: That I'd be finishing a book project on time.

Q: Describe the perfect writing environment.

A: I live in New York City, so anyplace that's quiet.

Q: If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say?

A: "Robert Sabuda—Bookmaker.—Bookmaker."

Q: Who is the one person living or dead that you would like to have dinner with?

A: Benjamin Franklin

Q: If you could have one superpower what would it be?

A: Invisibility
BOOK GUIDE TO DECKS
CREATIVE PUBLISHING INT'L - A step-by-step manual for building decks - New, revised edition containing the most current information on materials, techniques, and building codes - Complete, up-to-date on planning and building decks of all types - Instructions for choosing and building with new alternative decking materials - 10 complete deck plans you can build, including multi-level and curved decks - Complete plans for popular deck accessories - Step-by-step instructions for adding lighting, power and low-voltage accessories to any deck
The Berlin Stories
Christopher Isherwood A classic of 20th-century fiction, Berlin Stories inspired the Broadway musical and Oscar-winning film Cabaret.

First published in the 1930s, The Berlin Stories contains two astonishing related novels, The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin, which are recognized today as classics of modern fiction. Isherwood magnificently captures 1931 Berlin: charming, with its avenues and cafés; marvelously grotesque, with its nightlife and dreamers; dangerous, with its vice and intrigue; powerful and seedy, with its mobs and millionaires—this is the period when Hitler was beginning his move to power. The Berlin Stories is inhabited by a wealth of characters: the unforgettable Sally Bowles, whose misadventures in the demimonde were popularized on the American stage and screen by Julie Harris in I Am A Camera and Liza Minnelli in Cabaret; Mr. Norris, the improbable old debauchee mysteriously caught between the Nazis and the Communists; plump Fräulein Schroeder, who thinks an operation to reduce the scale of her Büste might relieve her heart palpitations; and the distinguished and doomed Jewish family, the Landauers.
Boy Meets Boy
David Levithan In this delightful young adult novel for readers 12 and up, high school sophomore Paul says, "There isn’t really a gay scene or a straight scene in our town. They got all mixed up a while back, which I think is for the best." And, as he observes at the end of the story, "It's a wonderful world." Paul has both gay and straight friends, and they all hang out together at terrific bookstores and concerts, and advise one another on the sometimes troubled progress of their various romances. Paul is smitten with Noah, and they are beginning a serious relationship when Kyle, Paul’s ex, complicates things by deciding that all is forgiven. Joni is going out with Chuck, who dominates her, much to her friends' disapproval. Tony’s conservative parents refuse to acknowledge that he is gay, so the others must bone up on Bible verses all week so they can pretend Saturday night is a study group. And then there's Infinite Darlene, football quarterback and Homecoming Queen, who deserves a whole romance novel of her own. Life in their town is gloriously accepting of differences and only occasionally verges on magic realism, in this first novel in which same sex preference is not the problem. —Patty Campbell
Color Drawing: Design Drawing Skills and Techniques for Architects, Landscape Architects, and Interior Designers, 2nd Edition
Michael E. Doyle Stunningly updated, totally redesigned, practical, and ready to use This new edition of Michael Doyle's classic Color Drawing is the ultimate up-to-date resource for professionals and students who need to develop and communicate design ideas with clear, attractive, impressive color drawings. In an easy to use, step-by-step approach, this comprehensive guide presents a total system of color design drawing that encompasses approaches to sketch communication as well as more finished presentation drawing. Totally redesigned to provide quick, easy access to key information, this Second Edition covers the basics of color phenomena, media, techniques, and approaches to illustrating materials necessary to communicate design ideas. With nearly 400 new color illustrations, it contains a new section on color and design principles for creating more sophisticated presentation drawings and offers innovative ideas for the reproduction and distribution of finished drawings. Color Drawing features:
* A complete body of illustrated instruction that demonstrates the development of design ideas from initial concept through presentation drawing
* Finely honed explanations of each technique and process
* Faster and easier ways to create design drawings
* Methods for combining hand-drawn and computer-generated drawing techniques
This remarkably versatile volume is both an illuminating textbook and a completely reliable self-teaching tool, as well as a handy quick reference. It is an excellent guide for students at any level and an unparalleled resource for design professionals.
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
Erik Larson Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that The Devil in the White City is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims. Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing. —John Moe
Drawing Landscapes in Pencil
Ferdinand Petrie
Family Talk: Discourse and Identity in Four American Families
Deborah Tannen, Shari Kendall, Cynthia Gordon Through everyday talk, individuals forge the ties that can make a family. Family members use language to manage a household, create and maintain relationships, and negotiate and reinforce values and beliefs. The studies gathered in Family Talk are based on a unique research project in which four dual-income American families recorded everything they said for a week. Family Talk extends our understanding of family discourse and of how family members construct, negotiate, and enact their identities as individuals and as families. The volume also contributes to the discourse analysis of naturally-occurring interaction and makes significant contributions to theories of framing in interaction.
Family Talk addresses issues central to the academic discipline of discourse analysis as well as to families themselves, including decision-making and conflict-talk, the development of gendered family roles, sociability with and socialization of children, the development of social and political beliefs, and the interconnectedness of professional and family life. It provides illuminating insights into the subtleties of family conversation, and will be of interest to scholars and students in sociolinguistics, discourse studies, communications, anthropological linguistics, cultural studies, psychology, and other fields concerned with the language of everyday interaction or family interaction.
From Concept to Form: In Landscape Design
Grant W. Reid FASLA Use this toolbox of techniques to bridge the distance between concept and form. New approaches, featuring the use of naturalism as a form determinant, ease the transition from general concepts to specific physical shapes and detailed organization of spaces.
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
Alison Bechdel In this groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel charts her fraught relationship with her late father. In her hands, personal history becomes a work of amazing subtlety and power, written with controlled force and enlivened with humor, rich literary allusion, and heartbreaking detail.

Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the "Fun Home." It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve.
Introduction to Landscape Design, 2nd Edition
John L. Motloch Outstanding explorations of design concepts, principles, and processes This Second Edition of Introduction to Landscape Design offers even broader coverage of the environmental, human, technological, and aesthetic issues associated with landscape design than the first edition. Beginning with the way we perceive, manage, and design the landscape, it moves on to explore the forces that influence land design. An overview of landscape management, planning, and design includes a discussion of the roles and integration of the professions involved, modes of professional practice, and site scale design processes. The book explores the ecology of design and the integration of land design decisions into dynamic systems. This fully updated new edition:
* Presents landscape design as a synergism of art and science
* Addresses the interplay between buildings and sites
* Provides insights into the breadth of people-environment relationships
* Places special emphasis on our growing understanding of interrelationships between the landscape and human decisions
A superb introduction for students as well as a useful reference for practicing professionals, this book is an excellent guide for anyone who wants to develop a better understanding of landscape design.
Introductory Landscape Architecture
Michael Laurie Written by a professor/practitioner of landscape architecture, this classic text provides an introduction to the theories, techniques, methods, and history of ecological planning, site planning, and landscape design. Offers a broad perspective on ecological analysis, conservation, landscape planning and environmental impact, site planning and landscape design, human and natural factors, microclimate, planting design, landscape engineering, and a short history of parks, gardens, housing and conservation movements. For students in introductory courses in landscape architecture, architecture, city and regional planning, or landscape horticulture, and for professionals involved in related disciplines.
Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards
Leonard J. Hopper Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards is an entirely new, definitive reference work for everyone involved with landscape architecture, design, and construction. Based on the 70-year success of Architectural Graphic Standards, this new book is destined to become the "bible" for the landscape field. Edited by an educator and former president of the American Society of Landscape Architects, it provides immediate access to rules-of-thumb and standards used throughout the planning, design, construction and management of landscapes.

View sample pages from Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards.
Landscape Graphics
Grant Reid Announcing the new revised edition of the classic industry reference! Landscape Graphics is the architect's ultimate guide to all the basic graphics techniques used in landscape design and landscape architecture. Progressing from the basics into more sophisticated techniques, this guide offers clear instruction on graphic language and the design process, the basics of drafting, lettering, freehand drawing and conceptual diagramming, perspective drawing, section elevations, and more. It also features carefully sequenced exercises, a complete file of graphic symbols for sections and perspectives, and a handy appendix of conversions and equivalents.
Landscape Planning: Environmental Applications
William M. Marsh Increasingly landscape planning requires an understanding of how the landscape functions. Marsh's book provides a unique integration of landscape architecture, forestry, ecology, and geography.

This Fourth Edition incorporates the rapid expansions taking place in the field. It addresses several topics of concern in both public and private sectors such as flooding wetlands, species conservation, and groundwater. Readers will also discover how physical geography, planning, and landscape architecture relate to environmental problems and issues.
* An overview of environmental topics as applied to development, land use, and environmental problems of the landscape
* Focuses on landscape processes, systems, forms, and analysis
* Places greater emphasis on urban environments and site-scale problems
* Arms the reader with a collection of best management practices, which can be applied in the field
* Presents updated case studies that examine planning and design problems
Landscape Plants for Texas and Environs, Second Edition
Michael Aloysius Arnold The book is packed with everything from botanical basics such as leaf types and arrangements to regional climatic data, soil types, a handy dictionary and descriptions of plant families. The bulk of the big book profiles individual plants and includes descriptions, assets and limitations in the landscape, cultural requirement and growth habits.
Landscapes in History, 2nd Edition
Philip Pregill, Nancy Volkman The definitive, one-stop reference to the history of landscape architecture-now expanded and revised

This revised edition of Landscapes in History features for the first time new information-rarely available elsewhere in the literature-on landscape architecture in India, China, Southeast Asia, and Japan. It also expands the discussion of the modern period, including current North American planning and design practices.

This unique, highly regarded book traces the development of landscape architecture and environmental design from prehistory to modern times-in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and North America. It covers the many cultural, political, technological, and philosophical issues influencing land use throughout history, focusing not only on design topics but also on the environmental impact of human activity. Landscape architects, urban planners, and students of these disciplines will find here:
* The most comprehensive, in-depth, and up-to-date overview of the subject
* Hundreds of stunning photographs and design illustrations
* A scholarly yet accessible treatment, drawing on the latest research in archaeology, geography, and other disciplines
* The authors' own firsthand observations and travel experiences
* Insight into the evolution of landscape architecture as a discipline
* Useful chapter summaries and bibliographies
The Little Big Cookies Book
Native Texas Plants: Landscaping Region by Region
Sally Wasowski An indispensable guide with 21 landscaping design plans for every type of terrain found in Texas.
The Night Before Christmas Pop-up
Clement Clarke Moore The ingenious Robert Sabuda returns for yet another inspired pop-up book, a follow-up to The 12 Days of Christmas and The Christmas Alphabet, that retells Clement Clarke Moore's classic yuletide rhyme.

Sabuda remains a master of the medium, constructing a series of varied and well-engineered scenes: Santa pops in and out of the chimney, beds fold out, a window shade rises and falls, and, in a clever nod to Moore's not-a-creature-was-stirring text, it's a family of mice who are receiving Santa's nighttime visit. A pull-out tab even lets readers interact, when Santa's sleigh glides out on the clouds and over an intricately realized village. It's hard to pick a favorite scene here, but you can bet that kids will love the book's pop de résistance, in which Santa's lead reindeer nearly fly right up your nose (if they don't knock you out of your chair first).

The book's first-rate production and lively pop-ups are enough to recommend it, but Sabuda goes one better by showing the thoughtful restraint to make most of the pop-ups almost entirely white. A few accents of color catch your eye (Santa's red suit and silver pipe), but—as befits such a dynamic book—the visual focus stays on the action. (All ages) —Paul Hughes
Ortho's All About Building Waterfalls, Ponds, and Streams
Ortho, Charles M. Thomas, Richard M. Koogle Create beautiful, healthy water features with the detailed, step-by-step building instructions and the helpful advice on selecting materials and equipment in Ortho’s All About Building Waterfalls, Pools, and Streams, published by Meredith (R) Books.
People Places: Design Guidlines for Urban Open Space, 2nd Edition
Clare Cooper Marcus, Carolyn Francis Now available in an updated, expanded second edition, People Places is a fully illustrated, ASLA award-winning book that offers research-based guidelines and recommendations for creating more usable and enjoyable public open spaces of all kinds.

This new edition of People Places contains a chapter-by-chapter review of the literature, a completely new color-photo section, 50 new black and white illustrations, a new chapter on post-occupancy evaluation, case studies, and a discussion of accessibility issues, including ADA regulations and universal design. In addition, updated and new information on seven types of urban open space are included: urban plazas, neighborhood parks, mini and vest-pocket parks, campus outdoor spaces, in housing and outdoor spaces for the elderly, child-care, and hospital outdoor spaces.
Planning and Urban Design Standards
American Planning Association From the publishers of Architectural Graphic Standards, this book, created under the auspices of The American Planning Association, is the most comprehensive reference book on urban planning, design, and development available today. Contributions from more than two hundred renowned professionals provide rules of thumb and best practices for mitigating such environmental impacts as noise, traffic, aesthetics, preservation of green space and wildlife, water quality, and more. You get in-depth information on the tools and techniques used to achieve planning and design outcomes, including economic analysis, mapping, visualization, legal foundations, and real estate developments. Thousands of illustrations, examples of custom work by todays leading planners, and insider information make this work the new standard in the field. Order your copy today.
Queer Space: Architecture and Same-Sex Desire
Aaron Betsky Discussions of gay culture and gay politics traditionally have concerned "civil rights," "artistic influence," and "sexual freedom." Rarely has the concept of how gay people relate to material space been addressed. Aaron Betsky's Queer Space: Architecture and Same-Sex Desire is an important, ground-breaking book that examines how homosexual people live in physical space and how they are in the forefront of creating new concepts of space, for themselves as well as for the rest of the world. Queer Space is smart, well written, and filled with illustrations. Betsky's thesis—that "the purpose of queer space is ultimately sex"—is passionately argued and highly convincing. This is a major work of gay and social studies.
Running with Scissors: A Memoir
Augusten Burroughs There is a passage early in Augusten Burroughs's harrowing and highly entertaining memoir, Running with Scissors, that speaks volumes about the author. While going to the garbage dump with his father, young Augusten spots a chipped, glass-top coffee table that he longs to bring home. "I knew I could hide the chip by fanning a display of magazines on the surface, like in a doctor's office," he writes, "And it certainly wouldn't be dirty after I polished it with Windex for three hours." There were certainly numerous chips in the childhood Burroughs describes: an alcoholic father, an unstable mother who gives him up for adoption to her therapist, and an adolescence spent as part of the therapist's eccentric extended family, gobbling prescription meds and fooling around with both an old electroshock machine and a pedophile who lives in a shed out back. But just as he dreamed of doing with that old table, Burroughs employs a vigorous program of decoration and fervent polishing to a life that many would have simply thrown in a landfill. Despite her abandonment, he never gives up on his increasingly unbalanced mother. And rather than despair about his lot, he glamorizes it: planning a "beauty empire" and performing an a capella version of "You Light Up My Life" at a local mental ward. Burroughs's perspective achieves a crucial balance for a memoir: emotional but not self-involved, observant but not clinical, funny but not deliberately comic. And it's ultimately a feel-good story: as he steers through a challenging childhood, there's always a sense that Burroughs's survivor mentality will guide him through and that the coffee table will be salvaged after all. —John Moe
Selected Poems
Frank O'Hara, Mark Ford Frank O’Hara (1926–1966) was one of the most original and influential American poets of the twentieth century. Although he grew up in Grafton, Massachusetts, O’Hara developed into the quintessential poet of mid-century Manhattan; soon after his arrival in New York in 1951 he evolved a new kind of urban poetry that brilliantly captures the heady excitements of a golden period in the city’s artistic life. O’Hara’s style exudes an insistent, seductive glamour; his mercurial poems, at once open-ended and startlingly immediate, radiate an insouciant confidence that has lost none of its freshness over the decades. O’Hara was at the heart of a vibrant artistic circle that embraced fellow New York School poets John Ashbery, Barbara Guest, Kenneth Koch, and James Schuyler, as well as experimental painters such as Willem de Kooning, Larry Rivers, and Jasper Johns. Their achievements are movingly celebrated in many of his poems, while at the same time he paid loving tribute to popular idols such as James Dean and Lana Turner:

Lana Turner has collapsed!
I was trotting along and suddenly
it started raining and snowing
and you said it was hailing
but hailing hits you on the head
hard so it was really snowing and
raining and I was in such a hurry
to meet you but the traffic
was exactly like the sky
and suddenly I see a headline
LANA TURNER HAS COLLAPSED!
there is no snow in Hollywood
there is no rain in California
I have been to lots of parties
and acted perfectly disgraceful
but I never actually collapsed
oh Lana Turner we love you get up

This generous new selection by Mark Ford reflects all the phases and varied achievements of O’Hara’s tragically foreshortened career, including his drama, and is followed by an appendix of key prose texts such as “Personism,” in which O’Hara succinctly summed up his overall approach to poetry: “You just go on your nerve.”
The Sissy Duckling
Harvey Fierstein Elmer is not like the other boy ducklings. While they like to build forts, he loves to bake cakes. While they like to play baseball, he wants to put on the halftime show. Elmer is a great big sissy.

But when his father is wounded by a hunter's shot, Elmer proves that the biggest sissy can also be the greatest hero.

Acclaimed actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein has crafted a heartwarming story, based on his award-winning HBO animated special, about learning to embrace the special qualities we all possess. Henry Cole's gently humorous illustrations give it a new vitality. This is a book to share with all children, to help them understand that each one of them is unique and valuable.
Site Engineering for Landscape Architects
Steven Strom, Kurt Nathan, Jake Woland, David Lamm The fully updated edition of the leading fundamentals book on site design and engineering
Site Engineering for Landscape Architects, Fourth Edition continues a long tradition as the leading, comprehensive introduction to site engineering. This revised edition is fully updated to address emerging theories, applications, the increasing use of CAD and CAD-related technologies, and much more.
From interpreting landform and contour lines to designing horizontal and vertical road alignments, from construction sequencing to designing storm water management systems, this Fourth Edition offers an integrated presentation of site engineering concepts essential to practicing landscape architecture today. Complete with new case studies and new material on soils and earthwork, erosion control, and site layout and horizontal control, it is also a perfect preparation guide for the most challenging section of the Landscape Architecture Registration Exam (LARE).
In addition to helpful sample problems, calculations, and case studies, this updated Fourth Edition features a companion Web site (available at wiley.com/go/siteengineering) with expanded case studies and links to a variety of regulatory, site engineering, and software resources.
Site Engineering for Landscape Architects, Fourth Edition makes it easier than ever for students and professionals to quickly master the principles and practices involved in today's environmentally sound site engineering.
Texas A&M University: A legacy of tradition
Nancy Glenn
Trees in the Urban Landscape: Site Assessment, Design, and Installation
Peter J. Trowbridge, Nina L. Bassuk This hands-on guidebook provides practical, applied information on design considerations, site planning and understand-ing, plant selection, installation, and maintenance of trees in challenging urban environments.
Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High
Melba Pattillo Beals Presents an account of Melba Beals's junior year at Central High in 1957, during which her family suffered threats, personal attacks, and even a murder attempt, and explains how they endured with faith, courage, strength, and love. Reprint."
Winter in White: A Mini Pop-up Treat
Silent hush of snowy white...

This jewel of a book celebrates the wonders of winter, from snow dancing across branches to the scrape of an ice skate across a pond to the whoosh of a sled down a hill. With magnificent pop-ups by legendary writer, artist, and paper engineer Robert Sabuda, this book is a joy to share and a perfect book to give to celebrate the winter season in all its glory.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Commemorative Pop-up
L. Frank Baum To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the publication of L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, master paper engineer Robert Sabuda has created a pop-up version of Dorothy's adventures in Oz that fans will find hard to resist. Modeling his depictions of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the rest after W. W. Denslow's original art, Sabuda adds a third dimension that would have rocked Denslow's—and Baum's—world. A rapidly spinning cyclone actually casts a breeze over the startled reader's face. Glorious red poppies wave seductively in a field. And the Emerald City positively glitters with green, especially when young readers try on the special tinted "Spectacles for You" provided in a pocket on the page. The abridged text, provided in minibooklets set onto each page, covers enough basics for the Oz novice, but we recommend a read-aloud of the original, as well, for all the glory and detail of Baum's fantastic tale. Sabuda's homage to the classic is truly spectacular; even purists will gasp in delight at the sight of the humbug wizard floating away in his shiny green, gold, and blue hot-air balloon. This great introduction to the story of Oz doubles as a fun collector's item. (Ages 3 to 7) —Emilie Coulter