The READ ME brand has been a publishing sensation, selling tens of thousands of copies and continuing to sell strongly for half a decade. This brand-new collection features a funny poem for every day of the year, from rhymes that will raise a gentle smile to verse that will make you laugh your socks off. This book is packed with gems new and old from poets such as Charles Causley, Roger McGough, Lewis Caroll, Paul Cookson and Wendy Cope.
This mom and dad are a little odd--and a lot of fun! Mom likes spots, and Dad likes stripes. But their son's favorite thing couldn't be more of a surprise! "It's stripes vs. dots in this eye-boggling feast of extroverted colors and shapes".--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.
When life is funny, make some jokes about it. Billy Plimpton has a big dream: to become a famous comedian when he grows up. He already knows a lot of jokes, but thinks he has one big problem standing in his way: his stutter. At first, Billy thinks the best way to deal with this is to . . . never say a word. That way, the kids in his new school won’t hear him stammer. But soon he finds out this is NOT the best way to deal with things. (For one thing, it’s very hard to tell a joke without getting a word out.) As Billy makes his way toward the spotlight, a lot of funny things (and some less funny things) happen to him. In the end, the whole school will know -- If you think you can hold Billy Plimpton back, be warned: The joke will soon be on you!
Most people likely know of Mother Teresa’s great faithfulness to God’s call as she started her ministry to the poor in Calcutta. But at the time, few knew that she had lost all sense of God's presence, love, and sometimes the assurance that God existed at all. Astonishingly, for 50 years, the saint's life was spent in what she called "the darkness." Yet, somehow Mother Teresa managed to get up every morning and say yes to God. And not only did she say yes, she came to accept the darkness, while also allowing a sense of humor and even playfulness to shine through. This book is a memoir of the author’s direct experiences with Mother Teresa during a trip to Calcutta in 1996 when she discovered that sense of humor first hand. It is also an extended reflection on the beloved saint’s “dark night of the soul” and what that might mean for spiritual seekers today.
"So real it hurts."—David Arnold, New York Times bestselling author of Mosquitoland. A summer of basketball, first love, and the friends who've got your back when life gets crazy, set in a trailer park in small town America. Travis never gives up. Not when his mom takes off. Not when he gets suspended from basketball. Not when he cracks four ribs jumping off a bridge to impress a girl. Not when he and his best friend Creature get into trouble deeper than they know how to handle. From acclaimed author Peter Brown Hoffmeister comes a painfully-funny, sometimes-crushing story of growing up, making mistakes, and pressing on, against the odds. "In my mind the best storytellers walk that high tight wire between tragedy and comedy. This Is the Part Where You Laugh is exactly the part where you laugh. And ache. This is a really good book!"—Chris Crutcher "A courageous novel. Incandescent and unflinching." —Jeff Zentner, author of The Serpent King "A raw offbeat novel with an abundance of honesty and heart." —Publishers Weekly, starred review "Hoffmeister crushes it. There is blood and truth on every page." —Estelle Laure, author of This Raging Light