Bad Day At Riverbend
First Published: 1995       H/B  £11.50

  Riverbend is an insignificant and uneventful town in the old wild west, until one day  strange brilliant lights are briefly observed in the sky, everything beneath the light is frozen still, and immediately afterwards horses, cattle, people and buildings are found to be covered in a hideous and irremovable greasy slime in many colours. The sheriff bravely takes a posse of armed men to trace the light, and try to put an end to the problem, but when they eventually catch up with it, they too are frozen still and covered in the slime. The reader is now shown that the whole town is actually part of a colouring book, and the greasy slime is being inflicted by a child with wax crayons. The child now closes the book, and the narrative from Riverbend concludes with the light going out.
  The pictures of Riverbend resemble a colouring book, marked with wax crayons. The child's hand holding the wax crayon and the following spreads are realistically depicted  in beautiful, grainy-textured, colour illustrations.

Ben's Dream
First Published: 1982       H/B  £11.50

Ben and his friend Margaret separate after school to revise for a geography test on the world's great landmarks; anyway a storm is threatening so they will be unable to play baseball as they had originally hoped. As the first drops of rain hit the window, Ben begins to feel sleepy, but he is jerked awake when the house floats away and he is given a grand tour of the landmarks, semi-submerged, including; the Statue of Liberty, Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Parthenon, the Sphinx, (where he sees his friend Margaret's house, also afloat, and Margaret herself waving from the porch), St Basil's Cathedral, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, and Mount Rushmore, before the face of George Washington calls out 'Wake Up Ben', and he is awakened by Margaret, urging him to come out and play baseball now that the storm is over. On comparing notes both friends find that they have had the same dream. The landmarks are all viewed from outside Ben's house, some at fantastical angles, particularly the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben.
  Illustrated in black and white, shaded and textured with multiple black and white lines.
 Not to be confused with ‘Just A Dream’
 

Garden Of Abdul Gasazi - The
First Published: 1979       H/B  £11.50

  Alan agrees to mind Miss Hester's objectionable dog, Fritz, for the afternoon. During his afternoon walk, Fritz escapes from Alan and runs into a huge and fantastic garden, with a notice proclaiming, 'Absolutely, Positively No Dogs Allowed In This Garden', and signed 'Abdul Gasazi, Retired Magician'. Alan traces Fritz to the equally huge and fantastic house of the magician, and politely asks to have Fritz returned, but the magician informs him that he has already bespelled Fritz to become a duck, although the spell will wear off after an indefinite period of time. Alan takes the duck in his arms and prepares to return home, but, true to type, it tries to bite him, steals his hat and takes to the air.
Sadly Alan returns home and is explaining to Miss Hester what has happened when Fritz appears. Kindly she suggests that he has been tricked, before turning to reprimand Fritz, who is chewing Alan's stolen hat.
  With beautiful, soft and detailed illustrations, in meticulously graded blacks, whites and greys.

Jumanji
       H/B  £11.50

  Two children from a well off, USA family have a great many toys and games but rarely have the perseverance to finish playing with any of them. One day, when their parents are out at the opera, they begin to play a board game, called 'Jumanji', with a jungle theme, which they have mysteriously found under a tree in the park.
 However, as they travel around the board the perils of the jungle come to life, wrecking their home and endangering their lives, but together, with considerable effort, they successfully manage to battle their way to the end of the game and restore normality. After this they are content to sit quietly and complete a jigsaw until their parents and their parents' friends return.
  The following day they return 'Jumanji' to the tree in the park, and witness its rediscovery by two other children, whose mother, only the day before, had commended them for completing the jigsaw, and lamented her own children's lack of perseverance in completing their own games.
  With beautiful, soft, detailed illustrations in meticulously graded blacks, whites and greys  (Similar to 'The Garden of Adbul Gasazi').
 

Just A Dream
First Published: 1990       H/B  £11.50

Walter is careless of his environment, leaving litter and failing to sort the family's rubbish for recycling, and disdainful of Rose next-door, proudly caring for her tree, given to her as a birthday present.
  That night, after watching a television programme showing a high-tech, low labour future fantasy, Walter wishes he could live in the future. Later, in his dreams, his wish comes true and he sees: his home swamped with garbage; mighty trees felled to make toothpicks; a medicine factory manufacturing cures for illnesses which its own pollution has created; Mount Everest despoiled by a huge hotel; fisherman celebrating the catch of a single, small fish; traffic jams; smog filling the Grand Canyon; and finally ducks who have spent many days unsuccessfully searching for their pond.
  The following morning Walter makes haste to remedy all his previous misdeeds, even asking for his own tree as a birthday present. That night he dreams again of the future, this time seeing the two trees mature and beautiful, and a happy, thriving, low-tech, energy saving community, and goes peacefully back to sleep.
  With beautiful, realistic, colour illustrations, visibly textured in crayon or pastel and outlined in black, varying in size to create different effects.
  Not to be confused with 'Ben's Dream'.
 

Mysteries Of Harris Burdick - The
First Published: 1984       H/B  £11.50

In an introduction, Chris Van Allsburg tells the story of the mysterious Harris Burdick, as told to him by a children's book editor, Peter Wenders, now retired:
  Thirty years previously, Harris Burdick visited the editor and showed him fourteen pictures, as examples of his work. The pictures had been drawn to accompany fourteen stories, written by Burdick, and each picture was accompanied by the title of the story to which it belonged, and an appropriate caption quoted from that story.
  Wenders was fascinated and asked to see the stories as well as the pictures. Leaving the pictures with Wenders, Burdick left the building, promising to return, with the stories, the following day. However he was never seen again, and all attempts to trace him proved totally fruitless.
  After telling Harris Burdick's story, Van Allsburg comments that the disappearance of Burdick is only one of fifteen mysteries, the untold stories constituting the remaining fourteen. He explains how the children of Peter Wenders, and their friends, had written their own stories around the clues of the pictures, titles and captions, and how he organised for the Burdick pictures to be reproduced, for the first time, in this book, in the hope of inspiring other children to do the same.
  The rest of the book consists of the fourteen pictures, shown on the right hand page, with the appropriate title and caption appearing on the left hand page.
How much credibility you give to the introduction is up to you, but the pictures bear a striking resemblance to many works by the artist Chris Van Allsburg; being beautiful, soft and detailed, in meticulously graded blacks, whites and greys. The book is dedicated to Peter Wenders.

Polar Express - The
First Published: 1985       H/B  £11.99

A boy wakes on Christmas Eve and sees a train standing in his street.  He goes down to see it, is beckoned on board, and is transported with many other children, past wolves and forests, around mountains and across viaducts, to a huge city at the North Pole, where Santa Claus and his elves manufacture stocking gifts for children all over the world.
  There he is chosen to receive the first gift of Christmas and selects a bell from Santa's sleigh, but, on the journey home, he is heart broken to find it has fallen through a hole in his dressing gown pocket and disappeared.
However, on Christmas morning, he discovers the bell in a small package beneath the Christmas tree, with a note from 'Mr C.'. He and his sister, Sarah, are enchanted by the bell's sweet sound, but his parents cannot hear it, and, as the years pass, the bell becomes inaudible to other children as they cease to believe in Santa Claus, although the boy retains his faith, and his ability to hear the bell.
  With beautiful, realistic illustrations in soft-edged, slightly muted colours.

Stranger - The
First Published: 1986       H/B  £11.50

One day, at the end of summer, Farmer Bailey accidentally hits a mysterious stranger with his truck. The man is clad entirely in rough leather clothing, does not appear to understand speech, or to be able to speak, and is puzzled by various aspects of conventional living. When he blows on his hot soup, his breath is very cold.
  The doctor, called to examine him after the accident, finds him disoriented and suggests that he is suffering from amnesia as a result of the blow to his head, but says that his memory should return shortly, and so the Bailey's adopt him, pending his recovery, and find him a very pleasant and helpful addition to their family. He also has a great affinity with wildlife; wild rabbits, instead of running away, allow him to pick them up. Wild geese migrating south fascinate him.
  From this time on autumn appears to be delayed. Then one day the stranger notices that the trees to the north are autumn gold, but that the trees in the surrounding country are still green. He picks a green leaf, blows on it, and it turns autumnal gold. Suddenly the stranger knows who he is and what he must do.
  That night the stranger sadly leaves the Bailey farm, the air turns cold and the leaves on the trees turn golden. But every following autumn, the trees around the Bailey farm remain green a week longer than elsewhere, and at the end of that week a message etched in frost on the farmhouse windows reads, 'See you next fall'.
  With beautiful, realistic illustrations visibly textured in crayon or pastel.

Sweetest Fig - The
First Published: 1993       H/B  £11.50
In Paris, a fastidious, mean spirited dentist makes his small dog's life a misery.
  One day an old woman comes to his surgery, and, although she has no appointment, he grudgingly agrees to remove a bad tooth, becoming angry when she offers him only two figs as payment, inspite of her insistence that they will make his dreams come true.
  The next morning, after eating one of the figs, the dentist finds himself walking his dog in his underwear, and when the Eiffel Tower bends over, he discovers his dreams of the previous night have indeed come true.
  In the following days he reads many books on hypnotism, and eventually succeeds in producing a recurring dream of great wealth. Satisfied that his dreams will fulfil his wishes, he prepares to consume the final fig, but when he leaves it unattended on the table, the dog eats it.
  The following morning the dentist wakes beneath his bed, transformed into the dog, while the dog, having assumed the dentist's incarnation, prepares to take his former master for a walk.
  Beautifully and realistically illustrated in colour.

Two Bad Ants
First Published: 1988       H/B  £11.50

A scout from an ant colony discovers a sugar bowl in a human house, and a chain of worker ants is despatched to make the long journey from their nest to the bowl and back again, each ant carrying a single sugar crystal for their queen. Two 'bad ants' decide not to return to the nest but to remain in the sugar bowl having gorged themselves on sugar. The following morning, when the sugar bowl is in use for a human breakfast, the two ants are accidentally tipped into a hot drink, narrowly escape being drunk, and have further perilous encounters with a toaster, a running tap, what is probably some sort of USA food disposal device, and an electrical plug socket. Finally they crawl into a dark corner where they sleep until evening. When they are awakened, it is by their fellow ants returning for more crystals. This time they are only too glad to take one sugar crystal each and join the line as it returns to the nest.
  The narrative and pictures are both from an ant's eye view. The pictures are in colour, shaded and textured with multiple dark lines.

Widow's Broom - The
First Published: 1992       H/B  £11.99

A witch's elderly broom suddenly fails her, and she falls to earth next to the farmhouse of a lonely widow, Minna Shaw.  The widow is a kind woman, and in spite of her fear, cares for the witch, who rapidly recovers, and, summoning help from another witch, departs, leaving her old broom behind her.
   The widow uses the broom in place of her own, but although it has lost its power of flight, it is still magical and comes to life, sweeping the floor by itself, helping her with other chores, and even playing the piano and providing companionship.
   When news of the remarkable broom spreads, neighbours come to see the spectacle, but many of the men are hostile, especially the widow's nearest neighbours, the Spiveys.
  When the obnoxious Spivey children, and their dog, bully the broom and it retaliates, Mr Spivey insists it shall be burnt and arrives at the widow's house with a party of men. The widow apparently consents, showing the men where the broom sleeps, and advising them not to wake it, and the broom is burnt without showing any sign of life.
  However, in the days that follow a ghostly white broom, brandishing an axe, is seen circling the Spivey's house and even tapping on the door. Terrified, the family soon depart, leaving the widow, and the broom, not a ghost at all, but temporarily painted white, to continue their happy existence together.
  The illustrations are similar to 'The Garden of Abdul Gasazi' in that they are beautiful and detailed in meticulously graded blacks, whites and greys, but with a distinctive sepia tint and a finely grained texture, not found in any of the other books.

Wreck Of The Zephyr - The
First Published: 1983       H/B  £11.50

On the edge of a high cliff overlooking the sea is the wreck of a small sailing boat, the 'Zephyr'. A stranger, out walking, cannot credit the local explanation that it was carried there by high waves, and stops to listen to the alternative explanation of an old man sitting among its timbers. His story runs as follows:
  Long ago, there was a boy who believed he was the greatest sailor in the world. When he arrogantly puts to sea inspite of warnings of a coming storm, he loses control of his boat, is knocked unconscious, and awakes to find himself and his boat undamaged, but on a shore he does not recognise. Walking along the shore seeking help, he finds he has discovered a remarkable island where boats with special sails can sail above the water.
  Desperate to learn this new skill, the boy persuades an old sailor to try to teach him, on the condition that he will return home on the morrow. They equip the 'Zephyr' with special sails, but the boy is unable to master the technique in the short time available, and, knowing that he will be sent home with conventional sails the next day, he secretly tries again after dark, and this time is successful.
  Feeling that he is once again the greatest sailor in the world, he sails home above the clouds and tries to sail over his village, ringing the 'Zephyr's' bell, to demonstrate his new found prowess to the villagers, heedless of the old sailor's warning that boats cannot sail over land, even in the air. He rapidly loses height and control, and before he can return to the sea, the 'Zephyr' is wrecked on the cliff top, the special sails destroyed, and the boy's leg broken.
  And from that day forth, inspite of the scepticism of the villagers, the boy spent every available moment out sailing, searching for the island and a new set of special sails.
  This is the end of the old man's story and, observing that wind is coming and he has some sailing to do, he says goodbye to the stranger and limps away leaning on his cane.
  With beautiful, realistic, soft-edged, smooth colour illustrations and a background canvas texture faintly visible throughout.

Wretched Stone - The
First Published: 1991       H/B  £11.50

In excerpts from the log of his sailing ship the Rita Anne, Captain Hope describes how his talented crew, some able to read, others good storytellers, musicians, dancers and singers are transformed after landing on a strange and sinister island, devoid of even the simplest animal life, and bringing on board a curious stone, two feet across, incredibly heavy, and with a smooth portion which emits an attractive glow.
  From this moment on the crew loose interest in their former pursuits, speak little and spend all free time gazing at the stone, until their captain becomes so concerned that he decides to have the stone thrown overboard. However when his intentions become known, the entire crew lock themselves in the hold with the stone, even though a storm is brewing, oblivious to their captain's protests that he will be unable to handle the ship alone. When the captain finally does gain admittance to the hold, he is horrified to discover that his men have become apes, totally unresponsive to speech.
  When the storm breaks, lightning strikes both masts of the vessel, and the glow from the stone is extinguished. Initially the crew remain apes, although seeming sad and lost, but gradually, assisted by the captain reading aloud and playing the violin, they are transformed back into men (although retaining an unnatural appetite for bananas). Meanwhile the stone is locked away, but gradually regaining its glow.
  After two weeks adrift, their wrecked ship is sighted and they are rescued, but before leaving the captain sets fire to the ship and sends it, and the wretched stone, to the bottom of the sea.
  Diligent readers who remove the dust jacket will find the only direct picture of the wretched stone, embossed in gold, in its final resting place at the bottom of the sea.
  With beautiful, realistic illustrations in incredibly smooth, flawless colour.

Z Was Zapped - The
First Published: 1987       H/B  £11.50

An alphabet book in which each letter is damaged or destroyed by a misfortune beginning with that letter. The picture of each letter suffering its misfortune is shown on the right hand page. A text description of the misfortune appears on the next left hand page. This leaves the reader free to guess the exact wording of the text which describes the misfortune, bearing in mind that the first letter of the misfortune must be the same as the letter which is currently being destroyed. e.g. For the letter 'A' the text which follows reads: 'The A was in an Avalanche'. The book is described as a play in 26 acts, performed by the letters, with each misfortune as an act.
  With beautiful, soft and detailed illustrations, in meticulously graded blacks, whites and greys, (similar to 'The Garden of Abdul Gasazi').