"How Do Dinosaurs Learn to Read?" and "Jack and the Beanstalk and the French Fries"

by Mark Teague

     Here at the Open Door Bookstore, on Saturday October 6th from 1-2:30 pm, we welcome Mark Teague for the signing of his latest books, "Jack and the Beanstalk and the French Fries" and "How Do Dinosaurs Learn to Read?"

Description:

Jack and the Beanstalk and the French Fries: Written and Illustrated by Mark Teague

     "When Jack trades the family cow for a handful of magic beans, he gets more beans than he ever expected or wanted. It's bean porridge for breakfast! Bean salad for lunch! Bean chowder for dinner! It doesn't take long before Jack is tired of eating nothing but beans--no matter how nutritious! But just as he's about to chop down his magic beanstalk, he meets a grumpy giant, who is just as sick and tired of beans as he is. Together, Jack and the giant cook up a plan to plant a vegetable garden full of tomatoes, corn, carrots, and russet potatoes that's bound to satisfy everyone. A deliciously zany retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk from author Mark Teague that ends with one happy boy, a satisfied giant, and a large plate of french fries."

How do Dinosaurs Learn to Read: Written by Jane Yolen, Illustrated by Mark Teague

     "Children sometimes feel the task of learning to read is overwhelming, but the winning combination of rhyme and illustrations here provide a perfect way to present the subject in a comical, engaging, and nonjudgmental way. The contrast of enormous dinosaurs in kid-sized bedrooms (with human parents) adds irresistible humor as families explore the do's and don'ts of reading. Both practical and engaging, this book shows dinosaurs getting into all sorts of reading-related trouble! But of course, in the end, the dinosaurs learn how to carefully handle their books, read out loud, and read a lot!"

"Wicked River"

by Jenny Milchman

     Here at the Open Door Bookstore, on Sunday October 7th from 12-1:30 pm, we welcome Jenny Milchman for the signing of her latest novel, “Wicked River"

Description:

     "Six million acres of Adirondack forest separate Natalie and Doug Larson from civilization. For the newlyweds, an isolated backcountry honeymoon seems ideal-a chance to start their lives together with an adventure. But just as Natalie and Doug begin to explore the dark interiors of their own hearts, as well as the depths of their love for each other, it becomes clear that they are not alone in the woods.

     "Because six million acres makes it easy for the wicked to hide. And even easier for someone to go missing for good.

     "As they struggle with the worst the wilderness has to offer, a man watches them, wielding the forest like a weapon. He wants something from them more terrifying than death. And once they are near his domain, he will do everything in his power to make sure they never walk out again."

"Bootlegger of the Soul: The Literary Legacy of William Kennedy"

By Suzanne Lance and Paul Grondahl

     Here at the Open Door Bookstore, on Sunday October 13th from 1-2:30 pm, we welcome Suzanne Lance and Paul Grondhal for the signing of “Bootlegger of the Soul"

     Suzanne Lance is Associate Director of the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Paul Grondahl is Director of the New York State Writers Institute and is the author of several books, including Mayor Corning: Albany Icon, Albany Enigma and I Rose Like a Rocket: The Political Education of Theodore Roosevelt.

Description:

     "The award-winning novelist William Kennedy is perhaps best known for his Albany Cycle, a series of novels that put Albany on the world's literary map alongside James Joyce's Dublin, Gabriel Garc a M rquez's Macondo, and William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County. Bootlegger of the Soul offers a fresh and authoritative overview of Kennedy's long literary career and his astonishing trajectory from journalist to struggling novelist to Pulitzer Prize winner. Included here are reviews, interviews, and scholarly essays on Kennedy's work, as well as essays, speeches, a play, and a short story by the author himself, together with a total of fifty historical and personal photographs. Lively, readable, and brimming with the infectious wit and lyrical prose that animates Kennedy's novels, Bootlegger of the Soul is a celebration of a writer still working hard at his craft at age ninety."

"Builders and Breakers"

by Steve Light

     Here at the Open Door Bookstore, on Saturday October 20th from 12-1:30 pm, we welcome Steve Light for the signing of his latest book, “Builders and Breakers"

Description:

     "When their dad forgets his lunch box on his way to the construction site, a young brother and sister set out to take it to him, and along their way witness all the noisy, exciting action of a build site in the city. With builders building, breakers breaking, and a whole host of impressive machines and vehicles hard at work, this book bursts with color and offers children plenty to enjoy. In his trademark intricate style, Steve Light captures the satisfaction of working hard to create something new — and, of course, taking a well-deserved break."

T.R.'s Last War

by David Pietrusza

     Here at the Open Door Bookstore, on Saturday October 27th from 1-2:30 pm, we welcome David Pietrusza for the signing of his latest book, “T.R.'s Last War"

Description:

     "A riveting new account of Theodore Roosevelt’s impassioned crusade for military preparedness as America fitfully stumbles into World War I, spectacularly punctuated by his unique tongue-lashings of the vacillating Woodrow Wilson, his rousing advocacy of a masculine, pro-Allied “Americanism,” a death-defying compulsion for personal front-line combat, a gingerly rapprochement with GOP power brokers—and, yes, perhaps, even another presidential campaign.

     "Roosevelt is a towering Greek god of war. But Greek gods begat Greek tragedies. His own entreaties to don the uniform are rebuffed, and he remains stateside. But his four sons fight “over there” with heartbreaking consequences: two are wounded; his youngest and most loved child dies in aerial combat. Yet, though grieving and weary, TR may yet surmount everything with one monumentally odds-defying last triumph. Poised at the very brink of a final return to the White House, death stills his indomitable spirit.

     "In his lively, witty, blow-by-blow style, David Pietrusza captures, through the lens of the Bull Moose, the 1916 presidential campaign, America’s entry into the Great War in 1917, Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, and the last years of one of American history’s greatest men, who said on his death bed at the age of sixty, “I promised myself that I would work up to the hilt until I was sixty, and I have done it. I have kept my promise….” Pietrusza not only transports readers with his dramatic portraits of TR, his hated rival Wilson, and politics in wild flux but also poignantly chronicles the horrific price a family pays in war."