Matt Tavares

"Ted Williams, the legendary Red Sox slugger, lived a life full of dedication and passion. From his days as a young kid playing ball in North Park to his unmatched .406 season in 1941 to his stints as a fighter pilot in World War II and Korea, the story of Teddy Ballgame is the story of an American hero."--P. 2 of cover.

During a rainy Minneapolis Millers baseball game in 1903, Little Andy Oyler has the chance to become a hero by hitting the shortest and muddiest home run in history.

Dasher is an adventurous young reindeer with a wish in her heart. She spends her days with her family under the hot sun in a traveling circus, but she longs for a different life - one where there is snow beneath her hooves and the North Star above her head. One day, when the opportunity arises, Dasher seizes her destiny and takes off in pursuit of the life she wants to live. It's not long before she meets a nice man in a red suit with a horse-drawn...

Red and Lulu make their nest in a particularly beautiful evergreen tree. It shades them in the hot months and keeps them cozy in the cold months, and once a year the people who live nearby string lights on their tree and sing a special song: O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree. But one day, something unthinkable happens, and Red and Lulu are separated. It will take a miracle for them to find each other again. Luckily, it's just the season for miracles....

When Jim's gingerbread pirate, Captain Cookie, comes alive, the tasty treat prepares to battle Santa Claus, who likes to eat cookies on Christmas Eve.

The horse is ready, the air is bracing, and everyone is bundled into the sleigh. So let the wind blow and the snow start to fall! This family is off to Grandfather's house for a delicious feast. Matt Tavares illuminates the original text of Lydia Maria Child's verse about Thanksgiving Day.

"Discover history's first mapmakers across cultures and civilizations in this gorgeously illustrated nonfiction story about cartography."--

As a young boy growing up in Ireland, Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore loved music -- the louder, the better! This love of music followed him to Boston in 1849, where he became a band leader. During the brutal Civil War, it was music that kept up his spirits and those of his fellow soldiers. So when the war ended and peace was restored to the country, Patrick had an idea. He would create the biggest, boldest, loudest concert the world had ever known to celebrate....

"Once upon a time, children imagined St. Nicholas as a stern, skinny bishop who was as likely to dole out discipline as Christmas presents. But thanks to the poem "Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas"--written by Clement C. Moore in 1822 and published the next year in the Troy Sentinel--a plumper, merrier St. Nick was born, transformed into the sleigh-riding, chimney-diving jolly old elf we now call Santa Claus. With gorgeous monochrome illustrations...

Presents the story of the work that was done by so many on both sides of the ocean to create this enduring symbol of freedom and the fundraisers held by everyday people to build her the pedestal on which she would forever stand.