General

Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One

A winning strategy for the game of 21. The essentials, consolidated in simple charts, can be understood and memorized by the average player.

A Practical Handbook for the Actor

6 working actors describe their methods and philosophies of the theater. All have worked with playwright David Mamet at the Goodman Theater in Chicago.

The American Boy's Handy Book: What to Do and How to Do It (Nonpareil Book, 29)

Written by the founder of the Boys Scouts, Dan Beard, his wife and daughter (Lena & Adelia), founders of the Campfire Girls. Full of indoor & outdoor activities.

The Visual Dictionary of Star Wars, Episodes IV, V, & VI: The Ultimate Guide to Star Wars Characters and Creatures

Watch the Star Wars trilogy enough times and you'll find yourself straining to catch all the little details. Not the subtle plot points (Darth is Luke's dad, check; Luke and Leia are brother and sister, check), but all the cool gear and gadgets that keep flashing in front of the camera. Like what are those pointy things on Boba Fett's kneepads? And what's with all that ammo on Chewie's bandolier? And does an Imperial Probe really need that many legs? Finally, we've got some answers.

David West Reynolds, a boyish Ph.D. in archaeology who looks like he just rode in on the last Bantha, has catalogued the artifacts and inhabitants of the Star Wars universe with the same clinical thoroughness one typically reserves for studying Mesopotamia. His oversized, eye-pleasing picture book is packed with scrutinizing photos of actual props and characters from the movies, complete with systematic, scientific labels. And Reynolds's friendly, pseudo-academic style seamlessly blends new information with old. (In the Sand People description, you can't help but hear Alec Guinness's voice when Reynolds reveals that "Sand People ride in single file to hide their numbers.") In a few instances, the book shines an embarrassing light on the movies (Max Rebo is clearly no alien lifeform, just a poofy, blue elephant muppet), but the countless close-ups of thermal detonators, imperial blasters, and gaffi sticks more than make up the difference. --Paul Hughes

The Visual Dictionary is an essential guide to Star Wars. DK's renowned Eyewitness style brings the characters, costumes, droids, and gadgetry of the Star Wars universe to life in astonishing visual detail. Highly defined, annotated photography shows and explains the culture, background, and technology of the Star Wars trilogy. Fans of all ages will enjoy detailed revelations of Star Wars secrets like how a Stormtrooper's equipment works, what the insides of a light saber look like, and what Sand People keep in their bandoliers. A visual glossary explains all the technical terms used in the trilogy. Together with Star Wars: Incredible Cross-Sections, these books comprise a definitive classic Star Wars reference library.

Games and Giggles Just for Girls (American Girl Library)

Games, riddles, tongue-twisters, mazes, brain-teasers, and plenty of illustrations make for a book of laugh-out-loud fun for girls on any rainy or sunny afternoon. Original.

Iggy Peck, Architect

A hilarious, irreverent book about doing your own thing

Meet Iggy Peck—creative, independent, and not afraid to express himself! In the spirit of David Shannon’s No, David and Rosemary Wells’s Noisy Nora, Iggy Peck will delight readers looking for irreverent, inspired fun.

Iggy has one passion: building. His parents are proud of his fabulous creations, though they’re sometimes surprised by his materials—who could forget the tower he built of dirty diapers? When his second-grade teacher declares her dislike of architecture, Iggy faces a challenge. He loves building too much to give it up! With Andrea Beaty’s irresistible rhyming text and David Roberts’s puckish illustrations, this book will charm creative kids everywhere, and amuse their sometimes bewildered parents.

The Book of Virtues for Young People: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

Stories from the best-selling Book of Virtues target a younger audience and include material from O. Henry, Tolstoy, and Guy de Maupassant, along with tales from Aesop, poetry from Emily Dickinson, and many other selections."

The Philharmonic Gets Dressed (Reading Rainbow Book)

"It is almost Friday night. Outside, the dark is getting darker," and here and there around the city ninety-two men and thirteen women are getting dressed to go to work. First they bathe and put on their underwear. Then they don special black-and-white apparel. Then when the one hundred and five people are completely ready, each takes a musical instrument and travels to midtown. There, at 8:30 tonight, they will work together: playing.

In these pages Karla Kuskin and Marc Simont combine their talents to give us a delightful and unusual inside view of one way an orchestra prepares.

Nominee, 1983 American Book Award
Notable Children's Books of 1983 (ALA)
1983 Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book)
Outstanding Children's Books of 1982 (NYT)
A Reading Rainbow Selection
1983 Teachers' Choices (NCTE)
Children's Books of 1982 (Library of Congress)

Show Time: Music, Dance, and Drama Activities for Kids

Gotta dance! Gotta sing! Gotta do most anything because it's show time! In Show Time! kids will learn to become "triple threat" performers, developing their skills as singers, dancers, and actors through more than 80 activities that include imitating a musician or musical instrument, acting out a song, creating a mirror dance, making puppets and playbills, and more. Along the way, they'll learn about the history of musicals, discover musicals about history, and find out how to get it all together before the curtain goes up. Show Time! is perfect for teachers needing to prepare performers for a show; for parents looking for fun ways to fill spare minutes with their kids at home, in the car, or in a doctor's waiting room; and for kids wanting ways to enjoy themselves on their own or in a small group. Several play scripts, a list of suggested musicals for kids, and a play glossary are included.

Incredible Cross-Sections of Star Wars, Episodes IV, V & VI: The Ultimate Guide to Star Wars Vehicles and Spacecraft

Who knew proton torpedoes were so expensive? Apparently that's why Luke only had one pair when he set out to take down the Death Star. And that's not the only bit of trivia you'll bring away from this aptly subtitled Ultimate Guide to Star Wars Vehicles and Spacecraft. Whether you're looking for the bathroom on Jabba's sail barge or you just want to see where Boba Fett catches a few winks on Slave I, this is the book for you. In Star Wars: Incredible Cross-Sections, author-archaeologist David West Reynolds zooms out from cataloguing minutiae as he did in Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary, and instead takes apart the big toys of Star Wars, from AT-ATs to X-Wings.

Full-color, exploded technical illustrations get you under the hood of every noteworthy ship in the Star Wars trilogy, from a grand tour of a Jawa Sandcrawler to a sprawling, four-page foldout of (what else but?) the Death Star. Detailed labels and realistic, miniature depictions of crew and characters roaming around each ship are so engaging that you may find yourself imagining you're on the Millennium Falcon giving Chewie a hand with the power couplings. --Paul Hughes

An exhaustively researched, definitive reference for Star Wars fans of all ages brings the world-renowned DK cross-sections illustration techniques to the Star Wars universe. The main ships are explored and cutaway to reveal the armaments, propulsion systems, armor, control systems, and other key aspects of each vehicle, from Han Solo's Millennium Falcon to Darth Vader's TIE fighter. Special features and hidden mechanisms, never before revealed, are described and illustrated in graphic detail. Together with Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary, these books comprise a definitive classic Star Wars reference library.