Most Popular Books by Brock Cole

At the request of her social worker, thirteen-year-old Linda gradually reveals how her life with her unstable mother and her younger brother led to her rape and the murder she witnessed.

Harmless camp pranks can quickly spiral out of control, but they also provide a perfect opportunity for two social outcasts to overcome and triumph. A boy and a girl are stripped and marooned on a small island for the night. They are the "goats." The kids at camp think it''s a great joke, just a harmless old tradition. But the goats don''t see it that way. Instead of trying to get back to camp, they decide to call home. But no one can come and get them. So they''re on their own, wandering through a small town trying to find clothing, food, and shelter, all while avoiding suspicious adults—especially the police. The boy and the girl find they rather like life on their own. If their parents ever do show up to rescue them, the boy and the girl might be long gone. . . . The Goats is a 1987 New York Times Book Review Notable Children''s Book of the Year.

One of Horn Book''s Best Picture Books of 2011 A turkey poult causes turmoil for a family in this exuberant romp through the Christmas season, The Money We''ll Save, by award-winning author/illustrator Brock Cole. When Pa brings a turkey poult home to fatten for Christmas dinner, he assures Ma that it will be no trouble since it can live in a box by the stove and eat table scraps--and just think of the money we''ll save! But it''s not quite so simple to raise a turkey in a tiny flat in a nineteenth-century New York City tenement. Can Pa and the children manage the willful and growing Alfred and keep the neighbors happy until Christmas? Pa finds a solution for every difficulty--until he encounters one that threatens to ruin Christmas completely. How the family joins together to solve this last difficulty makes for a very funny and satisfying holiday story.

"Show a little maturity," he said, which I''ve doped out to mean: Pass all your courses, avoid detection in all crimes and misdemeanors, don''t get pregnant. Celine''s father has left her with these instructions. She''s not too worried about the last two, but she''ll fail English unless she rewrites her Catcher in the Rye essay. And she keeps being interrupted, especially by Jake, the neighbor''s boy, who''s been dumped on her for the weekend. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year A Booklist Best Book of the ''80s A Publishers Weekly Best Children''s Book of the Year

Maggie, Katie, and Nora try to help their always-worried and fearful grandmother by entering her dreams and replacing her fears of burglars, trains, and bills with images of sails, sun, and the sea.

A beggar arrives at the inn declaring he is a king but only manages to convince Little Baggit, the servant.

À la colonie, les autres trouvaient cela vraiment très drôle, de les laisser tous les deux seuls sur l’île aux Boucs, nus, pour la nuit. Lui n’était pas très costaud. Elle ne savait pas nager. Ce qui n’était pas prévu, c’est que Laura et Howie s’échapperaient. Sans argent, sans vêtements, sans nulle part où se réfugier, et ne pouvant compter que l’un sur l’autre. Maintenant, la police, leurs parents, tout le monde les cherche. Eux, ils se sont trouvés. Mais jusqu’où ?

Stripped and marooned on a small island by their fellow campers, a boy and a girl form an uneasy bond that grows into a deep friendship when they decide to run away and disappear without a trace.

Once there was a poor girl who had no mama and no papa and nothing at all, not even a name. But then one day an Ogre comes knocking at the town’s gate, threatening to ravage the town unless the townspeople give him one of their fair maidens. Of course they pick this poor girl to be sacrificed. They dress her in a gown and a paper crown, put her in a sack, and leave her for the Ogre. But this brave and clever girl manages to outwit the Ogre and all the townspeople, too, earning a purse full of gold, a fine sharp sword, and most important, a fitting name for herself: Good-Enough-to-Eat. This satisfying story has the feel of a classic fairy tale, brought to life by Brock Cole’s expressive watercolors. Good Enough To Eat is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children''s Book of the Year.

Another orginal picture-book fairy tale Larky Mavis, an eccentric soul, finds three peanuts in the middle of the road. The first tastes like liver and onions. The second, like bread pudding. And the third -- well, inside the third is a baby. Larky Mavis decides to name it Heart''s Delight and to take care of it. She shows it to the teacher, and he says it looks like a worm. She asks the parson to christen it, but he thinks it''s a mouse. And when she asks the doctor to help her teach the baby to say "Ma," he thinks it''s a deformed bird. And indeed, Heart''s Delight has sprouted wings. As Mavis''s charge grows and grows, readers will recognize that Heart''s Delight is something akin to an angel, and the townspeople also realize that it is something special, but they want to take it away. And as much as Larky Mavis tries to protect Heart''s Delight, it is the peanut-shell baby who turns out to be Mavis''s savior in the end. This unusual tale is illustrated by the author in lively watercolors.

At the request of her social worker, thirteen-year-old Linda gradually reveals how her life with her unstable mother and her younger brother led to her rape and the murder she witnessed.

A little girl with a particular aversion to taking baths decides to run away the next time her mother tells her to take one.

When a devil''s imp and his wife impersonate her parents, Alpha uses soap and water to deal with them and their baby.

When his village suffers from a hard winter, Simon, whose mother laughs at his foolishness, goes in search of spring.

"Once there was a giant out hoeing in his cabbages. The hoe slipped and he gave his foot a mighty wack. ''Ow!'' he cried. ''I must have cut off my toe.'' But when he found his toe among the cabbages it had changed. It hardly looked like a toe at all. And that is just the beginning of the surprises the giant is in for. Imagine a toe that talks back, meddles in your affairs, and is responsible for the loss of your most precious possessions. The giant is furious. Yet each time he tries to get rid of the toe it reappears in an unexpected way. Only when the clever toe manages to save the day--and the giant--does their battle of wills take a turn for the better.

Stripped and marooned on a small island by their fellow campers, a boy and a girl form an uneasy bond that grows into a deep friendship when they decide to run away and disappear without a trace.

Two misfits at summer camp find inner strength and self-knowledge when they are cruelly marooned on an island by fellow campers. They are the "goats." They escape and learn--in addition to survival-on-the-run skills such as petty thievery and grand theft/auto--cooperation, intimacy, and loyalty. Quietly witty, this remarkable book yields new depths with each reading.

Brock Cole''s first picture book in nearly ten years "Once there was an old man who ate so much his britches burst and his buttons popped one, two, three, into the fire. "Wife! Wife!" he cried. "We are undone! My britches have burst and my buttons are burnt, every one!" After putting her husband to bed, the wife enlists the aid of her three daughters in replacing their father''s buttons. The eldest promises to find a rich man who will give her buttons in exchange for her hand in marriage. The second daughter decides to join the army for the sake of the buttons on a soldier''s uniform. And the youngest is going to run through the meadows with her apron held out before her, hoping to catch a few buttons falling from the sky. Which of these young ladies will succeed in restoring the family fortunes? The answer is the essential and satisfying stuff of fairy tales. Brock Cole''s whimsical prose and pictures make this original story feel like a hundred-year-old classic.

Laura en Howie zijn noodgedwongen op elkaar aangewezen als ze door de kinderen van het zomerkamp uit pesterij op een onbewoond eiland worden achtergelaten.

Sixteen-year-old artist Celine suffers the painful experiences of adolescence--school problems, an uneasy love, and unwanted responsibilities--but she learns much about the adult world that she will soon join.

Roman - adolescence - peintre - raison - amitié - amour.

At the request of her social worker, thirteen-year-old Linda gradually reveals how her life with her unstable mother and her younger brother led to her rape and the murder she witnessed. A ground-breaking sexually explicit story about Linda and how the experiences in her life lead to murder.

A spoiled pig, the new possession of a rich banker who is fond of bacon and ham, comes to appreciate his former owner who considered him his best friend.

At the request of her social worker, thirteen-year-old Linda gradually reveals how her life with her unstable mother and her younger brother led to her rape and the murder she witnessed.

Sixteen-year-old artist Celine suffers the painful experiences of adolescence--school problems, an uneasy love, and unwanted responsibilities--but she learns much about the adult world that she will soon join.