Most Popular Books by James Rumford

Shows how important learning is in a country where only a few children are able to go to school.

The story of Sequoyah is the tale of an ordinary man with an extraordinary idea—to create a writing system for the Cherokee Indians and turn his people into a nation of readers and writers. The task he set for himself was daunting. Sequoyah knew no English and had no idea how to capture speech on paper. But slowly and painstakingly, ignoring the hoots and jibes of his neighbors and friends, he worked out a system that surprised the Cherokee Nation—and the world of the 1820s—with its beauty and simplicity. James Rumford’s Sequoyah is a poem to celebrate literacy, a song of a people’s struggle to stand tall and proud.

Eighty years before Columbus, ships from China explored the world. One discovery the Chinese made is the chee-lin, known today as a giraffe. This rich storybook traces the journey of a chee-lin in a tale of captivity and struggle, friendship and respect. Full color.

Ibn Battuta was the traveler of his age—the fourteenth century, a time before Columbus when many believed the world to be flat. Like Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta left behind an account of his own incredible journey from Morocco to China, from the steppes of Russia to the shores of Tanzania, some seventy-five thousand miles in all. James Rumford has retold Ibn Battuta’s story in words and pictures, adding the element of ancient Arab maps—maps as colorful and as evocative as a Persian miniature, as intricate and mysterious as a tiled Moroccan wall. Into this arabesque of pictures and maps, James Rumford has woven the story not just of a traveler in a world long gone but of a man on his journey through life.

This is the story of a little rain, a blossoming mango and the power of a little boy''s imagination. The story is told in words and richly-colored pastels that will take you to a small village in the African country of Chad. There you will feel the heat, taste the cool mango rain and meet a boy named Thomas, whom many readers have already met in James Rumford''s RAIN SCHOOL.

A Chinese grandfather and his grandson who are captured by the Arab army barter for their freedom by demonstrating the art of papermaking.

Calabash Cat, a West African cat, sets out one day to find where the world ends. His adventures take him across a desert, grasslands, a jungle, and the ocean, until he finds what he is looking for. Illustrated in the style of the calabash engravers of the country of Chad, James Rumford’s original tale will keep you thinking long after you have closed the covers of this book—about our one world, and about seeking knowledge and finding wisdom.

What was made of rags and bones, soot and seeds? What took a mountain to make? For the answer, travel back to the fifteenth century—to a time when books were made by hand and a man named Johannes Gutenberg invented a way to print books with movable type. Written as a series of riddles and illustrated in the style of medieval manuscripts by an award-winning author and artist, From the Good Mountain will intrigue readers of all ages. On every page there is something surprising to learn about how the very thing you are holding in your hands came to be.

A biography of the French scholar whose decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphic language made the study of ancient Egypt possible.

A simplified and illustrated retelling of the exploits of the Anglo-Saxon warrior, Beowulf, and how he came to defeat the monster Grendel, Grendel''s mother, and a dragon that threatened the kingdom.

When a tiger and a turtle both want a flower that has fallen to the ground, they argue over it until a fight breaks out between them.

A fable about a group of animals which strives to bring the perfect present to the Indian raja-king''s birthday party. Discusses how the numerals we use originated in India.

A sheriff in the Old West fights crime with the help of his lucky ten-gallon hat.

Do you know how people used to navigate in the past? There are lots of rules you can follow to be a master navigator. This is an engaging book for upper primary readers. Proceeds from this sale benefit not for profit organisation Library For All, helping children around the world learn to read. 10-12 years

An alphabet book which relates the legend of Cadmus, the Phoenician hero who brought the alphabet to Greece and slew a dragon there.

When news reaches a Hawaiian grandmother that Hawai''i has been annexed by the United States in July 1898, she sets to work on a quilt to show her family that, in a time of change, there is one thing that must never be forgotten. In English and Hawaiian, The Flag Quilt is a revised edition of When Silver Needles Swam, which appeared in 1998 to great acclaim, receiving along with other Hawaiian language books from Manoa Press the award Na Manu a Ka''ae from ''Ahahui ''Olelo Hawai''i for helping to preserve the Hawaiian language. James Rumford, an award-winning and internationally recognized author and illustrator of children''s books, makes his home in Honolulu.

After seeing a wounded creature on the beach, an animal like no one, Manu decides to nurse it back to health and becomes its valuable friend, one that will later return the favor during dangerous times, in a tale about the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands.

As bombs and missiles fall on Baghdad in 2003, a young boy uses the art of calligraphy to distance himself from the horror of war.

Generations of navigators have passed down their knowledge about how to read the sky, waves, land, and sea to find their way. Read about one man whose ancient skills helped solve a mystery.

The children arrive on the first day of school and build a mud structure to be their classroom for the next nine months until the rainy season comes and washes it all away.

According to the ancient Hawaiian legend, Kahalaopuna was the beautiful girl of the rainbow from the famed Valley of Manoa on Oahu.

From 1896 to 1933, Njoya [enjoy-ah] was the king of an African kingdom which is now part of the country of Cameroon. When Cameroon was a colony of firs Germany then France, Njoya found a way for his people to keep their pride and their dignity in the face of immense change.

Learn all about Alfred Nobel, who established the famous Nobel Prize with the dream of supporting those who work for peace.

This is the story of five, adventure loving brothers living in the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific. The brothers: Hōkū looks to the stars, Nāʻale to the sea, ''Ōpua to the clouds, Makani to the winds and Manu to the birds. Using the starry sky as a map to guide them, they set sail across the vast Pacific Ocean to the islands now known as Hawaii.