Most Popular Books by Marthe Jocelyn

A summer night. A Saturday. For Claire, this summer feels fantastic because she’ll be zooming off to college in the fall. For her younger sister, Natalie, it’s an okay time with her friends: summer jobs, then hanging out. Fun mostly, but nothing special. A summer night. An accident. Life changes in a heartbeat. In Would You, Marthe Jocelyn tells a haunting story of tragedy and loss, of how one day can shape the next and at the same time emphasize the magnitude of life.

What am I going to wear? The question that diverts us all is first presented in the toddler years when the mastery of getting dressed is a triumph and opinions about clothing are emphatic. These four board books illustrated by collage-artist Marthe Jocelyn are a unique tribute to the colors, textures, and patterns that make clothes a child’s favorite pastime. Ready for Summer displays a full wardrobe, introducing lovely words like turtleneck and galoshes, and allowing even the very young reader to be an expert on what should be worn next season.

Forget about differences! Here’s a wonderful new concept book to explore and enjoy! Marthe Jocelyn and Tom Slaughter team up again to deliver a delightfully simple book. Jocelyn’s marvelous concept — finding common characteristics in different creatures and objects — coupled with Slaughter’s masterful paper cuts makes Same Same a clever introduction to similarities, as well as a preface to modern art. The duo’s previous titles have received numerous awards worldwide; from Japan to Denmark, from France to Mexico. Fashioned in the traditional and stunning style of the pair’s past books, Same Same is a wonderful addition to their already impressive library.

Marthe Jocelyn and Tom Slaughter explore opposites in this gorgeous introduction to modern art for small readers. Cut paper images introduce children to color, form, and design as they explore tall giraffes and short mice, squares and circles, light day and dark night. An art book as well as a sound learning tool, Over Under is stunningly simple and simply stunning.

One Some Many by Marthe Jocelyn and Tom Slaughter is an excellent early introduction to numbers and to the principles of modern art. It is the perfect companion to 1 2 3, a counting book with a difference. Slaughter’s bold, Matisse-inspired paper cuts illustrate basic artistic elements, including color, form, and line, while the playful and inventive text introduces the concepts of quantity that children find most puzzling (and that adults have the most difficulty explaining!). After all, how many is many? Some? A few?

In the spirit of ANNE OF GREEN GABLES comes this delightful turn-of-the-century journal of a feisty, imaginative young girl who is finding her voice and the courage to make it heard. It’s the year 1901, and fourteen-year-old aspiring writer Mable Riley is on her way to fulfilling her dreams, or so she hopes. She’s sure that moving with her sister to a faraway town will bring adventures full of peril and romance to write about! At first, it seems that life in the new town is as humdrum as the one she left behind. But then Mable meets a real writer, one who wears daring fashions and enjoys shocking the townsfolk by sharing her opinions. And Mrs. Rattle has a few shocking secrets as well, including a dangerous plan that may soon bring Mable more peril and romance than she bargained for! Designed as a vintage journal including diary entries, letters, poems, and Mable’s own "Romantic Novel," MABLE RILEY is a reliable record of a young girl’s coming of age at a time of women’s early struggles for independence - a charmingly told tale that is as funny as it is inspiring.

Where do you look for glasses? On a shelf? Or on a face? In this playful exploration of homonyms, readers will discover the fun they can have with language. Is a wave at a beach? Or at a train station? Is a trunk in a garden? Or on an elephant? Kids will love the juxtaposition of words and meanings, and the detailed collage illustrations will have them coming back again and again. The mother and daughter team of Marthe and Nell Jocelyn know where to look for a story: Not in a skyscraper, but in the dictionary!

Marthe Jocelyn is back with another clever concept book to follow Hannah''s Collections, Ones and Twos and Where Do You Look? This time, she tackles counting and categories. Sam''s things are in a heap. Time to tidy up! He starts to organize his things, but quickly runs into trouble. He can make a pile of black and white things. But the penguin also belongs in the things with wings pile. He can make a pile of rocks. But the round rock also belongs in the round things pile. How will he ever sort his 100 things? Marthe Jocelyn takes a fun look at categories and counting in this very cleverly conceived story. Kids will delight in the cut-paper images of everything from a zipper pull to a robot, and Sam''s surprising solution makes for a tidy end to this unique story.

With a fresh cast of animal characters — and what they eat — the creative team of Marthe Jocelyn and Tom Slaughter has produced another work in their award-winning series for very young book and art lovers. Marthe Jocelyn’s simple concept of matching creatures — familiar and unusual — with their favorite foods is brought to life by the sparkling colors and masterfully cut paper shapes of Tom Slaughter’s illustrations; a first taste of modern art. And the surprise final picture makes a satisfying dessert. Previous titles have received acclaim from Japan to Denmark, from France to Mexico. Enhancing a child’s visual and verbal vocabulary, Eats makes a joyful addition to the collection.

In the late nineteenth century, in a dot of a town called Westley, lives the smallest girl in the world. Josephine stands only twenty-two inches high and her parents charge gawkers a penny a piece to see her – until they realize that the headmistress of MacLaren Academy for Girls will pay even more. At the Academy Josephine is treated like a slave and is tormented by the fine young ladies who attend, until she takes five gold dollars and runs away. She finds a new life with R. J. Walters’ Museum of Earthly Astonishments. Among the other human curiosities in the Coney Island freak show, Josephine finds the family she has never known…and dangers greater than any she’d ever dreamed. This riveting novel of adventure and injustice, new in paperback, has received many honors, including selection as a finalist for the Canadian Library book of the Year for Children Award, and as a shortlisted title for the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award and the Red Cedar Book Award.

An engrossing novel-in-stories that paints a tapestry of secrets and lies: why we keep them, why we tell them, and what happens next. Americans Jenny and her brother, Tom, are off to England: Tom to university, to dodge the Vietnam draft, Jenny to be the new girl at a boarding school, Illington Hall. This is Jenny''s chance to finally stand out, so accidentally, on purpose, she tells a lie. In the small world of Ill Hall, everyone has something to hide. Jenny pretends she has a boyfriend. Robbie and Luke both pretend they don''t. Brenda won''t tell what happened with the school doctor. Nico wants to keep his mother''s memoir a secret. Percy is hush-hush about his famous dad. Oona lies to everyone. Penelope lies only to herself. Deftly told from multiple points of view in various narrative styles, including letters and movie screenplays, What We Hide is provocative, honest, often funny, and always intriguing. “Poignant and often witty.” —Kirkus Reviews “An evocative representation of the tumultuous ’60s.” —Publishers Weekly “Juicy, fast-paced.” —SLJ

What am I going to wear? The question that diverts us all is first presented in the toddler years when the mastery of getting dressed is a triumph and opinions about clothing are emphatic. These four board books illustrated by collage-artist Marthe Jocelyn are a unique tribute to the colors, textures, and patterns that make clothes a child’s favorite pastime. Ready for Autumn displays a full wardrobe, introducing lovely words like turtleneck and galoshes, and allowing even the very young reader to be an expert on what should be worn next season.

In this YA novel, Malou, a mixed-race orphan, is on her own for the first time, trying to discover her parents’ identities.

What am I going to wear? The question that diverts us all is first presented in the toddler years when the mastery of getting dressed is a triumph and opinions about clothing are emphatic. These four board books illustrated by collage-artist Marthe Jocelyn are a unique tribute to the colors, textures, and patterns that make clothes a child’s favorite pastime. Ready for Winter displays a full wardrobe, introducing lovely words like turtleneck and galoshes, and allowing even the very young reader to be an expert on what should be worn next season.

School is over! Hurry, pack up all your summer clothes (don’t forget your bathing suit!), load everything into the car, and find a spot in the backseat. Summer is about to begin. The siblings in Marthe Jocelyn’s new picture book can’t wait to get to the cottage. The smell of pine needles, the first swim off the dock, playing summer games, and greeting their old friend, the rowboat Mayfly, are among the summer fun that young readers will identify with. Delightfully illustrated with Jocelyn’s signature collages, Mayfly captures the incomparable excitement of the beginning of summer vacation and those seemingly endless days that follow, which children (and grown-ups) look forward to all year round.

One yellow ribbon unties itself from a child''s hair and transforms into a winter scarf, a farmer''s field and a lion''s mane, among many other magical things, in this delightful board book by celebrated paper artist Marthe Jocelyn. Jocelyn''s paper collages in this wordless search-and-find adventure will encourage little ones to look closely at the world around them and explore what they see.

In 1855, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote to his publisher, complaining about the irritating fad of “scribbling women.” Whether they were written by professionals, by women who simply wanted to connect with others, or by those who wanted to leave a record of their lives, those “scribbles” are fascinating, informative, and instructive. Margaret Catchpole was a transported prisoner whose eleven letters provide the earliest record of white settlement in Australia. Writing hundreds of years later, Aboriginal writer Doris Pilkington-Garimara wrote a novel about another kind of exile in Australia. Young Isabella Beeton, one of twenty-one children and herself the mother of four, managed to write a groundbreaking cookbook before she died at the age of twenty-eight. World traveler and journalist Nelly Bly used her writing to expose terrible injustices. Sei Shonagan has left us poetry and journal entries that provide a vivid look at the pampered life and intrigues in Japan’s imperial court. Ada Blackjack, sole survivor of a disastrous scientific expedition in the Arctic, fought isolation and fear with her precious Eversharp pencil. Dr. Dang Thuy Tram’s diary, written in a field hospital in the steaming North Vietnamese jungle while American bombs fell, is a heartbreaking record of fear and hope. Many of the women in “Scribbling Women” had eventful lives. They became friends with cannibals, delivered babies, stole horses, and sailed on whaling ships. Others lived quietly, close to home. But each of them has illuminated the world through her words. A note from the author: OOPS! On page 197, the credit for the Portrait of Harriet Jacobs on page 43 should read: courtesy of Library of Congress, not Jean Fagan Yellin. On page 197, the credit for the portrait of Isabella Beeton on page 61 should read: National Portrait Gallery, London. On page 198, the credit for page 147 should be Dang Kim Tram, not Kim Tram Dang. We are very sorry about the mix-up in the Photo Credits, they will be updated on any new editions or reprints.

For young detective Aggie Morton and her friend Hector, Christmas becomes a lot more exciting when a dead body is found in this second book in the Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen series, inspired by the life of Agatha Christie as a child and her most popular creation, Hercule Poirot. For fans of The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency. Aspiring writer Aggie Morton is looking forward to Christmas. Having just solved a murder and survived her own brush with death inal her small town of Torquay on the coast of England, Aggie can''t wait to spend the holidays with her sister Marjorie, the new Lady Greyson of Owl Park, an enormous manor house in the country; Grannie Jane and her fellow sleuth and partner in crime, Hector Perot. Owl Park holds many delights including Aggie''s almost cousin Lucy, exciting and glamorous visitors from Ceylon and disguises aplenty in the form of a group of travelling actors, not to mention a secret passageway AND an enormous, cursed emerald. Not even glowering old Lady Greyson (the Senior) can interfere with Aggie''s festive cheer. But when Aggie and her friends discover a body instead of presents on Christmas morning, things take a deadly serious turn. With the help of a certain nosy reporter, Aggie and Hector will once again have to put their deductive skills and imaginations to work to find the murderer on the loose. Filled with mystery, adventure, unforgettable characters and several helpings of tea and Christmas pudding, Peril at Owl Park is the second book in a new series for middle-grade readers and Christie and Poirot fans everywhere.

The year is 1924, the heyday of the revived Spiritualist movement. Fourteen-year-old Annie and her mother are successful purveyors of psychic chicanery; they move from town to town, cashing in on the fad for clairvoyant guidance. When they arrive in Peach Hill, Annie is once again compelled into her part of the act: she has to pretend that she’s the village idiot in order to more easily listen in on gossip that her mother can put to use as a fake seer. But something happens in Peach Hill. Annie’s tired of missing school, drooling, and keeping her eyes crossed. This is not the way to attract the kind of male attention she wants. She decides to drop the guise, but no sooner than she does, her mother comes up with a new scam. Now she’s a faith healer and Annie’s troubles have just begun. This is Marthe Jocelyn at the height of her powers as a novelist. How it Happened in Peach Hill is by turns funny, suspenseful, and heartbreaking as it explores the world of those who peddle hope and comfort for profit.

A new book from the team of Marthe Jocelyn and Tom Slaughter, Which Way? is an invitation to explore and understand the concepts we see every day in the signs around us. Navigating the world involves many decisions. How do we know which way to go? Will we pedal or drive? Do we need a map? Will we detour to see the scenery? This colorful book takes the reader along the right path; introducing road signs, directions, stoplights, and common sights that are part of any journey.

A smart and charming middle-grade mystery series starring young detective Aggie Morton and her friend Hector, inspired by the imagined life of Agatha Christie as a child and her most popular creation, Hercule Poirot. Aggie Morton lives in a small town on the coast of England in 1902. Adventurous and imaginative but deeply shy, Aggie hasn''t got much to do since the death of her beloved father . . . until the fateful day when she crosses paths with twelve-year-old Belgian immigrant Hector Perot and discovers a dead body on the floor of the Mermaid Dance Room! As the number of suspects grows and the murder threatens to tear the town apart, Aggie and her new friend will need every tool at their disposal -- including their insatiable curiosity, deductive skills and not a little help from their friends -- to solve the case before Aggie''s beloved dance instructor is charged with a crime Aggie is sure she didn''t commit.

Three fates intertwine in this moving and passionate love story set in Victorian London. Mary Finn: country girl, maid to a lord in London Caden Tucker: liar, scoundrel, and heart''s delight James Nelligan: age six, tossed into a herd of boys When Mary Finn falls into the arms of handsome Caden Tucker, their frolic changes the course of her life. What possesses her? She''s been a girl of common sense until now. Mary''s tale alternates with that of young James Nelligan, a new boy in an enormous foundling home. In Folly, Marthe Jocelyn''s breathtaking command of language, detail, and character brings Victorian London to life on every page, while the deep emotions that illuminate this fascinating novel about life-changing moments are as current as today''s news.

Every book in the critically acclaimed Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen series — now available in one digital collection! Aspiring writer Aggie Morton lives in a small town on the coast of England in 1902. Imaginative but deeply shy, Aggie longs for adventure after the death of her beloved father. One fateful day, she crosses paths with twelve-year-old Belgian immigrant Hector Perot and discovers a dead body on the floor of the Mermaid Dance Room! That is just the beginning of Aggie and Hector’s sleuthing endeavors. The year will take them to an elegant, snowbound manor, home to a puzzling murder . . . a luxury health spa where guests and staff confront two suspicious deaths . . . and an expedition to uncover an ancient skeleton that digs up more tension than bones. Aggie and Hector, joined by Aggie’s indomitable Grannie Jane, must use logic, wit, and bravery as they race against time to solve every case! Inspired by the early life of Agatha Christie, one of the world’s most popular authors, and her two most beloved literary creations Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, this e-book set brings together all four of Aggie’s thrilling, cozy mysteries into one collection, including: · The Body under the Piano · Peril at Owl Park · The Dead Man in the Garden · The Seaside Corpse

For young detective Aggie Morton and her friend Hector, a spa stay becomes a lot more thrilling when TWO dead bodies are found in this third book in the Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen series, inspired by the life of Agatha Christie as a child and her most popular creation, Hercule Poirot. For fans of Enola Holmes. Aspiring writer Aggie Morton is ready to enjoy an invigorating trip to a Yorkshire spa, where her widowed mother can take the waters and recover from a long mourning period. Having solved yet another murder and faced extreme peril with her best friend Hector over Christmas, Aggie’s Morbid Preoccupation is on alert when rumors abound about the spa''s recently deceased former patient . . . and then another body appears under mysterious circumstances. Together with Grannie Jane, and often in the company of George, a young patient at the spa, Aggie and Hector take a closer look at the guests and staff of the Wellspring Hotel, and venture into the intriguing world of the local undertaker. Has there been a murder—or even two? As Aggie and Hector ignite their deductive skills, their restful trip takes a sudden, dangerous turn.

Marthe Jocelyn’s ability to present important-to-learn concepts to the very young has garnered accolades from around the world. Ones and Twos is her first book collaboration with her nineteen-year-old art student daughter, Nell, and, together, they explore numeracy, sorting, and pairing. Each brightly illustrated page invites children to identify familiar objects ranging from kites to socks, from one nest to the two birds sitting in it. Ones and Twos gives little toddlers and their caregivers much to discuss and to enjoy together, and it introduces an exciting new creative team.

For young detective Aggie Morton and her friend Hector, an opportunity to dig up fossils becomes even more thrilling when a corpse washes ashore in this fourth book in the Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen series, inspired by the life of Agatha Christie as a child and her most popular creation, Hercule Poirot. For fans of Enola Holmes. After an invigorating but not exactly restful trip to a Yorkshire spa during which she survived a near brush with death and foiled a murderer, aspiring writer Aggie Morton and her friend Hector are thrilled to have the opportunity to stay at a camp by the sea and watch real paleontologists at work. The famed husband and wife team of the Blenningham-Crewes are about to become even more famous with the recovery of the fossilized bones of an ichthyosaur from the sea by Lyme Regis. This news has already caught the attention of an American millionaire, a British museum and a travelling circus owner, who each want the bones for their own collections. Tensions are running high throughout the camp, from the cook, to the collectors, to the Blenningham-Crewes themselves, and become downright dangerous after Aggie and Hector make a discovery of their own: a body on the beach. Not a fossil, but a human body.

When chubby, geeky Wylder Wallace spills lunch on cool and aloof Addy Crowe at Toronto''s Comicon, she dashes to the bathroom, leaving behind the latest issue of her uncle''s steampunk comic hit: FLYNN GOSTER in GOLD RUSH TRAIN. Wylder, a fan of the Flynn comics, opens this new one eagerly, astounded to see the girl who was just yelling at him inside the comic. Fascinated, he follows Addy into the bathroom, and the adventure begins... Is there a personality conflict? Oh, yes. Addy wants to go home; Wylder wants to stay and explore the world of Viminy Crowe''s comic book. Do things go wrong? You bet they do, from the very start, when Addy loses her pet rat, Catnip, and almost gets shot by a Red Rider. All the while the actual comic book story is going on around them. The train carries a fortune from the Yukon goldfields, and both dashing Flynn Goster (hero of a thousand disguises and thief extraordinaire) and villainous Professor Aldous Lickpenny (criminal genius, aided by malevolent robots but somewhat hampered by doltish nephew Nevins) have plans to steal the gold. There''s romance too -- Flynn''s old flame, the brilliant aviatrix, Isadora Fortuna, is traveling across Canada with her balloon, and her strangely familiar protégée Nelly Day. Addy and Wylder navigate the story with the aid of the comic book itself. Every page turn sends them to a different setting, from the Banff Springs Hotel to an alligator-wrestling arena in Florida. But when they finally find a portal back to the real world, catastrophe follows ... A hilarious thrill-ride of a story that will have kids laughing and on the edge of their seats with every turn of the page.

Billie Stoner’s mother is stuck to her like glue. In the Stoner family, togetherness rules. Billie is desperate to be like other eleven-year-olds she reads about, who are allowed to walk to school alone and who have their own rooms. While on a family outing to Central Park, Billie discovers a magic makeup bag that allows her to fulfil her deepest desire – to become invisible. With the help of her best friend, Hubert, Billie skips school for the day and romps around New York City enjoying her freedom. After a brief stint in a movie and several other adventures, Billie realizes that having too much freedom is just as bad as having none at all. She enlists Hubert’s help to find the teenage witch who is the owner of the makeup bag and who, hopefully, knows how to cure her. This easy-to-read first novel is both comic and touching as the animated first-person text describes Billie’s treacherous, but ultimately triumphant, day. Billie’s adventures help her appreciate her mother and find the independence she needs within her own family.

What’s more fun – and more hard work – than a puppy? An invisible one! Author Marthe Jocelyn takes readers back to Manhattan to meet up once again with Billie Stoner in her follow-up to The Invisible Day. Billie has always wanted a puppy, but her mother and father both agree: No dog! No problem, thinks Billie, who turns to her mad scientist friend Jodie for a plan to make her new pet invisible! The plan works, but soon Billie finds that keeping her invisible dog, Harry Houdini, under wraps isn’t as easy as she planned, especially in a tiny apartment. To begin with, he still smells like a puppy, feels like a puppy, and worst of all, sounds like a puppy. What’s more, her arch enemy Alissa is beginning to catch on to the secret. Just how long can Billie keep Harry concealed?

Hannah loves to make collections. Whether it''s new barrettes for her hair or seashells from the shore, she likes to gather things and sort them by size, shape, and color. But now she is facing a dilemma. The children in her class have been invited to bring their favorite collection to school. How can she possibly pick a favorite? Once again, Hannah''s boundless imagination wins the day. She finds a way to show off all of her collections in a surprising new way. "From the Hardcover edition."

Wake up, Nellie! The fun is about to begin. First, there’s deciding what to wear. Then there’s breakfast with all kinds of shapes and textures and tastes. From indoor play in a made-up train, to a trip to the park and a bedtime cuddle with Daddy, Nellie’s day is full of discoveries. Marthe Jocelyn’s bright collages incorporate a feast of concepts for small children to explore. With so much to look at and talk about, A Day with Nellie is sure to be a favorite with the very young and with the people who take care of them.

Can you follow one strand of string through this knotty book?

Can you catch the one little button rolling away?

Presents simple handicraft projects that can be snuck into everyday places, including a small wash line, tissue-paper cupcakes, cork sailboats, and paper fortune cookies.

In early June, 1964, the Benevolent Home for Necessitous Girls burns to the ground and its vulnerable residents are thrust out into the world. The orphans, who know no other home, find their lives changed in an instant. Arrangements are made for the youngest residents, but the seven oldest girls are sent on their way with little more than a clue or two to their past and the hope of learning about the families they have never known. On their own for the first time in their lives, they are about to experience the world in ways they never imagined. Bestselling authors Kelley Armstrong, Vicki Grant, Marthe Jocelyn, Kathy Kacer, Norah McClintock, Teresa Toten and Eric Walters teamed up to create this series of linked YA novels. Readers can discover all seven Secrets in any order in this thrilling collection. This collection includes the seven following titles: The Unquiet Past Small Bones A Big Dose of Lucky Stones on a Grave My Life Before Me Shattered Glass Innocent

Describes the life and times of Thomas Coram and his goal of establishing a safe refuge for abandoned babies in the early 1700s.

From airplane/avión/avion to zigzag/zigzag/zigzag, Marthe Jocelyn and Tom Slaughter have created a unique ABC for the very young. The book works perfectly in three languages, English, Spanish, and French (English, Español, and Français). In each case, deceptively simple paper cuts will delight the eye while young readers explore words in three languages. The book has been carefully constructed to accommodate each language, including the letters which occur in Spanish, but not in English or French. Earlier collaborations by Tom Slaughter and Marthe Jocelyn have received raves from critics. This new addition to their library is yet another excellent introduction to modern art, to words, and this time to the fun of languages

Hannah is a little girl with a big problem. She loves her dresses – so much so that she cannot decide what to wear. Her solution is inventive. She will assign one dress to each day. The problem seems to be solved until a special day – her birthday – rolls around. To save having to make a decision, Hannah piles on all her seven dresses! But how can you play games, or blow out candles, when you are swaddled in cloth?