New Releases by Ruth Heller

Nature’s Olympics offers concise poems about the natural world, including plants, animals, and birds. This book focuses on the flora and fauna of the Midwest. Nature’s Olympics has four sections dedicated to the different seasons: summer, autumn, winter, and spring. Poetic forms include haiku, tanka, sonnets, and free verse. The poems in Nature’s Olympics concern both wilderness areas and cities and show that the natural world inspires insight into human life. Readers will find the poems accessible.

Concerns the journey of becoming a woman during difficult times. Themes include feminism, love relationships, college teaching, nature, psychotherapy, travel, the anti-Vietnam War movement, family, the life of an artist/entertainer/writer, and music.Janet Ruth Heller has published the poetry chapbook Traffic Stop (Finishing Line Press, 2011), the scholarly book Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, and the Reader of Drama (University of Missouri Press, 1990), and the award-winning children''s fiction picture book about bullying How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Sylvan Dell, 2006). She has a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago. Janet is a past president of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature, and she is currently president of the Michigan College English Association. Janet lives in Portage, Michigan, with her husband. Her hobbies are hiking, singing, and bird-watching."Heller employs simple language - language that is fundamentally folk - which captures in its aforementioned clear-cut rhythm a sound that effectively shows us the allures of activism, on scales either small or large, in the realms of both public and private life." -Women''s Studies, 41:1010-1, 2012. Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group, "In Brief""Folk Concert: Changing Times, by Janet Ruth Heller, captures small everyday moments with matter-of-fact grace and humor. The powerful understatement of these rich, precise poems swells and reverberates. They sing with political commitment, emotional commitment, and a lifetime of paying attention." -Jim Daniels, author of Trigger Man, and Having a Little Talk with Capital P Poetry"Janet Ruth Heller''s poems in Folk Concert: Changing Times work hard for clarity. They feel like clear water, but they have the cumulative power of a summer storm. Her family and nature poems are particularly moving." -Marge Piercy, author of The Hunger Moon: New & Selected Poems, 1980-2010, Circles on the Water: New and Selected Poems 1960-1980, and The Moon is Always Female

Lisa and her little brother Jon enjoy collecting stamps. But when their father holds a contest to decide which child will get a new large stamp album, Lisa has to solve a difficult problem. Set circa 1960, this chapter book also touches on World War II and civil rights. A Discussion Guide inspires readers to explore the book''s issues. ""A sweet period-piece that weaves the longing for a coveted prize, sibling rivalry, and a firm foundation in Jewish traditions and faith into an appealing and morally uplifting tale.""-Yona Zeldis McDonough, author of The Doll Shop Downstairs and The Cats in the Doll Shop "A good look at a loving family dealing with the issues of fairness and sexism."-Shutta Crum, author of Thomas and the Dragon Queen, Dozens of Cousins, Spitting Image, and Thunder-Boomer "A nostalgic tale about a Passover past that evokes strong feelings of family and tradition. A warm, inviting read."-Tara Lazar, author of The Monstore, I Thought This Was a Bear Book, and Little Red Gliding Hood

The poems in EXODUS are modern re-interpretations and psychological explorations of the people and events in the Bible. A central metaphor is the exodus from Egypt, which represents the journeys that people take: trying new experiences, leaving a bad relationship, finding a new job, taking risks. Many of the poems are dramatic monologues from the perspective of a character in the Scriptures. "In this ambitious collection of poems, Janet Ruth Heller takes on the voices of a wide range of Biblical figures, giving them a fresh, contemporary feel as they weigh in with their own versions of these well-known stories. There are humor, wit, and compassion in these retellings. These humanizing, sympathetic portraits should resonate for all readers, regardless of one''s faith or lack of faith. She makes bold new footprints on these familiar paths."--Jim Daniels "With her collection EXODUS, Janet Heller earns her place in the vibrant tradition of the midrash that begins with writings from the second century and continues to live in the hip hop of contemporary rapper Matt Bar and in Robert Crumb''s Genesis. In her lively and inventive ''retellings'' of events from the Bible, Heller gives us an Exodus--not simply the journey from Egypt but the very notion of change itself--that is beautifully mortal, compellingly present."--Nancy Eimers

Ruth Heller''s Designs for coloring leaves is perfect for celebrating the changing colors of fall. This book offers thirty-one original illustrations.

Six of beloved illustrator Ruth Heller''s Designs for Coloring books are now combined into one oversized collection. Kids and adults alike will love coloring all the unique and challenging designs in Geometrics, More Geometrics, Optical Art, Prisms, The Far East, and Seashells. At 384 pages and only $9.99, Shapes of All Sizes is the steal of the summer!

Ruth Heller was a premiere designer and illustrator for children, widely known since the publication of her first book in 1978. Ornaments is the latest title in Ruth''s bestselling Designs for Coloring series, featuring 31 pages of beautiful Christmas ornaments to color. Get into the holiday spirit by coloring all the unique and detailed designs, or give as a gift to spread the Christmas cheer!

Kids will love coloring all the designs in Spring Has Sprung, a new jumbo-sized collection of Ruth Heller''s spring-themed coloring books: Butterflies, Birds, Flowers, Insects and Spiders, More Flowers, and Tropical Fish. This book clocks in at a whopping 384 pages at the bargain price of $9.99!

12 Sylvan Dell books between Reading Counts Levels 3.1 and 3.9: In Arctic Waters; Christmas Eve Blizzard; Sort It Out!; If You Were a Parrot; How the Moon Regained Her Shape; Loon Chase; Ocean Hide and Seek; Saturn for My Birthday; Blackberry Banquet; Where Should Turtle Be?; Carolina''s Story: Sea Turtles Get Sick Too!; My Even Day

Conquer your fears, discuss how to deal with bullies, or learn the value of hard work with 10 Sylvan Dell books in the Overcoming Adversity Set. These books are each fictional stories with nature & science themes designed for reading fun but, at the same time, to pique a child''s interest and tee-up science, math, and geography learning. Titles include: Carolina''s Story: Sea Turtles Get Sick Too!**, How the Moon Regained Her Shape**, Octavia and Her Purple Ink Cloud**, If a Dolphin Were a Fish**, The Giraffe Who Was Afraid of Heights, Burro''s Tortillas, Little Skink''s Tail**, Kersplatypus**, Where Should Turtle Be?** and Champ''s Story: Dogs Get Cancer Too! (**Award Winners) 4-6 pg For Creative Minds educational section in the back of each book 40-60 pg cross-curricular Teaching Activities and 3 Interactive Quizzes available free on each book''s homepage

After the sun insults her, the moon gets very upset and disappears, but with the help of her friends, the moon gains more self-confidence each day until she is back to her full size. Includes facts about the moon''s phases and related activities.

The Sargasso Sea and the sea life which inhabits the area, are explained in rhyme.

Seventy carols from around the world plus historical descriptions of Christmas customs. Titles: * Carol of the Mistletoe Singers (Canadian) * Baloo Loo Lammy (Scotch) * Echo Carol (German) * Bells of Paradise (English) * Christmas, O Day! (Norwegian)

Describes and illustrates how colors combine in printing and how they affect our eyes.

Describes how mushrooms, seaweed, lichen, moss, and ferns grow, and looks at plants that don''t flower, but still produce seeds.

A pictorial introduction to the animals that lay eggs, including chickens as well as other birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, insects, and even a few mammals.

Line drawings of flowers, including lilies, sweet pea, iris, bird of paradise, jack in the pulpit, chrysanthemums, and others.

Designs based on the art of Egypt at the time of the pharaohs are presented in outline.

With this Fantastic! publication, Ruth Heller''s bestselling language series is finally complete. This time, Heller picks up pen and paintbrush to explain interjections and conjunctions with her trademark wit and pictorial verve. Illustrations.

Create a winter wonderland with these designs that provide snowy fun for artists of all ages.

"Highly informative and lushly illustrated. An unbeatable combination for pleasure and learning." —Children''s Book Review Service "The illustrations and the vocabulary will delight small eyes and ears." —School Library Journal Q&A - Ruth Heller - A Paperstar Profile Ruth Heller - Profile How did you become interested in writing books for children? I loved reading to my own children, and when they started school, I became the P.T.A. library chairman. I was the one who got to pick and choose and spend a nice fat budget for the elementary school library. I feel as though I?ve been surrounded by children?s books for years.I suppose this and my strong art background are what prompted my trying to write. What is the biggest influence in your style of writing, and how has it changed since you first began? Hillaire Belloc, Gilbert and Sullivan, Edward Lear?I grew up reading all of them. I love their rhythm, and I loved reading Dr. Seuss to my children. No question, these were my influences.I think I?ve become wordier, not quite as minimal and succinct as I used to be. What made you decide to write a series on the parts of speech? Take a peek at the back end paper of the hardcover edition of A Cache of Jewels. You?ll see that I committed myself, in print, to writing a book for each part of speech.Here I am, ten years later, thankfully completing the very last book in this series. It will be published in 1998. Do you begin with the words or pictures when you are developing a book? How does the second part come together? The first step is to decide what I am going to say on each page. Then I can begin to visualize my illustrations. The words dictate what the illustration will be, but that still gives me many options.Sometimes the two come together easily, sometimes not. If not, I pursue new research material until something clicks. Did you learn anything new about the parts of speech while writing these books? I learned many things I had forgotten, and some new information and rules that I had never known. I also learned that the textbooks that I used for research were difficult to understand and somewhat boring, and that I am guilty of frequent misuse of the English language. How do you choose the images in your book? An art teacher once told me to fall in love with whatever I was drawing. So I choose images that I love: candy, ice cream, butterflies, sea creatures, carousels, jewels, etc.

A children''s book illustrator shares her daily routine and creative life, showing how the two are intertwined.

The inimitable Ruth Heller shows young readers just how artwork gets reproduced from pictures to the printed page. With a four-page acetate printer''s proof bound right into the book and stunning illustrations that pop from each page, this unique, interactive book will appeal to all aspiring artists.

Rhyming text and pictures demonstrate the camouflage nature provides in the coloration of birds such as the plover, bittern, and potoo.