The charming tales of one mischievous cat from War Horse author and former Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo. A cat's nine lives are full of adventure and excitement and none more so than Montezuma, the farmyard cat. From a young kitten to a grand old cat, he is cunning and proud while establishing his kingdom, but to Matthew, he's always loving and adorable. A great read that kids aged 9+ will love. Michael Morpurgo, again demonstrates why he is considered to be the master storyteller with this collection of stories. Famed for animal stories such as Little Foxes, Shadow, The Butterfly Lion and An Eagle in the Snow, The Nine Lives of Montezuma is every bit as enthralling. Michael Morpurgo has written more than one hundred books for children and won the Whitbread Award, the Smarties Award, the Circle of Gold Award, the Children’s Book Award and has been short-listed for the Carnegie Medal four times.

These exciting and unique author profiles are essential to your holdings because sketches are entirely revised and up-to-date, and completely replace the original Contemporary Authors entries. A softcover cumulative index is published twice per year (included in subscription).

Provides biographical information on the men and women who write and illustrate children's books.

A biographical and bibliographical guide to current writers in all fields including poetry, fiction and nonfiction, journalism, drama, television and movies. Information is provided by the authors themselves or drawn from published interviews, feature stories, book reviews and other materials provided by the authors/publishers.

Offers teaching units and activities that focus on the collaboration between librarians and teachers across the curriculum.

This sourcebook is a basic working tool for all those concerned with children's reading. It will help librarians and teachers to select a comprehensive stock of children's fiction for their institutions. The authors in the sourcebook have been selected on the grounds of importance, popularity and current availability. Author entries are arranged in alphabetical order and indexes provided by title, series, age-range and genre. Each consists of some background information, and evaluative comment on the style of the book, a list of the author's books with publisher, date and price, and literary agent where possible. There is a suggestion of similar authors, sequels, related series and reader age range. This new edition includes new authors, from America and Australia, there were some in the first edition, but the emphasis was definitely on the U.K. The main author entry will be expanded to include a full list of an author's works, but only the best ones will be given an evaluation and description. Appendices have been updated and expanded.

"As Marciano is descended from Ludwig Bemelmans, so might Alexander Baddenfield be descended from Madeline's nemesis-turned-friend Pepito 'The Bad Hat.'"* Alexander Baddenfield is a horrible boy—a really horrible boy—who is the last in a long line of lying, thieving scoundrels. One day, Alexander has an astonishing idea. Why not transplant the nine lives from his cat into himself? Suddenly, Alexander has lives to spare, and goes about using them up, attempting the most outrageous feats he can imagine. Only when his lives start running out, and he is left with only one just like everyone else, does he realize how reckless he has been. With its wickedly funny story and equally clever illustrations, this is dark humor at its most delicious. *Review from School LIbrary Journal