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"Pearls is the hottest comic in the newspaper business these days." --Raleigh News amd Observer

Named Best Comic Strip of the Year by the National Cartoonists Society in 2004 and 2007, Pearls Before Swine is regarded by fans and critics alike as a thoughtful commentary on humanity's pitiable plight.

Stephan Pastis sketches this nuanced comic strip tale, which features the arrogant, self-centered, and totally hilarious Rat, who leads his four-legged friends through misadventure after misadventure. Joining him for the journey are Pig, the slow but good-hearted conscience of the strip; Goat, the voice of reason that often goes unheard; and Zebra and the eternally inept Crocodiles who pursue him. Together this mindful menagerie mocks the flaws and shortcomings of human nature through Pastis's cynically biting wit.

• The third Pearls Before Swine treasury, this book combines all the cartoons from Da Brudderhood of Zeeba Zeeba Eata and The Sopratos, along with annotations by Pastis.
• From courtroom antics to references of other cartoon strips, Pastis's strip is a fresh presence on the comic pages.

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Believe it or not, 44 complete read-aloud classics and future classics--from Goodnight Moon to Stellaluna--are packed in this remarkably svelte, positively historic anthology Flipping through the 308 pages of The 20th-Century Children's Book Treasury is like browsing a photo album of beloved friends and family. The familiar faces of Curious George and Ferdinand the Bull peer earnestly from the pages, and scenes from Madeline and Millions of Cats resonate as if you just experienced them yesterday. Think of the advantages of carrying this book on a vacation instead of a suitcase of single titles! (Your kids can always revisit their dog-eared hardcovers when they get home.)

This impressive collection of concept books, wordless books, picture books, and read-aloud stories was artfully compiled by longtime children's book editor and publisher Janet Schulman. Stories are coded red, blue, and green to designate age groupings from baby/toddler books such as Whose Mouse Are You?, through preschool books such as Where the Wild Things Are, to longer stories for ages 5 and older such as Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. The reason the book isn't bigger than Babar is because many of the illustrations from each story were reduced or removed to fit the anthology's format. (Leo Lionni's Swimmy, for example, takes up 5 pages total, compared to its original 29 pages.) Brief biographical notes that are surprisingly quirky shine a little light on the 62 authors and illustrators, and an index helps, too, for the child who likes one story best. We love the idea of being within easy reach of a Star-Belly Sneetch, a William Steig donkey, and a Sendak monster at all times, and we're sure your little bookworms will, too. (Click to see a sample spread from The 20th-Century Children's Book Treasury, compilation copyright © 1998 by Janet Schulman, illustrations © renewed 1997 by William Steig.) (All ages) --Karin Snelson.
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Elizabeth David had it easy. All she had to do was eat her way through France and Italy and translate the essence of the encountered cuisines for a ravenous, literate, English-speaking public. Fuschia Dunlop, on the other hand, went to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan in China, where she ended up the first foreign student enrolled at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine. That was nearly 10 years ago. After annual return visits and endless research she has produced, in English, a magnificent introduction to the food and foodways of Sichuan. She is in every way the dharma inheritor of Elizabeth David.

You too may start to salivate halfway through the introduction to Dunlop's magnificent Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking. Perhaps it begins when she explains xian, "one of the most beautiful words in the Chinese culinary language." It describes an entire range of flavor and sensation, "the indefinable, delicious taste of fresh meat, poultry, and seafood, the scrumptious flavors of a pure chicken soup..." Before you know it you are running headlong into a world of 23 distinct flavors and 56 cooking methods (they are all listed at the end of the book). Sichuan is the place where "barbarian peppers" met up with a natural cornucopia and a literary cooking tradition stretching back to the fifth century A.D. Innovation with cooking technique and new and challenging ingredients remains a hallmark of Sichuan. After describing basic cutting skills and cooking techniques, Dunlop presents her recipes in chapters that include "Noodles, Dumplings, and Other Street Treats"; "Appetizers"; "Meat"; "Poultry"; "Fish"; "Vegetables and Bean Curd"; "Stocks and Soup"; "Sweet Dishes"; and "Hotpot." Yes, you will find Gong Bao (Kung Pao) Chicken with Peanuts--Gong Bao Ji Ding. It's named after a late 19th-century governor of Sichuan, Ding Baozhen, which brought on the wrath of the Cultural Revolution for its imperial associations. Until rehabilitation, the dish was called "fast-fried chicken cubes" or "chicken cubes with seared chilies."

Land of Plenty is literary food writing at its best, as well as a marvelous invitation to new skills and flavors for the home cook. Read it. Cook it. Eat it. And take pleasure in the emerging career of Fuschia Dunlop, a big new voice in the world of food. --Schuyler Ingle.
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Newly expanded.
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The Pearls Before Swine crew are at it again in their new book, Lions and Tigers and Crocs, Oh My! But even the wonderful Wizard of Oz couldn't help this bunch of merry misfits Collecting strips from his last two books, Nighthogs and The Ratvolution Will Not Be Televised, cartoonist Stephan Pastis takes you on a magically malicious journey over the rainbow and into the rat trap of Lions and Tigers and Crocs, Oh My! As in the previous Pearls treasury collection, Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic, the comic strips are annotated, as only the smart-alecky, misanthropic-but-lovable Pastis can do. Following his yellow brick road of notes, readers gain great insights into the making of such classic Pearls bits as Rat's stint as a New York Times reporter, Angry Bob, Pig's plastic surgery, the Mallet o' Understanding, Mrs. Bootyworth, and the fraternal order of the Zeeba Zeeba Eetas.

A special bonus feature included in Lions and Tigers and Crocs is "The Good, the Banned, and the Ugly," a section of never-before-published and unedited Pearls strips.

So go, as fast as lightning, to the Emerald City?or the cash register?and buy this book, before a twister drops a Box o' Stupid People on you!

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Rat, Pig, Zebra, and Goat, the central characters of Pearls Before Swine, are back in their new book, Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic, the first Pearls Before Swine treasury-supersized for your enjoyment

But this is no ordinary cartoon treasury Like the influential Beatles album that inspired the book's title, Sgt. Piggy is full of surprises. In addition to collecting in one volume all of the Pearls cartoons that appeared in BLTs Taste So Darn Good and This Little Piggy Stayed Home, cartoonist Stephan Pastis takes readers on a VIP backstage tour of one of the most successful new comic strips in newspapers today.

In Sgt. Piggy, Pastis explains the genesis of Pearls (hint: it didn't begin at an artist's easel), why he was initially reluctant to show it to newspaper syndicates (and the surprising reason he changed his mind), the unexpected responses from readers to his work (oh, the letters), which Pearls strips worked and which ones didn't (and how he would have corrected the ones that didn't). The result is a rare and revealing glimpse into the world of Rat and Pig, Goat and Zebra. Full of humor and insight, sardonic asides and unexpected truths, Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic is a book that comics fans everywhere can enjoy anytime-even when they're 64.

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Price: $9.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Dude! You gotta' buy this for your mom!" --Jeremy Duncan

A popular psychologist says that teenage boys fire their mothers It's an age when nurturing moms who've spent years cuddling, tucking, and rocking their little boys suddenly find themselves on the outside trying to see in. Most moms and sons do not make the transition gracefully.

Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman are trying something different with this collection of their phenomenally successful comic strip, Zits. They have combed through more than 10 years of strips and selected more than 200 of the most popular of the Mom/Son themed strips into one book.

"The idea is to provide a more focused look at the dynamic that drives almost all of the mountain of Zits e-mail and letters we receive every month," says Scott. Borgman adds, "If moms can stop what they're doing long enough to discover this book, we think they'll find a lot of comfort (and laughs) in seeing that their struggles with their grunting, slouching, uncommunicative, sloppy, and ultimately incomprehensible sons are universal..
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