Books by Brian Floca

The follow-up to The Ultimate Yo-Yo Book offers troubleshooting hints and easy-to-follow, detailed directions for many new tricks, including Backwards Dog Walk, Ally Oop, Yo-Ball, and more. Original.

During the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, Billy Bayly and his mother shelter a young Confederate deserter on their Pennsylvania farm, in an easy-to-read story which includes an historical note on the incident. Reprint.

During the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, Billy Bayly and his mother shelter a young Confederate deserter on their Pennsylvania farm, in an easy-to-read story which includes an historical note on the incident.

The Gobi Desert, Mongolia: "A land of secrets, " says Dr. Roy Chapman Andrews. He's talking in his jovial way to Walter Granger, a paleontologist, and George Olsen, their assistant, a young man whose surprising discovery made scientific history. Andrews led five expeditions across the Gobi for the American Museum of Natural History. This book chronicles those of 1922 and 1923, when he took with him some twenty men and an unlikely fleet of cars as an alternative to the more traditional camels. Originally expected to unearth signs that man had originated in Asia, these explorations stumbled across an unexpected find. And George did the stumbling-down the Flaming Cliffs near Shabarakh Usu, where dinosaurs roamed eighty million years ago. The find was a delicate egg, heavy as stone now and the answer to an old mystery: Dinosaurs were not born; they were hatched! A route map, a time line, crisp text, and breathtaking pictures present the sequence and excitement of bone-finding and preserving in the field for young readers eighty million years later.

Erethizon Dorsatum - better known as Ereth, the self-centered, foul-tempered old porcupine - is having a birthday. And he fully expects his best friend Poppy, a deer mouse, to help him celebrate in a grand manner. But Poppy has gone off somewhere with her husband, Rye, and it appears she has forgotten all about it. "Belching Beavers," says Ereth, "I am not angry!" (Though, perhaps he is - and more than just a little.)

Ereth knows his special occasion deserves a special treat - even if he has to get it for himself. And what treat could be more special than tasty salt? But the nearest salt is located deep in the forest, in a cabin occupied by fur hunters, who have set out traps to capture the Dimwood Forest animals. In one of the traps, Ereth finds Leaper the Fox - who, with her dying breath, begs the prickly porcupine to take care of her three boisterous young kits, Tumble, Nimble, and Flip. "Jellied walrus warts!" Ereth exclaims, but reluctantly agrees.

Certainly this day is not going as he planned - and it's only just the beginning! Not only does Ereth suddenly have a rambunctious new family to take care of, but he's being stalked by Marty the Fisher, the one creature in Dimwood Forest who can do him harm. And Bounder, the father of the three little foxes, remembers all too well the nose full of quills he got a while back from the grumpy old animal who now fancies himself the leader of the den. He too sets out to show Ereth who's boss. Throw in an unexpected snowstorm, and all in all, it adds up to one brithday Ereth the porcupine is never going to forget, not even if he lives to be a hundred and twenty-two!

01-02 Golden Sower Award Masterlist (4-6 Cat.)

In four brief stories, Ethan feeds birds, squirrels, and ants, chases a cat, and rides bikes with his Dad.

Here are five trucks with a single focus: an airplane, which viewers gradually see in greater and greater detail as takeoff nears. The five trucks--each labeled appropriately as catering truck, baggage tractor, baggage conveyor, mechanic's truck, and push-out tractor--all belong to a team. From the plane, a boy and his father watch these trucks carry out their tasks. Full color.

When her class goes ape on a school visit to the Natural History Museum, a wily teacher tells the tale of a rambunctious former classmate of her own who found himself left behind in the museum after dark.

When it comes to puberty Boys don't ask their friends (who are as clueless as they are) and they won't ask their parents. So where can they turn--to Michael Gurian's straightforward guide that answers the questions on every boy's mind. 'Why am I growing much more slowly than any of my friends?' 'Why do Girls seem so different?' 'Why do I suddenly care?' Face it adolescence can be awfully confusing. But help is only a turn of the page away with this reassuring, no-holds-barred book by the best-selling author of 'The Wonder of Boys' that examines and explains the biological, physical and emotional changes that make puberty so bewildering --and exciting.

When Union soldiers march by the farm and ask Johnny if he wants to join them, the young slave quickly leaves the only home he has ever known, takes a job working on the company's mule team, and risks his very life doing dangerous tasks in the hopes that it will lead to becoming free man at the end of the Civil War.

A two-headed being called "The Ghoul Brothers" is the hit of the Halloween party in this humorous first-chapter book.

Trying to get anything done with a disgruntled Hinky-Pink around is impossible, as seamstress Anabel sadly discovers. Set in Old Firenze, Megan McDonald's fairy tale stars Anabel, who has only a week to make a gorgeous ball gown for a princess, and the Hinky-Pink, who does everything to wreck her attempts. Will Anabel get any sewing done, or must she disappoint everyone? With illustrations.

From the author of Babe: The Gallant Pig, a tender tale of a young student and her clever pet.

When two scientists put an electronic transmitter on Max the hedgehog's head, his friends mistake him for a long-lost hedgehog king. This charming tale is from the bestselling author of "Babe, the Galant Pig". Illustrations. Digest.

It's not fair!

That's what Bob and Hannah shout whenever they have to share anything. If the two halves of the sandwich or the two sides of the car seat aren't exactly the same size and shape--watch out!

But when these two squabbling siblings try to fly a kite, they learn that some things can't be split to be shared--and they learn something about the math concept of symmetry too.

Brian Floca's well-illustrated picture book is about old-fashioned lightships, tidy boats that acted as lighthouses in places where it was impossible to build one. The ships are no longer in service, but the text brings the days of these helpful ships alive. A 2007 Booklist Editor's Choice.

Losing his herd of unusual cows somewhere on his Tennessee Valley farm, Clemmon Hardigree finds his luck changing when his fields produce an enormous potato that can only be harvested with the help of the Army Corps of Engineers.

Max and Mo, the class hamsters, have fun after the students return from picking apples, in an easy reader that includes instructions for making apple prints and a recipe for applesauce. Simultaneous.

Max and Mo, the class hamsters, have fun after the students return from picking apples, in an easy reader that includes instructions for making apple prints and a recipe for applesauce. Simultaneous.

When it starts snowing one school day, Max and Mo, the art room hamsters, watch the "Big Ones" outside making snowmen, and they decide to make one too. Simultaneous.

When it starts snowing one school day, Max and Mo, the art room hamsters, watch the "Big Ones" outside making snowmen, and they decide to make one too. Simultaneous.

When Max and Mo, two class hamsters, return to school and are placed in the Art Room, they use supplies found there to spell out their names for the students. Simultaneous.

When Max and Mo, two class hamsters, return to school and are placed in the Art Room, they use supplies found there to spell out their names for the students. Simultaneous.

Life is good for Oscar Westerwit. He's the mayor of Central Park -- the greatest place on earth for the squirrels, chipmunks, mice, and other animals who live there. He's the shortstop and manager of his baseball team. What could be bad?

Plenty! Big Daddy Duds, jewel thief, all-around thug, and leader of rats, is about to take over the park. And when he does, the other animals who live there will be turned out of their homes. Everyone looks to Oscar to save the day, but he may not even be able to save himself. . . .

From putting on their special uniforms and strapping themselves down in their seats to shooting off into the sky and floating about in space, this informative picture book provides an up-close look at this historic mission to the moon that took place forty years ago.

Dreaming of romance and chivalry, Poppy the deer mouse refuses to believe that the mouse-eating horned owl Mr. Ocax truly protects her family, and she befriends the vegetarian porcupine Ereth.

After a long, hard winter in Dimwood forest, Poppy the deer mouse finds new adventure thrust upon her while rescuing Ereth the porcupine from the mud, in the sixth and final book of the Poppy series. Teacher's Guide available.

After a long, hard winter in Dimwood forest, Poppy the deer mouse finds new adventure thrust upon her while rescuing Ereth the porcupine from the mud, in the sixth and final book of the Poppy series. Teacher's Guide available.

Heartbroken over the death of her fiance, Ragweed, Poppy, a deer mouse, journeys west through the vast Dimwood Forest to bring the sad news to Ragweed's family. But Poppy and her porcupine pal, Ereth, arrive only to discover that beavers have flooded the serene valley where Ragweed lived. Together Poppy and Ragweed's brother Rye brave kidnapping, imprisonment, and a daring rescue to fight the beavers. At the same time, Rye--who has lived in Ragweed's shadow--fights to prove himself worthy of Poppy's love.

Poppy, accompanied by her troublesome son Junior, his skunk friend, and Uncle Ereth the porcupine, responds to a summons to return to her ancestral home, Gray House, to save the mice there from destruction by a bulldozer. Reprint.

A is for Automobiles, machines on wheels.
B is for Belts turning, fuel burning, the buzz and bark of engines.
C is for Curves and crowds and cars, of course --
A century of racecars, from bare beginnings to present-day marvels, from stock cars to Formula 1, from Ford to Ferrari, caught in crackling action, in fan-friendly pictures, and in words that bounce and jounce for the fun of it.

A mouse has to do what a mouse has to do.

Ragweed is determined to see the world. He leaves his family and cozy country home and sets off by train for the big city. What wonders await him: music, excitement, new friends...and cunning, carnivorous cats! Silversides is the purring president of F.E.A.R. (Felines Enraged About Rodents), a group dedicated to keeping cats on top, people in the middle, and mice on the bottom. Can Ragweed and his motley yet musical crew of city nice--Clutch, Dipstick, Lugnut, and Blinker--band together to fight their feline foe?

A delightful mini-ballad unravels the hilarious tale of Solomon Snorkel's hurricane-force sneeze and the havoc it wreaks across the globe. Color illustrations throughout.

A dynamic collection of poems celebrates the joy and anguish of baseball, basketball, football, ice hockey, soccer, skating, swimming, and running races. By the editor of Weather: Poems for All Seasons.

All the Tales From Dimwood Forest -- Ragweed, Poppy, Poppy and Rye, and Ereth's Birthday -- in one stunning boxed set!

Two best friends share everything--toys, bikes, even candy bars--until one day a little toad hops into their lives. Full color.

Noticing White Cow standing all alone in the field, Liam's heart is saddened by her lonely state and so decides to find her a friend, sacrificing the things he loves to do most at Christmastime to help a friend in need.

Be the yo-yo champ on your block! It’s easy with this book of 20 tricks, illustrated with line drawings and easy step-by-step instructions. So, Walk the Dog, Loop the Loop, or Rock the Baby! From the basics to the best, from the “ups” to the “downs,” The Ultimate Yo-Yo Book covers it all. There are no strange games or outrageous yo-yo lore, and no history. Just plenty of easy directions from a real-life come to life through simple words and lively songs in this unique new series featuring a musical audiocassette stored in the front cover of each sturdy baord book.

Michael Gurian is the authority on what makes boys the way they are--so teenage girls will definitely want the only young adultbook on the market that answers the age old question: 'Why do boys act like they do?' It's all here--scientific, social and psychological explanations for why boys never talk about their feelings, why they can be so aggressive, and why they think so much about sex. There's also sound and practical advice to help teen girls and guys better relate--plus engaging real-life anecdotes from girls on how to cope with and enjoy the wonderful, frustrating and bewildering differences between the sexes.

Zack Quack and his brothers take the train to New York City where Zack gets lost, and the three brothers are joined by increasing numbers of city folks trying to find him.

This hot new novelty package features a real Flip 'N Fly boomerang made of ultra-light, non-toxic foam so it's perfect for outdoor or inside play. Easy-to-follow directions plus a dozen games and activities and simple instructions for making more boomerangs are included.