The humble firefly, giving so much pleasure as it flashes light on summer nights, has a dark side: it eats insects, slugs, and snails and even other fireflies. A brown bedbug changes color to red after drinking blood. Yuck! These are... Read More

One poem in this collection, titled “The Dreams That Cried,” begins: “Things become other things, she said. / It’s what’s inside them, I guess.” The poem’s narrator ponders the strangeness of folklore and the stories that... Read More

Anyone who grew up on the adventures of the Hardy Boys and their intrepid friends won’t be surprised to find that the brothers have joined the burgeoning cast of characters living on in graphic novels. It’s surprising, however, to... Read More

Donald Trump may owe something to hours spent over a Monopoly board in his early years. His personality, his TV series, and his own recently introduced board game suggest that board-game play has motivated his boardroom exploits. The... Read More

“Its true there arent any parks graced by shady trees with leaves of crisp dollar bills,” writes the author. “But money does grow on trees, and on bushes, and even under the ground, too.” Most children are fascinated with money.... Read More

The planet, it appears, is ready for a brand new Voltaire. This one doesnt quite possess the philosophical power of the eighteenth-century French one, but he definitely has a witty, cockeyed viewpoint that the earlier Voltaire lacked.... Read More

It’s hard enough for a teenage girl to bear the embarrassment of having been abandoned by her mother and having to help care for a younger sister. Then, when Papa insists that they move to join his family in a little town in Arizona... Read More

"The End of the West", Michael Dickmans exuberant first book, is lit by all varieties of conflagration. The speaker describes brain, eyes, and lungs making up a “burning chandelier” inside him. And no wonder: His memory is full of... Read More