The Wise Enchanter
A Journey through the Alphabet

Shelley Davidow

Illustrated by Krystyna Emilia Kurzyca

Softbound

$15.00

I can't begin to describe how much I love this story and the fact that Shelley Davidow has so much insight and such an understanding of children that she created it. The Wise Enchanter actually makes me wish that I could go back to the time before I learned to read and enter the magic world of words through this rich and wonderful door. I especially love that the story is so very like the worlds I created for myself in those pre-written-word days, yet carries with it the assurance that there are depths of goodness in the world and that searching for them is a worthy, yea, necessary thing to do. What could be a better way to introduce our written language to a child? This book is a beautiful creation and a gift to treasure.

Here's a small sample, from the Prologue:

[The Wise Enchanter is on his magical island, and is troubled. He has called his daughter, Gadrun, to him.]

Gadrun ran to her father. A frown creased her brow. "Dear father," she said, "I see that you are worried."

"I am getting old," he replied. "Without Wisdom, there can be no new Enchanters after I am gone. No children have come to my island for many years. It is happening just as I feared. Wisdom is fading in the world. Words are disappearing. The brightness in the sky is vanishing and the dark Cloud of Ignorance has grown suddenly dense. A new darkness is looming. Someone is being created in the deep. He is growing stronger every minute. If he is not stopped, he will grow immense. If he grows strong enough, he will rise up and devour every word and sound. The earth will become a cold, silent place, too terrible to imagine."

"Who are you talking about?" Gadrun whispered.

"I do not like to utter his name," her father whispered. "But I will say it for you. His name is the Master of Ignorance and Shadows. His name is Urckl!"

Gadrun grew pale and silent at the mention of Urckl. Once, some time ago, Urckl had found enough strength to send one of his messengers to the end of the world. Something terrible had happened then in the Enchanted Islands and Gadrun's heart had been broken.

And thus, the adventure begins.

I should add that The Wise Enchanter is filled with soft black-and-white drawings that you can easily transform into main lesson drawings for the child(ren) you are teaching to recreate as each letter is rescued from darkness.

This is a wonderful, vibrant, masterful book -- may your journey through it be rich and rewarding!

The Waldorf Alphabet
(formerly, The Living Alphabet)

Famke Zonneveld

Includes essay by William Ward, "Learning to Read & Write in Waldorf Schools"

Softbound

$12.95

The Waldorf Alphabet is a wonderful lap book - a lively exploration of sound and meaning for parents and children to share and love. The colorful, eloquent paintings depict the form of the capital letters of the English alphabet in ways that are brimming with life. Surrounding these pictures are a series of objects with names that begin with the letter being revealed. On the opposite side is an image of the capital letter itself, with the lower case letter in each corner. The question, How many things beginning with *the letter* can you find? is at the bottom of each facing page.

My experience of these pictures is that each picture makes me want to jump right into it so that I can participate in the story. Imagine the possibilities for stories and conversations with young children! I believe that this book offers a heart-path into the world of the written word - and a warm sharing between parents and children. What better gift than this?

LMNOP
and All the Letters A to Z

Poems by Howard Schrager

Illustrations by Bruce Bischof

Hardbound, large format

$18.95

LMNOP is a beautiful book which should be both an inspiration and an enormous help to everyone who has heard about the Waldorf approach to teaching the alphabet but has never witnessed it. It will also be inspiring to every teacher who has taught children with this approach but has not had a chance to observe many other teachers at work.

In addition to an very valuable introductory essay which makes clear many things about this creative approach (and offers suggestions for variation and direction), each letter of the alphabet is presented with a full page drawing of luminous color and its own very special poem.

The thought of even more children joyfully commencing their journey into the written word in this way is a very warming one - it's a great pleasure to be able to offer this book!

Living Literacy
The human foundations of speaking, writing and reading

Michael Rose

Softbound

$27.00

Michael Rose makes the case that the very life and nature of language are breaking down under the pressures of modern society. I couldn't agree with him more -- I hope many people will read his book and be inspired in a thousand ways to make changes to reverse the slippery slope of this trend.

In Living Literacy, he attributes these threats to inappropriate electronic media and to fundamental flaws in modern educational systems, while examining what really works in teaching and preparing for literacy.

Living Literacy investigates the nature of literacy and how it relates to child development. It explores how teachers and parents can prepare for the transition to literacy through conversation, story, song, and play, followed by relevant and living ways to introduce reading and writing formally.

Contents:

• Part 1 Seeing the Picture
• The Great Divide
• What is Literacy?
• Literacy in the World Today
• The Emergence of the Alphabet
• Lessons of Development
  
  
• Part 2 Making the difference
• Tuning to the Mother Tongue
• Animating the Word
• First Writing and Reading
• Developing Literacy as Faculty
• Further Suggestions for Practice
• Literacy and Learning Differences
  
  
• Part 3 Closing the Book
• The Three Persons of Literacy
• Harvesting the Word
• The Future
• Appendices
• Bibliography
• Resources

A Children's Anthologia
50 Poems for Primary and Junior High School

Alan Whitehead

Softbound

$22.95

Follow the winding curriculum road with a verse at hand for each new turn! Alan's poems for classes 1-8 go to the heart of the subject with verses humorous, serious, charming, and poignent. Each one of them is "just right" for the age group and subject addressed; each one is sure to add a dash more beauty and depth to the lesson.

Verses cover language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and the festivals. Includes the 12 Greek Zodiacal Rhythms, the 7 Meters and 7 Speech Styles.

Fairy Tales

Margaret Peckham

Stapled booklet

$5.50

In this little booklet are six fairy tales, created by a master Waldorf teacher for her first graders. Each is a story that is "just right" and most worthy of warm regard with which this collection is held in Waldorf circles. A lovely way to guide a child toward new adventures in learning.

Contents:

• The Little Prince and the Sun (First Day Story)
• The Little Prince at School (Second Week)
• The Proud Prince
• The Secret and Magic Name of the King
• The Queen Who Lost Things
• The Little Boy and the Four Elements (Number Story)

The Winding Road
Family treasury of poems and verses

compiled by Matthew Barton

Softbound

$26.00

Matthew Barton has gifted us with the most sensitively gathered collection of verse available in print. With poems for children from toddlers to teenagers, The Winding Road has beautiful verse for all interests, ages, and situations. You simply can't do better than to have a copy of this book at hand, ready for you to dip into when looking for "just the right poem" to share with your child -- I promise you, you'll find it.

Over 200 poems, from Gaelic Blessings to Navajo prayers, from William Black to Eleanor Farjeon and Billy Collins, on the following themes:

• The Clay that Shapes: Before Birth
• A Shock of Light: Birth
• Raining Double Blessings Down: Blessing, Naming and Baptism
  
• To Shine on Earth: A Young Child's Brithday
• Arise, Arise! Morning Verses with Young Children
• Bread Is a Lovely Thing to Eat: Graces
• Sleep's Unlatched Door: Evening and Prayer
  
• Feet Find a Way: First Milestones
• Sorrow's Springs: Illness and Upset
• A Wind Where the Rose Was: Bereavement
  
• The Ground to Stand On: Stepping Out and Growing Away
• I Am Good Fortune: Leaving Home
  
• Waldorf School Verses
  

The Key of the Kingdom
A Book of Stories and Poems for Children

Collected by Elisabeth Gmeyner and Joyce Russell

Softbound, large format

$15.00

This is a collection of much-loved stories, legends, fairy tales, fables, and poems for young children from seven to nine. The authors range from Shakespeare, and Robert Herrick through Blake, Keats, Tennyson, Walter de la Mare, and anonymous authors of folk tales and old carols. All were chosen because of their ability to fill the heart and mind with their rhythms, words, and images.

Whoever opens this book—whether parent or child—opens the door to a new and marvelous kingdom of beauty, form, and imagination. Charming, moving, and delightful, this book has already lifted and warmed the hearts of two generations of readers. Filled with images that can live on in the soul for a lifetime, everyone will want to borrow this book. This is one book you will want to put your name in!

(Ages 7–9)

Liputto
Stories of Gnomes and Trolls

Jakob Streit

Illustrated by Susanne A. Mitchell

Softbound

$16.00

From the northern realms of the Old World come these delightful stories of gnomes and trolls, told in Jakob Steit's characteristically heartwarming way. Children and adults will be captivated by the wee folk in all these tales - and by their courage and goodness. Especially wonderful in first grade - but cherished by all ages.

Whittle Your Ears

Barbara Dawson Betteridge

Softbound

$12.00

Barbara Dawson Betteridge was someone whose friendship Bob and I were grateful to have, and who offered that same warm generousity to Highland Hall and the all of Waldorf education. Since 1953 she was one of those amazing souls without whom no Waldorf school could survive for long -- her warmth, insight, and creativity were always at the disposal of any teacher who needed them, any parent with a question. And, it was over the ensuing 50 years that Barbara wrote the songs, poems, and plays that you'll find in this book which were gifts from her to Highland Hall and are now gifts to the entire Waldorf Movement. Just a glance through the book, and you'll know you're in the hands of a master. Be prepared to discover some of the best material for children that has ever been set to paper.

As an example, here are the plays you'll find:

• "Mont Saint Michel" - a Norman legend;
• "Our Favorite Star" for Grade Three;
• "Grammar's Garden" for Grade Four;
• "The Magic Pitcher" for Grade Five;
• "The Golden Fleece" for Grade Five;
• "The Castle of the Kingdom of the Stones" for Grade Six - extracted and extended from The Bind Brethern by Friedrich Hiebel;
• "The Sacred Flame" - a story from Christ Legends by Selma Lagerlof ;
• "Columbus" by Georg Starke, translated by Barbara Betteridge;
• "The Other Wise Man" by Henry van Dyke, dramatized by Barbara Betteridge

And here's a poem, chosen at random:

Acorn

Not by the thunder
The boulder was riven
That lies there asunder,
Helplessly cloven.

Not any mortal,
Of chisel though master,
Marked this for portal
Nor chose for pilaster.

Not any giant,
For gold or for gain,
Maimed the defiant
And clove it in twain.

Might, them denied,
To an acorn was given,
To spring the stone wide
And thrust upward to heaven.

Verses and Poems and Stories to Tell

Dorothy Harrer

Softbound

$12.00

A collection of original material written by master class teacher Dorothy Harrer for her own classes at the Rudolf Steiner School in New York. Particularly suited for grades 1-4.

One, Two, Three!
A Collection of Songs, Verses, Riddles and Stories for Children of Grades 1-3

David Adams

Softbound

$15.00

A master teacher shares the stories, verses, rhymes and riddles he wrote for the children in his classes over a period of more than twenty years. They are delightful, playful and the sort of thing children of all ages love. This collection ought to be extremely helpful to class teachers and homeschoolers alike.

Why the Setting Sun Turns Red
and Other Pedagogical Stories

Eugene Schwartz

Softbound

$12.00

Stories create strong images for children. Far more effective than moralizing, confrontation, or criticism, pedagogical stories give moral pictures to children. This book eloquently explains the role of the pedagogical story and gives several examples of its use. This is another of the many books I wish I had been available when our children were little - very, very helpful!

To Grow and Become

Translated and Collected by Rudolf Copple

Softbound

$12.00

This is a collection of lesser-known stories addressing some of the deeper questions of children. Collected by a long-time class teacher, who found these particularly nourishing for children through fifth grade. Stories include “Old Gerasimus and the Lion,” “Maiden Lene of Søndervand,” and “Ilya.”

Patter-Paws the Fox
and other stories

Brien Masters

$12.95

Your early reader will delight in the tales of Patter-Paws the Fox, Sharp-Claws the Lobster, Lusty Lion, Trusty Mouse and many more. Brien Masters has taken great care in crafting the structure and style of the stories. The language, letter-patterns, progressions of word structures and sound sequences, have all been molded with the intention of building up the child's confidence. This leads to the more disciplined work further on in the book. Ages 7-9.

Trumpets of Happiness and Other Stories

Brien Masters

$17.95

Storyteller Brien Masters regales early readers with tales of urban adventure. Characters both animal and human are a warm-hearted delight, carrying the student through carefully crafted stories that serve to build both ability and confidence in reading. Most children in late first grade or early second grade could begin reading from this book. By the end of the book, they will have become quite accomplished at an average third grade level, but don't count on them waiting until third grade to finish the book!

The Last Little Cat

Meindert DeJong

Drawings by Jim McMullan

Softbound - sweet illustrations

$7.95

Meindert DeJong, a Newbery Award-winning author, published The Last Little Cat nearly four decades ago. Now it is back in print to delight us all.

The last little cat was born in a kennel, surrounded by dogs and dog cages and dog noises. The little cate was always half cold and half hungry - until the day it fell into the cage of hte old, blind dog.

Then, for a while, the last little cate was warm, and the last little cat was well fed. But how could such a small cate know that the barn doors are closed at night and that there are people in the world who do not want to help a helpless kitten?

This story of how the last little cat found a home, not just any home but a perfect home, is one that any child will love. It can serve as an early "long book" reader (late 2nd grade, or thereabouts, depending on ability) or a warm and loving "read-to-me" (age 4 and up). A true book for the heart.

Magic Mangrove Seed
A Story-Reading Book for Primary Grades

Alan Whitehead

$22.95

A lively and original graded reading-story book for classroom or home. For children 7-13. All Australian, all original. Contents: story material, punctuation, fables, nature, geography, grammar, health, seasons, foreign, language, fractions, farming, history.

Copernicus
Struggle and Victory

Heinz Sponsel

Translated by Monica Gold

Softbound

$12.00

Originally published in 1949, this lively book is an established treasure in Germany. It depicts the life struggles and striving of the Polish astronomer Nikolaus Copernicus and makes a wonderful reader for seventh and eighth grade Waldorf classes, as well as an excellent book for anyone interested in Copernicus and his world.

Wish, Wonder, Surprise
An Anthology for Creative Writing in Grades Seven and Eight

Compiled by Eugene Schwartz

Softbound

$9.95

Eugene Schwartz has compiled a fascinating anthology for the 7th grade creative writing block. Here are excerpts, stories, poems, even jokes that represent some what is best and most loved in Western literature, all of them chosen because they are so interesting and evocative that even a 7th grader will want to join the discussion.

And, at the beginning, Schwartz offers some invaluable tips on creating the lessons and carrying them out. This is a must-have resource for anyone teaching this block, whether in the class or at home.

Come Unto These Yellow Sands
Eurythmy, Movement and Classroom Experience

Molly von Heider

Softbound

$27.95

This book is one of those real gems that was available when my own children were young (I still have my well-worn copy), then went out of print and now is available again. I feel enormous gratitude to the publisher that this delicious collection of songs, poems, games and master-teacher suggestions and thoughts is once again available.

There are so many ways to use this book - if you are a parent, the rhymes and songs will gladden your children's days (and your's!); if you are a class teacher, there is a wealth of group games, songs to sing and poems to recite; if you are a eurythmist or movement specialist, you'll find each of the songs or poems suggests its own special movement and von Heider's comments and suggestions will inspire your own creative insights.

I personally used this book both as a source book for the delight of my children and also when when I was working with special needs children to devise ways to help them connect more fully to the world through movement. I found it an inexhaustible treasure trove, one which I now recommend without reservation.

Tales the Harper Sang
Medieval Stories

Collected and retold by Isabel Wyatt

Hardbound

$17.95

This wonderful collection of stories for children includes many of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, drawn from the Welsh, English, Breton, and French traditions. They are full of swords, castles, jousts, gallant knights and beautiful damsels, wise counsel, and reckless adventure.

A joyous addition to the Waldorf Grade 7 curriculum, or for enjoyment at home. Isabel Wyatt remains one of the best storytellers ever.

(Ages 7–12)

For the Love of Literature
A Celebration of Language and Imagination

Christy MacKaye Barnes
Francis Edmunds
A.C. Harwood
Isabel Wyatt
and Others

Softbound

$19.95

These authors give us all an antidote to the decline in cultural literacy and general "dumbing down" that has been noted in all education: namely, they help us to remember how very much we love literature and everything about it.

This is a book that can help parents and teachers pass along a love of literature to the students they teach -- and in so doing, it can help uplift the world we live in.

Contents:

Part One

• Christy MacKaye Barnes, nine essays, including:
  “Can the Imagination Be Trained?”
  “The Crisis of the Word Today”
  “Why Write?”
  “Schooling Capacities through the Study of Great Authors”
  “Backgrounds for Russian Literature”
  

Part Two

• Adam Bittleston, “The Future of the English Language”
• L. Francis Edmunds, “Literature in the Upper School”
• Linda Sawers, “In the Footsteps of Dante”
• Isabelle Wyatt, “Chaucer and the Modern Consciousness”
• A. C. Harwood, “Fair Mountain and Fine City”
• Adam Bittleston, “Shakespeare’s Troubled Kings”
• Ursula Grahl, “In Quest of the Holy Grail”
• L. Francis Edmunds, “The Trials of Parsifal”
• Hugh Hetherington, “Grail Mountain and Garden of Marvels”
• Eileen Hutchins, “Wolfram and Wagner”
• Adam Bittleston, “Christopher Fry and the Riddle of Evil”
• Susan Demanett, “Questing toward a True Understanding of Grammar”
• Dorit Winter, “We Love Grammar”
  

The Spirit of the English Language
A Practical Guide for Poets, Teachers and Students

John H. Wulsin, Jr.

Softbound

$35.00

Here is a fascinating journey through the English language and its literature, born of John Wulsin's lifelong interest “how sound works in English and American poetry.” Wulsin traces the many changes, both subtle and radical, in how English has sounded over the past thirteen centuries, while also showing how those changes are related to the evolution of human consciousness in Western, English-speaking peoples.

The Spirit of the English Language is never dry but filled with the textures of the lives and works of the great English-language poets. Wulsin describes the evolving activity of poetry in the biography of each poet, beginning with the Old Anglo–Saxon in Beowulf and the later works of Chaucer, and following the spirit of the English language through to the nineteenth century’s “primal/modern” language of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Dickinson’s diamond-distilled language. Along the way, we discover how the very sounds of English have changed the ways in which not only poets think and express themselves, but, more important, how sound works and changes our human consciousness. The author also discusses specifically how, in teaching poetics, stages of the developing English language quicken corresponding stages of thinking in maturing adolescents.

Twelve years in the making, The Spirit of the English Language is the fruit of John Wulsin’s thirty years of teaching language and literature to adolescents. The book is further informed and fructified by the author’s fifteen years of teaching poetics to adults, as well as decades of writing poetry and participating in numerous poetry workshops.

This practical guide will become a classic for all poets, teachers of poetry and language, and students. It is a beautiful resource for anyone interested in English, its development, its effects on consciousness, and how sound works in poetry.

Contents:

• Introduction
• Part I
  • A Language Is Born
  • Old Anglo-Saxon
  • Evolving Language in Evolving Adolescents: Ninth and Tenth Grades
  • The Norman Conquest
  • Chaucer’s Middle English
  • The Language Wakes up, Renewed
  • Elizabethan English: Shakespeare
  • Expansion and Contraction: King James Bible
• Part II
  • Lyric Activity in Metaphysical Poetry: John Donne
  • The English Epic: Milton
  • The Eighteenth Century and Blake
  • Wordsworth
  • Coleridge
  • Byron
  • Shelley
  • Keats
  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  • Robert Browning
  • Tennyson
  • Gerard Manley Hopkins
  • Eleventh Grade(Ages 16–17)
• Part III
  • Alteration of the Early American Mind
  • Poetry in American Prose: The Novel
  • Whitman
  • Emily Dickinson
  • Twelfth Grade(Ages 17–18)
  • Contemporary American Speech
  • Speech and Drama in High School
  • Conclusion

Sing Me the Creation
A Sourcebook for poets and teachers, and for all who wish to develop the life of the imagination

Paul Matthews

$22.00

This is an exciting, new approach to awakening spontaneous, wholesome creativity - whether in our selves or within the children we teach. I have a feeling that as more teachers experiment with bringing these exercises into their classrooms, Sing Me the Creation will become one of the most treasured teacher resources ever. Beautiful!

In over 300 silly and serious exercise, Paul Matthews gives us permission to indulge our fantasy, and then, when that life is flowing, provides the tools to craft it into poetry and story.

Though these exercises are intended for group work with adults, teachers of children will find here many new ideas for the classroom, and individuals working alone will have no difficulty adapting them to their needs.

Words in Place
Reconnecting with nature through creative writing

Paul Matthews

Softbound

$30.00

Words in Place is a nine-week writing course that follows a path through the realms of nature, from mineral to plants, animal, and people. By exploring the qualities of each, Words in Place encourages the writer to find a unique, authentic voice and to forge a new relationship the inner and outer worlds.

Paul Matthews offers a rich variety of creative techniques and exercises, including "haiku hikes," word and story games, written conversation, collaborative writing, and "tiny tales."

The reader will enjoy this powerful and unusual book both for its help in connecting with nature and for its insights into imagination and the poets and writers who created the literary geography of East Sussex, the author’s home.

Contents:

• WEEK ONE: Opening Our Senses to Each Other and the World
• WEEK TWO: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire
• WEEK THREE: Turning a New Leaf
• WEEK FOUR: The Flowering Garden and Our Responses to It
• WEEK FIVE: The Animal in Nature
• WEEK SIX: Giving Voice to the Animals
• WEEK SEVEN: Being Human
• WEEK EIGHT: The Story We Belong to
• WEEK NINE: Walking Back the Way We Came