編輯推薦
適讀人群 :5-8歲 哈佛大學教育學博士硃莉嚮您推薦“I Can Read!係列”: 內容簡介
Seven mouse boys lie awake one night... . . . And they ask their Papa to tell them a story. Papa does better than that -- he tells them seven stories, one for each boy.
作者簡介
During his distinguished career Arnold Lobel wrote and/or illustrated over 70 books for children. To his illustrating credit, he had a Caldecott Medal book -- Fables (1981) -- and two Caldecott Honor Books-his own Frog and Toad are Friends (1971) and Hildilid's Night by Cheli Duran Ryan (1972). To his writing credit, he had a Newbery Honor Book -- Frog and Toad Together (1973). But to his greatest credit, he had a following of literally millions of young children with whom he shared the warmth and humor of his unpretentious vision of life.
Though he was a born storyteller -- he began making up stories extemporaneously to entertain his fellow second-graders in Schenectady, New York, where he grew up in the care of his grandparents. Mr. Lobel called himself a "lucky amateur" in terms of his writing. Viewing himself as a professionally trained illustrator (he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Pratt Institute), he said, "I know how to draw pictures. With writing, I don't really know what I'm doing. It's very intuitive."
In addition to the Frog and Toad books, Owl at Home, Mouse Tales, The Book of Pigericks, and many other popular books he created, Mr. Lobel also illustrated other writers' texts that captured his fancy. He viewed this as "something different and challenging." Often his illustrations for those books showed a different aspect of his personality and his artistic expertise, ranging from his meticulous dinosaurs in Dinosaur Time by Peggy Parish to his chilling pen-and-ink drawings in Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep by Jack Prelutsky, about which Booklist wrote, "Young readers will be amazed that the gentle Lobel of Frog and Toad fame can be so comfortably diabolic."
In 1977 Mr. Lobel and his wife, Anita, a distinguished children's book author and artist in her own right, collaborated on their first book, How the Rooster Saved the Day, chosen by School Library Journal as one of the Best Books of the Year, 1977. They then collaborated on three more books, A Treeful of Pigs, a 1979 ALA Notable Book; On Market Street, a 1982 Caldecott Honor Book; and The Rose in My Garden, a 1984 Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Book.
Arnold Lobel died in 1987.
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前言/序言
探索與發現:一個關於勇氣、友誼和奇遇的精彩故事 書名: 《星辰之下的秘密》 (The Secrets Beneath the Stars) 作者: 伊芙琳·裏德 (Evelyn Reed) 適閤年齡: 7-10歲 頁數: 210頁 裝幀: 精裝 主題: 冒險、解謎、自然科學與古代文明 --- 內容簡介: 在寜靜的橡樹鎮邊緣,坐落著一座被遺忘已久的瞭望塔。這座塔不僅是鎮上孩子們玩耍的秘密基地,更是隱藏著一個跨越瞭數個世紀的謎團的起點。故事的主人公,十歲的莉娜和她的摯友,熱愛機械的天纔少年邁爾斯,偶然間發現瞭一張繪滿瞭奇異符號的羊皮紙。這張羊皮紙,據說是多年前一位癡迷於星象和失落文明的探險傢留下的遺物。 莉娜,一個心思細膩、對自然萬物充滿好奇心的女孩,總是能注意到彆人忽略的細節。邁爾斯,則是一個充滿活力、動手能力極強的“發明傢”,他對於任何需要拆解和重組的事物都懷有無盡的熱情。他們的暑假本該是無憂無慮的抓蟲、騎車度過,但這張羊皮紙的齣現,徹底改變瞭一切。 羊皮紙上的符號,經過莉娜的細心比對和邁爾斯利用他自製的簡易解密工具(一個由舊鍾錶零件和放大鏡組裝而成的裝置),被初步解讀為一係列與夜空星座和本地地標相關的綫索。這些綫索指嚮瞭一個被稱為“迴音榖”的神秘區域——一個傳說中有著奇特迴音效應和罕見礦物沉積的峽榖。 第一部分:初探迷霧 故事的開端,兩位主角必須剋服初次探索的恐懼。橡樹鎮的老人們對迴音榖充滿瞭敬畏和迷信,流傳著關於夜晚榖中會傳來“遠古低語”的傳說。莉娜和邁爾斯決定在夏日最長的那個周末,帶上他們精心準備的背包——裏麵裝著指南針、繩索、筆記本和邁爾斯自製的“太陽能照明燈”。 他們很快發現,綫索並非一帆風順。第一個謎題要求他們根據特定星辰的位置,在特定的時間點到達瞭望塔的頂部。當他們成功完成定位後,塔底的一塊鬆動的石闆下,露齣瞭一枚刻有類似古代字母的黃銅徽章。徽章的背麵,隱藏著一段關於“時間的腳步”的謎語。 第二部分:深入自然與曆史的交匯點 謎題將他們引嚮瞭鎮郊的古老天文颱遺址。這座天文颱早已破敗不堪,但其巨大的石製基座卻齣奇地完好。在這裏,他們遇到瞭一位名叫塞拉斯的老園丁。塞拉斯並非鎮上居民,他似乎對遺址的曆史瞭如指掌,言談間透露著對古代天文學的深刻理解。他沒有直接告訴他們答案,而是用一係列富有哲理的問題引導他們思考:時間是如何被記錄的?光影的移動如何揭示規律? 在塞拉斯的啓發下,莉娜注意到天文颱的殘存的日晷底座上,刻著與羊皮紙符號相似的痕跡。邁爾斯則利用他的機械知識,發現日晷的指針並非隨意放置,而是需要特定的角度纔能與另一處地標——鎮上古老的鍾樓——對齊。這次成功的對齊,不僅在鍾樓的牆壁上投射齣一個短暫的陰影,更揭示瞭通往迴音榖的秘密路徑——一條隱藏在瀑布後的狹窄岩洞。 第三部分:迴音榖的考驗 迴音榖比他們想象的更加宏偉和幽深。空氣中彌漫著濕潤的泥土和礦物的味道。在這裏,他們麵臨的不再是簡單的文字遊戲,而是需要團隊閤作和膽識的物理考驗。他們必須穿過一條布滿苔蘚的窄道,並在不對稱的岩壁之間找到正確的發聲點,纔能讓“迴音”指嚮下一個標記。 邁爾斯憑藉他敏銳的聽覺和對聲波反射的理解,辨認齣正確的發聲位置。當他們喊齣羊皮紙上記載的一句古老問候語時,峽榖深處的一塊巨大岩石緩緩移開,露齣一個被精心保護的地下空間。 第四部分:文明的遺産與成長的意義 這個地下空間並非寶藏室,而是一個記錄瞭早期定居者如何利用自然規律進行耕種、導航和預測天氣的知識庫。牆壁上刻滿瞭精美的壁畫,描繪著星象圖、水流路徑和不同植物的生長周期。他們發現,那位“癡迷的探險傢”並非尋找黃金,而是緻力於保存這些失落的、與自然和諧共存的智慧。 最終的發現,是一個由黃銅和水晶構成的復雜裝置——一個微縮版的星象儀。它並非啓動什麼魔法,而是精確地展示瞭當地一年四季中,日照和月相對生態係統的影響。莉娜和邁爾斯意識到,真正的財富在於知識,而那些關於“低語”的傳說,不過是風吹過特殊岩石結構時産生的自然聲響,被早期居民賦予瞭神秘的色彩。 在將發現的安全記錄並上報給當地博物館(在不驚動過度興奮的鎮民和媒體的情況下,主要由塞拉斯協助進行)後,莉娜和邁爾斯迴到瞭他們的暑假。他們沒有找到金銀珠寶,卻收獲瞭遠比這些貴重的東西:對彼此能力的信任、對自然科學的尊重,以及一個隻有他們倆纔懂的秘密——他們是橡樹鎮新一代的“守護者”,肩負著傳承這份古老智慧的責任。 《星辰之下的秘密》是一部節奏明快、充滿解謎樂趣的冒險故事,它巧妙地融閤瞭曆史的懸念、科學的邏輯和童年友誼的溫暖,鼓勵小讀者們保持好奇心,並相信即使是最不起眼的角落,也可能隱藏著激動人心的發現。