Invisible Cities

作者：  Italo Calvino　著

出版社：Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2012年1月

简介：　　"Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything MarcoPolo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions,but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the youngVenetian with greater attention and curiosity than he shows anyother messenger or explorer of his." So begins Italo Calvino'scompilation of fragmentary urban images. As Marco tells the khanabout Armilla, which "has nothing that makes it seem a city, exceptthe water pipes that rise vertically where the houses should be andspread out horizontally where the floors should be," the spider-webcity of Octavia, and other marvelous burgs, it may be that he iscreating them all out of his imagination, or perhaps he isrecreating details of his native Venice over and over again, orperhaps he is simply recounting some of the myriad possible forms acity might take.

Curious Georges Dictionary 好奇猴乔治字典 9780618986491

作者：  American Heritage Dictionary　著

出版社：Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2012年1月

简介：The world's most curious monkey investigates new words in thislively picture dictionary for young children. Curious George'sDictionary is an engaging picture dictionary specially designed forchildren from preschool through first grade. Both entertaining andeducationally sound, it features charming illustrations andreflects recent research in early childhood literacy, setting itapart from other picture dictionaries. The main part of thedictionary is an A-Z section containing approximately six hundredwords, six words to a page. Each word is illustrated with afull-color drawing, most of which have been created for this bookby the popular illustrator Mary O'Keefe Young. More than half theillustrations include a sample sentence that puts the word in afamiliar context. A four-page illustrated story at the front of thebook shows George learning how to look up words in his dictionary,drawing children in while introducing them to dictionary skills. Atthe end of the book, seven one- to two-page illustrations presentgroups of words related by simple themes such as colors, shapes,and numbers. Developed in collaboration with educationalconsultants, the word list includes not only concrete objects butmany more abstract concepts, like discover and enough, than doother picture dictionaries. Such words are essential for vocabularydevelopment, and Curious George's antics bring them alive, makingthem easy and fun for children to learn.