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Donald Davis
Most people who decide to take the mule ride through the Grand Canyon focus on the spectacular beauty around them. Donald Davis, however, found his focus trained sharply on the 48-inch-wide trail whose ledge drops 700 feet to the Colorado River. Interweaving his trademark humor with vivid detail of perhaps the most remarkable experience offered by the National Park Service, Davis paints for us the stages of this adventure: the gleeful anticipation,
...4) Miss Daisy
It was the forty-second year she had taught fourth grade, and the A's through GR's were thinking that Miss Daisy had probably seen her better days. A mouse entered the classroom through an open door while the frail figure of a teacher stood before her desk on the first day of school. Her new class thought they were about to see the old woman wither or worse. What followed, however, convinced them that this would not be an ordinary year in elementary
...Beginning with some of the earliest he heard as a lap-child, Donald Davis recounts Little Red Hen, Jack and Jill, and The House that Jack Built, a Walking Game. Also includes Davis's own retelling of Jack and the Animals, which is published as a picture book in our August House LittleFolk line. Continuing in a traditional theme, the recording features stories about Jack and a narrative on making molasses with Grandmother that leads into the final
...8) Braces
Braces hurt. Braces are embarrassing. Braces are inconvenient. Many get fitted with them at the very time of their life when their self-confidence is lowest and their self-consciousness is highest. This coming-of-age story, created and performed by Donald Davis, employs the author's trademark characterizations and humor to explore the state of uncertainty that getting braces throws one into. Also includes another Davis favorite, Everybody Goes
...A lot about the birthing experience has changed during the past 50 years. A lot about child psychology hasn’t. For example, sibling rivalry: sometimes, a kid just isn’t ready for some little squirt to come along and invade his space—his own room. So what if there’s an extra bed in the room…isn’t that were the stuffed animals are supposed to sleep? How could a couple of otherwise sensible parents just bring a new kid home without even
...Old Man Hawkins was a larger-than-life character among deer hunters, or more precisely among tellers and hearers of tall tales. His self-proclaimed method of hunting deer by holding a mirror in one hand and his rifle in the other pointing backward over a shoulder was, he said, to be fair to the deer. It was a story, Davis tells us, that would occupy his father on the drive to Grandma's house.
12) Irrational Fear
Donald Davis focuses on our personal phobias and white-knuckle monents.
13) The Time Machine
When Donald Davis walked into his 45th high-school reunion, he had two startling visions. The first was that the only signage he saw read, WELCOME HARLEY RIDERS. After discovering that he and his classmates would be sharing space with the bikers, Davis had his second surprise: "I was amazed to see how many parents had come." In The Time Machine, Davis offers us both the story of the reunion and the collectively remembered story of the classmates’
...The "home theater" will never replace the drive-in theater in America's imaginary landscape. Donald Davis recalls a summer working under the lax supervision of Daff-Knee Garlic, owner and operator of the Sulpher Springs Big-Screen Drive-In Theater in rural North Carolina in the early 1960s. Davis recalls his duties at the concession stand, catching "slip-ins," and patrolling the back rows. But the story culminates on Labor Day when the last movie,
...Who doesn't remember the holiday sights and sounds and smells of Grandma's house? The living room aglow with a tree that touches the ceiling, the clatter of silverware and kitchen pans, the banter of relatives, and especially Grandma's bright face Donald Davis captures these memories and more and relays them through the eyes of a child.
19) Party People
Some folks just prefer to stay home. You know them — whole families who politely decline invitations because they don’t spend money on fancy clothes, don’t care for "small talk". And they certainly don’t dance. They’re just not "party people". Meet an earnest first-grader, intent upon convincing his hill-country parents that other children are treated to a party each year on their birthday, that they invite friends, eat cake — and receive
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