There's an Ant in Anthology

About the Book

This collection of three stories of our reluctant hero, Anthony Ant, contains adventures aplenty and lessons abundant. While the two main activities in the typical ant’s life are to gather food and then eat it, Anthony is only gifted in the latter one. Yet, as the stories progress, he tends to grow as all characters do, and by the third story, his interest lies beyond food – far beyond. In all three stories the verse is embedded in prose form and sort of sneaks up on the younger readers. Then youngsters and older readers alike come to expect the cadence along with the ample action richly installed in all three works. The author has inserted many learning situations for the attuned teacher and parent, and the typical young listener will relish any of the stories being repeated. This set of three complete books offers a unique treatment of language and imagery. The illustrations in black and white fit the ant world with delightful design. Mary Coons draws with a magic pen for all three works. The owners of this power-packed trilogy will treasure it and make it part of their permanent book batch.

About the Author

Richard L. Stein loves to write, especially for children. He also loves to read, principally children’s stories written by children. During one phase of his career, he read over ten thousand student-generated works for a program designed by him. During this period, he developed works of his own to keep the young writers inspired to present their best multi-genre compositions without teacher intervention. Reading these outside-the-classroom productions gave Mr. Stein a fairly accurate insight into grade-level passions and pastimes. He is a former teacher of English, speech and theatre arts and brings that background into his wordplay and storytelling. He has presented his works from Montessori schools to post-graduate classes and teacher workshops. He has keynoted many young authors’ conventions and award assemblies. Following retirement as a school administrator, he traveled with his illustrator to hundreds of classrooms relating his works to students’ learning levels, inspiring them to read, write, draw, and never stop.