Arthur

After a fine, green summer in New York City, all the birds are preparing to fly South--all, that is, except Arthur. Arthur is missing! He is playing in the park, looking into a lake, dreaming of wider seas.

And so Arthur is left behind. At first he is uneasy and lonely, his nest scattered by the wind, but he raises his head high and starts to look for another home. Along the way, he finds a whole new city of rush hours, steaming manhole covers, a daily feast of crumbs, icicles, snow, Christmas trees, and people singing "Gloria" on a cold night--a winter wonderland!

When all the other birds return in the spring, what joys will they share? With Arthur as their guide through the city, children will find poetry and wonder in every corner.

Rhoda Levine has directed on and off Broadway and London's West End. She has also worked for CBS and WNET and has staged operas for the Netherlands, Belgian, Scottish, San Francisco, etc. opera companies. She staged the world premiere of Victor Ullman's Der Kaiser von Atlantis, and, in 1996, the South African premiere of Porgy and Bess. New York premieres at New York City Opera include Little Women, Mathis der Maler, X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X, From the House of the Dead, Of Mice and Men, Lizzie Borden, and Die Soldaten. She is currently on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, and was also on the faculty of Yale Drama School, the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute. Along with Philip Glass and George Abbott, she was the recipient of the National Institute of Music Theatre Award for her contribution to the American musical theatre. Levine is the author of seven children's books, including Three Ladies Beside the Sea and He Was There From the Day We Moved In, both illustrated by Edward Gorey, available from The New York Review Children's Collection.

Everett Aison is a screenwriter, director, book designer, illustrator, and author. Aison is the designer and illustrator of the children's booksArthur and The American Movie, and worked as the art director of Grossman Publishers. His first novel,Artrage, was published in 2006. He is the co-founder of the School of Visual Arts Film School in New York. Aison lives in Bellingham, Washington.