Recess. A swing set. An argument. A resolution! Michael Hall’s transformative Swing is a celebration of friendship, joy, and kindness. Readers of all ages will look forward to seeing how four unlikely friends navigate their differences. A surprising and standout story from the acclaimed and bestselling creator of Red: A Crayon’s Story and Perfect Square.
It’s recess! Four letters (O, V, E, and L) race to the playground to claim the swings. In several pages of recess banter and bullying, one letter is told it’s too round, one is from the wrong end of the alphabet, and one is a vowel and therefore not welcome. What does it take to save the day? Kindness . . . and a heavenly and joyful swing. And what do the letters—friends now because of their shared experience—spell when they finally come back to Earth? LOVE.
A story about sharing, acceptance, and kindness, this transcendent and colorful story will keep readers guessing while also introducing the letters of the alphabet. Swing is for anyone who loves to hop on a swing and fly to the sky.
In partnership with Texas Monthly, Michael Hall's "The Slow Life and Fast Death of DJ Screw" is now available as an audio download, where the length and timeliness of a podcast meets the high-quality production of a full-length audio program.
He was one of the most influential cultural figures in Texas - a generous godfather to a generation of rappers, an entrepreneur of Houston's mean streets, the master of a scene fueled by codeine cough syrup and hip-hop beats. When he overdosed in November at the age of 29, it was easy to dismiss him as yet another musician who succumbed to his own success. But the story of DJ Screw is more complicated than that.
In partnership with Texas Monthly, Michael Hall's "The Trouble with Innocence" is now available as an audio download, where the length and timeliness of a podcast meets the high-quality production of a full-length audio program.
In 1978, a Texas jury found Kerry Max Cook guilty of the state's most brutal murder on record and sentenced him to death row. Cook swore that, no matter how long it took, he would prove his innocence, unearth the truth, and free himself from this sentence. Spanning decades, numerous lawyers, and meanwhile the physical and psychological abuse of prison, Cook would be prosecuted four times, only to have the veil of innocence narrowly evade him in the end.
"The Trouble with Innocence" opens with the hearing that would exonerate Cook nearly forty years after his original sentence. Exoneration, after all he had been through, was not enough for Cook, who then asked for his wrongful conviction back rather than live with this injustice. Michael Hall lays out Cook's grueling journey through the Texas justice and prison system in an attempt to answer: how could someone sabotage their own exoneration?
Ingenuity and surprise rule in this funny and colorful companion to Red: A Crayon's Story written and illustrated by Michael Hall, the New York Times-bestselling creator of My Heart Is Like a Zoo.
The crayons are ready to tell the thrilling tale of Frankencrayon. The costumes are made, the roles are cast, the pages are all set-but then disaster strikes. Someone has scribbled on the page! Hideous! Horrifying! The story can't go on! Try as they might, the crayons can't erase the scribble, and this picture book must be canceled. Until the crayons playing the title role of Frankencrayon think of a solution, that is. Michael Hall breaks borders and invites readers behind the scenes with his irresistible, clever style and bold artwork. A book about seeing beauty in unexpected places and the magic of storytelling.
