April is Spot the Puppy Month at Phoenix!

Eric Hill left school when he was 15, and took up cartooning while working as a messenger at an art studio. He created Where's Spot? as a bedtime story for his two-year old son.

The playful puppy soon became hugely popular and a series of adventures followed, including the introduction of Spot's friends and family. The newest additions to the series are Spot's First Colors, Spot's First Shapes, and Spot's Toys (which includes the illustration above)!  

Memento Mori

It doesn't take much to remind me
what a mayfly I am,
what a soap bubble floating over the children's party.

Standing under the bones of a dinosaur
in a museum does the trick every time
or confronting in a vitrine a rock from the moon.

Even the Church of St. Anne will do,
a structure I just noticed in a magazine--
built in 1722 of sandstone and limestone in the city of Cork.

And the realization that no one
who ever breasted the waters of time
has figured out a way to avoid dying

always pulls me up by the reins and settles me down
by a roadside, grateful for the sweet weeds
and the mouthfuls of colorful wild flowers.

So many reminders of my mortality
here, there, and elsewhere, visible at every hour,
pretty much everything I can think of except you,

sign over the door of this bar in Cocoa Beach
proclaiming that it was established--
though established does not sound right-- in 1996.

Copyright 2010 by Billy Collins.  This poem may not be reproduced without permission from the author. 

These gorgeous candles are the newest addition to our gifts section! 

Dear Friends,

March came in like a lion and went out, more or less, like a lamb, so we're expecting April showers will bring May flowers.  Until those violets and roses bloom, we're celebrating National Poetry Month, and we'd like to invite you to enjoy a 20% discount* off our selection of local, contemporary, classic, and children's poetry.  Please also check out the sidebar, where you'll find "Memento Mori," a new poem by Billy Collins.

We've chosen an array of titles below for our teen and younger readers, including some storybooks that are just right for springtime, and some imaginative gifts that are just right for your little ones' Easter baskets!