Steve Simpson's mesmerizing collection of short fiction and illustrations is surreal and wildly imaginative, with touches of playfulness throughout. Here is a selection of the beings within: At Claire's school, the walls were cardboard, and her chain-smoking math teacher never allowed numbers to be mentioned. He used a drawing of a press to flatten slices of air into tissue paper for kites, and he was Claire's favorite, because all the other teachers were ghosts. One day, with a little pas...

Steve Simpson's remarkable collection of poetry and illustrations is dream-like, playful and wildly inventive. Here is a selection of the beings within: The detective, who carelessly morphs into birds and insects, and cannot choose between brooding and moping, until a stylish grayscale client with retrolescent highlights appears. Proteus, Homo Sapiens Beta, who discovered fire and put it out, who created a rudimentary encyclopedia that he pedaled across Gondwanaland on weekends. Millie, th...

An imaginative short story inspired by real events, taken from the collection, BEYOND THE STARS, and written and illustrated by two award-winning talentsTold from the perspective of the Russian dog Tsygan, this is the story of the first living creatures to be sent into space – the ‘star dogs’ of the title.Roddy Doyle’s typically accessible voice is complemented by the illuminating illustrations of Steve Simpson, together immersing a new generation of young readers in the in...

Sometime in his mid-teens, Steve Simpson decided he wanted to become a hermit. Socially awkward and athletically inept, he felt isolated from his classmates in a huge suburban high school. Finding no joy in the company of his peers, he sought his joy in nature; in the forest preserves and state parks of the Midwest and in kayaking the waters of the region. He read Walden at an impressionable age, and the movie Jeremiah Johnson helped to reinforce the notion that true happiness could be fou...

Freedom of speech is indispensable to a free and civilized society, yet this precious right is increasingly under attack today.Islamic totalitarians repeatedly threaten and kill those deemed blasphemers while our political leaders stand idly by—and many intellectuals blame the victims. College students seek “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces” from controversial ideas. The government harasses tea party groups, preventing them from speaking out during an election, and it investigate...