Showing results by author "Linda Aksomitis" in All Categories

Can the three little pigs build a strong playhouse? Or will it fall in when the bully, big bad Wolf, shouts, “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in?” The three little pigs are talking animals that live in an enchanted forest called Magic Forest. The friends find adventure away from the castle but are always bothered by that bully, the big bad wolf. After the pigs sneak away to visit the wild west town, Gopher Gulch, and find the wolf visits there, too, they decide it’s time to build a play house to keep the wolf out. Will teamwork help the pigs learn to keep trying...

Will Little Red Riding Hood meet the bully, Big Bad Wolf, while she’s crossing the Magic Forest to Granny’s sod house? Will Granny get to eat Red’s basket of goodies? Set in the old west, this Grimm Fairy Tale retelling has lots of action and adventure. It features the traditional Western themes of being neighborly and friendly. However, the wolf is still as cunning as ever -- but readers will learn Red Riding Hood is up to the challenge! And Granny isn't any ordinary grandmother either, as she's been out plowing the fields. With a grade 2.5 reading level and familiar story elements, ...

Turtle and Rabbit decide to race through Magic Forest to Princess Jess’s birthday party at the castle. Rabbit can run much faster, but will he get there before Rabbit? While the moral of this fable, slow and steady wins the race, holds true, there's lots of excitement along turtle and rabbit's race from the old west town of Gopher Gulch to the castle in Magic Forest. And there are two pieces of birthday cake waiting for whoever gets there first. Beginner readers will keep turning the pages to see what happens. They'll celebrate with turtle when she wins the race and learn about ...

A busy small town summer fair—a sewing machine demonstrator—a retired widow with a dream. Mary Ketcheson kept her days busy volunteering in the community and sewing. Recently widowed, her son and his family taking over the farm, her life was at a turning point. Between shifts serving burgers at the summer fair and walking through the exhibits, Mary was drawn to the demonstrator working the local sewing machine dealer’s booth. She’d be able to do so many creative things with the newest model! Will Mary keep putting everyone’s needs before her own? Or will she decide that ...

Saskatchewan's Big Muddy Badlands provided the perfect location for Station No. 1 on the Outlaw Trail. During the last five minutes of the old west, at the turn of the 20th century, these buttes, ravines and canyons were known as The Devil’s Playground. Indeed, the badlands that spread out from the United States/Canada border are full of many untold stories of the old west. For decades, there was plenty a horse thief and outlaw looking to rustle cattle and steal horses, drive them over the border and sell them. By then, many of the infamous riders of the Outlaw Trail had been locked up or...

The Los Angeles County Fair—a retired accountant picking garbage—an elephant on a dark path. Numbers had always been Michael O’Brien’s life. Now, he spent his days stabbing, and counting, the different types of bags tossed as garbage onto the fairgrounds, instead of being an accountant. He felt old and lifeless, like Ollie the elephant trudging through the grounds. But then Ashley Adams appears on the scene, first looking for directions to the exhibits booth to work, then following the dark path beyond the Ferris wheel back to her rental car. What could possibly go wrong? The ...

Mouse is looking for a home of her own. Lion just wants to escape from his cage in the circus and be free. When a tornado blows the circus away, can these two help each other? It's the old West with a twist -- Magic Forest is nearby, so anything can happen! When the circus comes to Gopher Gulch, Mouse sneaks into the circus tent thinking it might be a good place for a home. But when the tent blows away in a tornado, she's forced to run to Magic Forest with all the circus animals to escape the storm. She finds danger everywhere! So does the mighty Lion, as the circus people recapture the ...

The Rose & Other Stories is all heart and soul as Linda Aksomitis chronicles the sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous travels and travails of being a saleslady in the 1980s. The collection has seven short stories told by someone the traveling saleslady, Ashley Adams, encounters. Two of the stories, The Storm and The Sewing Machine, were broadcast on CBC National radio in 1998. Each of the seven stories is followed by a memoir titled "The Story Behind the Story," which gives autobiographical insights into the real experiences that inspired the story. As you read, you'll meet people from ...

How did Santa Claus grow up to spread Christmas magic around the world? Find out in this retelling of L. Frank Baum's Christmas legend. Necile, a nymph, doesn’t know the human baby she finds near Magic Forest, and adopts, will grow up to become Santa Claus. Living in a world of magical creatures, Santa Claus the child doesn't realize at first that he's different. When he does, he sets off to the old west town of Gopher Gulch searching for belonging and acceptance. In this children's story about Christmas, Santa makes friends, helps children, and gets to the enchanted North Pole along with...

A security cage in a rowdy, aged hotel—a desk clerk who’s seen better days—and a desperate woman out of choices. Hawk spends his nights in the security cage of a seedy hotel, while Ashley Adams spends her days on the road as a traveling saleslady, driving hundreds of miles between sewing machine dealerships. When she hits the city and finds no hotel vacancies, she has only one choice: take one of Hawk’s rooms. What can these two people from different walks of life possibly find they have in common? The Cage, like all of the short stories in the ‘80s Tales of a Traveling Saleslady ...

A barstool in a small town bar—a disillusioned barmaid—and a cowboy grabbing life by the horns. Kara Berger was at a turning point in her life. Enroll in a nursing diploma program and move her six-year-old daughter to the city or stay in the small town where she’d spent her entire 25 years? Then, a traveling saleslady comes in with the owners of the fabric store, followed by a local cowboy who reminds her of the man who’d fathered her child and dumped her. Can these two bar goers and a noisy night of entertainment help Kara decide how she wants to spend the rest of her life? The Bar...

A winter storm—a gas station hanging on by a thread—and a white knuckle drive. Joe Ratkovich could hardly believe his eyes when a red sports car pulled up to his gas pumps in the snowstorm. And its driver? Well, Ashley Adams, traveling saleslady, shook with relief as she unclenched her hands from the steering wheel. Both of their lives seem to be unraveling at the seams, but can they help one another move forward? The Storm, like all of the short stories in the ‘80s Tales of a Traveling Saleslady series, is a work of fiction based on the real-life experiences of the author. The final ...

Stacks of moving boxes—a loaded gun—two terrorized women and a would-be thief. Sharon Aimsley spent her divorce settlement buying the former bank building in her old home town in the mid-1980s. The plan was to open it as a craft shop with her sister, but that had fallen through. So , when Ashley Adams arrives to demonstrate a line of sewing machines, Sharon couldn’t have been less interested. Minutes later, a robber bursts into the building, gun waving! Will the women rise to meet the challenge or crumble under the pressure? The Vault, like all of the short stories in the ‘80s Tales...

A formal company dinner - a thin veil of mockery - and the touch of a rose’s thorns. Sarah Grisham, office assistant, embraces the proper conduct for an ambitious woman in the mid-1980s. After all, she has royal connections even if they’re somewhat tenuous. And Ashley Adams, well, what can you say? She’s the new salesgirl from the west, and a small, rural town at that. These two women may inhabit the same corporate world, but which one is truly naive? The Rose, like all of the short stories in the ‘80s Tales of a Traveling Saleslady series, is a work of fiction based on the real-...

Gunshots echo through the badlands and Constable Dane disappears in hot pursuit. Will Gerrit make it over the U.S. border to testify against Dutch Henry--his own cousin--for being a horse thief? In this coming of age Western, sixteen-year-old Gerrit isn't alone for long. Wart, another young rider on horseback soon appears. But before the constable returns, Wart does the unthinkable and blindfolds and gags Gerrit to take him to the outlaw hideout! Can Gerrit escape from the outlaw hideout where he's held captive by an outlaw gang so he can't testify at the trial? Is Wart really an outlaw, or...

Gerrit Nagel lands in Billings, Montana, with nothing to his name but the clothes he's wearing--and an older brother determined to make him into a cowboy. In this coming of age western, Gerrit learns to ride horses behind 2000 head of cattle heading north to Montana. In his mind, he's a Pinkerton detective, finding outlaws and gunslingers who might be working the range as frontier cowboys. Everywhere he goes, Gerrit seems to run into outlaws or see wanted posters that look eerily familiar. The face of Dutch Henry haunts him. Who is that outlaw? Will he ever find out? And will his brother ...