Showing results by narrator "Steven Ritz-Barr" in All Categories

"Pinocchio, the Original," is "The Adventures of Pinocchio" by Carlo Collodi from 1883, with updated comments by Steven Ritz-Barr—a professional Puppeteer for over 4 decades in Paris, Los Angeles and Berlin. It is a darker, more profound version than the popular Pinocchio by Disney, who made the story world-famous with the 1940 animated film. It is filled with absurd puppet-humor and abstract slap-stick—and it is the real version.

From jointed, wood-carved figures of Christ, saintly marionettes that performed hagiographical dramas, experimental puppets and automata in Cervantes' Don Quixote, and the mechanical sets around which playwright Calderón de la Barca devised secular magic shows to deconstruct superstitions, these historical and fictional artifacts reenvisioned religious, artistic, and social notions that led early modern society to critically wrestle with enchantment and disenchantment.

Elaine "The Mink" LaCroix has just cat-burglared into a temple in Japan and reaches for the Eye of Buddha - a blazing green emerald as big as a man's fist - when she slumps to the ground. A white bony hand strips the glowing silver ring from her finger. Half a world away, Merlin opens his eyes and whispers, "It is not to be, little Mink", then drifts to the sleep of the enchanted.

Rosie: a real woman of substance. Inside every woman there is a Rosie just waiting to show her head. This is where they coined the phrase, "Behind every great man is a woman." This book is my recollection of the life and times of my amazing grandmother. Her father was of German extraction who changed his name from Zimmerman to Rawson to avoid German persecution of Jews. Powerful women control powerful men.

Zeph had been a child, thrust into a war that wasn’t his. When he was older, he discovered he had landed on the wrong side of everything. He’d been fighting for sweet revenge, because of lies he’d believed - and those lies proved to be his ruin. Falling into despair, Zeph decides living is too painful. So, he writes his final act with poison and chooses to end his story. But Fate has other plans for Zeph.

Twelve strangers from different realities are kidnapped and left stranded on an Earth where magic has supplanted technology and ancient empires have prospered for many centuries in this work of dark fantasy. Among some are a deadly assassin from the Canadian Armed Forces, a brilliant Irish trauma surgeon, a "nuclear winter" survivor, and a medical marvel whose augmented strength does little to compensate for his irreversible brain damage.

Lord Lochlan was cursed in the womb, condemned by the perceived crimes of his parents. On the 13th year of his birth, the red glow of the moon washed over land and sea like a faded bloody stain. A constant reminder of the curse that marked him before he was born. Every night he gazed at it like he was lured and haunted by it. It followed him, it beseeched him. It called out to him. Just once he wanted to see the moon glow as everyone else saw it. Bright and illuminating. But he knew that would never be possible.

A coming of age story about faith, love, and overcoming society's prejudices during the American Antebellum period. In 1810, Lucy Hallison suffered from a severe illness at the age of three, and later recovered, a deaf-mute. Unable to relate to the world in which she lives, she’s often ignored and sometimes treated with cruelty. Until a boy, Samuel Burke, steps into her life at the tender age of seven, coloring her world and showing her what it means to be seen, to not be invisible, to be understood.

Taking refuge in a world of his own to escape the turbulences of his dysfunctional family loses its appeal when witty teenager Sky Buckers questions the purpose and meaning of his existence. It doesn’t take long for Sky’s cousin and accomplice Martin to join him in the quest for truth. From Los Angeles to Venice Beach, Malibu, and Tulum, their determination to unravel life's true identity will lead them to dare the unknown and face fears with iron fists.

Police Officer Nate Hammond led a well-ordered life in Coldwater Bay until a chance meeting with a girl from his past drags him into an extraordinary adventure. Libby Parish never intended to visit her hometown again. Is the strange obsession to return related to a mysterious comic book? Or someone she left behind? Sucked into an alternate comic book universe, Nate and Libby find themselves in Second Chance City, home of half-hearted superheroes and a villain with a grudge. Can they find a way home or will their second chance at happily ever after end in death?

The Golden Oriole that builds every year in one of the trees along the chestnut drive told the story, and there is every reason to believe that it is true. You see, the Oriole is friendly with all the creatures that gather on the riverbanks at sunset. He often chats with the two Crickets, who, as all Pau knows, are the greatest gossips in the Pyrenees. Besides, it was he who sang the wedding march the day Mademoiselle Snail was married, because the Thrush was suffering from a severe cold...a charming adventure for all the family to enjoy.

Lucas Moreno had high hopes of a great last summer before heading off to college, but destiny had other plans. The seventeen-year-old from San Antonio has a nightmare. In it, his friend Ryan Casey–a resident of Northern Ireland whom Lucas hasn't seen in two years–is shot during a terrorist attack on a school bus. When Lucas wakes up, he sees a news report that confirms the attack really happened.

Peter LeFroy is fifteen years old, but the tales are anything but adolescent tales. They are hardened sailor tales complete with life and death at every turn. On his adventure, Peter becomes a Pirate—against his will; lives with some Eskimos—who save his life; lives through on-board fires, iceberg disasters, brutal whale hunting, and falls in love with a young girl named Mary. This book is about courage and perseverance. It was one of the first in the YA genre from England and was published the same year as Melville’s Moby Dick.