In this adaptation of Washington Irving s beloved story, acclaimed painter Thomas Locker takes one of America s favorite legends and weaves in the beauty of the rugged Catskill Mountains. Rip Van Winkle, a poor farmer, is out hunting one day when he comes upon a strange company of men playing ninepins. When Rip samples their brew, he falls into a deep sleep for 20 years, eventually awaking bearded and gray in a vastly changed world. This classic tale is enhanced with the unique artistry of Locker, who has made more than 20 trips to the Catskills to study and paint the magnificent landscape in which the story is set....

In a series of richly painted landscapes, Thomas Locker brings the world and words of John Muir to readers, both the young and the young at heart. Equally at home in the wildernesses of California and Alaska, Muir wrote charming lyrical descriptions of nature for the benefit of future generations.

Muir recognized that wilderness should not only be appreciated but should be fought for as well. He sparked the preservationist movement in the United States and throughout the world, working with President Theodore Roosevelt to establish national parks and spearheading the founding of the Sierra Club, an organization that to this day carries on the work he began long ago of encouraging citizen action to protect the natural world.

This book is the second in a series of illustrated books by Thomas Locker introducing readers to notable people who loved and wrote about the American land, and especially about the value of wilderness....

In a series of richly painted landscapes, Walking with Henry offers readers of all ages a glimpse into the grandeur of nature through Thoreau’s eyes, showing how one can discover, when walking in the natural world, Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. Henry David Thoreau was a serious field biologist who studied nature and all its intricacies, and who showed us that nature was something more than facts to be assembled, arranged, and measured. He was also a poet, and in his hands, closely observed facts blossomed into wonder-filled metaphors of lasting value.

Footstep by footstep, we follow Thoreau on his solitary journey through wilderness, gaining insight into his quiet and reflective world. With this wondrous introduction to the poet–philosopher, Walking with Henry helps readers understand Thoreau’s belief that wilderness can be found in every blade of grass, every tree, and every aspect of the natural world. Wildness wasn’t a resource for Thoreau; it was the ultimate source of creativity, essential for survival in an ever-evolving, fast-paced world.

Walking with Henry carries a healing message for our time by sharing a love of the wild so natural to the young. Selections of Thoreau’s writing will inspire teachers and parents to a renewed appreciation of the importance of Thoreau’s thoughts in today’s world....

A tree stands on a hill by a river. As the sky changes, so does the tree, its branches filling with clouds, stars, snow, birds, mists, and the golden spring sun. One tree can mean many things.

Thomas Locker's lyrical text records the changes in the tree's world just as simply as a child might observe them, and his magnificent paintings crystallize the natural phenomena that embellish the tree on each page. Questions at the bottom of each page lead to a unique discussion in the back of the book, where art and science are intertwined, and further depth is added to the wonder of Sky Tree.

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Travel with author-illustrator Thomas Locker and follow our planet's most precious resource--water--on its daily journey through our world.
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From a gentle mountain pond to a raging waterfall or from a silent ocean mist to a sparkling rainbow, dramatic text and paintings give water voice and substance in this tribute to water in all its glorious forms. Inspiring and informative, Water Dance is a poetic introduction to one of nature’s most basic elements. Scientific facts about water and its role in our lives are included. “Thirteen lushly romantic oil paintings, accompanied by spare, poetic text, offer viewers a sensuous introduction to the water cycle.”--The Bulletin
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Journey across the heavens through thick cumulus clouds, wispy cirrus clouds, and wide stratus clouds as they dance through every season of the year.
Thomas Locker introduces young readers to the basic science of our natural world with brilliant illustrations and poetic prose.
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Today’s Hudson River is a very special river, one that most people think of as a highway of commerce, flowing from factories and cities to the sea. But it once was a wild river, a river that from its earliest days was beautiful, sacred to the first Americans, and one of our country’s natural wonders. The lyrical paintings of Thomas Locker capture the majesty of a river whose passage through time mirrors that of its sister rivers, the Mississippi, the Columbia, and the Rio Grande, to name only a few. Author Robert Baron weaves a fascinating history of the Hudson, a history witnessed by everyone from prehistoric Storm King Mountain to the native tribes of New York, to farms, factories, and development, and on to today’s conservationists, who have fought to preserve both the mountain and the river....