Stephen Manes

The Washington Post called this book "impressive" and "meticulously researched," with "much of the drama and suspense of a novel." The New York Times and USA Today found it "definitive." The Seattle Times said Gates "should be required reading for any new hire in the personal computer industry." Since its publication, Gates has been cited and used as a source by dozens of books and articles.Bill Gates is an American icon, the ultimate revenge of the nerd. The youngest self-made billionaire in history was for many years the most powerful person in the computer industry. His tantrums, his odd rocking tic, and his lavish philanthropy have become the stuff of legend. Gates is the one book that truly illuminates the early years of the man and his company.In high school he organized computer enterprises for profit. At Harvard he co-wrote Microsoft BASIC, the first commercial personal computer software, then dropped out and made it a global standard. At 25, he offered IBM a program he did not yet own--a program called DOS that would become the essential operating system for more than 100 million personal computers and the foundation of the Gates empire. As Microsoft's dominance extended around the globe, Bill Gates became idolized, hated, and feared.In this riveting independent biography, veteran computer journalists Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews draw on a dozen sessions with Gates himself and nearly a thousand hours of interviews with his friends, family, employees, and competitors to debunk the myths and paint the definitive picture of the real Bill Gates, "bugs" and all.Here is the shy but fearless competitor with the guts and brass to try anything once--on a computer, at a negotiation, or on water skis. Here is the cocky 23-year-old who calmly spurned an enormous buyout offer from Ross Perot. Here is the supersalesman who motivated his Smart Guys, fought bitter battles with giant IBM, and locked horns with Apple's Steve Jobs--and usually won.Here, too, is the workaholic pessimist who presided over Microsoft's meteoric rise while most other personal computer pioneers fell by the wayside. Gates extended his vision of software to art, entertainment, education, and even biotechnology, and made good on much of his promise to put his software "on every desk and in every home."Gates is a bracing, comprehensive portrait of the microcomputer industry, one of its leading companies, and the man who helped create a world where software is everything.

In search of perfection, Milo Crinkley earnestly tries to follow the loony instructions he finds in a library books--and learns that there are more important things in life than being perfect.

Who are the Obnoxious Jerks? The weirdest band of total misfits ever seen at any known high school in the free world. Amateur comedians whose routines include kazoos, used chewing gum, and gooey lemon meringue pies. Members of a club whose Official Ice Cream Flavor is Nuts to You. A disorganized organization whose exploits are required reading for anybody with a sense of humor.All of the above--and more . . .There are jerks in every high school. The Obnoxious Jerks are found only at Ullman Griswold Memorial High (or, as they prefer to call it, UGH). They specialize in pranks (better known as "jerk-outs") designed to show how ridiculous some school rules can be. Which means the detention hall sometimes becomes the Jerks' unofficial meeting room.Then something happens to shake up A girl known as "Iceberg" Freeze asks to join the all-male club-that's-not-a-club. It's not long before she finds herself at the center of the greatest jerk-out ever--one that involves picket signs, mass demonstrations, and guys wearing skirts.What's acceptable behavior? What's worth fighting for? The Obnoxious Jerks twist, bend, and break the rules to find out. And in the process learn a lot about questioning not only the outside world, but also themselves.

Oscar spends the summer with his inventor cousin traveling around the United States in a Picklemobile eating chicken in the bag to win a contest, while being pursued by an angry woman with mystical powers, who is also determined to win the contest.

Here's the best-selling sequel to the hilarious Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!Is is possible? Can an ordinary kid become a multimillionaire in one short week?Jason Nozzle thought so. What gave him the idea was a book he dug up in the park--a book called Make Four Million Dollars by Next Thursday! The author, Dr. K. Pinkerton Silverfish, didn't look like a multimillionaire, but he claimed to be the world's leading authority on getting rich quick.Rich! The more Jason thought about it, the better it sounded. Jason took the book home and tried to follow its instructions. But that wasn't as easy as it seemed.Did Jason become four million dollars richer in a matter of days? More important, can you? You'll find the hilarious answers here. Once again, noted author Stephen Manes teams up with noted authority K. Pinkerton Silverfish--and you'll laugh all the way to the bank!

When Max's little brother, Adam, gets an ant colony for his birthday, suddenly he is a big authority on ants, and Max is determined to bring Adam down a few pegs. Reprint.

In a scuffed-up studio, a veteran dancer transmits the magic of an eighty-year-old ballet to a performer barely past drinking age. In a converted barn, an indomitable teacher creates ballerinas as she has for more than half a century. In a monastic mirrored room, dancers from as near as New Jersey and as far as Mongolia learn works as old as the nineteenth century and as new as this morning. “Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear” zooms in on an intimate view of one full season in the life of one of America’s top ballet companies and schools: Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet. But it also tracks the Land of Ballet to venues as celebrated as New York and Monte Carlo and as seemingly ordinary as Bellingham, Washington and small-town Pennsylvania. Never before has a book taken readers backstage for such a wide-ranging view of the ballet world from the wildly diverse perspectives of dancers, choreographers, stagers, teachers, conductors, musicians, rehearsal pianists, lighting directors, costumers, stage managers, scenic artists, marketers, fundraisers, students, and even pointe shoe fitters—often in their own remarkably candid words. The book follows characters as colorful as they are talented. Versatile dancers from around the globe team up with novice choreographers and those as renowned as Susan Stroman, Christopher Wheeldon, and Twyla Tharp to create art on deadline. At the book’s center is Peter Boal, a former New York City Ballet star in his third year as PNB’s artistic director, as he manages conflicting constituencies with charm, tact, rationality and diplomacy. Readers look over Boal’s shoulder as he makes tough decisions about programming, casting, scheduling and budgeting that eventually lead the calm, low-key leader to declare that in his job, “You have to be willing to be hated.” “Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear” shows how ballet is made, funded, and sold. It escorts you front and center to the kick zone of studio rehearsals. It takes you to the costume shop where elegant tutus and gowns are created from scratch. It brings you backstage to see sets and lighting come alive while stagehands get lovingly snarky and obscene on their headsets. It sits you down in meetings where budgets get slashed and dreams get funded—and axed. It shows you the inner workings of Nutcracker, from kids’ charming auditions to no-nonsense marketing meetings, from snow bags in the flies to dancing snowflakes who curse salty flurries that land on their tongues. It follows the tempestuous assembly of a version of Romeo and Juliet that runs afoul of so much pressure, disease, injury, and blood that the dancers begin to call it cursed. “Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear” uncovers the astounding way ballets, with no common form of written preservation, are handed down from generation to generation through the prodigious memories of brilliant athletes who also happen to be artists. It goes on tour with the company to Vail, Colorado, where dancers contend with altitude that makes their muscles cramp and their lungs ache. It visits cattle-call auditions and rigorous classes, tells the stories of dancers whose parents sacrificed for them and dancers whose parents refused to. It meets the resolute woman who created a dance school more than fifty years ago in a Carlisle, Pennsylvania barn and grew it into one of America’s most reliable ballerina factories. It shows ballet’s appeal to kids from low-income neighborhoods and board members who live in mansions. Shattering longstanding die-for-your-art clichés, this book uncovers the real drama in the daily lives of fiercely dedicated union members in slippers and pointe shoes—and the musicians, stagehands, costumers, donors and administrators who support them. “Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet” brings readers the exciting truth of how ballet actually happens.

From the author of Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!How many things can go wrong on a summer vacation? The Hooples are about to find out!Alvin Hoople just can't wait to get to Philadelphia. He'll see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and the U.S. Mint, where rumor has it they give out free samples. Better a Phillies baseball game. It's Bat Night, where every fan gets a full-sized souvenir!The trip is fun at first, with Monsterburgers, Mr. Clam, and cows that give chocolate milk all part of what looks like a great vacation. But once the Hooples get on the superhighway, everything seems to go wrong. Alvin's little sister Annie keeps losing Lambie, her favorite stuffed toy. The weather threatens to get everybody all wet. And then there's the worst problem of car trouble.A ride in a tow truck is definitely a hoot, but it's no Phillies game. Will things ever get back to normal? And will Alvin get his souvenir bat at the end of the most hilarious car trip ever?Drive in and see!

Thanksgiving! Turkey! Pumpkin pie! Parades! Alvin Hoople and his family are off to his grandparents' house to celebrate. But everything from freeway traffic to airplane food makes it look like the day will never arrive. Even the Pilgrims on the perfect Thanksgiving cake barely survive the trip.But that's nothing compared to the chaos at grandmother's house when a giant blizzard knocks out the power for miles around. With aunts and uncles and cousins and parents gathered for the big day, suddenly there's no TV, no heat, no lights, no stove . . . no turkey!But if the Pilgrims could get along without electricity, so can the Hooples. With a houseful of clever people and some wild imagination, they come up with the wildest newfangled old-fashioned Thanksgiving ever!

What if you and your scorecard could control the biggest baseball game of the year? There's a wild, weird night of baseball in store for Nottingham Shoppers fan Jake Kratzer. The pennant is on the line, and it's do or die for his favorite team. When Jake takes his place in the stands, he's only hoping for a Shoppers win, a few good hot dogs, and maybe a Fan Appreciation Night prize to top it off.But when Jake starts marking plays on his scorecard, strange things begin to happen on the field. It seems to him that with a few strokes of his pencil, he can control the game.Or can he? Jake can't quite figure out why some of his dream plays come true, while others backfire miserably. Can Jake figure out the card's secret in time to lead the Shoppers to victory and help his favorite player make baseball history? Or will the game find a way to throw him one of its classic spitballs? Praise for An Almost Perfect Game! A valentine to a game that was, and could be again, almost perfect. . . . Manes deftly slips readers into the stands, recreating the authentic flavor of a minor league ball game. . . . Funny incidents and one-liners sparkle throughout . . .--Kirkus Reviews Manes captures the experience of a family sharing its love and knowledge of baseball and makes it easy to follow the play-by-play action. Filled with baseball lore and jargon, this will appeal to young fans of the game . . .--Booklist These tales are hits . . . What baseball fan hasn't sat in front of the TV or in the stands, wishing for the power to change the outcome of the game?--Associated Press An Almost Perfect Game puts an imaginative twist on one child's love of our national pastime.--Boston Globe An easy-to-read mix of fantasy and baseball that is sure to appeal to many sports-oriented readers.--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Manes wonderfully evokes minor-league baseball at its most irrepressible, and the witty, first-person narration helps to carry the story along. For enthusiasts of the sport with a taste for a little fantasy, this will be just the ticket.--School Library Journal

What happens when a commercial steps out of your TV set and into your life?The ads on TV said the basketball shoes were New! IMPROVED! Amazing! NEAT! Arnold Schlemp just had to have them. He had to. That was all there was to it.But by the end of his birthday he had a lot more to handle than fancy new shoes. He had big red blisters on his feet. He had a broken TV set in the living room. He had an obnoxious kid who had come through the TV screen from the shoe commercial--with no idea how to get home. And he had to find a way to explain it all to his parents--fast!The author of Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! returns with the laugh-out-loud story of a boy who gets his wish--and wishes he could take it back.(Want to act this out? An excerpt from this popular book is dramatized for performance in Aaron Shepard's Stories on Stage. )_______________________Praise for It's New! It's Improved! It's Terrible!"An alien that looks like a boy and spouts a running patter of TV commercials . . . threatens to drive Arnold Schlemp and his buddies bonkers. . . pithy commentary on phony materialistic hype, well-laced with humor and insight . . . "--Booklist"An advertising-crazy kid who lives inside a sneaker commercial steps out of a TV set and turns Arnold Schlemp's life upside down. . . . The plot is very original and the writing is crisp. . . . an 'A' for imagination . . ."-- Zillions magazine

When city officials try to close down the local video parlor because they think it is less than beneficial for the children, the young people of the town form Video, a protest group.

From the author of Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! and the Pulitzer prize-winning illustrator of Uncle The giant video game that appears one day in Pete's Pizza Palace is the strangest one Oscar Noodleman has ever seen. It looks more like a rocket ship than a game. There's not a word of English on it anywhere; everything from the control panel to the coin slot is labeled in some strange language that seems to use squiggles instead of letters. And when he and Pete finally figure out how to get it working, they discover the loudest game they've ever heard.But as the screen pops out to wrap around Oscar's head and he gets deeper into the game, he discovers levels and challenges unlike any he's ever seen. He begins to wonder if this isn't just a game, but a real rocket from outer space. Some colorful bugs run down the screen and into the coin slot. And that's when things start getting downright weird . . .

From the author of Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!, here's the hilarious sequel to Hooples on the Highway:Alvin Hoople can't face Halloween without the annual haunted house in the neighbors' garage. But when that neighbor's steaming cauldron blows a hole in the wall of that garage two weeks before Halloween, it looks as though the haunted house just won't happen this year.Then Alvin has a brainstorm: They can have the haunted house in his garage. His parents aren't thrilled with the idea, but Alvin has made up his mind. Still, he hasn't counted on coming up against Mr. Goralski, the neighborhood grouch; spiteful Dwight, who wants to sabotage the plans; or a pesky little sister who won't disappear.Will Halloween turn into a real horror show? Alvin wonders if he can work it all out before his nerves unravel and he goes as mad as his ghouls and monsters!

Soon after Oscar receives a home video recorder and camera from his mother's eccentric inventor cousin, Oscar's pictures begin to turn up mysteriously on television sets all over town.

From the bestselling author of Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!Why are thousands of wild-eyed tourists running through the streets of Gerbil, Pennsylvania, twirling miniature lariats? Why are swarms of desperate gerbils desperately scampering out of their way? Why does the town's fate now depend on two kids named Elton Wazoo and McBeth McBeth? And how does this all involve Rory Rallickson's Rhinoceros Ranch?It all began when the sleepy town of Gerbil decided to put itself on the map. The amazing First National Drive-Thru Museum of American Sightseeing and Clean Rest Rooms let anyone experience an entire vacation in ten minutes--without even leaving the car!But some citizens insisted that wasn't enough. The town needed something even more spectacular to lure more tourists and more dollars. That's when the mayor announced The Great Gerbil Roundup.People flooded into Gerbil from every direction. Then the worst fears of gerbils and Gerbilites became reality--for a Fourth of July the town, and you, will never forget. As for the rhinoceros ranch--well, read this book and find out!

Although his mother warns him that if he continues to watch television so much he will turn into one, Ogden Pettibone does not believe her until he discovers a clear, color picture glowing on his stomach

Welcome to Carmody, Nevada! Bright lights! Dancing girls! Cheap eats! Gambling (but only if you're over 21)! Sun! Fun! The world's third-largest man-made volcano! What more could a guy ask for?Plenty. To Ivan Zellner, the tacky town is an endless traffic jam full of tourists in search of cheap thrills and quick bucks. The air and the tap water can make you choke.And Carmody High just might make you sick. Its courses in casino management and stand-up comedy look suspiciously like fast roads to dead-end jobs.But when Ivan hooks up with other kids who agree that Carmody is truly the Planet of the Weird, they discover how to turn the town's craziness upside down in uproarious ways - and make hilarious thing happen on the way to high school!

Sam Zimmer is chunky. He’s never thought of himself as fat, until his parents enroll him in a summer weight-loss camp. With tiny meals that wouldn’t fill a mosquito ( the big wonderful treat is unlimited celery sticks ) , Camp Thin-na-Yet is worse than prison. In fact, the only good thing at camp is Belinda Moss, who hates the place as much as Sam. Soon they both agree there is only one way to deal with their grumbling stomachs – escape!

From the bestselling author of Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! and the Academy-award-winning creator of Rolie Polie Olie comes the big tall tale about a pint-size Meet Rhode Island Red, an egg-sized human who's the greatest hero the smallest state of the Union has ever known. You say you've never heard of him? That's because the Paul Bunyans and Pecos Bills had something Rhode Island Red didn' biographers.Now Stephen Manes fixes that once and for all with his hilarious tale about a Small Bunyan who proves you don't have to be big to be a hero. Raised in a henhouse by the chickens he calls family, Red speaks their language with only a trace of human accent, he can cock-a-doodle-doo as loud as a thirty-foot rooster, and he just happens to have the most powerful nose in the history of human existence.High adventure? You bet. Red rescues a scrawny flock of fowl, hornswoggles a crafty pack of foxes, and ventures to the big city with his faithful rooster companion, Big Tom--and that's just the beginning. At long last you get to read all about Red's legendary exploits--and the only grade-A jumbo biography of the biggest little hero who ever lived!

This collection of games, tricks, and puzzles for the computer pits players against a host of vampires, werewolves, mummies, ogres, and brand-new monsters that can be created on the spot

Humorous anecdotes portray the injustices of life.

From the author of Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! , here's the monstrously hilarious tale of a battle between brother and sister :Everybody thinks Irving's little sister is adorable. Everybody but Irving. To him, Claire is nothing but a little monster. He even calls her "Monstra."So Irving decides to teach her a lesson. With the help of a miraculous potion called "Monster-Ade," he'll turn himself into a monster--a real one--just long enough to scare Claire silly.But things don't quite work out the way he'd planned. And his parents begin to Just how do you handle a genuine monster in the family?

Basketball, soccer, hurdling, diving, and many other events are featured in these games, puzzles, and fact-quizzes for the computer that may win players a few gold medals of their own

A toy mule longs for a home but undergoes some fearful adventures before that wish becomes reality.

Dylan finds himself falling in love with Barbara despite the constant concern he feels over his father's approaching death.

A biography of the photographer and motion-picture pioneer whose early efforts at photographing motion included proving that at one period of its stride, a running horse has all four feet off the ground.

Provides an overview of the capabilities of MCI Mail, including electronic mail, telex, remote desktop publishing, and bulletin board creation and access

A collection of riddles relating to socks and hose.