. .As the Clone Wars rage across the galaxy, an unlikely hero will face many dangerous challenges to the Republic! Ian, a young orphan, has joined a group of Padawans and their teacher, Yoda. When the deadly Asajj Ventress steals the Republic's secret battle plans, it's up to Ian and Yoda to save the day-if they can stop arguing. First, they'll have to survive a crash-landing on the ice planet Hoth. Then they must rescue the Padawans from the clutches of the notorious gangster, Jabba the Hutt!

    On its outcome hung the future of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's government and also of Britain--indeed, perhaps, the world. Troublesome Young Men is Lynne Olson's fascinating account of how a small group of rebellious Tory MPs defied the Chamberlain government's defeatist policies that aimed to appease Europe's tyrants and eventually forced the prime minister's resignation.Some historians dismiss the "phony war" that preceded this turning point--from September 1939, when Britain and France declared war on Germany, to May 1940, when Winston Churchill became prime minister--as a time of waiting and inaction, but Olson makes no such mistake, and describes in dramatic detail the public unrest that spread through Britain then, as people realized how poorly prepared the nation was to confront Hitler, how their basic civil liberties were being jeopardized, and also that there were intrepid politicians willing to risk political suicide to spearhead the opposition to Chamberlain--Harold Macmillan, Robert Boothby, Leo Amery, Ronald Cartland, and Lord Robert Cranborne among them. The political and personal dramas that played out in Parliament and in the nation as Britain faced the threat of fascism virtually on its own are extraordinary--and, in Olson's hands, downright inspiring.

    In his new book he chronicles the innovation and sociological impact of the railway technology that changed the world, and could very well change it again.From the frigid trans-Siberian railroad to the antiquated Indian Railways to the futuristic MagLev trains, Zoellner offers a stirring story of man’s relationship with trains. Zoellner examines both the mechanics of the rails and their engines and how they helped societies evolve. Not only do trains transport people and goods in an efficient manner, but they also reduce pollution and dependency upon oil. Zoellner also considers America’s culture of ambivalence to mass transit, using the perpetually stalled line between Los Angeles and San Francisco as a case study in bureaucracy and public indifference.Train presents both an entertaining history of railway travel around the world while offering a serious and impassioned case for the future of train travel.

    The book uncovers details of how women filled their days, what they liked to eat and drink, what jobs they held, and how they raised their children. With chapters devoted to beauty regimes, fashion, and literature, the book also examines the cultural as well as the domestic aspect of early modern women's lives. Further, the book answers questions such as how women understood and dealt with their monthly periods and what it was like to give birth in a time before modern obstetric care was available. The book also highlights key moments in women's history such as the publication in 1671, of the first midwifery guide by an English woman, Jane Sharp. The turmoil caused by the Civil Wars of the 1640s gave rise to a number of religious sects in which women participated to a surprising extent and some of their stories are included in this book. Also scrutinised are cases of notorious criminals such as murderer Sarah Malcolm and confidence trickster Mary Toft who pretended to give birth to rabbits. Overall the book describes the experiences of women over a two hundred year period noting the changes and continuities of daily life during this fascinating era.

      Step 1 Readers feature big type and easy words for children who know the alphabet and are eager to begin reading. Rhyme and rhythmic text paired with picture clues help children decode the story.

    

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    But soon Tillman and Kennedy are running for their lives from a band of sinister assassins who weep tears of blood and believe themselves descended from Judas. These 'fallen angels' will stop at nothing to expose the world-changing secret of the Scrolls . . . the secret of how Christ really died. Rocketing from a spectacular plane crash in the American desert to a brutal murder at a London university to a phantom city in Mexico, The Dead Sea Deception is the most gripping, revelatory thriller since The Da Vinci Code.

    Whenever Jonathan James finds himself in a new situation, he hears his Whatif Monster asking all kind of questions to stop him trying something new: What if it’s scary? What if they laugh? What if it’s hard? Finally, Jonathan James has some questions of his own: What if they don’t? What if it isn’t? What then?

    Grey’s helpless attraction to fairies (and one fairy in particular) is a source of endless frustration—but as his energy can damage a fairy’s glamour, he can’t let himself get close. Si is different to other fairies and he’s wearing down Grey’s defences. When Si discovers the Veil is thinning around the school where they both work—putting the students and teachers there at risk from detection—he needs Grey’s help to fix it. Problem is, Si isn’t a true fairy, he’s just a magical mistake. For as long as he can remember all his glamour has done is messed up and broken stuff. Though Grey maybe older and wiser about a lot of things in the human world, he’s pretty clueless about all things magical. He doesn’t even know the Veil exists until Si knocks himself unconscious trying to save Grey’s reputation after a night out. But it’s funny how mistakes work out. Even funnier how trusting one another can help even the most impossible events turn out all right.

    A day at the Sea Park proves to be full of fun and adventure.Going to the Sea Park is a story with simple, easy-to-read text—ideal for emergent readers who want to join Little Critter on a day of under-the-sea delight.

    And when the book demands that she fetch a stick (in the water!) or guard a sheep (from a wolf!), the cat responds in very un-doglike ways. Can the book and the cat reach a happy ending? With simple, repetitive phrases and tongue-in-cheek humor, this spoof on a classic early reader pits a well-meaning but slightly dramatic cat against a highly persistent book in a comical battle of wits that will have kids yowling.

    Alvarez, "has permeated Western culture like a dye that cannot be washed out." Although the aims of this compelling, compassionate work are broadly cultural and literary, the narrative is rooted in personal experience: it begins with a long memoir of Sylvia Plath, and ends with an account of the author's own suicide attempt. Within this dramatic framework, Alvarez launches his enquiry into the final taboo of human behavior, and traces changing attitudes towards suicide from the perspective of literature. He follows the black thread leading from Dante through Donne and the romantic agony, to the Savage God at the heart of modern literature.

    He had travelled throughout Europe, been sold as a war captive in Turkey, escaped, and returned to England in time to join the Virginia Company's colonizing project. In Jamestown, migrants, merchants, and soldiers who had also sailed to the distant shores of the Ottoman Empire, Africa and Ireland in search of new beginnings encountered Indians who already possessed broad understanding of Europeans. Experience of foreign environments and cultures had sharpened survival instincts on all sides and aroused challenging questions about human nature and its potential for transformation. It is against this enlarged temporal and geographic background that Jamestown dramatically emerges in Karen Kupperman's breathtaking study.

    A formal introduction to the Bellamys of 165 Eaton Place explores the private lives of the beautiful Lady Marjorie, her politician husband Richard, and their devoted staff of servants during the Edwardian era.