Pam Ayres’ spiky and wonderful creation reminds us that unless we take steps to prevent it, they will soon be far from ‘common’ indeed: beautifully illustrated by Alice Tait, the poem sees our hero tell of all the terrible ends his family come to at our own hands - and exactly what we can still do to keep them alive, and see them thrive once more.

    Gordo) Stevens is at a new school, trying to make friends and struggling to come to terms with his parents' divorce -- and his father's new girlfriend. (Her name is Amie and she's a lot younger than Gord's dad.) It's not surprising that Gord is in no mood for a week-long school trip to a remote island marine teaching station, especially when his new "friends" plot to catch him in the old "hand-in-warm-water-pee-the-bed" trick and his mom packs his old teddy bear. But there are bigger problems on the horizon for Gord -- like the fact that the marine biologist who runs the school suddenly has to leave the island. Or the fact that their radio, the only link to the mainland, expires. Or that a pod of pilot whales is beached on the island and about to die -- unless someone can help them get back to sea.In a story that weaves action, adventure, an environmental mystery, a ghost tale, and a budding romance into one terrific read, Eric Walters also addresses with subtlety and savvy the important pre-teen issues of belonging and self-confidence, friendship and change. With its natural, realistic dialogue, believably drawn characters and exciting -- and plausible -- climax, Stranded is another kid-pleasing story from an author whose career is on a dizzying ascent.

    - Five go off in a caravan- Five on Kirrin Island again- Five go off to camp- Five get into trouble

    think their hair is beautiful.*, They also found that girls are more likely to feel beautiful and proud of their curls when people around them do. In 2015, Dove Hair launched the Love Your Curls campaign and film to encourage women and girls of all ages to celebrate their curls and inspire future generations to do the same. The Love Your Curls book is a poetic tribute to curly hair, composed of the beautiful stories and photos that poured in as a result of the campaign. Download, dedicate and share the Dove Hair Love Your Curls e-book. Visit Dove.com/LoveYourCurls to create a personalized version with a custom dedication, poem and watercolor illustration. Then share it with the curly girls in your life on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest with #LoveYourCurls. *Dove Hair Study Conducted by Edelman Berland, October 2014.

    It looks at the music through the lives of the great composers and their environment, from the churches and cathedrals that produced the familiar sound of Gregorian chant, to Johann Sebastian Bach, the family man composing for the glory of God, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the child prodigy, genius and prankster who wrote some of the finest music ever yet was buried in a pauper's grave. The story will be taken to the composers of the 21st century. This unusual and special production by the two most important brand names in classical music includes more than 100 musical examples taken from the extensive Naxos catalog.

    Carly often finds herself gazing through the gates of Paradise End. She fantasises about discovering that she was swapped at birth, and is in fact the rightful owner of the beautiful, empty mansion. She longs to escape the three-bedroom semi she shares with her ordinary parents, her revolting brother and annoying sister, to go and live in the palatial luxury of the fascinating house. Then she meets Tia, the daughter of the new tenant of Paradise End, and Carly begins to realise that life behind the impressive pillars and long elegant windows isn't anything like her dream.

    A scholarship student at the prestigious Evergreen Preparatory Academy in Seattle, all Ethan wants is to fit in with his prep-school classmates. But Ethan’s divorced mother – a senior actuary at Northwest Life Insurance who calculates insurance risks – is convinced he is going to die. The most mundane moments pose a risk of death according to Ethan’s mother. Life is even worse for Ethan’s four-year-old brother who still wears clothes with snaps and rides in a stroller. When Ethan befriends the school’s star baseball player he gets a chance to break into Evergreen’s elite social circle. He sneaks out at night, he goes to parties attended by his love interest, and his new friend teaches him to drive. But then his crush starts dating someone else and his mom calls the cops when she finds his bed empty in the middle of the night. Desperate to escape his mother’s strange rules, Ethan kidnaps his brother and goes to Oregon on a search for his dad. But Ethan’s father’s not in Oregon. Instead he uncovers a family secret that explains his mother’s odd behavior, finds out the truth about the disappearance of a childhood neighbor, and gets a chance to repair his family before it’s too late.From Publishers WeeklyEthan, a painfully overprotected teenager and the narrator of this winning story, is a sophomore in high school. His father has been gone for three years. His mother is an actuary for an insurance company, calculating the risk of various mortal accidents. She then imposes her resulting paranoia on Ethan and his brother, only letting them out of the house for study group and not letting Ethan get his driver’s license. Finally, fed-up with watching parties from his bedroom window and being ridiculed by his peers, Ethan starts to take control of his life. Ethan’s voice is strong, consistent, and clear, and the author has done a good job in setting up a plot full of hooks: the mystery of Ethan's next-door neighbor; a strange man Ethan keeps running into; the reason for Ethan's dad's departure and why Ethan hasn't heard from him; and, of course, there’s the girl he has a crush on. It's refreshing to encounter a YA novel that is a realistic account of a teenager's life that still feels unique and compelling to the end. (This book was reviewed as part of the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.)

    A three-dimensional journey is conveyed by the use of a window on the cover and cut-outs on each spread to show the Earth's layers. A double gatefold provides the starting point for this fascinating scientific adventure that explores territory never seen by humankind. Dimensions (inches): 10 x 12

    "Reading a Roderick Haig-Brown book is an experience to be savored slowly and delicately". -- Seattle Post Intelligencer

    In a large, romantic house in Amherst, Massachusetts, Leslie Garis, her two brothers, and their parents and grandparents aimed to live a life that mirrored the idyllic world the elder Garises created nonstop. But inside The Dell--where Robert Frost often sat in conversation over sherry, and stories appeared to spring from the very air--all was not right. Roger Garis's inability to match his parents' success in his own work as playwright, novelist, and magazine writer led to his conviction that he was a failure as father, husband, and son, and eventually deepened into mental illness characterized by raging mood swings, drug abuse, and bouts of debilitating and destructive depression. "House of Happy Endings "is Leslie Garis's mesmerizing, tender, and harrowing account of coming of age in a wildly imaginative, loving, but fatally wounded family.

    If it had come down on any other patch of ground Finn would simply have been another statistic. Death by dangerous driving. But the car hit the surface of the Earth at Exit 43. It slid through the membrane like a hot knife through butter, plunging into the darkness and catapulting Finn from its shattered windscreen as it fell. Finn Oliver knows he'll never come to terms with his father's death, but joy-riding over the moors in his mum's beat-up old car is a quick fix of freedom and forgetting. Until the accident happens - and Finn finds himself hurtling through the wafer-thin divide between the worlds of the living and the dead. Adventurous, charming and poignant by turns, "The Boy Who Fell Down Exit 43" is a quirky debut novel laced with humour and a dollop of magic.

    We hope you like your present…” Cynical, solitary Stanly Bird is a fairly typical teenager – unless you count the fact that his best friend is a talking beagle named Daryl, and that he gained the powers of flight and telekinesis when he turned sixteen. Unfortunately, his rural Welsh home town is not exactly crying out for its very own superhero. London is calling – but what Stanly finds there is a good deal weirder and more terrifying than anything he could have imagined. Perhaps he should have stayed in Wales … Winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize for new writers.

    Giants of the game like Steph Curry, LeBron, and Michael Jordan have transcended the sport to become cultural icons and role models to young fans. From the cornfields of Indiana and the hills of North Carolina, to the urban sprawl of New York City, Chicago and L.A., love of the game stretches from coast to coast.Featuring Top Ten Lists to chew on and debate, and a Top 40-style Timeline of Key Moments in Basektball History, this comprehensive collection includes the greatest dynasties, from the Bill Russell-era Celtics, to the Magic Jonson-led Lakers, to the Jordan-led Bulls, right up to the Tim Duncan-led Spurs. All the greats take flight toward the hoop in this perfect book for young fans who dream about stepping on an NBA court.A trove of awesome athletic feats, game-changing stars of the past and present, and rich fodder for heated arguments.--Booklist Hoops fans will find a goldmine of information guaranteed to deepen their basketball knowledge and their understanding of the game.--VOYA An easy hook for serious sports fans.--School Library Journal

    It's an EPIC family tradition and he's dreamed up an UNFORGETTABLE party! Only, after several disasters involving a flattened Chihuahua and a curse from the tooth fairy, it's been CANCELLED. But Tom won't give up. With the help of his friends (and a pig painted like a zebra), Tom decides to throw himself the party he deserves. What could possibly go wrong?