The child's world is full of print, & sooner of later the child will notice it. Hundreds of children have learned to read from advertisements on hardings. Many a non-reader has failed just because he did not link the way he looked at advertisements on his way to school with what he had to look at on the school noticeboard. Everything that children, eat, wear, play with or pass in the streets has a sign or a symbol.

Learning to read was first published in 1982, & quickly became a classic text for anyone interested in how or why children learn to read. Drawing on her own experience as a parent & teacher, Margaret Meek explains what happens when a child is taught to read & how parents or teachers can help when a child has reading problems.

Each chapter deals with a different stage of learning: each has examples of the kinds of questions that parents ask, together with Margaret Meek's answers. In this revised edition here is a new introduction & an unpdated book list.



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Few conditions upon first diagnosis strike such terror into victims & relatives as Alzheimer's disease. The dementia that is its best-known symptom can provoke feelings of helplessness & despair, coupled with fear that the patient will inevitably suffer loss of dignity & self-respect. There is hope, however, & Joanne Koenig-Coste is well qualified to say so. For over thirty years she has advocated & practised a communication-based form of care. Now she has distilled her experience into this encouraging & supportive book showing how, by following a few straightforward & simple ideas, the quality of life of sufferers can be dramatically enhanced, & their dignity & self-respect renewed. Habilitation capitalizes on the remaining emotions & skills of the patient & offers chances to feel successful by reaching past the recognized losses, ignoring the failures, & rejoicing in whatever still defines the essential humanity of the sufferer. Perhaps as importantly, it also suggests ways that the carers can care for themselves too. Learning to Speak Alzheimer's is a practical guide to coping with a cruel disease. It offers a wealth of information, understanding & advice, but above all it offers a message of hope based on respect, common sense & quiet dignity. ...

Abigail Jex never expected to see any of the Radley household again. In dramatic contrast to her own conventional family, the Radley's were extraordinary, captivating creatures transplanted from a bohemian corner of North London to outer suburbia, & the young Abigail found herself drawn into their magic circle: the eccentric Frances, her new best friend; Frances' mother, the liberated, headstrong Lexi; & of course the brilliant, beautiful Rad.

Abigail thought she'd banished the ghost of her life with them & the catastrophe that ended it, but thirteen years later a chance encounter forces her to acknowledge that the spell is far from broken.. .

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A Blandings novel

Lady Constance Keeble, sister of Lord Emsworth of Blandings Castle, has both an imperious manner

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When Captain Edgar Drummond learns he is to serve his first commission in the Crimean war, he brings with him his two sisters, Blanche, the beauty, & Sarah, the bright, eager intelligent one. It will, after all, only be a skirmish. Slowly, as the horrors of the Crimea begin to pervade their lives, the sisters true qualities begin to emerge. Blanche discovers her physical beauty & unabashed frivolity have no place in the harsh world of war & she behaves disgracefully. Edgar, stiff & conventional, finds his obsession with reason & order ineffectual amidst the chaos of war. He cannot cope with his job, not looking after his sisters. Only Sarah finds the courage to take an active role in the war, to protest against the horrors to which the common soldiers are subjected. Her love for the unconventional newspaper man who opens her to reality is thwarted first by her wicked, winsome sister, then by the vagaries of war, but eventually they are brought together in a dirty, slumlike room on the quayside at Scutari. ...

Leaving Dirty Jersey is the compellingly crafted tale of James Salant's descent into crystal meth addiction. Written at the ...