Early Readers are stepping stones from picture books to reading books. A blue Early Reader is perfect for sharing & reading together. A red Early Reader is the next step on your reading journey. Basma has been wondering a lot about love. What is it like? Does it have a shape or a colour or a taste? Is it like a coat or a jumper or a shawl? Or is it like a warm woolly hat? This charming new Early Reader story from the United Arab Emirates will be enjoyed by everyone, parents & children alike
- & in particular fans of GUESS HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU.
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When a little girl is given a penguin suit she decides that living as a penguin is much more fun than just dressing as one. But penguins don`t exactly behave like people. They don`t ride the bus like people, they don`t talk like people & they certainly don`t catch fish fingers like people. Her family tell her, ” You`re not actually a penguin, ” but she knows that she ACTUALLY is. A hilarious new picture book from Sean Taylor, the author of What a Naughty Bird & Kasia Matyjaszek, author/illustrator of I am a Very Clever Cat. ...

In 669 BC Ashurbanipal inherited the world`s largest empire, which stretched from the shores of the eastern Mediterranean to the mountains of western Iran. He ruled from his massive capital at Nineveh, in present-day Iraq, where temples & palaces adorned with brilliantly carved sculptures dominated the citadel mound, & an elaborate system of aqueducts & canals brought water to the king`s pleasure gardens. Ashurbanipal, proud of his scholarship, assembled the greatest library in existence during his reign. Guided by this knowledge, he defined the course of the Assyrian empire & asserted his claim to be `king of the world`. Beautifully illustrated & written by an international team of experts, this book features images of objects excavated from all corners of the empire. The British Museum`s unrivalled collection of Assyrian reliefs brings to life the tumultuous events of Ashurbanipal`s reign: his conquest of Egypt, the crushing defeat of his rebellious brother in Babylon & his ruthless campaign against the Elamite rulers of south-west Iran. I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria provides an illuminating account of the Assyrian empire told through the story of its last great ruler, & highlights the importance of preserving Iraq`s rich cultural heritage for future generations. ...

` You must get away tonight, ` the man had told him. David escapes from the concentration camp where he has spent his entire life & flees across Europe. He is utterly alone
- who can he trust? What will await him? & all the while, how can he be sure that they won`t catch up with him... This is the remarkable story of David`s introduction to the world: sea, mountains & flowers, the colours of Italy, the taste of fruit, people laughing & smiling, all are new to David. David learns that his polite manner, his haunted eyes & his thin features are strange to other people. He must learn to fend for himself in this strange new world. An incredible story of survival against all odds & self discovery, for readers of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas & The Book Thief.
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The compelling & moving narrative of a young girl caught by the tides of marching armies during the siege of Budapest in 1945. Told with a calm compulsive force, & with an intimacy & maturity that defies her years, Christine Arnothy's story is a poignant coming-of-age memoir, & a remarkable tale of ordinary lives destroyed by war. Christine tells of ther terrible experiences in Budapest in early 1945, as the siege which was to kill some 40, 000 civilians raged around her & her family. By the end of the siege over eighty per cent of the buildings in the city were destroyed or damaged including all five bridges over the Danube. Hiding in cellars, venturing out only when the noise of battle momentarily receded in a desperate search for food & water, they wondered if the Germans or the Russians would be victorious & under which they would fare best. Praying she would survive, & mourning the loss of some of her fellow refugees, Christine found solace in her imagination & dreamt of becoming a writer at the end of the war. Her subsequent adventures include a dramatic escape over frontier into to Vienna & freedom (or so she had imagined), & a search for a new life in Paris, leaving her parents in an Allied refugee camp. ...

Despite the success of his first solo show in Paris & the support of his brilliant French wife & young daughter, thirty-four-year-old British artist Richard Haddon is too busy mourning the loss of his American mistress to a famous cutlery designer to appreciate his fortune. But after Richard discovers that a painting he originally made for his wife, Anne-when they were first married & deeply in love-has sold, it shocks him back to reality & he resolves to reinvest wholeheartedly in his family life.. .just in time for his wife to learn the extent of his affair. Rudderless & remorseful, Richard embarks on a series of misguided attempts to win Anne back while focusing his creative energy on a provocative art piece to prove that he`s still the man she once loved. Skilfully balancing biting wit with a deep emotional undercurrent, debut novelist Courtney Maum has created the perfect portrait of an imperfect family-and a heartfelt exploration of marriage, love, & fidelity. ...

This is the first biography for over 30 years, exhaustively researched from new material including major revelations involving his previously unknown & secret private life, of Lawrence Edward Grace ` Titus` Oates who became a dashing cavalry officer & hero in the Boer War, a successful jockey & who paid GBP 1, 000 to join Scott`s doomed South Pole expedition, before becoming a national hero for sacrificing himself to save his comrades. There is fresh analysis of his military career, both as hero in the Boer War, where he was denied a VC, & later in Irel&. This book offers a different perspective from the traditional myth of Scott`s heroic failure & Oates` suicide. It examines Oates` private life & role of his austere mother who continued to control his memory long after his death, especially by ordering the destruction of his letters & diaries, kept hidden by her, & previously thought to have been destroyed, from her deathbed. It is beautifully illustrated with maps & photographs, many previously unpublished. ...

Eighty miles off the Libyan coast water is leaking rapidly into the bottom of a dilapidated wooden boat. Twenty-seven men, crammed in side-by-side, desperately attempt to bail it out, but the boat is sinking. In the distance one of their number spots a ship &, forcing the last moments of life from the engine, they move towards it. But the crew refuses to allow them on board. Instead the men scramble onto the floats of a huge industrial tuna net, & watch as their boat rolls over & disappears into the heaving Mediterranean. Like tens of thousands of others Justice set off from his rural village with an idealised vision of an new life in England
- the `home` country
- desperate just to earn his way & help his orphaned brother & sister left behind. During his long journey to the African coast, he`s captured, jailed & tortured, before escaping & heading northwards again. Once in Tripoli he`s duped into handing over his life savings for a trip in a wreck of a boat across miles of open sea to almost certain death. But there is also compassion here & he meets old & wise souls along the way. The tuna net is not the end of Justice`s story. It is an extraordinary tale of courage, & an important account of a life caught between cultures, on the edge of survival.

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Time to splish, splosh & splash in the deep, deep sea with Little Fish & his fishy friends! Dip, dive & swim along to the rhyming text & delightful underwater illustrations, with a colourful finger puppet & peek-a-boo holes on every page. This introduction to Lucy Cousin`s Little Fish character is a perfect first interactive reading experience for little ones. ...

Winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, in 2009 Malala Yousafzai began writing a blog on BBC Urdu about life in the Swat Valley as the Taliban gained control, at times banning girls from attending school. When her identity was discovered, Malala began to appear in both Pakistani & international media, advocating the freedom to pursue education for all. In October 2011, gunmen boarded Malala`s school bus & shot her in the face, a bullet passing through her head & into her shoulder. Remarkably, Malala survived the shooting. At a very young age, Malala Yousafzai has become a worldwide symbol of courage & hope. Her shooting has sparked a wave of solidarity across Pakistan, not to mention globally, for the right to education, freedom from terror & female emancipation. ...