An irresistible little library slipcase containting four fabulous stories by internationally acclaimed, award-winning picture books star, Oliver Jeffers! Once there was a boy, & one day... Enjoy four exciting adventures of the boy, as he learns how to catch a star, journeys to the South Pole & the moon
- making new discoveries & finding friendship along the way. The award-winning picture books: ` How to Catch a Star`, ` Lost & Found`, ` The Way Back Home` & ` Up & Down` are now presented in this beautiful hardback slipcase edition to be treasured.
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` Do you know it, do you remember it, the drives, the attitudes, the terrors &, yes, the joys?` Thus Steinbeck introduces his collection of poignant & hard-hitting dispatches for the New York Herald Tribune when the Second World War was at its height. He begins in Engl&, recounting the courage of the bomber crews, the tragic air-raids & the strangeness of the British, before being sent to Africa & joining a special operations unit off the coast of Italy. Eating, drinking talking & fighting alongside the soldiers, Steinbeck`s empathy for the common man is always in evidence in these pieces, & he never fails to evoke the human side of an inhuman war. ” If you have forgotten what the war was like, Steinbeck will refresh your memory. Age can never dull this kind of writing.” (Chicago Tribune). ...

A full-colour Gorjuss fairy tale story book, in hard cover with a ribbon marker. In the lavishly designed Once Upon a Gorjuss Time collection of classic fairy tales, a dreamy, mysterious reader records her musings as she pores over ” Little Red Riding Hood”, ” The Little Mermaid”, ” Alice in Wonderland”, ” Snow White”, ” Thumbelina”, & ” Rapunzel”
- all with a Gorjuss twist.
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It started with one tiny flake, perfect & beautiful & special, just like you. Then there were two, & then three. In this enchanting, lyrical lullaby brought to life by award-winning illustrator Isabelle Arsenault, the beauty of a northern night unfolds as a young child sleeps. Wrapped in a snug, downy blanket, a snowflake falls, & then another & another. Soon the magic of the night outside takes hold
- animals awaken, snow swirls, stars twinkle & winds whisper. A mixture of magic, wildlife & deep comfort, tip-toe through the pages of this beautiful bedtime read-aloud, & try not to break the spell of the peaceful, quiet, wintry north.
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Tip-toe through the pages of this beautiful bedtime read-aloud, & try not to break the spell of the peaceful, quiet, wintry north.”A mixture of magic, wildlife & deep comfort” New York Times In this bedtime lullaby beautifully brought to life by the award-winning Isabelle Arsenault, illustrator of Jane, the Fox, & Me, a northern night unfolds as a young child sleeps. Wrapped in a snug, downy blanket, a snowflake falls, & then another & another. As the magic of the night outside takes hold
- animals awaken, snow swirls, stars twinkle & winds whisper
- a lyrical, enchanting read-aloud evokes a winter`s night, while gently lulling a child to peaceful sleep.

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A collection of 11 short stories & 6 poems by Ireland`s top children`s writers, commissioned & edited by Eoin Colfer & illustrated by world-renowned artist & Laureate na n Og PJ Lynch. Each of the stories & poems is based around the theme of place, being set in or inspired by a particular location within Irel&. Contributors include: Eoin Colfer Roddy Doyle Derek Landy Siobhan Parkinson Paula Leyden John Connolly Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick Oisin Mc Gann Jane Mitchell Sarah Webb Jim Sheridan Enda Wyley Pat Boran Seamus Cashman Mark Granier Geraldine Mills Kate Newmann ...

From wicked queens, beautiful princesses, elves, monsters, & goblins to giants, glass slippers, poisoned apples, magic keys, & mirrors, the characters & images of fairy tales have cast a spell over readers & audiences, both adults & children, for centuries. These fantastic stories have travelled across cultural borders, & been passed on from generation to generation, ever-changing, renewed with each re-telling. Few forms of literature have greater power to enchant us & rekindle our imagination than a fairy tale. But what is a fairy tale? Where do they come from & what do they mean? What do they try & communicate to us about morality, sexuality, & society? The range of fairy tales stretches across great distances & time; their history is entangled with folklore & myth, & their inspiration draws on ideas about nature & the supernatural, imagination & fantasy, psychoanalysis, & feminism. Marina Warner has loved fairy tales over a long writing life, & she explores here a multitude of tales through the ages, their different manifestations on the page, the stage, & the screen. From the phenomenal rise of Victorian & Edwardian literature to contemporary children`s stories, Warner unfolds a glittering array of examples, from classics such as Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, & The Sleeping Beauty, the Grimm Brothers` Hansel & Gretel, & Hans Andersen`s The Little Mermaid, to modern-day realizations including Walt Disney`s Snow White & gothic interpretations such as Pan`s Labyrinth. In ten succinct chapters, Marina Warner digs into a rich hoard of fairy tales in their brilliant & fantastical variations, in order to define a genre & evaluate a literary form that keeps shifting through time & history. Her book makes a persuasive case for fairy tale as a crucial repository of human understanding & culture. ...

* Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award 2017* * Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award 2017** Selected as a 2017 Book of the Year in the Sunday Times* Xiaolu Guo meets her parents for the first time when she is almost seven. They are strangers to her. When she is born in 1973, her parents hand her over to a childless peasant couple in the mountains. Aged two, & suffering from malnutrition on a diet of yam leaves, they leave Xiaolu with her illiterate grandparents in a fishing village on the East China Sea. Once Upon a Time in the East takes Xiaolu from a run-down shack to film school in a rapidly changing Beijing, navigating the everyday peculiarity of modern China: censorship, underground art, Western boyfriends. In 2002 she leaves Beijing on a scholarship to study in Britain. Now, after a decade in Europe, her tale of East to West resonates with the insight that can only come from someone who is both an outsider & at home.` This generation`s Wild Swans` Daily Telegraph ...

` This generation`s Wild Swans` Daily Telegraph ` One of the most startling & fascinating memoirs I`ve read in recent years...a story of China` Libby Purves` Impressive...moving...exhilarating` Financial Times` Guo is rebellious, flamboyant & fundamentally optimistic...fascinating` Scotland on Sunday` This stunning memoir picks up where Jung Chang`s 1991 bestseller Wild Swans left off... This book will make your jaw drop, then clench in anger` Five stars, Sunday Telegraph` Riveting... Guo is a bolder, angrier & more ambitious figure than her forebears` The Times Xiaolu Guo meets her parents for the first time when she is almost seven. They are strangers to her. When she is born her parents hand her over to a childless peasant couple in the mountains. Aged two, & suffering from malnutrition on a diet of yam leaves, they leave Xiaolu with her illiterate grandparents in a fishing village on the East China Sea. It`s a strange beginning.A Wild Swans for a new generation, Once Upon a Time in the East takes Xiaolu from a run-down shack to film school in a rapidly changing Beijing, navigating the everyday peculiarity of modern China: censorship, underground art, Western boyfriends. In 2002 she leaves Beijing on a scholarship to study in Britain. Now, after a decade in Europe, her tale of East to West resonates with the insight that can only come from someone who is both an outsider & at home. Xiaolu Guo`s extraordinary memoir is a handbook of life lessons. How to be an artist when censorship kills creativity & the only job you can get is writing bad telenovela scripts. How to be a woman when female babies are regularly drowned at birth & sexual abuse is commonplace. Most poignantly of all: how to love when you`ve never been shown how. ...

Who is the most mischievous character? Who is the bravest? Stage the ultimate fairy-tale battle as you pit 30 magical characters against each other to beat your opponents. With amazing illustrations & wickedly funny descriptions of each character, create fairy tales as you play! ...