Eight year old Pepper sees the world a little differently from most people. One day, during a school field trip, Pepper is kidnapped by a stranger & driven to rural Arkansas. The man, who calls himself ` Uncle Dan`, claims that Pepper`s mother has died & they are to live together from now on
- but the boy isn`t convinced. Pepper always found it hard to figure out when people are lying, but he`s absolutely certain his mother is alive, & he`s going to find her...
...

Did you ever want to waddle with a colony of penguins? Wriggle with an army of caterpillars? Or march with a troop of monkeys? Legendary illustrator Lane Smith takes us on a colourful adventure through the natural world, following a child as he weaves through the jungle, dives under the ocean & soars into the sky. Along the way he makes friends & causes mischief with a dazzling array of creatures both large & small
- but can he find a tribe of his own? Full of warmth & humour, There Is a Tribe of Kids is a sumptuously detailed portrayal of wild childhood to be pored over for hours on end. A witty & playful exploration of curiosity, discovery & what it means to belong, ideal for sharing with children of all ages. With a beautiful jacket glinting with gold foil, this gorgeous book makes the perfect gift for any occasion.
...

Winner of the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2017 Did you ever want to waddle with a colony of penguins? Wriggle with an army of caterpillars? Or march with a troop of monkeys? Legendary illustrator Lane Smith takes us on a colourful adventure through the natural world, following a child as he weaves through the jungle, dives under the ocean & soars into the sky. Along the way he makes friends & causes mischief with a dazzling array of creatures both large & small
- but can he find his own kind? Full of warmth & humour, There Is a Tribe of Kids is a sumptuously detailed portrayal of wild childhood to be pored over for hours on end. A witty & playful exploration of curiosity, discovery & what it means to belong, ideal for sharing with children of all ages. Sprinkled with beautiful gold flecks & specially designed peek-through flaps at the front & back.
...

Poor old dragon. Nobody wants him in their story. Not Goldilocks, not Hansel & Gretel
- no one. But Dragon will not give up! He
...

In 1986, the legendary fell runner Joss Naylor completed a continuous circuit of all 214 Wainwright fells in the Lake District, covering a staggering distance of over 300 miles
- plus many thousands of metres of ascent
- in only seven days & one hour. Those in the know thought that this record would never be beaten. It is the ultimate British ultramarathon. The person taking on this superhuman challenge would have to be willing to push harder & suffer more than ever before. There is no Map in Hell tells the story of a man willing to do just that. In 2014, Steve Birkinshaw made an attempt at setting a new record. With a background of nearly forty years of running elite orienteering races & extreme-distance fell running over the toughest terrain, if he couldn`t do it, surely no one could. But the Wainwrights challenge is in a different league: aspirants need to complete two marathons & over 5, 000 metres of ascent every day for a week. With a foreword by Joss Naylor, There is no Map in Hell recounts Birkinshaw`s preparation, training & mile-by-mile experience of the extraordinary & sometimes hellish demands he made from his mind & body, & the physiological aftermath of such a feat. His deep love of the fells, phenomenal strength & tenacity are awe inspiring, & testimony to athletes & onlookers alike that `in order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd`.

...

Eleven-year-old Mouse is travelling to see his grandparents on Christmas Eve with his mother & two sisters. But it`s snowing, & visibility is bad, & the car goes off the road, & crashes. Mouse is thrown from the car. When he wakes, he`s not in his world any more. He meets a sheep named Bar, who can only say Baaa, & a sarcastic horse named Nonky, who is a surprising mix of his beloved toy horse & his older sister. So begins a quest to find a castle in a world of wonder
- a world of monsters, minstrels, dangerous knights & mysterious wizards; a world of terrifying danger but also more excitement than Mouse has ever known. But why are they looking for a castle? As the cold grows, we realise it might just have something to do with the family he`s left behind; & that Mouse`s quest is more important than ever. This is a novel about love & death. It`s about the power of stories to change the way we view the world
- & it`s about the power of a child to change their own world.

...

Here are attempts at human connection, both depraved & sublime, & the grinding struggle to survive against the crushing realities of the Soviet system: in Among Friends, a doting mother commits an atrocious act against her beloved son in an attempt to secure his future; The Time: Night examines the suicide of the great Russian poetess Anna Andreevna with heartbreaking clarity; while in Chocolates with Liqueur the struggle for ownership of an apartment between a nurse & a madman turns murderous. With the satirical eye of Cindy Sherman, the psychological perceptiveness of Dostoevsky, & the bleak absurdities of Beckett, Petrushevskaya blends macabre spectacle with transformative moments of grace & shows just why she is Russia`s preeminent contemporary fiction writer. One of Russia`s best living writers.. .her tales inhabit a borderline between this world & the next
- The New York Times Ludmilla Petrushevskaya was born in Moscow in 1938 & is the only indisputable canonical writer currently writing in Russian today. She is the author of more than fifteen collections of prose, among them this short novel The Time: Night, shortlisted for the Russian Booker Prize in 1992, & Svoi Krug, a modern classic about 1980s Soviet intelligentsia. Petrushevskaya is equally important as a playwright: since the 1980s her numerous plays have been staged by the best Russian theater companies. In 2002, Petrushevskaya received Russia`s most prestigious prize, The Triumph, for lifetime achievement. She lives in Moscow.
...

A woman finds herself filling a pit in the forest in the middle of the night; a family lock each other in their bedrooms to battle a strange plague; a wizard punishes two beautiful ballerinas by turning them into one hugely fat circus performer; a colonel is warned not to lift the veil from his dead wife`s face; &, a distraught father brings his daughter back to life by eating human hearts in his dreams. In these blackly comic tales of revenge, disturbing deaths & haunting melancholy, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya blends miracles & madness in the darkest of modern fairy tales. ...

Royal history as you`ve never seen it before
- in limericks! Six times Henry Tudor got wed, Unhappy with how his wives bred,
...

`THERE THERE drops on us like a thunderclap; the big, booming, explosive sound of 21st century literature finally announcing itself. Essential.`-Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings`A gripping deep dive into urban indigenous community in California: an astonishing literary debut!`-Margaret Atwood, via Twitter` Welcome to a brilliant & generous artist who has already enlarged the landscape of American fiction. THERE THERE is a comic vision haunted by profound sadness. Tommy Orange is a new writer with an old heart.`-Louise Erdrich` Groundbreaking. Extraordinary. Tommy Orange has written a tense, prismatic book with inexorable momentum.` --Janet Maslin, New York Times`THERE THERE has so much jangling energy & brings so much news from a distinct corner of American life that it`s a revelation.` --Dwight Garner, New York Times` Masterful. White-hot. A devastating debut novel.` Washington Post Jacquie Red Feather & her sister Opal grew up together, relying on each other during their unsettled childhood. As adults they were driven apart, but Jacquie is newly sober & trying to make it back to the family she left behind. That`s why she is there. Dene is there because he has been collecting stories to honour his uncle`s death. Edwin is looking for his true father. Opal came to watch her boy Orvil dance. All of them are connected by bonds they may not yet underst&. All of them are there for the cultural celebration that is the Big Oakland Powwow. But Tony Loneman is also there. & Tony has come to the Powwow with darker intentions.` There There is a propulsive, groundbreaking novel, polyphonic & multigenerational, weaving together an array of contemporary Native American voices into a singularly dynamic & original meta-narrative about violence & recovery, about family & loss, about identity & power.` Derek Palacio ...