The debut children's novel from David Walliams number one bestseller & fastest growing children's author in the country. Now experience the whole story in glorious sound as David teams up with an old friend (his name begins with Matt & ends with Lucas) to deliver a hilarious & beautifully produced audiobook. Dennis was different. Why was he different you ask? Well a small clue might be in the title of this book... Charming surprising & hilarious
- David Walliams's beautiful first novel will touch the hearts (and funny bones) of children & adults alike. Now David teams up with Matt Lucas to produce an audiobook with a difference. Read by two of the brightest stars in sketch comedy this lavish production brings the hilarious voices behind Little Britain to your nearest earphones. & it tells a fantastic story too...
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On 21st September 2001 the mutilated torso of a small child was found floating beside Londons Tower Bridge one tide away from being swept into the North Sea. Unable to identify the victim the Murder Squad turned to Richard Hoskins a young professor of theology with a profound understanding of African tribal religion whose own past was scarred by a heartbreaking tragedy. Thus began a journey into the tangled undergrowth of one of the most notorious murder cases of recent years; a journey which would reveal not only the identity of the boy they called Adam but the horrific truth that a succession of innocent children have been ritually sacrificed in our capital city. Insightful & grippingly written The Boy in the River is an inside account of a series of extraordinary criminal investigations & a compelling personal quest into the dark heart of humanity. ...

The story of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the cover but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about. If you do start to read this book you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds.) & sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. We hope you never have to cross such a fence. ...

Lines may divide us but hope will unite us.. . Nine-year-old Bruno knows nothing of the Final Solution & the Holocaust. He is oblivious to the appalling cruelties being inflicted on the people of Europe by his country. All he knows is that he has been moved from a comfortable home in Berlin to a house in a desolate area where there is nothing to do & no one to play with. Until he meets Shmuel a boy who lives a strange parallel existence on the other side of the adjoining wire fence & who like the other people there wears a uniform of striped pyjamas. Bruno's friendship with Shmuel will take him from innocence to revelation. & in exploring what he is unwittingly a part of he will inevitably become subsumed by the terrible process. ...

Some things are just sitting there minding their own business & waiting to be discovered. Like America. & other things are probably better off left alone. Nine-year-old Bruno has a lot of things on his mind. Who is the Fury? Why did he make them leave their nice home in Berlin to go to Out-With ? & who are all the sad people in striped pyjamas on the other side of the fence? The grown-ups wont explain so Bruno decides there is only one thing for it
- he will have to explore this place alone. What he discovers is a new friend. A boy with the very same birthday. A boy in striped pyjamas. But why cant they ever play together?
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Winner of the 2010 Orange Award for New Writers Two days after I turned fourteen the son of our neighbour set his stepmother alight. Or so Lindiwe Bishop believes though eighteen months later the charges against Ian Mc Kenzie are dropped & he returns home full of charm & swagger. Intrigued Lindiwe strikes up a covert friendship with the mysterious white boy next door. As a bond grows between them they cannot foreseee how severely it will be tested in the years ahead
- by secrets & by a world that wants nothing more than to divide them. Vividly evoking Zimbabwe's slide from independence into chaos THE BOY NEXT DOOR tells an engrossing tale about what it means to witness change love & remain whole when all around you is falling apart.
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The first in a series of books from foster carer Casey Watson. ' We're hungry ' his brother cried. ' We're hungry Justin. Please find us some food.' Justin was five years old; his brothers two & three. Their mother a heroin addict had left them alone again. Later that day after trying to burn down the family home Justin was taken into care. Justin was taken into care at the age of five after deliberately burning down his family home. Six years on after 20 failed placements Justin arrives at Casey's home. Casey & her husband Mike are specialist foster carers. They practice a new style of foster care that focuses on modifying the behaviour of profoundly damaged children. They are Justin's last hope & it quickly becomes clear that they are facing a big challenge. Try as they might to make him welcome he seems determined to strip his life of all the comforts they bring him violently lashing out at schoolmates & family & throwing any affection they offer him back in their faces. After a childhood filled with hurt & rejection Justin simply doesn't want to know. But as it soon emerges this is only the tip of a chilling iceberg. A visit to Justin's mother on Boxing Day reveals that there are some very dark underlying problems that Justin has never spoken about. As the full picture becomes clearer & the horrific truth of Justin's early life is revealed Casey & her family finally start to understand the pain he has suffered... ...

Knute is a twenty-four-year-old single mother who returns home to Algren with her daughter to look after her father Tom who has suffered a heart attack. Meanwhile Hosea Funk a friend of Toms & the mayor of Algren has a lot on his mind. The prime minister has promised to pay a visit to whichever town in Canada has the smallest population. Algren has held this position for some time but recent baby booms & returning families like Knute threaten to tip Algren over the magic 1500... ...

Jamal loves playing football which isnt easy if your goalie only has one leg & you keep having to dodge landmines to get your ball back. Jamals stubborn little sister Bibi is even better at football than Jamal. But girls playing football is against the law in Afganistan. When it is discovered that Jamals mother has been secretly running a school the family must leave their home immediately & begin a long & dangerous journey to Australia. The children survive separation from their parents hunger & violent smugglers only to find that Australia isnt as welcoming as they had thought but even though they face an uncertain future Jamal Bibi & their parents know that as long as they are together that is all that matters. ...

Boy Racer steps behind the scenes of the Tour de France. It unmasks the exotic contradictory hysterical & brutal world of professional cycling from the compellingly candid viewpoint of someone right in the thick of it. Written off as 'fat' & 'useless' in his youth Mark Cavendish is now one of cycling's brightest stars & one of Britain's greatest ever cyclists. Some have called him cocky but to anyone who doesn't like his style Mark will simply shrug his shoulders & reply 'I know I'm good. There's no point lying about it.' Peers say that they have never seen anyone with Cavendish's hunger for success & while this fearlessness
- both in the saddle & on the record
- has at times led to controversy it has also earned him the respect of ever more fans. In Boy Racer we follow him through the mayhem of the Tour de France in a page-turning journey of pure exhilaration.

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