Boy: Tales of Childhood" is the story of Roald Dahl's very own boyhood. Including takes of sweet-shops & chocolate mean old ladies & a Great Mouse Plot
- the inspiration for some of his most marvellous storybooks in the years to come. These tales are full of exciting & strange things
- some funny some frightening all true. ' An autobiography is a book a person writes about their own life & it is usually full of all sorts of boring details. This is not an autobiogrpahy'
- Roald Dahl. Roald Dahl the best-loved of children's writers was born in Wales of Norwegian parents. After school in England he went to work for Shell in Africa. He began to write after "a monumental bash on the head" sustained as an RAF pilot in World War II. Roald Dahl died in 1990. Quentin Blake is one of the best-known & best-loved children's illustrators & it's impossible now to think of Roald Dahl's writings without imagining Quentin Blake's illustrations."


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I sat down in assembly one day & started to read this book to my two hundred & forty students deciding that I would stop when restlessness became too obvious. I went on...and on...and on. In the end I had to stop before the school seized up & still the children clamoured for more." Gerald Haigh TES" ...

Anyone who survived the exterminations camps must have an untypical story to tell. The typical camp story of the millions ended in death.. . We the few who survived the war & the majority who perished in the camps did not use & would not have understood terms such as 'holocaust' or 'death march'. These were coined later by outsiders." Boy 30529 tells the story of a boy who at the age of twelve lost everything: hope family & even his own identity. As Nazi persecutions grew in intensity young Felix's father went to England to obtain travel papers to allow the family to emigrate from Czechoslovakia. But they never made it out of Prague. Felix spent the next three years in a series of concentration camps
- Terezi´n Auschwitz-Birkenau Blechhammer Gross-Rosen & Buchenwald
- & survived the Death March from Blechhammer in 1945. The book is a meditation on memory & of how to forget & how the Holocaust remains an event at the center of historical debate."

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A boy & a bear go to sea equipped with a suitcase a comic book & a ukulele. They are only travelling a short distance & it really shouldn't take long. But then their boat encounters 'unforeseeable anomalies'... Faced with turbulent stormy seas a terrifying sea monster & the rank remains of The Very Last Sandwich the odds soon become pitted against our unlikely heroes. Will the Harriet their trusted vessel withstand the violent lashings of the salty waves? & will anyone ever answer their message in a bottle? Brilliantly funny & tender this beautiful book maps the growth of a truly memorable friendship & tells the story of how when all becomes lost the most unexpected joys can be found. ...

A boy & a bear go to sea equipped with a suitcase a comic book & a ukulele. They are only travelling a short distance & it really shouldn't take long. But their journey doesn't quite go to plan... Faced with turbulent storms a terrifying sea monster & the rank remains of a very dangerous sandwich the odds are against our unlikely heroes. Will the Harriet their trusted vessel withstand the violent lashings of the salty waves? & will anyone ever answer their message in a bottle? Brilliantly funny & tender this beautiful book maps the growth of a truly memorable friendship & explores how when all else is lost the most unexpected joys can be found. ...

Danny Ellis was a survivor strong & resilient. A successful singer/songwriter he was proud of the way hed handled his painful past: the grinding poverty of the 1950s Dublin slums & the brutality of the orphanage the notorious Artane Industrial School where he was left. Hed safely buried it. Or so he thought. Then one night while writing a powerful song that would launch his acclaimed album 800 Voices his past came flooding back to haunt him. Long-forgotten memories of betrayal & abandonment burst forth in a shocking revelation: his eight-year-old self was still lost in the orphanage. Although badly shaken Danny began a courageous journey that would lead him back to the streets of Dublin to the tenement slums & eventually to the brutality & scallywag shenanigans of the Artane playground. What he found with each twist & turn of his odyssey would change his life forever. The Boy at the Gate" is a poignant profoundly moving memoir of forgiveness & redemption & an inspiring testament to the healing power of music & love." ...

A fun & funky new series charting the hopes dreams & schemes of the lively loveable Lucy
- wannabe fashion designer & Stand Up
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Once upon a time there was a boy & they called him Mouse.. . That is how the story began when I told it to myself in the long darkness. Of course it wasnt the whole story but back then I knew nothing almost nothing at all.. . Mouse is unaware of his privileged background: of Epton Towers the luxurious home in which he was born & its magnificent surrounding grounds. Instead he lives a happy & carefree life with Hanny & Isaac on Roseberry Farm
- until one day when the evil Mr Button threatens Hanny & Isaac & takes Mouse away. Mr Button installs Mouse at grim Murkstone Hall a school that lives & breathes terror. Can Mouse escape & find his way to his true family again? A brilliantly evoked tale full of memorable characters including Nick Tick the tiny but clever clockmaker Aunt Indigo & Aunt violet two strong-minded seamstresses & washerwomen & Charlie Punch & his amazing dog Toby. These warm-hearted & generous characters see the plight of Mouse & each in their own way help him towards his destiny. But will they be enough to upset the continual scheming of the villainous Mr Button?
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A powerful & moving new novel from this well-loved writer Alex never stood a chance. After one 'accident' too many he's taken into care aged four. Although his mother promises to get him back he's adopted by a childless couple & renamed Franky. It should be a fresh start but his new dad has a twisted idea of fatherhood. Abused & alone Franky escapes
- but his freedom is short-lived & after a series of foster homes no one can get through to him. He says he's 'the boy from nowhere' but deep down he's still waiting for his mum to take him home. Franky slips into a dangerous world on the streets of London earning a living the only way he can. One day he might find a way out but can he ever trust again?
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Richard Mc Cann's account of his childhood became a massive UK bestseller. In it he told the harrowing story of how he & his sisters were left motherless when the Yorkshire Ripper killed his first victim Richard's mother Wilma Mc Cann. Just A Boy" was praised for its unflinching & unself-pitying account of a neglected childhood at the hands of an abusive father & uncaring authorities. " The Boy Grows Up" is an account of how Richard used the success of " Just A Boy" to try & save his sister & of his attempts to make sense of his past whilst learning more about the effects of traumatic childhoods & loss." ...