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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Gripping action-packed thriller from the best-selling author of BRAVO TWO ZERO. Ideal for adventure-seeking readers. Danny Watts's grandfather Fergus was a traitor. One of the worst sort. An SAS explosives expert who betrayed his country & his Regiment for money. Drug money. He was arrested & left to rot & die in a Columbian jail. At least that's what seventeen-year-old Danny is told when his hopes of becoming a soldier are destroyed for ever. But he knows something the army doesn't seem to know. Fergus Watts is alive & in the UK living in secret under an assumed name
- but where? Fergus is Danny's only living relative. Burning with fury & desire for revenge Danny sets out to track down his grandfather & expose him. In doing so he sets in train an explosive sequence of events which throw Danny & Fergus together on the run from the people who want Fergus & now Danny dead. Packed with breathtaking action SAS procedures & surveillance & survival techniques this is a fast-moving action-packed thriller for teenagers.
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The youngest soldier who fought in the Great War is believed to have been just twelve years old. Many thousands of other boys are known to have faked eye tests inflated their small chests & stood on tiptoes to bluff their way into a war of unforeseen horror. How & why so many under-aged boys were able to get to the battlefields is a complex mystery of World War I & until Richard van Emden's classic account largely unexplored. Boy Soldiers of the Great War tells for the first time the incredible stories of the boys who went to fight for their country. Richard van Emden having amassed a unique collection of personal testimonies & hitherto unpublished diaries & letters brings to life their stories of heroism & sacrifice. This edition has been completely revised & updated. ...

This is a modern & inspirational guide to baking from the winner of The Great British Bake Off 2010. From the traditional to new twists on old favourites there are recipes to suit all abilities. Covering cakes cookies pastry desserts & even ice-creams recipes include Peaches & Cream Upside Down Cake Chocolate Pecan & Salted Caramel Tart Mango Pavlova & the ultimate Fudge Brownies. Accompanied by gorgeous full-colour photographs to tempt you into the kitchen let Edd show you how to beat off the competition & become a brilliant baker. ...

This is a magnificent tale of crackpot notions & sky-high courage
- from David Almond the master of magical realism with illustrations
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One day the Fat Fairy turns up at Thomas Tops house to grant him a birthday wish. Thomas cant think what to ask for so he wishes he could fly. Thats how Thomas goes from being just an ordinary boy whom no one notices to being the most popular boy in the school. But it makes him sad that grown-ups cant see the wonderful things he can do. His flying gets him suspended from school & that makes life at home much worse because his dad gets so cross & it makes his mum miserable. But then the Fat Fairy turns up again & with help from her & Thomass new friend Mr Vinnie a retired painter & decorator who has been flying since he was Thomass age everything changes. This is an enchanting story in which an unconfident child discovers a special gift that brings him joy & heartache. The magic of the words the humour & poignancy of the story & the wonderful characters are all enhanced by the authors own delightful drawings. ...