H.I.V.E. (Higher Institute of Villainous Education) is a top-secret school of applied villainy where children with a precocious gift for wrongdoing are sent to develop their talents into criminal mastermind. After all 'villains have the best lines & wear the best costumes'. One small catch is that the children cannot leave until training is complete six years later. With villainy comes a certain freedom of thought & every year one student in particular will show exceptional talent
- after all it takes the best to produce the worst. This year there are two students: Otto Malpense & his new friend Wing Fanchu are both exceptionally bad & they are definitely not keen on being held against their will for six long years.. .
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Otto & Wing have special permission to leave H.I.V.E.'s secret island location to attend a funeral (all too common in their line of business). But before they reach their destination they are ambushed. Who would risk assassinating Otto Malpense star pupil of the Higher Institute of Villainous Education & favourite of Number One the most powerful villain alive? A new power is rising to challenge Number One's authority & they need H.I.V.E. & its powerful computer to do so. Otto thought the only thing he wanted was to escape from H.I.V.E. but now he's desperately trying to save it & himself. ...

The detail is stunning & the likeness to the real life Royal Marine Sniper is amazing. The figure features realistic desert ...

Patrick O' Brian's Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. H.M.S. Surprise follows the variable fortunes of Captain Jack Aubrey's career in Nelson's navy as he attempts to hold his ground against admirals colleagues & the enemy accepting a mission to convey a British ambassador to the East Indies. The voyage takes him & his friend Stephen Maturin to the strange sights & smells of the Indian sub-continent & through the archipelago of spice islands where the French have a near-overwhelming superiority. Rarely has a novel managed to convey more vividly the fragility of a sailing ship in a wild sea. Rarely has a historical novelist combined action & lyricism of style in the way that O' Brian does. His superb sense of place brilliant characterisation & a vigour & joy of writing lift O' Brian above any but the most exalted of comparisons. ...

H.P. Lovecraft fused supernatural horror with visionary science fiction; this volume collects together all of these writings. This is an exquisitely designed edition that features a silk-ribbon bookmark distinctive gilt edging & marbled endpapers. This is the perfect gift for book lovers & an artful addition to any home library. In the 1920s & 30s H.P. Lovecraft pioneered a new type of fiction that fused elements of supernatural horror with the concepts of visionary science fiction. Lovecrafts tales of cosmic horror revolutionised modern horror fiction & earned him the reputation of the most influential American writer of weird tales since Edgar Allan Poe. H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction" collects for the first time in a single volume all of Lovecrafts groundbreaking fictions. The book is exquisitely designed with bonded-leather bindings distinctive gilt edging & an attractive silk-ribbon bookmark. Decorative durable & collectible the " Leatherbound Classics" series offers hours of pleasure to readers young & old & is an indispensable cornerstone for any home library." ...

The Juice-Net cafe is hosting a short film contest based around the theme of heroes & everyone wants to enter. While Rikki & Cleo are roped in to doing a film about Emmas mum Zane & Lewis hit the waters around Mako Island to film Zane windsurfing. Meanwhile Rikki isnt convinced that Emmas film idea will win them the prize so she sneaks off to make a film of her own featuring some impressive underwater footage of sharks. But when Zane falls off his windsurfer right in the middle of Mako Islands shark breeding ground its Rikki who finds herself being called a heroine when she has to help rescue him! ...

Cleos natural singing voice isnt the best...in fact its awful! But when the Full Moon appears Cleo entrances Lewis Byron Zane & the other boys in the neighbourhood with her beautiful singing. In the midst of her new-found siren status Cleo shares a special moment with Lewis. But when the moon sets will they remember their kiss in the light of day? ...

Habibi" based on a Middle Eastern fable tells the story of Dodola who escapes being sold into slavery & rescues an abandoned baby she names Zam. They live in isolation in an old boat in the desert. As they age their relationship shifts from mother & son to brother & sister & eventually lovers. In the meantime however Dodola is forced to prostitute herself to desert traders in order to provide for Zam. When he seeks an alternative means of income Dodola is captured by the Sultan & Zam is forced into a quest to try & rescue her. At heart Habibi is like Blankets a profound love story but it also functions as a parable about the environment & the state of the world. Set in the place where Christianity & Islam began it explores the fundamental connection between these religions & also the relationship between the first & the third world & the increasingly important battle for the earths resources. Ambitious but always deeply felt " Habibi" is a beautifully drawn & moving graphic novel that will get a huge amount of attention." ...

Auden often said that metre & rhyme led him down unexpected paths to thoughts he wouldnt otherwise have had & in this respect versification & fornication are not so different. Benjamin Britten sailing uncomfortably close to the wind with his new opera Death in Venice" seeks advice from his former collaborator & friend W H Auden. During this imagined meeting their first for twenty-five years they are observed & interrupted by amongst others their future biographer & a young man from the local bus station. You are a rent boy. I am a poet. Over the wall lives the Dean of Christ Church. We all have our parts to play. Alan Bennetts new play is as much about the theatre as it is about poetry or music. It looks at the unsettling desires of two difficult men & at the ethics of biography. It reflects on growing old on creativity & inspiration & on persisting when all passions spent: ultimately on the habit of art. In the end said Auden art is small beer. The really serious things in life are earning ones living & loving ones neighbour." ...

Habitats both small & large form fascinating topics for children to study & enjoy. From the micro-habitats in the backgarden to the deserts & jungles around the planet children find studying the animals plants structures & conservation of habitats a rewarding & enlightening experience. There are numerous opportunities to cover this topic using a cross-curricular approach & also lots of chances for large whole-school projects covering a day or even a week. Themes in this book are as follows: Plants the producers of food (factors that help them survive in a habitat & form the scaffolding for it); Minibeasts the major types (earthworm snail slug insect beetle butterfly moth flies ant spiders centipedes & millipedes); Plants as habitats (what lives on them
- especially trees); Herbivores (from habitats around the world); Carnivores (from habitats around the world); Food chains (from habitats around the world); Decomposers (plus concept of ecosystem); Habitat conservation; & World sustainability (Conserving the world habitat).
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