This is a fascinating diary account of the Second World War as seen through the eyes of a young girl. Flossie is just nine years old when in 1939 Britain declares war on Germany & her father leaves the family home to join the army. Flossie is left to bring up her baby brother & to face a whole host of new experiences on her own. Her diary becomes an outlet for relaying all the news from at home & abroad. From the first evacuees arriving to her sweetheart being killed in Normandy in 1944 Flossie has to endure much hardship. But her own special blend of courage humour & fighting spirit see her through to the Armistice when she can welcome her dad home at last. ...

The body
- Its a full-size full-colour illustrated cardboard cut-out with lift-&-learn flaps on one side that reveal the organs
...

At 28 Lucy is doing well for herself. She's got a great job in PR her boss loves her & her best girlfriends Dominique & Erin think she's great. More important than anyone's opinion is that of her flatmate & oldest friend in the world Henry. For twenty years they've been inseparable: beauty & the geek. Henry thinks the world of Lucy. So why does she feel the need to lie outrageously on dates? From rock-climbing to Chekov: when it comes to prospective boyfriends Lucy is compelled to embellish her C.V. with unlikely porkies that always backfire
- with hilarious results. Henry can't understand it. Lucy is so loveable: why can't she just be herself? But when Lucy turns the spotlight on Henry he wishes he'd never brought it up. With a penchant for jumpers & NHS-style specs Lucy decides that Henry is in need of a makeover
- big time. Enlisting the help of Dom & Erin it's not long before the girls have Henry out of the flat & into the Topman changing rooms. A new haircut contact lenses a flirting master-class from Dom.. .poor Henry doesn't know what's hit him. But nothing can prepare them for the surprise results! Before long Lucy realises that their lives will never be the same again.

...

Quiet cautious Pearl has always adored her bold brash bad big sister Jodie. When their parents get new jobs at a grand fusty old boarding school Melchester College the girls have to move there
- & when they arrive things start to change. Jodie has always been the leader
- but now it's Pearl who's making new friends. Jodie just seems to be getting into more & more trouble
- arguing with Mum scaring the little children flirting with the gardener. She really doesn't fit in with the posh teenagers at the school. Pearl begins to wonder if she needs Jodie as much as she used to. But when Firework Night comes around & a tragic event occurs Pearl realises quite how much Jodie means to her.


...

Ten-year-old Jamie Matthews has just moved to the Lake District with his Dad & his teenage sister Jasmine for a ' Fresh New Start'. Five years ago his sister's twin Rose was blown up by a terrorist bomb. His parents are wrecked by their grief Jasmine turns to piercing pink hair & stops eating. The family falls apart. But Jamie hasn't cried in all that time. To him Rose is just a distant memory. Jamie is far more interested in his cat Roger his birthday Spiderman T-shirt & in keeping his new friend Sunya a secret from his dad. & in his deep longing & unshakeable belief that his Mum will come back to the family she walked out on months ago. When he sees a TV advert for a talent show he feels certain that this will change everything & bring them all back together once & for all. ...

Sara Fitzgeralds daughter Kate is just two years old when she is diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia. Reeling with the helpless shock of it Sara knows she will do anything
- whatever it takes
- to save her child. Then the tests results come back time & again to show that no one in their family is a match for Kate. If they are to find a donor for the crucial bone marrow transplant she needs there is only one option: creating another baby specifically designed to save her sister. For Sara it seems the ideal solution. Not only does Kate live but she gets a beautiful new daughter Anna too. Until the moment Anna hands Sara the papers that will rock her whole world. Because aged thirteen Anna has decided that she doesnt want to help Kate live any more. She is suing her parents for the rights to her own body.

...

'A major decision about me is being made & no one's bothered to ask the one person who most deserves it to speak her opinion.' The only reason Anna was born was to donate her cord blood cells to her older sister. & though Anna is not sick she might as well be. By age thirteen she has undergone countless surgeries transfusions & shots so that her sister Kate can somehow fight the leukaemia that has plagued her since she was a child. Anna was born for this purpose her parents tell her which is why they love her even more. But now that she has reached an age of physical awareness she can't help but long for control over her own body & respite from the constant flow of her own blood seeping into her sister's veins. & so she makes a decision that for most would be too difficult to bear at any time & at any age. She decides to sue her parents for the rights to her own body. ...

What do you do when your wife abducts your children? This was the question facing Douglas Galbraith when in 2003 he returned home to Scotland from a few days work in London. The house was silent empty & locked; his four & six-year-old sons pyjamas lay on the bedroom floor. & on the doormat confirmation from the Post Office of a forwarding address
- in Japan. He has not seen them since. But My Son My Son" is infinitely more than a personal tale of sudden loss & one mans attempts to find his sons. Writing with astonishing range & insight Galbraith tackles the deepest questions about who we are & how we treat each other. Here is an intensely provocative journey through complex & controversial territory: child murder tsunami international conventions hatred & cultures at war. " My Son My Son" is a searing memoir & a call to arms which will provoke passionate debate. It has a haunting eloquence & against the odds a grim sense of humour. It goes to the very heart of relations between parents & children men & women & between races
- to the heart of what it is to be alive."

...

Written with Vanity Fair contributing editor Michael Shnayerson My Song is an inspiring story of performance & protest from a superstar singer & actor who was on the front lines of practically every progressive political battle in modern memory. Along the way he befriended some of the most influential figures of the 20th century from Tony Curtis Marlon Brando & Sidney Poitier to Martin Luther King the Kennedys Eleanor Roosevelt Fidel Castro James Baldwin Bob Dylan & Nelson Mandela. From his impoverished childhood in Harlem & Jamaica through his meteoric rise as an international calypso star provocative crossover into Hollywood where he broke down many racial barriers passionate lifelong involvement in the civil rights movement & myriad other social causes to his personal struggles & rich friendships this is a remarkable multifaceted & hugely inspirational story. A man whose story should be told for generations to come" (Robert Redford)" ...