Iran has mountains striped with snow, dense forests where bears and lynxes still roam, deserts, bazaars...but above all it has stories - of fairies and demons, of a monstrous metal eagle called the okab, of romantic cockroaches and foolish weavers. During her travels, Elizabeth Laird has gathered a wealth of stories, and here she retells, in her own inimitable style, some of Iran's best, with delightfully offbeat illustrations from Shirin Adl. Praise for A Fistful of Pearls and Other Tales from Iraq: 'Its baddies are wolves and thieves; its stories are fabulous.' The Daily Telegraph
Boys can be anything they want to be! This timely book joins and expands the gender-role conversation and gives middle-grade boys a welcome alternative message: that masculinity can mean many things. You won't find any stories of slaying dragons or saving princesses here. In Stories for Boys Who Dare to Be Different, author Ben Brooks-with the help of Quinton Wintor's striking full-color illustrations-offers a welcome alternative narrative: one that celebrates introverts and innovators, sensitivity and resilience, individuality and expression. It's an accessible compilation of 75 famous and not-so-famous men from the past to the present day, every single one of them a rule-breaker and stereotype-smasher in his own way. Entries include Frank Ocean, Salvador Dali, Beethoven, Barack Obama, Ai Weiwei, Jesse Owens, and so many more-heroes from all walks of life and from all over the world.
After the outbreak of the Great War, boys as young as twelve were caught up in a national wave of patriotism and, in huge numbers, volunteered to serve their country. The press, recruiting offices and the Government all contributed to the enlistment of hundreds of thousands of under-age soldiers in both Britain and the Empire. On joining up, these lads falsified their ages, often aided by parents who believed their sons’ obvious youth would make overseas service unlikely. These boys frequently enlisted together, training for a year or more in the same battalions before they were sent abroad. Others joined up but were soon sent to units already fighting overseas and short of men: these lads might undergo as little as eight weeks’ training. Boys served in the bloodiest battles of the war, fighting at Ypres, the Somme and on Gallipoli. Many broke down under the strain and were returned home once parents supplied birth certificates proving their youth. Other lads fought on bravely and were even awarded medals for gallantry: Jack Pouchot won the Distinguished Conduct Medal aged just fifteen. Others became highly efficient officers, such as Acting Captain Philip Lister and Second Lieutenant Reginald Battersby, both of whom were commissioned at fifteen and fought in France. In this, the final update of his ground-breaking book, Richard van Emden reveals new hitherto unknown stories and adds many more unseen images. He also proves that far more boys enlisted in the British Army under-age than originally estimated, providing compelling evidence that as many as 400,000 served.
This book is about my experiences of working in the sex industry back in the days just after the war, when it was a struggle to survive on low wages and even lower opportunity for the working class.
A BOLD WALKABOUT ACROSS THE LAND OF VISION, IMAGINATION, AND REALITY "The stories in this book are a combination of my imagination, vision, and experiences and contacts," writes storyteller Judith A. Lewis about this compelling collection of 65 stories about the Australian Outback, the Pacific, India, and traveling. "They came to me in vivid detail and I felt compelled to share these insights into a richer way of looking at our relationship to the Earth." Her theme is the journey, across landscapes, through cultures, or into the vivid realms of visionary experience. Lewis writes evocatively about traveling, in spirit and body, across Aboriginal and cultural terrains, from meeting kangaroo spirits to long-lost fathers. But she writes with equal insight and warmth about the enigmas of the heart, its secrets, joys, aspirations, and epiphanies. A twelve-year-old girl survives an illness by communing with the waratah in bloom. A traveler in Bombay is arrested by beauty amidst the frenetic urban haze. Two twins separated in early childhood journey towards each other. A homeless man constantly walks the highways to bury his past. An Aboriginal medicine man named Waramingo meets the Dreamtime ancestors. "A lot of the visionary stories pertain to the land and its secrets and those who visit it from afar," Lewis says. "I believe that the Earth is alive and awaiting our recognition as are the other dimensions that we all could inhabit. I hope my stories help you remember what you already know, that there is no separation, that everything, from stones to stars, is part of us on this lovely planet."
The book is about eight fired-up young Indian men and women. Their vision of excellence, coupled with their creativity, persistence, and indomitable spirit, helps them emerge as unique individuals. They overcome obstacles in their path, including their own mental blocks. They come from diverse backgrounds, representative of the diversity of contemporary India. One of them is a domestic servant, another is from a lower middle-class family, the third belongs to the family of an academician, the fourth comes from an extremely orthodox Brahmin family, the fifth is of mixed Indian-Canadian descent, and so forth. Their personalities are as diverse as their backgrounds. But what they share in common is grit, the spirit of innovation, a humane concern for others, and the desire to extend the limits of their being. Their achievements are also diverse. One becomes the discoverer of consciousness in plants; another transforms a society a thousand years hence; the third sets up a school to foster creativity in children; the fourth becomes an outstanding painter; the fifth, a highly innovative farmer; the sixth, a pioneer of organ transplants; the seventh, a pioneer of colours distilled from rocks; and the eighth triumphs over her ingrained fear of ghosts to become a counselor who heals wounded beings. These scintillating stories are written in a simple style but with arresting images. They are spiced with action and racy dialogues that make them highly engrossing.
The story collection Miracle Boy and Other Stories contains fourteen works of short fiction -published in some of America's top literary magazines and anthologies - by one of West Virginia's most well-recognized writers. The stories, set in the author's native Appalachia, concern themselves with the miraculous lives of boys and men.
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Moni the Goat Boy, and Other Stories" by Johanna Spyri. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
