Who's that creeping down the street? Who's that climbing up the wall? Who's that coming through the window? Who's that? ... It's Burglar Bill! Burglar Bill lives all by himself in a tall house full of stolen property. Every night (after eating his stolen fish and chips) he goes out to work... stealing things. From hats to baked beans, Burglar Bill will take anything! But one day, Burglar Bill steals something very unexpected indeed. And, it shows him that stealing has a cost! Discover the timeless tale that has delighted young readers for generations. The perfect bedtime story, Burglar Bill is packed with bright illustrations and easy-to-read text. Discover more Ahlberg classic children's books: The Jolly Postman Cops and Robbers Funnybones Each Peach Pear Plum Peepo!
Coronation Year, 1953, and in Oldbury a Coronation football competition is organized. The boys from the bottom pitch get a team up, but there's no chance they'll win, of course. They're just the odds and sods – one of them is even a girl – but they're all football crazy and ready and eager to beat off the opposition. A funny and moving story of football and friendship in a world when the streets were full of kids and empty of cars. Not only for boys – and girls – of 9+, there's a real pull of nostalgia for adults as well. And, of course, for all lovers of football, whether on the pitch or in the park.
A “deeply researched and brilliantly written” blueprint to the criminal possibilities in the world all around us (Warren Ellis, author of Gun Machine). At the core of A Burglar’s Guide to the City is an unexpected and thrilling insight: how any building transforms when seen through the eyes of someone hoping to break into it. Studying architecture the way a burglar would, Geoff Manaugh takes readers through walls, down elevator shafts, into panic rooms, and out across the rooftops of an unsuspecting city. Encompassing nearly two thousand years of heists and break-ins, the book draws on the expertise of reformed bank robbers, FBI special agents, private security consultants, the LAPD Air Support Division, and architects past and present. Whether discussing how to pick padlocks, climb the walls of high-rise apartments, find gaps in a museum’s surveillance routine, or discuss home invasions in ancient Rome, A Burglar’s Guide to the City ensures readers will never enter a bank again without imagining how to loot the vault, or walk down the street without planning the perfect getaway. Praise for A Burglar’s Guide to the City “This burglar’s guide isn’t for ordinary smash-and-grab burglars, it’s for the rest of us—who steal in, steal out, and get away with glorious dreams. A spectacularly fun read.” —Robert Krulwich, cohost of Radiolab “Who knew that urban studies could be so riveting? Geoff Manaugh excels at finding new, illicit, and fresh angles on a subject as loved as it is overexposed—the city. In his new book, elegant, perverse, sinuous supervillains maneuver and master the city like parkour champions. I see the TV series already.” —Paola Antonelli, design curator, MoMA
Trained to be a cat burglar in an orphanage, teenager K. Westree discovers her late father belonged to a secret organization of thieves, and becomes entangled in their plot to uncover a pirate's fortune.
B is for Burglar, from Sue Grafton's #1 New York Times bestselling Kinsey Millhone Alphabet mystery series Beverly Danziger looked like an expensive, carefully wrapped package from a good but conservative shop. Only her compulsive chatter hinted at the nervousness beneath her cool surface. It was a nervousness out of all proportion to the problem she placed before Kinsey Millhone. There was an absent sister. A will to be settled--a matter of only a few thousand dollars. Mrs. Danziger did not look as if she needed a few thousand dollars. And she didn't seem like someone longing for a family reunion. Still, business was slow, and even a private investigator has bills to pay. Millhone took the job. It looked routine. Elaine Boldt's wrappings were a good deal flashier than her sister's, but they signaled the same thing: The lady had money. A rich widow in her early forties, she owned a condo in Boca Raton and another in Santa Teresa. According to the manager of the California building, she was last seen draped in her $12,000 lynx coat heading for Boca Raton. According to the manager of the Florida building, she never got there. But someone else had and she was camping out illegally in Mrs. Boldt's apartment. The job was beginning to seem a bit less routine. It turned tricky when Beverly Danziger ordered Millhone to drop the case and it took on an ominous quality when Aubrey Danziger surfaced, making all kinds of wild accusations about his wife. But it only became sinister when Millhone learned that just days before Elaine Boldt went missing, her next-door neighbor and bridge partner had been murdered and the killer was still at large. A house destroyed by arson. A brutally murdered a woman. A missing lynx coat. An apartment burgled of valueless papers, another ransacked in a melée of mindless destruction. And more murder. As Millhone digs deeper into the case, she finds herself in a nightmarish hall of mirrors in which reality is distorted by illusion and nothing--except danger--is quite what it seems. "A" Is for Alibi "B" Is for Burglar "C" Is for Corpse "D" Is for Deadbeat "E" Is for Evidence "F" Is for Fugitive "G" Is for Gumshoe "H" Is for Homicide "I" Is for Innocent "J" Is for Judgment "K" Is for Killer "L" is for Lawless "M" Is for Malice "N" Is for Noose "O" Is for Outlaw "P" Is for Peril "Q" Is for Quarry "R" Is for Ricochet "S" Is for Silence "T" Is for Trespass "U" Is for Undertow "V" Is for Vengeance "W" Is for Wasted "X"
Laughter guaranteed with The Ha Ha Bonk Book by Janet and Allan Ahlberg - jam-packed with brilliant jokes to tell your dad, your mum, your baby brother, your teacher and anybody else you can think of, such as: What goes ha ha bonk? A man laughing his head off. and What goes 99 bonk? A centipede with a wooden leg and What goes putt, putt, putt, putt, putt, putt, putt, putt? A bad golfer and lots more besides! This is an all-time classic favourite joke book for all the family to enjoy. Allan Ahlberg - a former teacher, postman, plumber's mate and gravedigger - is in the super-league of children's writers with sales exceeding 17 million and library borrowings of 13 million. In collaboration with his late wife, Janet, he has published many enduring titles, among them Each Peach Pear Plum, Peepo!, Burglar Bill and The Jolly Postman. In addition he has written novels, collections of stories, sets of easy-readers and joke books.
In 1890s San Francisco, former Pinkerton operative Sabina Carpenter and her detective partner, ex-Secret Service agent John Quincannon, tackle two seemingly unrelated cases that are complicated by two murders and the interference of Sherlock Holmes.
Basic Beginners. Speed Level 4 (80 wpm). The easiest of easy readers - and the funniest! "Children fortunate enough to encounter this dotty reading scheme have been found banging on the bookcase and shouting for more." All have very basic text.
