Ten-year-old Daniel is never happier than when he is eating chips. Especially during his family's annual Chip Shop Championships, the highlight of his year. And especially when he can also eat chips with Monkey, his beloved soft toy and trusty companion. But one terrible November day, the lives of Daniel and his family are changed forever when an accident renders Daniel a shadow of his former self. As Daniel retreats into himself, his family slowly begin to fall apart, without this bright boy at the heart of their lives. When an impromptu trip to a chip shop seems to briefly engage Daniel with the real world, the family decide to revisit their Chip Shop Championships, on a quest to find the best chip shop in the country. Along the way, as they attempt to rebuild their family and regain Daniel, they must contend with hungry giraffes, nouveau cuisine, the loss of Monkey, the theft of Grandma, and lots of chips.
A reflection on the wild joys of food and parenting and the marvelous melange of the two--"Hungry Monkey" takes food enthusiasts on a new adventure in eating (with dozens of delicious recipes).
Hunka Chunka Monkey is a happy, yet inactive monkey who loves his sugary snacks. He misses out on so much fun until he meets his new friend Runka Dunka Donkey, who teaches Hunka how to have a healthy lifestyle. Winsome illustrations enhance the story's message of friendship and activity in a fun and playful way. Young children will find the drawings as appealing as the story itself---they'll want to read Hunka Chunka Monkey Shapes Up again and again.
The world was too bright for Leo. And too loud. "I must be living on the wrong planet," Leo thought. Leo struggles to make sense of the world. He doesn't understand the other children in his class, and they don't seem to understand him. But then one day, Leo meets Maya. Maya is an octopus, and the more Leo learns about her, the more he thinks that perhaps he isn't alone in this world, after all. "The sensitive descriptions throughout the book of what it is like to have autism are accurate and perceptive on so many levels" (Professor Tony Attwood, author of Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals).
"The colors that various little animal kids notice throughout the day inspire them to eat foods that match those colors. Following this is a brief endnote written by a nutritionist with advice on encouraging kids to eat fresh foods and a balanced diet"--
With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.
Annabel Karmel brings you a mouth-watering batch of never before seen recipes featuring delicious ingredients with serious nutritional credentials. With beautiful photographs and fresh design, this is an essential book for every modern parent. Chapters range from Fifteen Minute Meals to Healthy 'Fast Food', via Holiday Cooking with Kids and Lunchbox Snacks, and fresh, easy and modern dishes include Quinoa Chicken Fingers, Crispy Baked Cod, The Best Buttermilk Pancakes and Carrot Cake Balls. The chapters are designed to make choosing a fuss-free dish simple. Many recipes include swap-outs to cater for those with food allergies, intolerances or particularly fussy eaters! There is a huge range of meat-free and vegan meal options as well as recipes including meat and fish. Real Food for Kids offers everything today's parents are looking for once their babies are ready to start joining in with family mealtimes. Each dish is designed to be enjoyed by the whole family, while remaining simple, healthy, and not too salty or sugary for young children.
Get Reel gives you tools to view the media in a completely new way that will create mental, physical, and spiritual health and happiness while you view. In a media-heavy world, you can be the producer of your life and learn how to view TV, movies, and the Internet consciously and stop being influenced by the hypnotic effects of their messages. You will become aware of the ways that viewing media causes hypnosis and how you can break any trance you may have absorbed, replacing it with your own ideas of how you want to live your life. Get Reel moves you from pursuing goals and ideas that you attempt to fulfill without satisfaction toward the ones that are truly your own. It provides the blueprint on how to: break any ineffective belief or hypnotic trance that you unconsciously absorbed from the media, your family, peers, or any outside influence; discover the conscious, effective, fulfilled person that you truly are, free of outside influence; learn conscious living skills that will enable you to view each opportunity in your life with full awareness, allowing you to make the best choices; continue to enjoy the entertaining, educational, and fun benefits of your favorite website, TV show, or movie; turn struggles into open pathways to your happiness and success with trance-breaking techniques; and have a great time in the process.
Fourteen-year-old Mike Swarbrick's life couldn't get any worse... His pervy best friend gets him embroiled in a scandal, and he's just come home from school to discover his parents are secret nudists... and they're ready to go public! A chain of events beyond his control are set to RUIN HIS LIFE. When Mike's teachers think that he's having trouble 'dealing with his feelings', he's forced to meet with the school counsellor. And so begin Mike's 'Chats with Chas', which really are as humiliating and cringe-worthy as they sound...
