After losing their house to foreclosure, three siblings - India, Finn and Mouse - have less than twenty-four hours to pack their belongings and fly, without their mother, to stay with an uncle in Colorado. But when they land, a mysterious driver meets them at the airport in a pink car adorned with feathers. He has never heard of their Uncle Red. Like Dorothy in Oz, they find themselves in an unknown place, with no idea of how to get home. Time is running out . . .
Andrew, an English programmer, living alone in Bulgaria, finds out he is the next evolution of humanity and has to save the world before a mysterious being slows down time into a single dull moment. Andrew is forced on a quest through time and alternative realities to find God, whose true name is Jeff. Guided by his Holy Guardian Angel, Tigger, the patron angel of computers and things that are designed to blow up, his journey goes through Hell and out the other side. He meets demons, the Triple Goddess, finds out the secret of Avebury, Jeff's reason for creating the universe and above all the answer to the question "if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?" An archaic romp through time, space and philosophy reminiscent of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, or a bloke who has eaten too many strange mushrooms on an empty stomach.
HELP FOR YOUNG READERS WHO ARE STRUGGLING AND FOR THOSE WITH ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE. It is believed that twenty or more percent of New Zealand children and many from other countries, particularly boys, are leaving formal education sadly deficient in the literary skills essential for normal living: without being able to read road directions or the instructions on a bottle of medicine. PART ONE of this book and the accompanying practice pages in "KEYS TO READING" has proved, with regular use, to be of great assistance to many young readers who are struggling to overcome a setback in their progress and has enabled them to become confident and fluent readers. For parents who are seeking desperately for clear guidance as to how they may help their children this program will provide a simple and effective plan to follow. PART TWO provides a simple outline of English grammar both for students who need some help in an easily understood form and for those with English as a second language. There is also help with written expression, spelling, and vocabulary. An extensive list of idioms should prove especially useful to those with English as a second language. Brian Elder is a graduate of Otago University, with a BA degree, majoring in English and trained as a teacher at Dunedin Teachers' College. He has taught all primary school grades, with most teaching at the Intermediate level, and was for many years a deputy principal at an Intermediate School. Apart from teaching his main interest has been organizing and leading Christian holiday camps for pre-teens, spending thirty years, during school vacations, as Camp Director of Christian youth camps Brian has always had a real concern for disadvantaged children and the Keys to Reading program has arisen from a perceived need to provide some practical help for boys and girls who have been struggling in this area.
More than eight million young men perished during the First World War—a staggering figure. The natural reaction to such a great loss of humanity was to forget the individuals and recast the conflict into one of faceless armies and battles commemorated in stone and metal monuments. War Letters of Fallen Englishmen was published following the war in order to remind the living of those who were lost in the name of the British crown—brothers, husbands, fathers, sons. This collection provides, in the very words of those who participated and died in combat, the closest approximation possible to the experience of war. Carefully selected from thousands of letters, those in this collection are poignant, powerful, and graphic and were chosen for their depth of perception, the intensity of their descriptions, and their messages to future generations. This edition contains a new foreword by the distinguished World War I historian Jay Winter.
When Athene finally discovers a way to get rid of the bane of her life, her younger brother Zach, it is all made so simple for her. She meets the Gloam who casts a spell on everyone who knew Zach so that they forget all about him. But it is Athene who can't forget Zach and soon she is drawn into an incredible world of dark magic, underground kingdoms and twisted histories in her attempt to save her brother.
A sweeping family saga exploring secrets we keep and the lines we'll cross for love. Cailin is a naïve, adventure-seeking girl living in a Jamaican Great House. Archie is a teenage boy with a chip on his shoulder. Sharpe is a young man with divided loyalties, living as an outsider in a poor hillside village. Yet, all three long for the same thing—a father’s approval. But the man who has the power to give it to them won’t…or can’t. Behind his back, his property workers call him a tyrant for allegedly murdering a worker in the past, and his family walks on eggshells when he returns home from his drunken visits with his mistress. All while Cailin, Archie, and Sharp’s unfulfilled desires spiral into rejection, mistaken affections, and murder. Set in a seaside village during the final year of World War II and Jamaica’s first general election, When Trees Fall is the first novel in Dale Mahfood’s Wood and Water Saga. If you enjoy well-drawn, relatable characters and a compelling story you don’t want to put down, you’ll love this first installment in Dale Mahfood’s series. Join Cailin, Archie, and Sharpe for their Caribbean coming-of-age saga. "An intriguing coming-of-age novel exploring the bittersweet tales of three Jamaican families." –Lynda R. Edwards, author of Friendship Estate "Colonial Jamaica was a pale copy of the society that existed in Britain a century or more earlier, a quaintly polite facade that often shielded dark secrets. When Trees Fall by Dale Mahfood portrays this society with compelling authenticity and irresistible allure. It is about the society I grew up in and people I might have known, yet the novel is so meticulously researched that I kept coming across surprising nuggets of new information. And there’s more than mere historical virtuosity. This is a complex and many layered family saga. The writing style reminds me of Jane Austen, which enhances the story’s antique flavor, making it easy to suspend disbelief as you travel back in time." –George Graham, Journalist and Author of Hill-An'-Gully Rider 10% of the sales profit of this book goes to Trees That Feed Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is "planting fruit-bearing trees to feed people, create jobs, and benefit the environment" in fourteen Caribbean, Central and South American, and African countries.
Life is sweet when you're a young Jack Russell pup still a few months shy of your first birthday. And Smokey Jack loves his new life with his momma and the Colonel, the kindly old couple who recently adopted him, even though he fears he will not live up to his Colonel's high standards, something Smokey wants more than anything in the whole world. But their happy existence is interrupted when a mysterious blue mist engulfs Smokey during his first hunt with the Colonel, a mist accompanied by the unnatural-smelling Not-fox and a disembodied voice singing a childish tune. Leading to the night Smokey gets caught in a flash flood with Jasmine, the little girl who lives down the street from him. But the trouble really starts when Jasmine's older sister, Lily, dives into the quickly deepening current of Huntsman Creek after them. The Colonel can only watch as his young friends are washed into the floodplain's drainage pipe leading under the street! And in their desperate struggle for survival, the trio find themselves washed up against a strange convex object shaped much like an eye, housing an evil that should have been left alone.
This story takes place in south eastern Alberta about nineteen fifteen (1915), along the western edge of the Cypress hills. Shorty Stout, a drifting cowboy arrives at the A-X ranch, (the AXE), and is given a meal and a bunk. The ranch belongs to Xavier Forrest and his wife Angela, hence the name, A-X. Shorty isnt the kind to lie around so the next morning he is out working and fixing. The first thing he does is to fix the windmill which has been making a racket for weeks. Because he is such a handy person with tools and can do almost any work, he is given a job on the ranch. When spring comes he attends a dance in town with the other hands and on the way back to the ranch he meets up with a widow and her son, Dawn and Matt Ryan. He stops to help them cut some firewood and soon he is working for them every weekend. He fixes fences, builds a log bunkhouse, puts running water in the house and many other jobs that have been neglected because there was no one to do them. When the bunkhouse is completed, a dance is held to show how much everyones help has been appreciated. Meanwhile, out on the range, Shorty and his riding partner Gus, find a hidden valley in the hills, filled with Dawn Ryans cattle. The valley is believed to be the floor of an ancient lake which drained out through the dry gully that is the only entrance. The cattle are separated and some are sold, bringing them some sorely needed cash to help keep the ranch going. Shorty, Dawn and Matt do some exploring and discover a small inner valley that is a small corner of paradise. This small valley is so beautiful that anyone entering it find it hard to even speak until they are back in the main valley. Matt discovers there is fish in the lake in the large valley, and he uses some improvised gear to catch a trout and cook it in the fire after coating it with clay. He and the school teacher, Karen Carter, take a group of students on a survival trip to teach them how to survive if they got lost, and to live off the land. Dawn and Shorty eventually realize they were meant for each other; a fact known to Matt and Angela, Dawns older sister, for some time. Dawn asks Shorty to marry her and he agrees, but before getting married, they ride north to Medicine Hat to file for a homestead, taking in the Lost Valley. The day of the wedding arrives and afterwards, a huge reception and dance is held at the schoolhouse just outside town. About midnight, Matt and the school teacher help the newlyweds escape the party and go off by themselves. The weekend after the wedding, the three homesteaders head for Lost Valley, to get an idea of the land surrounding the valley. This valley has the richest soil and the best grass in Alberta and covers an estimated three hundred acres. Normally, a person is allowed to file on one hundred and sixty acres, but this area , being in the hills is described as waste land and they are allowed to file on a half section , or three hundred and twenty acres each. The government will pay to have the land surveyed, so a surveyor is found to do the job for them. When the land is surveyed and registered in their name, they need to find a way to make a wagon road to the valley, as the only way in is the dry watercourse that had drained the former lake in times long past. Many friends arrive to help with this task, which has to be done before building materials can be hauled into the valley. With much work over a long weekend, a road is made to the valley and the first wagon to ever enter the valley rolls over the newly constructed road. They are now ready to find a site to build a home on the Lost Valley Ranch. Shorty and Dawn spend a night in the Heavenly inner valley and in the morning she tells him he is to be a daddy and that nine months down the road a little girl named Allie will be born, because of one night spent in this enchanted valley.
