“There will be murder in your village. Murder, before the first storm’s end in winter!” In a nameless inn, In a nameless village, A nameless evil awakens. The unspoken history of a house beset by tragedy has come alive. To defend their home, the inhabitants will have to piece together the long-dead and strange events surrounding a missing child, a bloody slaughter, and the hanging of a murderer. They will need help. A man rides into town: a warrior, a scholar, a philosopher, a politician. A stranger brought the curse – can a stranger be relied upon to break it?
Very funny, must-read-aloud yarn for junior readers about the fantastical adventures of a talking horse and a boy looking for his mother. Billy wakes one morning to find his mother gone and the house in control of a strange woman burning the porridge. According to Billy, his father has gone all lackadaisical. So it’s Old Smoko, a well-spoken Clydesdale farm-horse, who takes Billy to school each day and teaches him to read. Together Billy and Old Smoko go in search of Billy’s real mum under the Kaimai Ranges, out the back of Waharoa. They meet a queen disguised as the Rawleighs Man, cannibal eels and man-eating Captain Cookers, but even they cannot prevail against a boy and his horse, especially when they have both read the mythology section of the School Journal. Billy learns the secret of Mount Te Aroha, hears the ancient Maori story of Snow White, and sees how Auckland got its electricity. He goes pig hunting, plays footy, discovers roast pork and apple sauce sandwiches – and falls in love with the blue eyes of Harrietta. Written by one of New Zealand's wittiest and most original and delightfully anarchic storytellers fior children, this book is guaranteed to make the world a better place for those who believe in the value of friendship.
In a world of fantasy, two enemies square off against one another: Grimlindus, the general, necromancer and suave lord of evil; and Ariadne, young refugee princess, fleeing the invasion of her homeland and the murder of her family. Grimlindus is armed with an evil Sword of Death and has an army of barbarians, knights, wizards, assassins and dragons. Ariadne only has a score of adventurers to assist her—a ragtag bunch of wizards, warriors and thieves—many with unclear intentions and dubious morals. With their help, she must escape the clutches of Grimlindus’s henchmen and the machinations of foreign lords who would use her for their designs, and must determine how to win back her father’s Kingdom. In the end, it will all fall to the roll of the knucklebones.
A story of adventure and romance set in the wilds of Rupert’s Land in the early 19th century. When Orkneywoman Rose is shipwrecked on the shores of Rupert’s Land, she quickly falls in love with Alexander, a Half-caste man who is guiding her people into the dark heart of the continent. But after the death of her father at the hands of another Native, Rose turns against Alexander and all his kind. Heartbroken, Alexander returns to his wild life of running buffalo on the prairie. Although parted from Rose by endless miles and hard fate, his heart remains bound to hers, and on the eve of war he is compelled to reclaim her love, setting himself against his people amid a conflict that will help form a nation.
After the fall of the meteorite, a well was formed near the village of Forgetswille, the water from which restores virginity. In a matter of days, the peaceful life goes collapsed.
This new collection of papers from leading experts provides an overview of cutting-edge research in Old World zooarchaeology. The research presented here spans various areas across Europe, Western Asia and North Africa – from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Several chapters focus on Iberia, but the eastern Mediterranean and Britain are also featured. Thematically, the book covers many of the research areas where zooarchaeology can provide a significant contribution. These include animal domestication, bone modifications, fishing, fowling, economic and social status, as well as adaptation and improvement. The investigation of these topics is carried out using a diversity of approaches, thus making the book also a useful compendium of traditional as well as more recently developed methodological applications. All contributions aim to present zooarchaeology as a discipline that studies animals to understand people, and their richly diversified past histories. This will be a valuable source of information not just for specialists, but also for general archaeologists and, potentially, also historians, palaeontologists and geographers, who have an interest for the research themes discussed in the book. The book is dedicated to Simon Davis, who has been a genuine pioneer in the development of modern zooarchaeology. It presents hugely stimulating case studies from the core areas where Davis has worked in the course of his career.
The second book in the acclaimed new fantasy trilogy The grip of the Weavers on Saramyr's rulers has grown ever tighter. And all the while the blight that they have brought to the land grips ever more harshly. This cannot last and, sure enough, the land is slipping into civil war. In the growing chaos Kaiku and the orphaned heir-Empress must fight for their destiny and their survival as Saramyr succumbs to the twisting of the Weave and the unknowable ambitions of the secretive Weavers. Chris Wooding has created a vivid and turbulent world with an authentic oriental air and its own rich and ancient history. Across this world plays an action packed plot of politics, violence and betrayal. This is an extraordinary fantasy for the 21st century.
Open the book, and you will find yourselves in a world of magic. None of your old friends will be there -neither Jack the Giant Killer, nor Little Red Riding Hood, nor Cinderella or any of the others. Instead, together with Ivan the Peasant’s Son you will cross swords with Chudo-Yudo, the fire-breathing monster; follow Pokati-Goroshek the Rolling Pea into the underground kingdom and return from there on the back of an eagle; marvel at the cleverness of Zarniyar who outwitted the sly and cruel Shah; be filled with admiration at Boroldoi-Mergen, the brave hunter of the Altai Mountains who risked the life of his own son in order to save his people; delight in the resourcefulness of a simple weaver who surpassed in wisdom the wisest councillors of the tsar. A Mountain of Gems – Fairy-Tales of the Peoples of the Soviet Land – Illustrated by Vladimir Minayev is a collection of many fairy tales rendered into English from Russia, The Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Chukchi. The Soviet Union was a huge country, the largest in the world. Its neighbors were Alaska in the East and Scandinavia in the West. In the south it stretched as far as the Caucasus and Pamir mountain ranges, and in the North reached out into the Arctic Ocean. And each of the peoples of the former Soviet Union has its own fairytales. Pook Press celebrates the great 'Golden Age of Illustration' in children's classics and fairy tales - a period of unparalleled excellence in book illustration. We publish rare and vintage Golden Age illustrated books, in high-quality colour editions, so that the masterful artwork and story-telling can continue to delight both young and old.