Though the bright lights of Christmas glitter briefly, the message of the season lasts forever--the Word becomes flesh, and the Creator becomes the creation. Join pastor and New York Times bestselling author Max Lucado as he invites you to bear witness to the birth of Christ as you've never seen it before. Advent is a season of anticipation, a celebration of the moment that God came near. He came, not as a flash of light or as an unapproachable conqueror, but as one whose first cries were heard by a peasant girl and a sleepy carpenter. Let In the Manger guide you through each of the 25 days of Advent with: A Bible verse to deeply reflect on An inspirational passage from some of Max's most popular books, including 3:16, God Came Near, The Applause of Heaven and more A prayer to help you apply the day's message Join Mary and Joseph inside a stable, beside a shepherd, and at the feet of the King in the manger as you celebrate the greatest gift of all.

Prospero, the Duke of Milan, and his daughter Miranda are banished from their kingdom and set adrift in a rickety boat. They are carried to a magical island and make a new life. The Tempest tells the story of what happens many years later when a ship is wrecked in a terrible storm and some strange events unfold Exciting and powerful classic stories to enrich and extend your children's reading experiences. TreeTops Classics are carefully adapted versions of must-read stories which introduce your readers to significant authors, powerful plots and characters that have stood the test of time. These abridged versions of classics have been sensitively adapted by top children's authors to ensure that language and content is appropriate, but remain faithful to the original. These enchanting stories will appeal to all your junior readers and introduce them to a rich literary heritage. Each book includes author biographies and notes to help with historical and social context and any challenging vocabulary, ensuring the books are easily accessible. Books contain inside cover notes to support children in their reading. Help with children's reading development also available at www.oxfordowl.co.uk. The books are finely levelled, making it easy to match every child to the right book.

Based on his own experiences as an addict and sidesman to diverse music acts, Tony O'Neill's 'Digging the Vein' explores LA's drug sub-culture - a slice of life that few tourists will ever get to see.

Lala plays with her diamond ring, mesmerized as always by the distant world it conjures for her and the jewel's extraordinary trajectory from Tsarist Russia to twenty-first-century England. An unexpected invitation has arrived and, at last, she will be able to visit Lentvaris, her paternal grandmother's ancestral home, a splendid East European estate where princely art collections, spectacular jewellery, extravagant balls and performing dwarves, coexisted with philanthropy on a grand scale and a deep sense of noblesse oblige. The First World War irrevocably altered the family's privileged lives, Lala's great-uncle was forced to flee with the last of the Romanov dynasty and her great-grandfather auctioned off his art treasures. The Second World War lost Lentvaris for ever. Lala's grandfather died in a Soviet gulag. Her grandmother, aunt and father survived harsh imprisonment and afterwards crossed continents eventually finding precarious stability living as emigres in South America. This is an epic story of dramatic escapes, concealed treasures, a lost paradise, but especially of the courage, strength and resilience shown by the female side of Lala's family, and of the power of love, humour and hope.

This selection of thirty-four of McQueen's best-loved poems brings together work from twenty years of performance and publication. Cilla McQueen's readings of her work are unforgettable. In this recording, her readings are accompanied by three Dunedin musicians. Many of the poems on this CD are from a time when Cilla was the partner of leading New Zealand artist Ralph Hotere. Echoes bounce between the works of the two. A must for all poetry and art lovers.

Fiction. Latin/Latina Studies. In Havana, Cuba, a beautiful young woman rides a bicycle through the city streets to lure men in to her services. Desperate to escape her dead-end life in a city plagued with scarcity, the luscious bicyclist designs a get-rich-quick scheme with a gorgeous John from Canada. A web of deception is weaved and then disastrously unraveled. Daniel Chavarra has long been recognized as one of Latin America's finest writers. Now he again proves why with ADIOS MUCHACHOS, a comic mystery peopled by a delightfully mad band of miscreants, all of them led by a woman you will not soon forget Alicia, the loveliest bicycle whore in all Havana.

The start of a brand new trilogy following MI6’s agents with a licence to kill, that blows the world of James Bond wide open!

James Bond is missing. 007 has been captured, perhaps even killed, by a sinister private military company. His whereabouts are unknown.

Meet the new generation of spies. Johanna Harwood, 003. Joseph Dryden, 004. Sid Bashir, 009. Together, they represent the very best and brightest of MI6. Skilled, determined and with a licence to kill, they will do anything to protect their country.

Tech billionaire Sir Bertram Paradise claims he can reverse the climate crisis and save the planet. But can he really? The new spies must uncover the truth, because the future of humanity hangs in the balance. And time is running out.

Most Canadians think of travel as a way to escape the snow, cold, and dreary winter skies. But Robin Esrock loves all that the provinces of Ontario and Quebec have to offer visitors, and so will you! The Great Central Canada Bucket List highlights the best travel experiences to be had in the heart of Canada. Renowned travel writer and TV host Robin Esrock explored every inch of central Canada to craft the definitive Bucket List for the region. Running the gamut of nature, food, culture, history, adrenaline rushes, and quirky Canadiana, Robin's personal quest to tick off the very best of Ontario and Quebec packs in enough for a lifetime. The Great Central Canada Bucket List provides a first-hand perspective on: Riding a motorcycle around Lake Superior. Drinking caribou with Bonhomme. Unravelling a mystery in Algonquin Park. Spending the night at an ice hotel. Scaling the via ferrata at Mont-Tremblant. Exploring the great museums. Cave-swimming in the Magdalen Islands

'A remarkable set of essays unlike anything else' - Kadish Morris, Guardian As in her fiction, the essays in Out of the Sun demonstrate Esi Edugyan's commitment to seeking out the stories of Black lives that history has failed to record. Written with the death of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in the background, in five wide-ranging essays Edugyan reflects on her own identity and experiences as the daughter of Ghanaian immigrants. She delves into the history of Western Art and the truths about Black lives that it fails to reveal, and the ways contemporary Black artists are reclaiming and reimagining those lives. She explores and celebrates the legacy of Afrofuturism, the complex and problematic practice of racial passing, the place of ghosts and haunting in the imagination, and the fascinating relationship between Africa and Asia dating back to the 6th Century. With calm, piercing intelligence, and a refusal to think on anyone's terms but her own, Edugyan asks difficult questions about how we reckon with the past and imagine the future, and invites the reader to think alongside her in working out what the answers to these may be.

Beneath the unassuming surface of a progressive women's college lurks a world of intellectual pride and pomposity awaiting devastation by the pens of two brilliant and appalling wits. Randall Jarrell's classic novel was originally published to overwhelming critical acclaim in 1954, forging a new standard for campus satire--and instantly yielding comparisons to Dorothy Parker's razor-sharp barbs. Like his fictional nemesis, Jarrell cuts through the earnest conversations at Benton College--mischievously, but with mischief nowhere more wicked than when crusading against the vitriolic heroine herself.

"A most literate account of a group of most literate people by a writer of power. . . . A delight of true understanding."--Wallace Stevens

"I'm greatly impressed by the real fun, the incisive satire, the closeness of observation, and in the end by a kind of sympathy and human warmth. It's a remarkable book."--Robert Penn Warren

"Move over Dorothy Parker. "Pictures ." . . is less a novel than a series of poisonous portraits, set pieces, and endlessly quotable put-downs. Read it less for plot than sharp satire, Jarrell's forte."--Mary Welp

"One of the wittiest books of modern times."--"New York Times"

" T]he father of the modern campus novel, and the wittiest of them all. Extraordinary to think that 'political correctness' was so deliciously dissected 50 years ago."--Noel Malcolm, "Sunday Telegraph"

"A sustained exhibition of wit in the great tradition. . . . Immensely and very devastatingly shrewd."--Edmund Fuller, "Saturday Review"

" A] work of fiction, and a dizzying and brilliant work of social and literary criticism. Not only 'a unique and serious joke-book, ' as Lowell called it, but also a meditation made up of epigrams."--Michael Wood

A betrothal. A betrayal. A love threatened by treachery.

Laird Callum MacLean vowed to marry Maggie MacDonnell. But when his father's apparent suicide makes him Laird of his clan, Callum must unmask his father's killer before bringing Maggie into his dangerous new home.

Maggie's home isn't any safer. When Callum fails to return, Maggie does what any resourceful Highland lass would do. She escapes—and finds herself toe-to-toe with Callum, who's determined to fulfill his promise. Maggie can't bring herself to trust him with her heart again. But with a traitor still at large, they must rely on each other in every way, or their clans—and their love—will be destroyed.

The Sons of Gregor MacLeod:
Highland Promise (Book 1)
Highland Conquest (Book 2)
Highland Betrayal (Book 3)

A brilliant biography of the young Orson Welles, from his prodigious childhood and youth, his triumphs with the Mercury Theatre, to the making of CITIZEN KANE. Vivid, vastly entertaining, this is the definitive Wells biography.

In the thirteenth book in Mike Lawson's celebrated series, Joe DeMarco finds himself on the wrong side of an investigation--in the wake of a political assassination, he's been framed as the killer. As the fixer for Congressman John Mahoney in Washington, D.C., Joe DeMarco has had to bend and break the law more than a few times. But when Representative Lyle Canton, House Majority Whip, is found shot dead in his office in the U.S. Capitol and DeMarco is arrested for the murder, DeMarco knows he's been framed. Locked up in the Alexandria Jail awaiting trial, he calls on his enigmatic friend Emma, an ex-DIA agent, to search for the true killer. Emma's investigation leads her to Sebastian Spear, the ruthless and competitive CEO of the multi-billion-dollar Spear Industries. Spear had a motive for killing Lyle Canton: Canton's wife, Jean, had once been Spear's high school sweetheart and the one true love of his life--until Canton won her over. Now Jean was dead, killed in a car crash while driving drunk, and Spear blamed Canton for the accident. But the case the F.B.I. has built against DeMarco is airtight, and not a single piece of evidence points to the grieving CEO. Using her cunning and her D.C. connections, Emma sets out to prove that Spear has been using some fixers of his own. Featuring crimes of passion, corporate corruption, and partisan feuds, House Arrest is a gripping, timely political thriller, and one of Lawson's best books yet.

Why solving the information problem should be at the core of our pandemic response: essential reading about the long-term implications of our current crisis. COVID-19 is caused by a virus. The COVID-19 pandemic is caused by a lack of good information. A pandemic is essentially an information problem: this is the enlightening and provocative idea at the heart of this book. If we solve the information problem, argues economist Joshua Gans, we can defeat the virus. For example, when we don't know who is infected, we have to act as if everyone is infected. If we actively manage the information problem--if we know who is infected and with whom they had contact--we can suppress the virus or buy time for vaccine development. This is an expanded version of an eBook originally published as Economics in the Age of COVID-19.

While there are many introductions to disability and disability studies, most presume an advanced academic knowledge of a range of subjects. Beginning with Disability is the first introductory primer for disaibility studies aimed at first year students in two- and four-year colleges. This volume of essays across disciplines-including education, sociology, communications, psychology, social sciences, and humanities-features accessible, readable, and relatively short chapters that do not require specialized knowledge. Lennard Davis, along with a team of consulting editors, has compiled a number of blogs, vlogs, and other videos to make the materials more relatable and vivid to students. "Subject to Debate" boxes spotlight short pro and con pieces on controversial subjects that can be debated in class or act as prompts for assignments.

A collection of short stories set in Yeoville from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. The stories capture with a dark humour the lives of young people trying to make a go of things, given the constraints of the country and the volatile period. Most of the stories have been published in literary magazines or in collections of stories including a collection published in Uganda. A slightly earlier version of the title story was published in a collection of stories by South African women edited by Maggie Davey, Dinaane, Telegraph Books, London.

For use with the Test of Integrated Language & Literacy Skills (R) (TILLS (R)) Examiner's Kit, the TILLS Student Rating Scale can be completed by parents, teachers, and students. It's a simple one page checklist that helps identify students' strengths and weaknesses in language and literacy skills and other non language areas (though it's not a pragmatics checklist). Sold in a pack of 50, this scale is also included in the TILLS Examiner's Kit. The TILLS Student Rating Scale is part of the Test of Integrated Language & Literacy Skills (R) (TILLS (R)) the groundbreaking assessment professionals need to test listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in students ages 6 - 18, and to assess the role of memory in how students perform. Reliable, valid, and comprehensive, TILLS will help you streamline assessment, monitor progress, and reach your ultimate goal: improving students' communication skills so they can succeed in school. TILLS is the only test that assesses both spoken and written language and shows how these skills relate to each other. You'll get a meaningful profile of skills for each learner, so you can be sure you understand a student's strengths and needs and aren't overlooking something crucial. Unlike most other tests, TILLS also provides diagnostic accuracy in "age bands" meaningful to the development of language and literacy skills, so you'll have the evidence base you need to determine if test scores reflect typical or impaired performance. And if you're an experienced clinician, you can finish TILLS in just 90 minutes or less-which means you'll spend less time testing and more time helping students and planning interventions. Here is a link to a video introducing TILLS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJh9qtkkLQs

A convenient laminated trifold that provides an overview of the test, basic instructions for test administration, summaries of the individual subtests, and scoring information. One Quick Start Guide is included in the TILLS Examiner's Kit, and additional copies are sold in packs of 5. TILLS (TM) is the groundbreaking assessment professionals need to test listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in students aged 6 through 18, and to assess the role of memory in how students perform. TILLS (TM) is the only test that assesses both spoken and written language and shows how these skills relate to each other, developing a meaningful profile of skills for each learner, to help understand a student's strengths and needs. Reliable, valid, and comprehensive, TILLS (TM) will help professionals streamline assessment, monitor progress, and reach the ultimate goal of improving students' communication skills so they can succeed in school. TILLS is the only test that assesses both spoken and written language and shows how these skills relate to each other. You'll get a meaningful profile of skills for each learner, so you can be sure you understand a student's strengths and needs and aren't overlooking something crucial. Unlike most other tests, TILLS also provides diagnostic accuracy in "age bands" meaningful to the development of language and literacy skills, so you'll have the evidence base you need to determine if test scores reflect typical or impaired performance. And if you're an experienced clinician, you can finish TILLS in just 90 minutes or less-which means you'll spend less time testing and more time helping students and planning interventions. Here is a link to a video introducing TILLS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJh9qtkkLQs

He was the greatest poet and playwright who ever lived, the dramatist who penned lines that we quote without even realising their origin. Shakespeare's glorious works have even inspired animated films - like Disney's "The Lion King". Introduce children to the Bard with this wonderful, fully annotated collection of sonnets and soliloquies, enhanced with beautiful, highly realistic colour paintings that bring each excerpt to vivid life. Here are Shakespeare's most famous speeches: including everything from "Hamlets" - 'To be or not to be' - and "Macbeth's" witches cackling 'Double, double, toil and trouble' to the sonnets, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" and humourous songs sung in comedies such as "Twelfth Night". Every entry is a revelation.

A PUZZLE ON THE STAGE! A new play: Intrigue, is just about to open in Whitehall. The play includes a very clever, convincing death scene, and Queen Elizabeth is desperate to see it before the rest of her country. But when the Queen and her court go to watch, the death scene is far too convincing - in fact, it's real! Richard Fitzgrey is murdered in front of the Queen! Leaf through the pages of the daybooke of Lady Grace, favourite Maid of Honour of Queen Elizabeth I, and enter a theatrical world full of mystery . . .

Person-centred thinking and planning are approaches that enable people using social care and health services to plan their future, and use a personal budget to commission personalised services. Creating Person-Centred Organisations is a guide for organisations who want to deliver personalised services. Key issues covered include attending to the vision, strategy and business planning of the organisation, as well as organisational processes, culture and managing change. Drawing on the pioneering work of the social care charity United Response, the authors provide a wealth of practical tools and techniques to enable organisations within health, social care and the voluntary sector to use person-centred thinking tools and approaches to move towards becoming person-centred organisations. This is an essential guide for managers and leaders within private, statutory and voluntary organisations. Stephen Stirk is Director of Human Resources at the social care charity United Response. He has had over 30 years' experience in human resources, organisation development and line management positions, including specialism in organisation design and development with GlaxoSmithKline. Helen Sanderson is Director of Helen Sanderson Associates. She has written extensively on person-centred thinking, planning, community building and Individual Service Funds. She has worked with a range of providers to enable them to deliver more personalised services. She is co-author (with Jaimee Lewis) of A Practical Guide to Delivering Personalisation: Person-Centred Practice in Health and Social Care (Jessica Kingsley Publishers).