Since he was banished from his home, Sunjata and his followers have travelled the land of Mali, making life better for everyone. But can they defeat the terrible Sorcerer-King? Sunjata and the Sorcerer-King is part of the Galaxy range of books from Rising Stars Reading Planet. Galaxy provides captivating fiction and non-fiction for Pink A to White band. The rich collection of highly decodable books immerses children in a range of cross-curricular topics and genres. Reading Planet books have been carefully levelled to support children in becoming fluent and confident readers. Each book features useful notes and activities to support reading at home as well as comprehension questions to check understanding. Reading age: 6-7 years

Sir Reebull, Dashi and Pex are on a mission to escape from Abacus Tower. Can you help them solve the different maths puzzles and set them free? Escape From Abacus Tower! is part of the Galaxy range of books from Rising Stars Reading Planet. Galaxy provides captivating fiction and non-fiction for Pink A to White band. The rich collection of highly decodable books immerses children in a range of cross-curricular topics and genres. Reading Planet books have been carefully levelled to support children in becoming fluent and confident readers. Each book features useful notes and activities to support reading at home as well as comprehension questions to check understanding. Reading age: 6-7 years

The development of radar has been one of the most successful direct applications of physics ever attempted, and then implemented and applied at large scale. Certain watchwords of radar engineering have underpinned many of the developments of the past 80 years and remain potential avenues for improvement. For example, 'Narrow beams are good', 'Fast detection is good', 'Agility is good', and 'Clutter is bad'. All these statements of merit are true. The underlying principles for all these statements are the laws of physics, and they provide support for current radar designs. However, each of these statements is really a design choice, rather than their necessary consequence. This book shows that under the physical laws and with modern data processing, staring radar offers a new direction of travel. The process of detection and tracking can be updated through persistent signal discovery and target analysis, without losses in sensitivity, and while delivering detailed information on target dynamics and classification. The first part of the book introduces various forms of staring radar, which include the earliest and simplest forms of electromagnetic surveillance and its users. The next step is to summarise the physical laws under which all radar operates, and the requirements that these systems need or will need to meet to fulfil a range of applications. We are then able to be specific about the technology needed to implement staring radar.

Since it was first published in 2005, A History of Thailand has been hailed as an authoritative, lively and readable account of Thailand's political, economic, social and cultural history. From the early settlements in the Chao Phraya basin to today, Baker and Phongpaichit trace how a world of mandarin nobles and unfree peasants was transformed by colonialism, the expansion of the rice frontier and the immigration of traders and labourers from southern China. This book examines how the monarchy managed the foundation of a new nation‐state at the end of the nineteenth century, and how urban nationalists, ambitious generals, communist rebels and business politicians competed to take control through the twentieth century. It tracks Thailand's economic changes, globalisation and the evolution of mass society, and draws on popular culture to dramatize social trends. This edition contains a new chapter on Thailand's turbulent politics since 2006 and incorporates new sources and research throughout.

Build your child's reading confidence at home with books at the right level This scrapbook tells the story of a Forest School year. Each week in Forest School the children visit Barrowswold Forest and record their adventures throughout the changing seasons. They have fun climbing trees, making things and exploring - and they also learn a lot about the animals, plants and environment around them! Emerald/Band 15 books provide a widening range of genres including science fiction and biography, prompting more ways to respond to texts. Text type - An information book. The book is organised into short chapters to help children practise the skills of locating and identifying important information. The glossary and index can be used to develop children's information retrieval skills further. Curriculum links - Geography

Tried-and-tested by specialist educational consultants Hay Management Consultants, this volume will help head teachers and subject leaders make the most out of performance management in their schools.

The government's insistence that each school in England (whether primary or secondary) implements a performance management system has lead schools to see this imposition as yet another bureaucratic chore.

This volume shows how performance management can be turned to a school's advantage to improve teaching and school performance. Highly practical in tone, the book shows how schools can turn a government imposition into an opportunity for realistic and tangible improvement.

Tried-and-tested by specialist educational consultants Hay Management Consultants, this volume will help head teachers and subject leaders make the most out of performance management in their schools. The government's insistence that each school in England (whether primary or secondary) implements a performance management system has lead schools to see this imposition as yet another bureaucratic chore. This volume shows how performance management can be turned to a school's advantage to improve teaching and school performance. Highly practical in tone, the book shows how schools can turn a government imposition into an opportunity for realistic and tangible improvement.

In 1969, humankind set foot on the moon. Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins carried the fire for all the world. Backed by the brightest minds in engineering and science, the three boarded a rocket and flew through the void-just to know that we could. In Apollo, Matt Fitch, Chris Baker, and Mike Collins unpack the urban legends, the gossip, and the speculation to reveal a remarkable true story about life, death, dreams, and the reality of humanity's greatest exploratory achievement.

Early European visitors placed Ayutthaya alongside China and India as the great powers of Asia. Yet in 1767 the city was destroyed and its history has been neglected. This book is the first study of Ayutthaya from its emergence in the thirteenth century until its fall. It offers a wide-ranging view of social, political, and cultural history with focus on commerce, kingship, Buddhism, and war. By drawing on a wide range of sources including chronicles, accounts by Europeans, Chinese, Persians, and Japanese, law, literature, art, landscape, and language, the book presents early Siam as a 'commercial' society, not the peasant society usually assumed. Baker and Phongpaichit attribute the fall of the city not to internal conflict or dynastic decline but failure to manage the social and political consequences of prosperity. This book is essential reading for all those interested in the history of Southeast Asia and the early modern world.

Kings in Love: Lilit Phra Lo and Twelve Months (Thawathotsamat) are among the earliest works of Thai literature. These translations by an award-winning team aim to convey not only the meaning of the Thai originals but also their beauty and emotional power. Lilit Phra Lo is a long narrative poem with an unusual romance, a contest of rival magic, an erotic climax, and a blood-soaked ending. It has been condemned as feudal and indulgent, but celebrated for its flowing poetry and emotional power. Twelve Months, a passionate lament for a lost lover, was once greatly acclaimed but has been quietly sidelined for being “too erotic.” Each poem has an afterword tracing the work’s origins, structure, publication history, and critical reception. Though rooted in Thai culture, both poems speak to universal themes and have echoes in world literature.

If a shard of the magic mirror enters your eye, you become a servant of the cold-hearted Snow Queen, doomed to a life of ice and snow. At least, that's what the storybook says ... and surely it can't be true? But when her best friend Kai disappears without a trace, Gerda begins to suspect that this mysterious Snow Queen might be to blame. Travelling through the seasons to find him, will Gerda be able to discover the truth and can her warm heart keep her safe in the frozen north? TreeTops Greatest Stories offers children some of the worlds best-loved tales in a collection of timeless classics. Top children's authors and talented illustrators work together to bring to life our literary heritage for a new generation, engaging and delighting children. The books are carefully levelled, making it easy to match every child to the right book. Each book contains inside cover notes to help children explore the content, supporting their reading development. Teaching notes on Oxford Owl offer cross-curricular links and activities to support guided reading, writing, speaking and listening.

The cultural heritage of Siam is exceptionally rich and distinctive. As everywhere, this heritage is under threat from the pace of change and from the demands of tourism, mismanagement, and neglect. This book is the first to examine the value of Siam's heritage and the need to protect it. These nineteen essays are written by pioneers of conservation over the last generation and by the activists of today.

Chris Baker, with Pasuk Phongpaichit, is the translator of the great folk epic, "The Tale of Khun Chang Khun Phaen. "

In the hundreds of books written about battleships, the authors tend to draw down the curtain on the careers of these great vessels in September 1945, with the surrender of Japan. Yet, on that day some ninety-eight battleships or ex-battleships might be spotted around the world, and eleven of them were in or around Tokyo Bay for the surrender itself. What happened to all those ships? This new book takes a fresh look at the slow demise of the battleship. It examines the decisions made by the major world powers after 1945, and their aspirations to retain battleships in their navies, despite financial stringency. It places the history and role of battleships after 1945 in their geo-political context, centred around the Cold War and the need for the West to face down an aggressive Soviet Union. It also examines the impact on battleships of operational analysis of the Second World War and new technological developments, notably the atom bomb and the guided missile. The book uses the wealth of information from ship's books, ship's logs and gun logs to document in considerable detail what the ships actually did after the Second World War, with a particular focus on those of the Royal Navy. It covers United States battleship operations in Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War, as well as the deterrent role played by battleships for NATO from the 1950s to the 1990s. Finally, it brings the story up to date by documenting the preservation as museum ships of the eight dreadnoughts which still exist today in the United States. Extensively illustrated with photographs of the huge range of activities of battleships after 1945, from their use as Fleet flagships to Royal or Presidential yachts and more poignantly as target ships, this new book will appeal equally to the historic ship enthusiast and naval specialist, and provide a novel perspective through a battleship-shaped lens on late twentieth-century history for the more general reader.

Khun Chang Khun Phaen is an outstanding classic in the Thai language, an entertaining folk epic set amidst the social panorama of traditional Siam. Masterfully told in the style of an ancient saga, it is a spectacular love story rich in romance, adventure, violence, farce, and magic, and ending in the tragic and enigmatic death of its heroine. The great Thai linguist William Gedney once remarked, "if all other information on traditional Thai culture were to be lost, the whole complex could be reconstructed from this marvelous text." Written in lively prose, this new, abridged edition retains every scene, incident, and significant speech from the full English translation, except for one short section. The authors won the A. L. Becker Southeast Asian Literature in Translation Prize (2010) for the full translation.

The sector north of Ypres is best known for the inundation of much of the ground to the east of the Yser that acted as a block to the German advance in the autumn of 1914\. From that time on military activities were extremely limited. Much of this line was manned by Belgian troops, with some assistance from the French army at its southern end and of the British army on the Channel coast. The role of the Belgian army in the Great War is little known, apart from the opening months, when 'brave little Belgium' held on to its important fortified cities, notably Liege and Antwerp, for longer than German planning had anticipated. It was not until mid October 1914 that the Belgian army was forced back to the area of the Yser, when its defences were bolstered by French troops whilst Haig's I Corps came up on its southern flank. At this crucial phase of the campaign, the harsh decision was taken to open the dykes at the end of October 1914 and thereby flooding much of the low lying ground east of the Yser and so effectively halting major German offensive operations. For almost four years the Belgian army rested reasonably secure behind this sodden landscape, although certain key points were the scene of frequent, if limited, tussles. 'Free' Belgium was reduced to two significant towns that could be regarded as secure and out of the range of most German artillery - the coastal resort of La Panne (De Panne) and the much bigger settlement of Furnes (Veurne), Over these years the Belgian army was rebuilt under the dynamic leadership of the king, Albert I, and by the time of the general allied advance in September 1918, the Belgian army was able to take its place in the Advance to Victory, in an allied Army that was commanded by King Albert. Although this phase of the war is outside the scope of the book, it is important to realise that the Belgian army was a very active player in these last few months. Amongst the achievements of Belgian troops at this stage of the war was the final capture of Passchendaele. This book concerns itself with the years of defence and the reconstruction of the army behind the Yser. Relatively little of Belgium's efforts in the Great War remained, but recent years have seen action to preserve what does. Most significant of these, perhaps, is the so called Trench of Death near Diksmuide. Although always preserved, it has recently been very successfully refurbished and is now most effectively and informatively presented. Other remains from the war have also been developed so as to be more informative and the result is that touring this area provides a fascinating insight into one of the most unusual sectors of the Western Front and which is conveniently close to the much visited Ypres Salient. In this book Chris Baker brings his extensive knowledge of the Belgian army (helped by his ability to read French and Dutch) and of the Flanders region to produce a much needed insight into Belgium's army role for most of the war as the protector of the northern flank of the whole of the Allied line.

TreeTops Greatest Stories offers children some of the world's best-loved tales in a collection of timeless classics. Top children's authors and talented illustrators work together to bring to life our literary heritage for a new generation, engaging and delighting children. The books are carefully levelled, making it easy to match every child to the right book. Each book contains inside cover notes to help children explore the content, supporting their reading development. Teaching notes on Oxford Owl offer cross-curricular links and activities to support guided reading, writing, speaking and listening. This pack contains 36 books, 6 of each of the following titles: Sixteen Sisters, Gawain and the Green Knight, Shakespeare Stories, The Enchanted Horse, The Snow Queen and The Storm Child.

For over two thousand years, jataka-tales of the Buddha's previous lives-have been popular as teaching and entertainment. Apart from the classical Indian jataka, many others in Southeast Asia were assembled in collections known as the "Fifty Jataka" (Pannasa Jataka). They are now acclaimed as the lifeblood of the region's literature. This book offers the first published English translations of twenty-one stories from the Thailand collection, including some of the best-known Thai stories: Sudhana-Manohara, the Golden Conch, and Rathasena, among other quests, moral tales, strings of riddles, and story cycles. Here the tales are translated fully and faithfully with notes and accompanying information on the Thailand collection.

TreeTops Greatest Stories offers children some of the world's best-loved tales in a collection of timeless classics. Top children's authors and talented illustrators work together to bring to life our literary heritage for a new generation, engaging and delighting children. The books are carefully levelled, making it easy to match every child to the right book. Each book contains inside cover notes to help children explore the content, supporting their reading development. Teaching notes on Oxford Owl offer cross-curricular links and activities to support guided reading, writing, speaking and listening. This pack contains 6 books, one of each of the following titles: Sixteen Sisters, Gawain and the Green Knight, Shakespeare Stories, The Enchanted Horse, The Snow Queen and The Storm Child.

Chucklers is a series of funny novels, short stories, anthologies and comics that make reading a pleasure for 7-11 year olds. There is something for everyone in this varied collection which is packed with fantastic illustrations. Each book contains inside cover notes to support children in their reading. FREE online teaching notes are available at www.oxfordowl.co.uk The series is written by top children's authors and edited by award-winning author Jeremy Strong. The books are finely levelled, making it easy to match every child to the right book. This pack contains six books, one each of: Gizmo, Tyrannosaurus Max, The Ghost in the Washing Machine, Fur from Home Animal Adventures, King Arthur Needs You!, Transylvania United.

Train Aerodynamics: Fundamentals and Applications is the first reference to provide a comprehensive overview of train aerodynamics with full scale data results. With the most up-to-date information on recent advances and the possibilities of improvement in railway facilities, this book will benefit railway engineers, train operators, train manufacturers, infrastructure managers and researchers of train aerodynamics. As the subject of train aerodynamics has evolved slowly over the last few decades with train speeds gradually increasing, and as a result of increasing interest in new train types and high-speed lines, this book provides a timely resource on the topic.

Chucklers is a series of funny novels, short stories, anthologies and comics that make reading a pleasure for 7-11 year olds. There is something for everyone in this varied collection which is packed with fantastic illustrations. Each book contains inside cover notes to support children in their reading. FREE online teaching notes are available at www.oxfordowl.co.uk The series is written by top children's authors and edited by award-winning author Jeremy Strong. The books are finely levelled, making it easy to match every child to the right book. This pack contains thirty-six books, six of each of: Gizmo, Tyrannosaurus Max, The Ghost in the Washing Machine, Fur from Home Animal Adventures, King Arthur Needs You!, and Transylvania United.

Nature presents examples of active sensing which are unique, sophisticated and incredibly fascinating. There are animals that sense the environment actively, for example through echolocation, which have evolved their capabilities over millions of years and that, as a result of evolution, have developed unique in-built sensing mechanisms that are often the envy of synthetic systems. This book presents some of the recent work that has been carried out to investigate how sophisticated sensing techniques used in nature can be applied to radar and sonar systems to improve their performance. Topics covered include biosonar inspired signal processing and acoustic imaging from echolocating bats; enhanced range resolution: comparison with the matched filter; air-coupled sonar systems inspired by bat echolocation; analysis of acoustic echoes from bat-pollinated plants; the biosonar arms race between bats and insects; biologically inspired coordination of guidance and adaptive radiated waveform for interception and rendezvous problems; cognitive sensor/ processor system framework for target tracking; the biosonar of the Mediterranean bottlenose dolphins; human echolocation; and polarization tensors and object recognition in weakly electric fish. Biologically-Inspired Radar and Sonar is essential reading for radar and sonar practitioners in academia and research, governmental and industrial organisations, engineers working in signal processing and sensing, and those with an underlying interest in the interaction between natural sciences and engineering.