Joe's school friends don't know he lives on a barge and he is worried about telling them. What will happen when the whole class come to visit his unusual home? (Letter-sounds featured: /k/ /sh/ ch /j/ ge dge /uh/ o) Joe's Barge is part of the Rocket Phonics teaching and learning programme from Reading Planet. Rocket Phonics ensures that every child achieves phonics success. This fully-decodable Target Practice reading book provides focused practice of a small group of letter-sounds. The book also includes useful notes and activities to support reading in school and at home as well as comprehension questions to check understanding. Reading age: 5-6/Year 1

Prince Seymour buys some magical dancing boots to impress a princess, but the boots are taken by a talking frog who wins the princess's heart. What can the prince do? The king suggests capturing a fire-breathing dragon. Will this daring deed be enough to change the princess's mind? The Magic Boots is part of the Rocket Phonics range from Rising Stars Reading Planet. Rocket Phonics builds a firm foundation in word reading through fresh and fully decodable phonics books for Pink A to Orange band. 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: 5-6 years

'If we want to understand what has been lost to time, there is no way other than through the exercise of imagination ... imagination applied with delicate rather than broad strokes'. So wrote the award winning Japanese author Kyoko Nakajima of her story, Things Remembered and Things Forgotten, a piece that illuminates, as if by throwing a switch, the layers of wartime devastation that lie just below the surface of Tokyo's insistently modern culture. The ten acclaimed stories in this collection are pervaded by an air of Japanese ghostliness. In beautifully crafted and deceptively light prose, Nakajima portrays men and women beset by cultural amnesia and unaware of how haunted they are - by fragmented memories of war and occupation, by fading traditions, by buildings lost to firestorms and bulldozers, by the spirits of their recent past.

Far away across the stars, there is an alien school, where tiny little aliens go to learn the alien rules ... Find out what young aliens get up to at school in this humorous rhyming story. How aliens get to school, what they learn, and what they have for lunch!A lien School is part of the Rocket Phonics range from Rising Stars Reading Planet. Rocket Phonics builds a firm foundation in word reading through fresh and fully decodable phonics books for Pink A to Orange band. 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: 5-6 years

Zack has nearly filled his football sticker book, but on a rainy trip to a football stadium the sticker book is ruined when a sports car speeds through a puddle, soaking Zack. Will Zack ever complete his book of football stickers?Football Stickers is part of the Rocket Phonics range from Rising Stars Reading Planet. Rocket Phonics builds a firm foundation in word reading through fresh and fully decodable phonics books for Pink A to Orange band. 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: 5-6 years

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the central institution of the international monetary system andplays an important role in the economic life of many countries. IMF assistance has been a key factor in the successful resolution of economic crises within Brazil, Korea, Poland, Tanzania, Turkey, and Uruguay, but the positive impact of IMF schemes goes relatively unnoticed by many.
This book is the first to focus fully on IMF successes, including its important initiatives to help prevent financial crises in advanced and in developing economies. With first-hand accounts by IMF staff and senior country officials, and written independently of the IMF, it seeks to balance the largely critical existing literature. This book is essential reading for anyone seeking a balanced understanding of the value of the IMF and the challenges in monetary cooperation among countries.

Rocket Phonics reading books are fully decodable phonics books allowing children to practise their phonic skills in context, developing emerging reading skills. Tom and Oscar are settling down to sleep in their tent in the garden, but they keep seeing scary shadows and hearing spooky sounds. Mum keeps reassuring them that there is nothing scary in the garden, but will they ever go to sleep? Reading age: 5-6 years

With poems, stories, extracts from novels, essays, speeches, and cricket journalism, this account is a multifaceted portrait of the significance of cricket to the Caribbean and the attraction of Caribbean cricket to the outside world. From the global playing fields to the bumpier village fields and sugar estates, this is a celebration of those who forged an art out of a game, transformed a colonial sport into the cutting edge of Caribbean nationalism, and, in the 1970s and 1980s, changed forever the nature of the game.

Josh and his class are on a trip to the library, but he would much rather be playing computer games. When he is separated from the group, he steps into a little room and finds a strange machine all covered in dust. What will happen when he pulls the lever? The Adventure Machine is part of the Rocket Phonics range from Rising Stars Reading Planet. Rocket Phonics builds a firm foundation in word reading through fresh and fully decodable phonics books for Pink A to Orange band. 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: 5-6 years

Jake is fed up - he is never chosen to receive an award in celebration assembly. Charlotte is brilliant at stories, Sanjay at sums, but Jake is no good at anything. Will Jake ever get the chance to win the gold award?The Celebration Assembly is part of the Rocket Phonics range from Rising Stars Reading Planet. Rocket Phonics builds a firm foundation in word reading through fresh and fully decodable phonics books for Pink A to Orange band.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: 5-6 years

When the otters of Larch Class go pond dipping, they are hoping to find pond skaters and dragonflies, so are surprised when they see a scary pond monster ... Or is the monster just their classmate, Dell, playing a trick on them?Out of the Pond is part of the Rocket Phonics range from Rising Stars Reading Planet. Rocket Phonics builds a firm foundation in word reading through fresh and fully decodable phonics books for Pink A to Orange band. 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: 5-6 years

What on earth are phonics? Are they from the planet Mars? What are mathematics? Do they buzz around the classroom and tangle in our hair? There are so many questions when we first start school! Will the teacher be able to help us understand all these scary-sounding new words? Help Me, Teacher! is part of the Rocket Phonics range from Rising Stars Reading Planet. Rocket Phonics builds a firm foundation in word reading through fresh and fully decodable phonics books for Pink A to Orange band.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: 5-6 years

After promising him silver coins, Abanazer takes Aladdin to a deep, dark cave full of treasure and demands that he steals a lamp. Aladdin refuses but accidentally rubs the lamp and out pops a genie, who offers him three wishes! What will Aladdin wish for? Aladdin and the Lamp is part of the Rocket Phonics range from Rising Stars Reading Planet. Rocket Phonics builds a firm foundation in word reading through fresh and fully decodable phonics books for Pink A to Orange band.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: 5-6 years

Captain Gunn and the rest of his pirate crew are sailing in search of treasure. On an island in the middle of the ocean, they begin to dig where X marks the spot, but all they find is a rusty chain. What will happen when Bad Harry decides to give it a tug? Pirate Gold is part of the Rocket Phonics range from Rising Stars Reading Planet. Rocket Phonics builds a firm foundation in word reading through fresh and fully decodable phonics books for Pink A to Orange band.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: 5-6 years

The new edition of this influential and bestselling book is concerned with how people come together to achieve a productive purpose. Survival and success in business and social terms have always depended upon our ability to form and sustain social organisations. People have a deep need to be creative and to belong. By creating positive organisations we can fulfil these needs and build a worthwhile society. One of the failures of organisations is precisely the lack of efficient and effective social organisation, which is what this whole book is about. Poor social organisation, including poor leadership, are major drivers of poor productivity and lead people to give up or retreat into a minimalist approach of just doing what is needed to get by and survive. The authors provide a language for developing, discussing, thinking and working with propositions about organisations and management. They do not tell you what decision to make but rather present tools to help you consider, analyse and predict the consequences of your decisions. This new edition is much broader in its application areas - public, private and not-for-profit sectors. It contains new models and propositions with regard to types of social organisation, domains of work and the nature and use of authority. It contains a range of new case studies, and throughout looks at how these ideas can be used to achieve an organisation's purpose while encouraging creative working. It is not a book about fads or fashion but an integrated approach that offers the user the benefit of foresight.

Hopeland is not a nation. It is not a cult. It is not a religion. Hopeland is a community. It is a culture. It is a family. When Raisa Hopeland, determined to win her race to become the next electromancer of London, bumps into Amon Brightbourne - tweed-suited, otherworldly, guided by the Grace - in the middle of a London riot, she sets in motion a series of events which will span decades, continents and a series of events which will change the world. Amon falls in love in that moment of chaos, but being loved by him can have a cost. And while Raisa has Hopeland, Amon has a family of his own, and they have their own secrets. From rioting London to geothermal Iceland to the climate-struck islands of Polynesia, from birth to life to death, from tranquillity to terror to joy, Raisa's journey will encompass the world. But one thing will always be true. Hopeland is family.

Hopeland is not a nation. It is not a cult. It is not a religion. Hopeland is a community. It is a culture. It is a family. When Raisa Hopeland, determined to win her race to become the next electromancer of London, bumps into Amon Brightbourne - tweed-suited, otherworldly, guided by the Grace - in the middle of a London riot, she sets in motion a series of events which will span decades, continents and a series of events which will change the world. Amon falls in love in that moment of chaos, but being loved by him can have a cost. And while Raisa has Hopeland, Amon has a family of his own, and they have their own secrets. From rioting London to geothermal Iceland to the climate-struck islands of Polynesia, from birth to life to death, from tranquillity to terror to joy, Raisa's journey will encompass the world. But one thing will always be true. Hopeland is family.

It was billed as "the tall ships' race of the century" and "the youth event of the millennium year", and so it was. Seventy-five sail training "tall ships" from 25 countries took part in the 10,000 mile race. 7,000 young people, aged between 15 and 25, and from nearly 30 countries, made up most of the crews. Some 14 million people visited the seven ports when the fleet was in. And media coverage worldwide was colossal - print, radio and television coverage in over 30 countries, and the Tall Ships 2000 web-site peaked at over one million "hits" a week. This is the official Tall Ships 2000 Race book, covering all seven ports - Southampton, Genoa, Cadiz, Bermuda, Boston, Halifax and Amsterdam. Three race legs - Southampton - Cadiz, Boston - Halifax, Halifax - Amsterdam. Designed to convey the spirit of the event in chronological order in a special year, the photographs set out to capture many aspects of the race and unique moments of the four and a half month odyssey circumnavigating the North Atlantic.

What can the history of a nation's football reveal about that nation's wider political and socio-cultural identity? How can the study of local football culture help us to understand the powerful international forces at play within the modern game?

Based on long-term and detailed ethnographic research, this book uses Malta as a critical case study to explore the dynamics of contemporary football. Situated on the fringes of the EU, and with an appalling record in international competition, the Maltese are nevertheless fanatical about the game. This book examines Maltese football in the context of the island's unique politics, culture and national identity, shedding light upon both Maltese society and on broader processes, both local and global, within the international game. The book explores a range of key issues in contemporary football, such as:

the dynamics of international player migration

football corruption and ethics

the politics of sponsorship and TV deals

the global appeal of footballing "brands" such as Manchester United, Juventus and Bayern Munich.

This book is essential reading for students and researchers working in Sports Studies, Sociology of Sport, Football, Globalisation, Politics and Ethnic Studies.

The cultural ubiquity, political prominence and economic significance of contemporary sport present fertile terrain for its critical socio-cultural analysis. From corporate and media dominated mega-events like the Olympic Games, to state programmes for nation-building and health promotion, to the cultural politics of "race", gender, sexuality, age and disability, sport is so profoundly marked by relations of power that it lends itself to critique and deconstruction. Marxism, Cultural Studies and Sport brings together leading experts on sport to address these issues and to reflect on the continued appeal of sport to people across the globe, as well as on the forms of inequality that sport both produces and highlights. Including a Foreword by Harry Cleaver and Afterword by Michael Berube, this book assesses the impact of this work on the fields of 'mainstream' Marxism and cultural studies. Marxism, Cultural Studies and Sport is centred on three vital questions: Is Marxism still relevant for understanding sport in the twenty-first century? Has Marxism been preserved or transcended by cultural studies? What is the relationship between theory and intervention in the politics of sport? The result is a unique and diverse examination of modern sports culture. The first book published on the relationship between sport and Marxism for over twenty years, Marxism, Cultural Studies and Sport is an invaluable resource for students of sport sociology, Marxism, and cultural studies at all levels.

What can the history of a nation's football reveal about that nation's wider political and socio-cultural identity? How can the study of local football culture help us to understand the powerful international forces at play within the modern game? Based on long-term and detailed ethnographic research, this book uses Malta as a critical case study to explore the dynamics of contemporary football. Situated on the fringes of the EU, and with an appalling record in international competition, the Maltese are nevertheless fanatical about the game. This book examines Maltese football in the context of the island's unique politics, culture and national identity, shedding light upon both Maltese society and on broader processes, both local and global, within the international game. The book explores a range of key issues in contemporary football, such as: the dynamics of international player migration; football corruption and ethics; the politics of sponsorship and TV deals; and the global appeal of footballing brands such as Manchester United, Juventus and Bayern Munich. This book is essential reading for students and researchers working in Sports Studies, Sociology of Sport, Football, Globalisation, Politics and Ethnic Studies.

Located in the United States, NBC (National Broadcasting Company) is the biggest and most powerful Olympic network in the world, having won the rights to televise both the Summer and the Winter Olympic Games. By way of attracting more viewers of both sexes and all ages and ethnicities than any other sporting event, and through the production of breathtaking spectacles and absorbing stories, NBC's Olympic telecasts have huge power and potential to shape viewer perceptions. Billings's unique text examines the production, content, and potential effects of NBC's Olympic telecasts. Interviews with key NBC Olympic producers and sportscasters (including NBC Universal Sports and Olympics President Dick Ebersol and primetime anchor Bob Costas) outline the inner workings of the NBC Olympic machine; content analyses from ten years of Olympic telecasts (1996-2006) examine the portrayal of nationality, gender, and ethnicity within NBC's telecast; and survey analyses interrogate the extent to which NBC's storytelling process affects viewer beliefs about identity issues. This mixed-method approach offers valuable insights into what Billings portrays as "the biggest show on television".

Expansion of the Paralympic Games has to some extent mirrored expansion of the mainstream Olympics and the event now constitutes an internationally significant sporting festival. This book examines the development of the Paralympics and asks whether we are justified in describing the Games as a vehicle for the empowerment of the disabled community.

A highly successful paralympian athlete in his own right, David Howe uses ethnographic research methods to investigate the economic, social, cultural and political processes shaping the Paralympic movement on a local and global scale, and develops a new theory of the relationship between sport, the body and the culture of disability.

By critiquing contemporary attitudes to disability within sport and within society more generally, and by challenging the orthodox view of the Paralympics as a vehicle for empowerment, this book raises important questions and debates crucial to the study of sociology and sports studies.

In spite of a great passion in the game and significant involvement at amateur level, British Asians are under-represented in professional football. This book asks how and why this situation has developed, using extensive interviews with British Asian football players to offer an insider's assessment of the difficulties and conflicting demands faced every day. In addition, the book also critically examines the work of the anti-racist football movement, questioning the strategies and policies designed to eradicate racism and asking whether other approaches might be more effective or reflective of the views of the players themselves.

Ideal for academics and students of the sociology of ethnicity, sport, youth studies or cultural studies, this innovative book will also be of interest to professionals in the field of equal opportunities.