A fast-paced, character-filled history that brings the unique American saga to life for readers of all ages How did a land & people of such immense diversity come together under a banner of freedom & equality to form one of the most remarkable nations in the world? Everyone from young adults to grandparents will be fascinated by the answers uncovered in James West Davidson`s vividly told A Little History of the United States. In 300 fast-moving pages, Davidson guides his readers through 500 years, from the first contact between the two halves of the world to the rise of America as a superpower in an era of atomic perils & diminishing resources. In short, vivid chapters the book brings to life hundreds of individuals whose stories are part of the larger American story. Pilgrim William Bradford stumbles into an Indian deer trap on his first day in America; Harriet Tubman lets loose a pair of chickens to divert attention from escaping slaves; the toddler Andrew Carnegie, later an ambitious industrial magnate, gobbles his oatmeal with a spoon in each h&. Such stories are riveting in themselves, but they also spark larger questions to ponder about freedom, equality, & unity in the context of a nation that is, & always has been, remarkably divided & diverse. ...

“A Little History of the World” presents Ernst Gombrich’s lively & involving history to English-language readers for the first time. In 1935, with a doctorate in art history & no respect of a job, the twenty-six-year-old Ernst Gombrich was invited to attempt a history of the world for younger readers. Amazingly, he completed the task in an intense six weeks, & “ Eine kurz Weltgeschichte für jinge Leser” was published in Vienna to immediate success, & is now available in twenty-five languages across the world. Toward the end of his life, Gombrich embarked upon a revision &, at last, an English translation; in forty concise chapters, he tells the story of man from the Stone Age to the atomic bomb. In between emerges a colourful picture of wars & conquests, grand works of art, & the spread & limitations of science. This is a text dominated not by dates & facts, but by the sweep of mankind’s experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity’s achievements & an acute witness to its frailties. The product of a generous & humane sensibility, this timeless account makes intelligible the full span of human history. ...

E. H. Gombrich’s “ History of the World” is one of the most famous books of all time, & here in this fantastically illustrated edition is that book’s concise little brother, “A Little History of the World”. In forty chapters, Gombrich tells the story of man from the stone age to the atomic bomb. In between emerges a colourful picture of wars & conquests, grand works of art, & the spread & limitations of science. This wonderful illustrated edition brings together the pellucid humanity of his narrative with the images that may well have been in his mind’s eye as he wrote the book. With a revised preface, new maps, two hundred illustrations (most in colour), this is both a sumptuous gift book & an enhanced edition of a timeless account of human history. ...

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is an immensely powerful & heartbreaking novel of brotherly love & the limits of human endurance. When four graduates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they`re broke, adrift, & buoyed only by their friendship & ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; & withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their centre of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen & darken, tinged by addiction, success, & pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realise, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind & body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, & haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he`ll not only be unable to overcome
- but that will define his life forever.
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` Now I am a mother & a married woman, but not long ago I led a life of crime`: so Bianca begins her tale of growing up the hard way in Rome in A Little Lumpen Novelita. Orphaned overnight as a teenager
- `our parents died in a car crash on their first vacation without us`
- she drops out of school, gets a crappy job, sees a terrible brightness at night, & drifts into bad company. Her little brother brings home two petty criminals who need a place to stay. As the four of them share the family apartment & plot a strange crime, Bianca learns she can drift lower.. . Electric & tense with foreboding, with its jagged, propulsive short chapters beautifully translated by Natasha Wimmer, A Little Lumpen Novelita
- one of the last novels Roberto Bolano published
- delivers a surprising, fractured fairy tale of taking control of one`s fate.



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`I pretend I am a princess, so that I can try & behave like one` Without her beloved father & miles from home, it is very hard for Sara Crewe to like her new life at boarding school. Luckily Sara is always dreaming up wonderful things & her power of telling stories wins her lots of friends. When a letter arrives that brings disastrous news, the wicked headmistress Miss Minchin forces Sara to become a servant. Her lovely clothes & toys are taken away from her. She must work from dawn until midnight. How will Sara cope with her new found poverty? Can her imagination help her overcome this horrible situation? BACKSTORY: Read why Jacqueline Wilson loves this book & find out which pupil of Sara`s school you are most like. ...

Alone in a new country, wealthy Sara Crewe tries to make friends at boarding school & settle in. But when she learns that she`ll never see her beloved father again, her life is turned upside down. Transformed from princess to pauper, she must swap dancing lessons & luxury for drudgery & a room in the attic. Will she find that kindness & generosity are all the riches she truly needs? With deeply poignant introduction written by bestselling author of ” Chinese Cinderella”, ”A Little Princess” is one of the twelve wonderful classic stories being relaunched in ” Puffin Classics” in March 2008. ...

Alone in a new country, wealthy Sara Crewe tries to settle in & make friends at boarding school. But when she learns that she`ll never see her beloved father gain, her life is turned upside down. Transformed from princess to pauper, she must swap dancing lessons & luxury for hard work & a room in the attic. Will she find that kindness & genorosity are all the riches she truly needs? ...

`I am a princess. All girls are.` Heiress Sara Crewe has everything a little girl could want
- until the sudden death of her father
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A specially adapted board book edition of Oliver Jeffers` laugh-out-loud classic, Stuck. Floyd gets his kite stuck up a tree. He throws up his shoe to shift it, but that gets stuck too. So he throws up his other shoe & that gets stuck, along with...a ladder, a pot of paint, the kitchen sink, an orang-utan & a whale, amongst other things! Will Floyd ever get his kite back? A hilarious book with a wonderful surprise ending. ...