Grade 8 Up A thought-provoking and entertaining novel that is vaguely reminiscent of the movie An Officer and a Gentleman。 Cliff and B. J. are enduring Army basic training at Fort Ord in northern California。 Nina and Melanie are high-school seniors in a small town nearby。 Inevitably the four meet and pair up。 While the girls struggle with school, parents, romance and making future plans, Cliff and B。 J。 confront a much more threatening problem, their brutal and sadistic drill instructor, Sergeant Bradshaw。 Bradshaw subjects them to harassment and beatings, but when he publicly slanders Cliff's father, killed in Vietnam, Cliff loses control and attacks Bradshaw。 Cliff is discharged, but B。 J。 gets revenge on Bradshaw。 B.J. turns down a marriage proposal from Melanie, decides to stay in the Army, and gets transferred to Georgia。 Melanie takes off to seek adventure in New York。 Nina and Cliff are left behind to sort things out and make new plans。 The plot is well
Have you ever thought that if you ruled the world it would be a much better place? Well-here's your chance to prove it! You hate cabbage and The Nine O'Clock News'? Ban them! You'd like a three-day school week and free sweets all round? Well, why not? If i Ruled The World gives you space to work out your own plans. It's packed with suggestions and ideas - some hilarious, some serious - for what you might do if you were in charge. Read about other world rulers' moments of triumph and tragedy. Then work' out your master.plan. Who knows, you may need to put' it into practice.., soon.
Adultery us not a typical lane Austen theme, butwhen it disturbs the relatively peaceful householdat Mansfield Park. it has quite unexpected results. The diffident and much put-upon heroine Fanny Price has to struggle to cope with the results,re-examining her own feelings while enduring thecheerful amorality, old-fashioned indifference andpriggish disapproval of those around her.
'Doctor Watson, Mr Sherlock Holmes' - The most famous introduction in the history of crime fiction takes place in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet, bringing together Sherlock Holmes, the master of science detection, and John H. Watson, the great detective's faithful chronicler. This novel not only establishes the magic of the Holmes myth but also provides the reader with a dramatic adventure yarn which ranges from the foggy, gas-lit streets of London to the burning plains of Utah. The Sign of the Four, the second Holmes novel, presents the detective with one of his greatest challenges. The theft of the Agna treasure in India forms a catalyst for treachery, deceit and murder. With these two classic novels,A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four,you have the brilliant foudation of the Sherlock Holmes canon.Reading pleasure rarely comes any finer.
Soulis, Lord of Liddesdale -the only man ever to strike fear into the heart of King Robert the Bruce. Neither sword, rope nor fire can harm Soulis. But what is the secret of his power? What awesome source, deep in the castle of Hermitage gives Soulis the strength to defy king and people? And can any man stop him stealing the beautiful Marion Elliot from her betrothed? A dark and gripping story, inspired by an ancient legend. The castle of Hermitage still stands, a bleak and eerie ruin at the head of Liddesdale on the Scottish Border.
After a decade-long absence, Mayer returns to picture books, using computer-generated graphics to illustrate an original tale set in long-ago Japan. When the emperor's daughter, Shibumi, discovers the poverty-stricken world beyond her garden walls, she longs to resolve the inequity. Tying herself to an enormous kite fashioned for her by the royal kite-maker, she takes flight, telling her father that she will not come down until the city below "is as beautiful as the palace, or the palace is as squalid as the city." Wealthy noblemen who wish to preserve the status quo mount an attack, and the kite carries off both Shibumi and the kite-maker. The bereaved emperor spends his years trying to make amends, and in the end a young samurai sets out to find the princess and restore her to her father and the transformed city. Mayer grounds his message in familiar fairy tale elements, and proceeds at a leisurely pace. His computer art approaches the brooding style of his paintings in East of the Sun & West of the Moon (a