Just how did Roald Dahl get into writing? Where did he get his ideas from? What ingredients in his life turned him into the kind of writer he was? Michael Rosen - poet, broadcaster and former Children's Laureate, comes up with some of the answers to these key questions in his lively biography of the world's No.1 storyteller. Full of stories and funny anecdotes from Roald Dahl's school days and family life, Michael Rosen's fascinating observations creates a vivid picture of one of the most famous writers of all time.

Even grownups enjoy a bedtime story every now and then,especially one that combines, as does this one, the sophisticationof a novel with the whimsy of a fairy tale. Gaarder, the Norwegianformer professor of philosophy who brought us The Solitaire Mystery(1996) and the bestselling Sophie's World (1995), is up to hisusual tricks here, serving up a metaphysical brainteaser thatunfolds into a warm?but not preachy?meditation on God and theChristian doctrines. Set in an unnamed town in present-day Norway,it tells the story of Joachim, a young boy who finds a faded,handmade Advent calendar in a bookstore on the eve of Decemberfirst, and begs his father to let him take it home. The nextmorning, when he opens the calendar's first door, Joachim discoversnot just the expected picture but also a tightly folded piece ofpaper, the first installment of the fantastic tale of a littlegirl's journey through time and space to be present at theNativity. Soon the girl's story is making unexpected intrusionsinto Joachim's o

Here is a man with an imagination so large that just abythinking on it,a he invented calculus and figured out thescientific explanation of gravity. Kathleen Krull presents aportrait of Isaac Newton that will challenge your beliefs about agenius whose amazing discoveries changed the world.

Here is a man with an imagination so large that just “bythinking on it,” he invented calculus and figured out thescientific explanation of gravity. Kathleen Krull presents aportrait of Isaac Newton that will challenge your beliefs about agenius whose amazing discoveries changed the world.

You want girl power? Meet Annie Oakley! Born in 1860, shebecame one of the best-loved and most famous women of hergeneration. She amazed audiences all over the world with hersharpshooting, horse-riding, action-packed performances. In an agewhen most women stayed home, she traveled the world and forged anew image for American women.

When Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Spain in 1519, he believed he could get to the Spice Islands by sailing west through or around the New World. He was right, but what he didn't know was that the treacherous voyage would take him three years and cost him his life. Black-and-white line drawings illustrate Magellan's life and voyage, with sidebars and a time line that enhance readers' understanding of the period

A humorist, narrator, and social observer, Mark Twain is unsurpassed in American literature. Best known as the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , Mark Twain, not unlike his protagonist, Huck, has a restless spirit. He found adventure prospecting for silver in Nevada, navigating steamboats down the Mississippi, and making people laugh around the world. But Twain also had a serious streak and decried racism and injustice. His fascinating life is captured candidly in this enjoyable biography.

Marco Polo was seventeen when he set out for China . . . and forty-one when he came back! More than seven hundred years ago, Marco Polo traveled from the medieval city of Venice to the fabled kingdom of the great Kublai Khan, seeing new sights and riches that no Westerner had ever before witnessed. But did Marco Polo experience the things he wrote about . . . or was it all made-up? Young readers are presented with the facts in this entertaining, highly readable Who Was . . . ? biography with black-and-white artwork by John O’Brien.

Albert Einstein. His name has become a synonym for genius. His wild case of bedhead and playful sense of humor made him a media superstar—the first, maybe only, scientist-celebrity. He wasn't much for lab work; in fact he had a tendency to blow up experiments. What he liked to do was think, not in words but in "thought experiments". What was the result of all his thinking? Nothing less than the overturning of Newtonian physics. Once again, Kathleen Krull delivers a witty and astute look at one of the true Giants of Science and the turbulent times in which he lived.

Marie Curie, the woman who coined the term radioactivity, wonnot just one Nobel Prize but two—in physics and chemistry, bothsupposedly girl-phobic sciences.

When 14-year-old Sophie encounters a mysterious mentor whointroduces her to philosophy, mysteries deepen in her own life. Whydoes she keep getting postcards addressed to another girl? Who isthe other girl? And who, for that matter, is Sophie herself? Tosolve the riddle, she uses her new knowledge of philosophy, but thetruth is far stranger than she could have imagined. A phenomenal worldwide bestseller, SOPHIE'S WORLD sets out to drawteenagers into the world of Socrates, Descartes, Spinoza, Hegel andall the great philosophers. A brilliantly original and fascinatingstory with many twists and turns, it raises profound questionsabout the meaning of life and the origin of theuniverse.

With the first cup of tea, you are a stranger. With the second… a friend. With the third cup of tea, you are family. One day GregMortenson set out to climb K2 - the world's second highest mountain- in honour of his younger sister, but things went wrong and Gregbecame lost. He wandered into a poor village, where the chief andhis people took him in. Moved by their kindness, Greg promised toreturn and build a school for the children. This is the remarkablestory of how Greg built not one but more than sixty schools inPakistan and Afghanistan, and how he has dedicated his life topromoting literacy, peace and understanding.

Roald Dahl is one of the most famous children's book authors ever. Now in this Who Was . . . ? biography, children will learn of his real-life adventures. A flying ace for the British Air Force, he was married to an Academy Award-winning actress. He also wrote books and screenplays for adults. Entertaining and readable, this biography has 80 black-and-white illustrations.

Roald DahlAs personal stories together in one edition Where did Roald Dahl get all of his wonderful ideas for stories? From his own life, of course Boy includes tales of sweetshops and chocolate, mean old ladies, and the Great Mouse Plot. And then "Going Solo" tells of how, when he grew up, Roald Dahl left England for Africa and later went flying with the Royal Air Force.

Like Michelangelo, Galileo is another Renaissance great known just by his first name--a name that is synonymous with scientific achievement. Born in Pisa, Italy, in the sixteenth century, Galileo contributed to the era's great rebirth of knowledge. He invented a telescope to observe the heavens. From there, not even the sky was the limit! He turned long-held notions about the universe topsy turvy with his support of a sun-centric solar system. Patricia Brennan Demuth offers a sympathetic portrait of a brilliant man who lived in a time when speaking scientific truth to those in power was still a dangerous proposition.

Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks are mind-boggling evidence of a fifteenth-century scientific genius standing at the edge of the modern world, basing his ideas on observation and experimentation. This book will change children's ideas of who Leonardo was and what it means to be a scientist.

《独闯天下》是达尔自传《好小子-童年故事》的续集。前面说到达尔完成了中学学习，他希望从事一个职业能带他到"象非洲和中国一样美妙的遥远地方。"他赢得了壳牌石油公司的好职位。1938年秋天，达尔被调到非洲工作，在那里他和壳牌石油公司的另两名代表一起管理整个东非领域，同时也开始有了更多奇妙惊险的经历，比如眼镜蛇进入他朋友的房子而不得不叫捕蛇者来捕蛇，或者一只狮子抓住了一个本地妇女，而达尔关于其营救过程的纪录被登在一家非洲报纸上，这成为他篇公开发表的作品。 This is the second part of Roald Dahl's remarkable lifestory, following on from "Boy", that tells of his time working inAfrica and his wartime exploits. This edition has a great new coverwith illustrations by Quentin Blake, and some new facts about RoaldDahl and his world.

Born to a family of farmers, Lincoln stood out from an earlyage—literally! (He was six feet four inches tall.) As sixteenthPresident of the United States, he guided the nation through theCivil War and saw the abolition of slavery. But Lincoln wastragically shot one night at Ford’s Theater—the first President tobe assassinated. Over 100 black-and-white illustrations and mapsare included.

Born in Austria in 1756, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his first piece of music, a minuet, when he was just five years old! Soon after, he was performing for kings and emperors. Although he died at the young age of thirty-five, Mozart left a legacy of more than 600 works. This fascinating biography charts the musician's extraordinary career and personal life while painting a vivid cultural history of eighteenth-century Europe. Black-and-white illustrations on every spread explore such topics as the history of opera and the evolution of musical instruments. There is also a timeline and a bibliography. Illustrated by Carrie Robbins. Cover illustration by Nancy Harrison.

For a long time, the main role of First Ladies was to act as hostesses of the White House...until Eleanor Roosevelt. Born in 1884, Eleanor was not satisfied to just be a glorified hostess for her husband, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Eleanor had a voice, and she used it to speak up against poverty and racism. She had experience and knowledge of many issues, and fought for laws to help the less fortunate. She had passion, energy, and a way of speaking that made people listen, and she used these gifts to campaign for her husband and get him elected presidentfour times! A fascinating historical figure in her own right, Eleanor Roosevelt changed the role of First Lady forever.

Generations of children have read, re-read, and loved Ezra Jack Keats?s award-winning, classic stories about Peter and his neighborhood friends. Now, for the first time, Peter?s Chair, A Letter to Amy, and Goggles! are available in paperback exclusively from Puffin. ?A master of ingenious collages, AKeats? has made brilliant variegated pictures?? -- The Horn Book Ezra Jack Keats (1916?1983) was the beloved author and/or illustrator of over eighty-five books for children.