In 1943 two spirited young teachers decided to do their part for the war effort by spending their summer vacation working the swing shift on a B-24 production line at a San Diego bomber plant. Entering a male-dominated realm of welding torches and bomb bays, they learned to use tools that they had never seen before, live with aluminum shavings in their hair, and get along with supervisors and coworkers from all walks of life.They also learned that wearing their factory slacks on th...

The last 50 years have proved a particularly lively period in the history of the short story form. This new collection gives a full picture of the richness and diversity of this most American of genres from its very beginnings to the present day. The collection offers a freshly stimulating combination of old favourites such as Mark Twain's 'Jim Smiley's Jumping Frog' and Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart', unfamiliar works by well-known authors, such as Ernest Hemingway's 'Out of Seas...

Margaret struggles toward adulthood in a world torn apart by the Second World War and complicated by her strong-willed mother, Sophia, and grandmother, Charlie Kate, in a story about three generations of passionate, willful Southern women

IT’S A STORY THEY TELL IN THE BORDER COUNTRY, where Massachusetts joins Vermont and New Hampshire. Yes, Dan’l Webster’s dead-or, at least, they buried him. But every time there’s a thunder storm around Marshfield, they say you can hear his rolling voice in the hollows of the sky. And they say that if you go to his grave and speak loud and clear, “Dan’l Webster-Dan’l Webster!” the ground’ll begin to shiver and the trees begin to shake. And after a while you’ll hear a deep voice saying, “Nei...

Jack's mum insists he has new school shoes and the only ones they can find are horrid, black lace-ups. They are so stiff, noisy and uncomfortable that Jack suspects they must be monster shoes, especially when they seem to kick his classmates for no reason and make the football go in completely the wrong direction at playtime. Jack desperately works on a plan to get rid of them, until he discovers, quite by accident, a way of taming the monster shoes...

'Gripping.' New Statesman'Compulsive.' Observer'Strange and exhilarating.' Sunday Times'A joy to read.' Sunday Telegraph'Constantly surprising.' London Review of Books'One of the most original comic creations in recent fiction.' GuardianTime passed slowly in the 1950s, especially if you'd been put to bed and told not to move (until further notic...

Early Readers are stepping stones from picture books to reading books. A blue Early Reader is perfect for sharing and reading together. A red Early Reader is the next step on your reading journey. Horrid Henry needs money - and fast! But just how is he going to do it?

"The Go-Getter" by Peter B. Kyne is a moving parable of determination and entrepreneurial spirit that has inspired many readers since it was originally published in 1921. This short little book is the story of Bill Peck, a veteran of WWI, who convinces Cappy Ricks, the founder of a logging and lumber company, to give him a job opportunity. "The Go-Getter" is the story of perseverance in the face of adversity that is essentially at the heart of success.

An unauthorised eye witness account from a first responder Fire-fighter to Australia's worst natural disaster the Black Saturday Bush-fires.Thie book details the crews actions of Whittlesea Tanker 3 during Black Saturday and the weeks after. 

John Sladek's first short story collection. Sladek wrote some of the best science fiction stories of the 20th-century and his parodies of famous s/f authors are uproariously "right-on". His talent went under-appreciated except by a few devoted followers, even though his satirical writing was on a par with the early Kurt Vonnegut.

THE MAN FROM THE SOUTHIt was getting on toward six o'clock so I thought I'd buy myself a beer and go out and sit in a deck chair by the swimming pool and have a little evening sun.I went to the bar and got the beer and carried it outside and wandered down the garden toward the pool.It was a fine garden with lawns and beds of azaleas and tall coconut palms, and the wind was blowing s...

This original, authorised version has been lovingly recreated electronically for the first time, with reproductions of Potter's unmistakeable artwork optimised for use on colour devices such as the iPad.The Tale of Pigling Bland was published the year the Beatrix Potter was married and settled down to farming life for good. She had already been keeping pigs and she sketched them for this story, using her own farmyard as the setting. One little black pig was a household pet and feat...