'Tripitaka, can you go to the west for me – and for Buddha?' When the holy woman Guanyin asks the young Chinese monk Tripitaka to bring some holy writings back from India, he says 'yes'. But how can he travel across rivers, and fight terrible monsters and demons, on his long journey? He needs three strong helpers – Monkey, Pigsy, and Sandy – to do that! But where do they come from? Do they always help? And can they bring the holy writings home again? Read this old Chinese story, and find o...

Orphaned and alone, Rachel is taken under the wing of her strict African-American grandmother and moved to a mostly black community where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and astonishing beauty start to attract a troubling level of attention. As the terrible secrets begin to emerge, Rachel learns to swallow her grief and construct her own self-image in a world that wants to see her as either Black or White.

A shocking exposé of the desperate subculture surrounding addiction, William S. Burroughs' cult classic Junky is now available for the first time on unabridged audioBurroughs’ first novel, a largely autobiographical account of the constant cycle of drug dependency, cures and relapses, remains the most unflinching, unsentimental account of addiction ever written. Through time spent kicking and time spent dealing, through junk sickness and a sanatorium, Junky is a field report from t...

It is 1864 when Lizzie Martin takes up the post of companion to a wealthy widow who is also a slum landlord. Lizzie is intrigued to learn that her predecessor disappeared, supposedly having run off with an unknown man. But when the girl's body is found in the rubble of one of the recently demolished slums around the prestigious new railway station at St Pancras, Lizzie begins to wonder exactly what has been going on...

Jacob Jankowski reflects back on his wild and wondrous days with a circus. In the Depression Era, Jacob, finding himself parentless and penniless, joins the Benzini Brothers ‘Most Spectacular Show on Earth’. There he meets the freaks, grifters, and misfits that populate this world: Marlena, beautiful star of the equestrian act; August, her charismatic but twisted husband (and the circus's animal trainer); and Rosie, the seemingly untrainable elephant Jacob cares for.

Ashcombe was the most beautiful house Saskia had ever seen as a little girl, providing a perfect sanctuary to hide from the tragedy which shattered her childhood. Now an adult, Saskia is still living at Ashcombe and as a book restorer devotes her days tending to broken, battered books. When she discovers a notebook carefully concealed in an old Bible, Saskia finds herself drawn into a heart-rending tale of wartime love...

A man from the British royal family leaves an expensive gold and emerald crown at Holder and Stevenson's – one of the best banks in London. When someone tries to take the crown from Mr Holder's desk, he asks Sherlock Holmes for help. Who wants the crown and why? Only Sherlock can find the answers.

'He's an intelligent man. He was once rich and is now poor. His wife loved him once, but she doesn't love him now. And he's thirty or forty years old.' One look at an old hat, and Sherlock Holmes can tell you a lot about its owner. He sees - and thinks - a lot more than the people around him, and when a beautiful blue diamond disappears, Sherlock is the only man in London who can find it.

It is 1880, in the Opera House in Paris. Everybody is talking about the Phantom of the Opera, the ghost that lives somewhere under the Opera House. The Phantom is a man in black clothes. He is a body without a head, he is a head without a body. He has a yellow face, he has no nose, he has black holes for eyes. Everybody is afraid of the Phantom - the singers, the dancers, the directors, the stage workers ...But who has actually seen him?

Read and discover all about art. What do artists paint? What shapes can you see in art? Read and discover more about the world!This series of non-fiction readers provides interesting and educational content, with activities and project work.An Oxford Press Audio production.

Originally written in 1952 but not published till 1985, Queer is an enigma - both an unflinching autobiographical self-portrait and a dazzling political novelSet in Mexico City during the early fifties, Queer follows William Lee's hopeless pursuit of desire from bar to bar in the American expatriate scene. As Lee breaks down, the trademark Burroughsian voice emerges; a maniacal mix of self-lacerating humour and the Ugly American at his ugliest. Burroughs' only realist love story, Q...

On the school ski trip, Mouse knows certain classmates can't wait to see her fall flat on her face. Meanwhile, Jack looks forward to danger and girls, but hasn't a clue about either. That's until French teen sensation Roland arrives in the resort - who Jack's a dead ringer for. When Roland persuades Jack to be his stand-in for a day, Jack, in disguise, declares his feelings for Mouse. But what happens when he's no longer a pop star - will it be music and magic on the slopes?