India is a land of miracles, where godmen and mystics mesmerise audiences with wondrous feats of magic. In great cities and remote villages alike, these mortal incarnations of the divine turn rods into snakes, drink acid, eat glass, hibernate and even levitate. Some live as kings, their devotees numbering hundreds of thousands; while others - virtually destitute - wander from village to village pledging to cure the sick, or bring rain in times of drought. As a child in rural England, Tahir Shah first learned the secrets of illusion from an Indian magician. Two decades later, he set out in search of this conjurer. Sorcerer's Apprentice is the story of his quest for, and initiation into, the brotherhood of Indian godmen. Learning along the way from sadhus, sages, avatars and sorcerers - it's a journey which took him from Calcutta to Madras, from Bangalore to Bombay, in search of the miraculous.

Sixteen-year-old Nick and his brother, Alan, are always ready to run. Their father is dead, and their mother is crazy—she screams if Nick gets near her. She’s no help in protecting any of them from the deadly magicians who use demons to work their magic. The magicians want a charm that Nick’s mother stole—and they want it badly enough to kill. Alan is Nick’s partner in demon slaying and the only person he trusts in the world. So things get very scary and very complicated when Nick begins to suspect that everything Alan has told him about their father, their mother, their past, and what they are doing is a complete lie. . . .

Monkey and his friends, Zu and Sandy, lived in the Emperor's Cloud Palace. But they played all sorts of tricks on people, so, as a punishment, the Jade Emperor sent them down to Earth. They can only return if they prove that they can use their magical powers for good. Adventure is never far away! In Demon Attack, the friends are called to investigate when a headteacher is acting strangely. There are some very creepy goings-on behind the scenes. Will they uncover what is happening and defeat the mysterious villain? Bloomsbury High Low books encourage and support reading practice by providing gripping, age-appropriate stories for struggling and reluctant readers, those with dyslexia, or those with English as an additional language. Printed on tinted paper and with a dyslexia friendly font,Skate Monkey is aimed at readers aged 8+ and has a manageable length (72 pages)and reading age (7+). The Skate Monkey stories can be read in any order. Produced in association with reading experts at CatchUp, a charity which aims to address underachievement caused by literacy and numeracy difficulties.

The campaign in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s to rid comic books of their violent content, and often-times to obliterate the medium itself, had far-reaching and deeply felt reverberations. Spearheaded by moralists, educators, politicians, and psychiatrist Dr. Fredric Wertham, anti-comics crusades led to book burnings, town meetings, periodical discourses, and the draconian Comics Code, recognized as the most oppressive act of self-censorship in this country's history. At issue was the possible link between comic books and juvenile delinquency, although then-current concerns about communist infiltration, lowered educational levels, and moral decay also crept into the arguments.

A prescient warning of a future we now inhabit, where fake news stories and Internet conspiracy theories play to a disaffected American populace “A glorious book . . . A spirited defense of science . . . From the first page to the last, this book is a manifesto for clear thought.”—Los Angeles Times How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don’t understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions. Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, demons, and UFOs. And yet, disturbingly, in today's so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning with stories of alien abduction, channeling past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms. Praise for The Demon-Haunted World “Powerful . . . A stirring defense of informed rationality. . . Rich in surprising information and beautiful writing.”—The Washington Post Book World “Compelling.”—USA Today “A clear vision of what good science means and why it makes a difference. . . . A testimonial to the power of science and a warning of the dangers of unrestrained credulity.”—The Sciences “Passionate.”—San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle

“A success story . . . proof that one can rise above the disease and defy its so-called limitations on the brain.”—Daily Beast Despite winning the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2008, Philip Schultz could never shake the feeling of being exiled to the "dummy class" in school, where he was largely ignored by his teachers and peers and not expected to succeed. Not until many years later, when his oldest son was diagnosed with dyslexia, did Schultz realize that he suffered from the same condition. In his moving memoir, Schultz traces his difficult childhood and his new understanding of his early years. In doing so, he shows how a boy who did not learn to read until he was eleven went on to become a prize-winning poet by sheer force of determination. His balancing act—life as a member of a family with not one but two dyslexics, countered by his intellectual and creative successes as a writer—reveals an inspiring story of the strengths of the human mind.

For fifty years, experienced clinicians and physicians in training have relied on Swaiman's cornerstone text as their #1 source for authoritative guidance in pediatric neurology. Swaiman's Pediatric Neurology: Principles and Practice, 7th Edition, continues this tradition of excellence under the expert editorial direction of Drs. Stephen Ashwal and Phillip L. Pearl, along with a team of key leaders in the field who serve as associate and section editors in their areas of expertise. Thorough revisions—including new chapters, new videos, new editors, and expanded content—bring you up to date with this dynamic field. - Contains new sections on global child neurology and environment and brain development and a greatly expanded section on neurogenetics, in addition to new chapters on autoimmune epilepsies, immune-mediated movement disorders, and more. - Offers expanded online content, including additional figures, tables, and text, as well as new personal introductory videos by many chapter authors. - Covers new, emerging, or controversial topics such as COVID-19, teleneurology, environment and brain development, immune-mediated disorders of the nervous system, functional neurological disorders in children, nonverbal learning disorders, and the pharmacological and future genetic treatment of neurodevelopmental disabilities. - Provides authoritative coverage of perinatal acquired and congenital disorders, neurodevelopmental disabilities, extensive sections on pediatric epilepsy and movement disorders, nonepileptiform paroxysmal disorders, and disorders of sleep. - Features nearly 3,000 line drawings, photographs, tables, and boxes that highlight the text, clarify key concepts, and make it easy to find information quickly.