I Before E is the definitive guide to help you to un-jumble your mind and improve your ability to recall names, dates, facts, figures and events, and contains all the mnemonics you'll ever need to know.

The go-to good English guide from the grammar guru himself, Gyles Brandreth . . . __________ Why, like, does everyone keep saying 'like'? Why do apostrophe's keep turning up in the wrong place? Why do we get confused when using foreign phrases - and vice versa? Is it 'may be' or 'maybe'? Should it be 'past' or 'passed'? Is it 'referenda' or 'referendums'? FFS, what's happening to our language!? Our language is changing, literacy levels are dwindling and our grasp of grammar is at crisis point, so you wouldn't be alone in thinking WTF! But do not despair, Have You Eaten Grandma? is here: Gyles Brandreth's definitive (and hilarious) guide to punctuation, spelling, and good English for the twenty-first century. Without hesitation or repetition (and just a touch of deviation) Gyles, the Just A Minute regular and self-confessed grammar guru, skewers the linguistic horrors of our time, tells us where we've been going wrong (and why), and reveals his tips and tricks to ensure that, in future, we make fewer (rather than 'less') mistakes. End of. (Is 'End of' alright? Is 'alright' all right? You'll find out right here . . . )

Do you know why we are able to see light and hear sound? What is the Earth made of? How does the body produce energy? And, most important, does any of this matter? In I Used to Know That: Science, Marianne Taylor will answer those questions and more and will tell you why the answers are vital to us and to the scientists working on the cutting edge of scientific research. In this book, you will learn about: Physics-Energy and Electricity: How electricity is generated; how heat moves from one place to another; the relationship between electricity and magnetismForces: The four fundamental forces; the origins of the universe; the composition and behavior of planets, stars and galaxies; the basic laws of mechanical physics Waves, Radiation and Space: How waves behave and how they affect us; the electromagnetic spectrum; radioactivity Chemistry-The Periodic Table: How to read the table; how atoms work; chemical bonds and reactionsFuels, Air and Pollution: Chemicals, both helpful and dangerous, in the air; crude oil and its useful chemicals; live cycle assessments Metals: The Earth’s structure; metals and alloys; construction materials Organic Chemistry: Natural polymers and their usefulness; nutrition; which chemicals are harmful Biology-Human (and Other) Bodies: The body’s systems-circulatory, skeletal, muscular, nervous, digestive, reproductive, respiratory and sensoryCell Biology: The structure of a cell; how photosynthesis works; what hormones do Evolution and Environment Ecology: The origins of life; how the eukaryotic cell evolved; mutation and natural selection; population, predation and extinction Genetics: what chromosomes are; how you inherit genetic traits; reproduction and cloning I Used to Know That: Science is a necessary read for anyone who wants to understand the modern scientific world and how the general principles of physics, chemistry, and biology affect our everyday lives.

Just like adults, kids need easy ways to recall stuff-especially now, when they don't even have to remember a phone number because their cell phones remember it for them. And just like the bestselling i before e (except after c) for adults, this book is jammed with easy-to-use tricks for remembering lots of stuff-especially stuff they need to know for school. Through entertaining (and often silly) examples, kids will learn to remember everything they need to know about: The Earth-including fun facts about geography, geology, and the weather- and the sky -revolving around planets, stars, atmosphere, and so on Reading and writing-covering everything from the smallest punctuation mark to the prickliest words to spell to the trickiest grammar to the grandest figure of speech The mysteries of history-from Way Before You Were Born (ancient history) to the most recent American history facts every kid needs to memorize Math and music-a surprising, but logical combination that examines cool ways to remember numbers, times tables, calculations, and musical notations Kids will like learning fun ways to remember stuff and will love getting the good grades that follow.

Is it "i before e except after c"? Or is it the other way around? Let's face it, most children struggle with spelling. But now they have a fun and easy way to learn all the tips and tricks to spell with confidence. With this book, kids will: Learn basic spelling rules, like "change y to i and add es." Understand punctuation, capitalization, and other technical parts of spelling. Pick up helpful tricks, like putting words into songs and rhymes. Learn fun games and exercises to practice spelling. Study spelling lists to master even the toughest words. And more! Along with 30 fun-filled puzzles and activities, this book offers children, parents, and teachers all the tools they need to buzz with spelling success!

When their Ukrainian grandmother is lost on a trans-Atlantic Flight, two sisters are swept into a quest across eastern Europe to find the woman who had always told more tales than truths. From Poland to Slovakia to Hungary and beyond, Larissa and Ira navigate the steps of Ukrainian folk dance, the cliff-side paths of Slovak Paradise National Park, and the stark realities of war, folktales, and feminism, all for the sake of chasing who they're starting to believe is a true Baba Yaga. Understanding their family's roots has never been more clear. The setting's mythic properties drift like ghosts in the humid air, hinting of the folktales the sisters whisper like codes of bravery. The nesting dolls they discover reveal how each woman becomes stronger when tucked one, within another, within another-forgetting lies and truths to seize upon history, love, and the familial traditions that have shaped them into who they are together. Author and professional editor Kris Spisak has been spotlighted in Writer's Digest and The Huffington Post for her work to helping other writers. Her previous non-fiction books include Get a Grip on Your Grammar: 250 Writing and Editing Reminders for the Curious or Confused, The Novel Editing Workbook, and The Family Story Workbook. Spisak's background and her own family experience in the Ukrainian diaspora add weight to her fiction debut.

This book will tell all you need to know about British English spelling. It's a reference work intended for anyone interested in the English language, especially those who teach it, whatever the age or mother tongue of their students. It will be particularly useful to those wishing to produce well-designed materials for teaching initial literacy via phonics, for teaching English as a foreign or second language, and for teacher training. English spelling is notoriously complicated and difficult to learn; it is correctly described as much less regular and predictable than any other alphabetic orthography. However, there is more regularity in the English spelling system than is generally appreciated. This book provides, for the first time, a thorough account of the whole complex system. It does so by describing how phonemes relate to graphemes and vice versa. It enables searches for particular words, so that one can easily find, not the meanings or pronunciations of words, but the other words with which those with unusual phoneme-grapheme/grapheme-phoneme correspondences keep company. Other unique features of this book include teacher-friendly lists of correspondences and various regularities not described by previous authorities, for example the strong tendency for the letter-name vowel phonemes (the names of the letters ) to be spelt with those single letters in non-final syllables.