Max is mad about sport. As he gets up, has breakfast and heads off to school, he is dreaming of competing in world class sporting events. In his real day, he and his class win the school football match and, in his imagination, he and his friends are winning the World Cup. This is a lively and fun approach to sport, and a very inclusive picture book showing disabled children and children without disabilities enjoying different sports together in a natural way. The sports include football, rugby, athletics, cricket, diving, discus throwing and cycling.

Boxing might not have survived the 1930s if not for Max Baer. A contender for every heavyweight championship 1932-1941, California's "Glamour Boy" brought back the "million-dollar gate" not seen since the 1920s. His radio voice sold millions of Gillette razor blades; his leading-man appeal made him a heartthrob in The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933). The film was banned in Nazi Germany--Baer had worn a Star of David on his trunks when he TKOed German former champ Max Schmeling. Baer defeated 275-pound Primo Carnera in 1934 for the championship, losing it to Jim Braddock the next year. Contrary to Cinderella Man, (2005), Baer--favored 10 to 1--was not a villain and the fight was more controversial than the film suggested. His battle with Joe Louis three months later drew the highest gate of the decade. This first comprehensive biography covers Baer's complete ring record, his early life, his career on radio, film, stage and television, and his World War II army service.

Max is mad about sport. As he gets up, has breakfast and heads off to school, he is dreaming of competing in world class sporting events. In his real day, he and his class win the school football match and, in his imagination, he and his friends are winning the World Cup. This is a lively and fun approach to sport, and a very inclusive picture book showing disabled children and children without disabilities enjoying different sports together in a natural way. The sports include football, rugby, athletics, cricket, diving, discus throwing and cycling.

Sir Duncan de Ware is a sworn champion of the common man and a master of disguise. So when he finds plucky maiden-in-distress Linet de Montfort facing off against a notorious pirate, noble Duncan goes undercover to come to her rescue, despite her insistence that she can take care of herself. When the pirate abducts her, Duncan and Linet are caught up in a breathless adventure of danger and romance on the high seas. And soon Linet realizes her only hope is to trust her mysterious hero—with her life and her heart.

Finalist for the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism From a New York Times investigative reporter, this “authoritative and devastating account of the impacts of social media” (New York Times Book Review) tracks the high-stakes inside story of how Big Tech’s breakneck race to drive engagement—and profits—at all costs fractured the world. The Chaos Machine is “an essential book for our times” (Ezra Klein). We all have a vague sense that social media is bad for our minds, for our children, and for our democracies. But the truth is that its reach and impact run far deeper than we have understood. Building on years of international reporting, Max Fisher tells the gripping and galling inside story of how Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social network preyed on psychological frailties to create the algorithms that drive everyday users to extreme opinions and, increasingly, extreme actions. As Fisher demonstrates, the companies’ founding tenets, combined with a blinkered focus on maximizing engagement, have led to a destabilized world for everyone. Traversing the planet, Fisher tracks the ubiquity of hate speech and its spillover into violence, ills that first festered in far-off locales, to their dark culmination in America during the pandemic, the 2020 election, and the Capitol Insurrection. Through it all, the social-media giants refused to intervene in any meaningful way, claiming to champion free speech when in fact what they most prized were limitless profits. The result, as Fisher shows, is a cultural shift toward a world in which people are polarized not by beliefs based on facts, but by misinformation, outrage, and fear. His narrative is about more than the villains, however. Fisher also weaves together the stories of the heroic outsiders and Silicon Valley defectors who raised the alarm and revealed what was happening behind the closed doors of Big Tech. Both panoramic and intimate, The Chaos Machine is the definitive account of the meteoric rise and troubled legacy of the tech titans, as well as a rousing and hopeful call to arrest the havoc wreaked on our minds and our world before it’s too late.

The Gentleman Champion The fifth book of the World Chess Champions series focuses on the life and career of the Dutchman Max Euwe. This soft-spoken professor of mathematics rocked the chess world in 1935 when he defeated the seemingly irresistible force, Alexander Alekhine, to become world champion. Many chessplayers thought this was an upset of the first magnitude. Hardly. Euwe was at his prime and the best in the world at the time. In fact, Euwe posted a plus score against Alekhine in the four games they played between the 1935 and 1937 matches. As noted by Andy Soltis in his foreword, “These pages are rich in detail, and not just about Euwe. There are extensive mini-biographies of Alekhine, Botvinnik, Bogoljubow, Spielmann, Capablanca, Paul Keres, Géza Maróczy, Flohr, Vera Menchik and Réti – as well as less known players such as Edgard Colle, Jan Hein Donner and Salo Landau. The photos and drawings – and those caricatures – are also remarkable.” The venerable fifth world champion was also a first-class arbiter, author and chess diplomat. As an author, he is regarded as one of the two or three finest chess writers for the average player. He was also president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) at the time of the Fischer-Spassky title match in 1972. Were it not for Euwe’s persuasive, patient handling of the difficult negotiations between the Russians and Americans, it is very likely that the match would not have taken place at all. Join Russian historians Isaak and Vladimir Linder as they take you on a journey exploring the life and games of the gentleman world champion, Max Euwe.

Leon's back. Having survived the sweatshop methods of Miss Hagmeyer, his needle-wielding fourth grade teacher at the Classical School, Leon braces himself for fifth grade. He arrives armed with a backpack full of pens and pencils, binders and notebooks . . . plus a rag doll that's the spitting image of Henry Lumpkin, the bully who has Leon in his sights. If the doll works the way it's supposed to, Leon (and his buddies P.W. and Lily-Matisse) won't have to worry about Lumpkin the Pumpkin! Better still, Leon has a fabulous new teacher, Mr. Sparks, who conducts science experiments using that most miraculous of research materials -- the potato chip. And a good thing, too. Mr. Sparks's lab work will come in handy when Leon is forced to take on Alphonse "The Chippopotamus" Cipollini at the annual Chipapalooza! Chip-Off. Once you've sunk your teeth into Leon and the Champion Chip, the hilarious sequel to Leon and the Spitting Image, you'll never eat potato chips the same way again!