It is the 1640s and Claesgen lives in Batavia with her stepmother, Jannetje, waiting weeks, and sometimes months, for her father, Abel Tasman, to come back from his sea voyages. When he returns, Tasman delights his young daughter with tales of treacherous oceans and relentless wild weather, hazards of unseen coral reefs and endless days of empty ocean, encountersboth friendly and hostilewith indigenous peoples, murder and theft, and the threat of smugglers and pirates. Inspired by a 1637 painting of the Tasman family by Jacob Cuyp and meticulously researched, My Fathers Islands is a fictional story told through the voice of Claesgen. Tasmans young daughters curiosity about her fathers life takes the reader on his voyage on the unchartered seas of the Pacific Ocean, in the search for unknown lands and new sources of riches for the powerful trading company, the Dutch East India Company. My FathersIslands opens up to children a significant, but little known, part of Australias historythe European discovery of parts of the Unknown South Land by the heroic explorer and navigator, Abel Janszoon Tasman.

The story of the author's coming-of-age journey from a California suburb to the Galapagos Islands in an attempt to solve the mystery of her father's fate.

After the death of his brilliant, eccentric father, Adam Dudding went in search of the stories and secrets of a man who had been a loving parent and husband, but was also a tormented, controlling and at times cruel man.Robin Dudding was the greatest New Zealand literary editor of his generation – friend and mentor of many of our best-known writers. At his peak he published the country’s finest literary journal on the smell of an oily rag from a falling-down house overflowing with books, long-haired children and chickens – an island of nonconformity in the heart of 1970s Auckland suburbia. Yet when Robin’s uncompromising integrity tipped into something much more self-destructive, a dark shadow fell over his career and personal life.In My Father’s Island, Adam Dudding writes frankly about the rise and fall of an unconventional cultural figure. But this is also a moving, funny and deeply personal story of a family, of a marriage, of feuds and secret loves – and of a son’s dawning understanding of his father.

This dramatic true story--told by the daughter of Russian immigrant Jehuda Weinstein--reveals the joys, fears, and eventual triumph of a family who realizes its dream. Full color.

Young Elmer voyages to Wild Island to rescue a captive dragon by outwitting hungry tigers, cranky crocodiles, and other fierce animals. This charmingly illustrated Newbery Honor Book has delighted generations of readers.

The provocative, audacious, brilliant six-volume autobiographical novel that has unquestionably been the main event of contemporary European literature. It has earned favorable comparisons to its obvious literary forebears "A la recherche du temps perdu" and "Mein Kampf" but has been celebrated as the rare magnum opus that is intensely, addictively readable.