'There are many boys in the world, all slightly different from one another, and most of them are referred to by names. These are often John or Jack or Desmond, but sometimes they are James or Philip or Simon. Once, and once only, there was a boy whose name was Fizzlebert.' Fizzlebert Stump lives in a travelling circus. But although he gets to hang around with acrobats, play the fool with clowns, and put his head in a lion's mouth every night, he's the only kid there - and he's bored. But then Fizz decides to join a library, and life suddenly gets a lot more exciting, when a simple library card application leads to him being kidnapped by a pair of crazed pensioners! Will he ever see the circus again?

The first book in the Angelique De Xavier series, from multi-award-winning author Chris Brookmyre. We all make life choices. Some cause more mayhem than others. Back when they were students, just like everybody else, Ray Ash and Simon Darcourt had dreams about what they'd do when they grew up. In both their cases, it was to be rock stars. Fifteen years later, their mid-thirties are bearing down fast, and just like everybody else, they're having to accept the less glamorous hands reality has dealt them. Nervous new father Ray takes refuge from his responsibilities by living a virtual existence in online games. People say he needs to grow up, but everybody has to find their own way of coping. For some it's affairs, for others it's the bottle, and for Simon it's serial murder, mass slaughter and professional assassination. PRAISE FOR CHRIS BROOKMYRE 'In the pantheon of great crime writers' Elly Griffiths 'Keeps you guessing until the very end' The Times 'Offers a brilliantly scathing portrayal of humanity' Time Out

"Should appeal to all rugged individualists who dream of escape to the forest."—The New York Times Book Review Sam Gribley is terribly unhappy living in New York City with his family, so he runs away to the Catskill Mountains to live in the woods—all by himself. With only a penknife, a ball of cord, forty dollars, and some flint and steel, he intends to survive on his own. Sam learns about courage, danger, and independence during his year in the wilderness, a year that changes his life forever. “An extraordinary book . . . It will be read year after year.” —The Horn Book

He was the sole survivor when his village was massacred. The boy spends his days alone in the woods, feeling more of a kinship with animals than with the people who took him in but never really accepted him. Written as a middle grade novel about a Native American orphan trying to find a place in the world. The story is set six thousand years ago in the mid-archaic period of North American history.

Charley feels unwanted by Aunt Emm who has come to stay during her parents' absence, so she runs away and lives outdoors.

A hardcover release of a darkly comic, cautionary 1907 classic adds whimsical illustrations, interactive lift-flaps and a roaring lion pop-up to the story of a youngster whose forays from home culminate in a "miserable end."