When the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Mieko's nearby village was turned into ruins, and her hand was badly injured. Mieko loves to do calligraphy more than anything, but now she can barely hold a paintbrush. And she feels as if she has lost something that she can't paint without-the legendary fifth treasure, beauty in the heart. Then she is sent to live with her grandparents and must go to a new school. But Mieko is brave and eventually learns that time and patience can help with many things, and may even help her find the fifth treasure.

Forget the 10,000 hour rule— what if it’s possible to learn the basics of any new skill in 20 hours or less? Take a moment to consider how many things you want to learn to do. What’s on your list? What’s holding you back from getting started? Are you worried about the time and effort it takes to acquire new skills—time you don’t have and effort you can’t spare? Research suggests it takes 10,000 hours to develop a new skill. In this nonstop world when will you ever find that much time and energy? To make matters worse, the early hours of prac­ticing something new are always the most frustrating. That’s why it’s difficult to learn how to speak a new language, play an instrument, hit a golf ball, or shoot great photos. It’s so much easier to watch TV or surf the web . . . In The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman offers a systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any new skill as quickly as possible. His method shows you how to deconstruct com­plex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers. By complet­ing just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice you’ll go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. Kaufman personally field-tested the meth­ods in this book. You’ll have a front row seat as he develops a personal yoga practice, writes his own web-based computer programs, teaches himself to touch type on a nonstandard key­board, explores the oldest and most complex board game in history, picks up the ukulele, and learns how to windsurf. Here are a few of the sim­ple techniques he teaches: Define your target performance level: Fig­ure out what your desired level of skill looks like, what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific, the better. Deconstruct the skill: Most of the things we think of as skills are actually bundles of smaller subskills. If you break down the subcompo­nents, it’s easier to figure out which ones are most important and practice those first. Eliminate barriers to practice: Removing common distractions and unnecessary effort makes it much easier to sit down and focus on deliberate practice. Create fast feedback loops: Getting accu­rate, real-time information about how well you’re performing during practice makes it much easier to improve. Whether you want to paint a portrait, launch a start-up, fly an airplane, or juggle flaming chain­saws, The First 20 Hours will help you pick up the basics of any skill in record time . . . and have more fun along the way.

Based on years of experience teaching English to non-native speakers, this insightful How To guide describes not only the particular challenges that multilinguals face compared to native English speakers but also the unique benefits of working in multiple languages.

A surprisingly simple way for students to master any subject--based on one of the world's most popular online courses and the bestselling book A Mind for Numbers A Mind for Numbers and its wildly popular online companion course "Learning How to Learn" have empowered more than two million learners of all ages from around the world to master subjects that they once struggled with. Fans often wish they'd discovered these learning strategies earlier and ask how they can help their kids master these skills as well. Now in this new book for kids and teens, the authors reveal how to make the most of time spent studying. We all have the tools to learn what might not seem to come naturally to us at first--the secret is to understand how the brain works so we can unlock its power. This book explains: Why sometimes letting your mind wander is an important part of the learning process How to avoid "rut think" in order to think outside the box Why having a poor memory can be a good thing The value of metaphors in developing understanding A simple, yet powerful, way to stop procrastinating Filled with illustrations, application questions, and exercises, this book makes learning easy and fun.

HOW TO MASTER ENGLISH This book is all 3 volumes of the very popular 'Master English in 12 Topics' series. Once you master the vocabulary in this book you will have a very good foundation for speaking fluently about 36 everyday topics. This book is the ultimate stepping stone from 'intermediate' to 'advanced' English. Lots of intermediate English speakers tend to get trapped using the same vocabulary over and over again. They often only speak about subjects they know the words for and avoid anything outside of their 'comfort zone'. The problem with this is that even though they sound ok, they never really get any better. If you really want to improve, you need to be able to speak about a wide range of topics. For this, you will need to learn the special vocabulary connected to these topics. What are the benefits of using this book? You will learn over 600 useful words and phrases. You will be able to speak about 36 new topics with confidence. This will greatly improve your English conversational ability. All new words and phrases are introduced in fun and interesting articles and stories. So you will learn naturally. Everything is explained in easy to understand English, so you can get used to 'thinking in English' There are 100's of example sentences to help you understand how these words and phrases are used in everyday language. For each topic I have listed useful television shows and YouTube channels to help you practice your new vocabulary. Remember these are all topics that native speakers often talk about. They also tend to use specialised language so it's important that you know it too. If you are in the intermediate level and are looking to really improve then this a great place to start. Get started on your journey to English fluency today by clicking the buy button.