'Wild, thrilling, brutally honest and beautifully tender. This is a truly extraordinary new play.' Lucy Kirkwood WINNER OF THE VERITY BARGATE AWARD 2022 A father waits for his son. Kids hang around skipping school. Fights break out after nights of drinking. Set inside a men's public toilet, Boys on the Verge of Tears is a bold, kaleidoscopic tale of violence and vulnerability. Sam Grabiner's play premiered at Soho Theatre, London, in April 2024.

As The Giving Tree turns fifty, this timeless classic is available for the first time ever in ebook format. This digital edition allows young readers and lifelong fans to continue the legacy and love of a classic that will now reach an even wider audience. "Once there was a tree...and she loved a little boy." So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein. This moving parable for all ages offers a touching interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another's capacity to love in return. Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk...and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and gave and gave. This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. Shel Silverstein's incomparable career as a bestselling children's book author and illustrator began with Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back. He is also the creator of picture books including A Giraffe and a Half, Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros?, The Missing Piece, The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, and the perennial favorite The Giving Tree, and of classic poetry collections such as Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, Every Thing On It, Don't Bump the Glump!, and Runny Babbit. And don't miss the other Shel Silverstein ebooks, Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic!

To escape a brutal life on the Liverpool docks, a boy runs away to sea Arthur Fearon is nearly thirteen, and in the eyes of the law, that makes him a man. He wants to study to become a chemist, but his family cannot afford for him to continue school. The thought of a life working the docks makes Fearon break down in front of his classmates, but there is no time to cry. This boy has to get to work. The docks are hellish, and Fearon’s first day is his last. He hops a steamer to Alexandria, looking for a better life on the sea, but everywhere he goes, he finds cruelty, vice, and the crushing weight of adulthood. He will not be a man for long. The subject of an infamous 1930s obscenity trial, this is the original, unexpurgated text of James Hanley’s landmark novel: an unflinching examination of child labor and a timeless tale of adulthood gained too soon.

While the war brings out the best in most, it brings out the worst in others, as a young mother soon discovers... A gripping saga of life for those left behind during the war, Pam Evans' When the Boys Come Home is a heart-breaking story of love, family and tragedy that won't fail to enthral. Perfect for fans of Rosie Goodwin and Cathy Sharp. As German bombs wreak havoc on West London, for Morgan's Dairy it's business as usual. But when owner Dai Morgan is killed in an air raid, his daughter Megan is determined to continue in her father's footsteps and she braves the ravaged streets alone to do his milk round by horse and cart. Megan finds comfort in the knowledge that her twin girls are tucked away in a Welsh village, but she worries about her husband, Will, abroad with his platoon. And when Will's best friend, Doug Reynolds, returns, wounded and disfigured, she doesn't hesitate to take the poor man in. However, Doug is not the man she thinks he is. And when the boys come home, Megan has battle scars she can't allow Will to see... What readers are saying about When the Boys Come Home: 'Please, buy or read this "feel good" novel. I am a fan of Pamela Evans anyway, but this one manages to grip the imagination, is hard to put down and keeps the reader up to and including the last page. Heartily recommended!' 'Five stars'

We take for granted the idea that white, middle-class, straight masculinity connotes total control of emotions, emotional inexpressivity, and emotional isolation. That men repress their feelings as they seek their fortunes in the competitive worlds of business and politics seems to be a given. This collection of essays by prominent literary and cultural critics rethinks such commonly held views by addressing the history and politics of emotion in prevailing narratives about masculinity. How did the story of the emotionally stifled U.S. male come into being? What are its political stakes? Will the "release" of straight, white, middle-class masculine emotion remake existing forms of power or reinforce them? This collection forcefully challenges our most entrenched ideas about male emotion. Through readings of works by Thoreau, Lowell, and W. E. B. Du Bois, and of twentieth century authors such as Hemingway and Kerouac, this book questions the persistence of the emotionally alienated male in narratives of white middle-class masculinity and addresses the political and social implications of male emotional release.

The problem isn't with boys, it's with our expectations of them In a book that's part advice and part exposÉ, psy­chologist and expert on boyhood development Dr. Anthony Rao challenges some of the potentially harmful assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors we've developed toward young boyhood over the last few decades. This is not an indictment of medication therapies—in some important instances, Dr. Rao argues that medication is appropriate and necessary. Rather, The Way of Boys is a celebration of natural, constructive boyhood development and an expert, definitive handbook on what to look for and expect in normal growth. Ask yourself these questions: Is his behavior serious enough to interfere with functioning? Does it keep him from sleeping, eating, attending school, or staying safe? Does it persist over a few weeks or more? Does it show itself more than a few isolated times per day? Does it happen in different settings? Has it been reported by different people? If your answer is yes to any of these, your son may have symptoms that need further assessment by a pediatrician or other qualified developmental specialist. But a yes answer doesn't mean your son has a lifelong disorder or that the first line of defense is medication. Boys are being bombarded with a slew of diagnoses—ADHD, Asperger's, bipolar disorder—at an alarming rate and at younger ages. The Way of Boys urges parents, educators, pediatricians, psychologists, and other developmental experts to reevaluate and significantly change how we deal with our youngest boys. It's time we stopped trying to "fix" young boys. When parents understand the wide spectrum for normal boy development, they can successfully communicate with their son—and everyone in their son's life—and help him grow into a healthy, smart, strong man.