Juan Castro, at the age of seven, loses his entire family. The Cobra gang of Escuintla raises him up to be a top assassin and drug dealer. Over the course of three decades he escapes death 13 times. Eventually his activities in the gang life become so severe that El Gato Negro is forced to hide in America. Even his education with the wizard, and a myriad of jefes, cannot protect him from the inevitable.

Juan Castro, at the age of seven, loses his entire family. The Cobra gang of Escuintla raises him up to be a top assassin and drug dealer. Over the course of three decades he escapes death 13 times. Eventually his activities in the gang life become so severe that El Gato Negro is forced to hide in America. Even his education with the wizard, and a myriad of jefes, cannot protect him from the inevitable.

This expanded fourth edition defines and cross-references 9,040 homophones and 2,133 homographs (up from 7,870 and 1,554 in the 3rd ed.). As the most comprehensive compilation of American homophones (words that sound alike) and homographs (look-alikes), this latest edition serves well where even the most modern spell-checkers and word processors fail--although rain, reign, and rein may be spelled correctly, the context in which these words may appropriately be used is not obvious to a computer.

John Ross has been living in the old colonial quarter of Mexico City for the last three decades, a rebel journalist covering Mexico and the region from the bottom up. He is filled with a gnawing sense that his beloved Mexico City's days as the most gargantuan, chaotic, crime-ridden, toxically contaminated urban stain in the western world are doomed, and the monster he has grown to know and love through a quarter century of reporting on its foibles and tragedies and blight will be globalized into one more McCity. El Monstruo is a defense of place and the history of that place. No one has told the gritty, vibrant histories of this city of 23 million faceless souls from the ground up, listened to the stories of those who have not been crushed, deconstructed the Monstruo's very monstrousness, and lived to tell its secrets. In El Monstruo, Ross now does.

An award-winning debut novel from a stellar new voice in middle grade fiction.Matt Pin would like to forget: war torn Vietnam, bombs that fell like dead crows, and the terrible secret he left behind. But now that he is living with a caring adoptive family in the United States, he finds himself forced to confront his past. And that means choosing between silence and candor, blame and forgiveness, fear and freedom.By turns harrowing, dreamlike, sad, and triumphant, this searing debut novel, written in lucid verse, reveals an unforgettable perspective on the lasting impact of war and the healing power of love.

A dictionary with words and drawings on each page which will help you learn Japanese.

The blind Country and Western singer recounts his difficult childhood, describes the highlights of his professional career, and discusses the people and events that contributed to his success