This is an exciting, hands-on resource comprising over 200 whole-class lesson plans. These can be used with a class in their very first week at school in Year 1 right through to their last week in Year 6. Each lesson plan focuses on a text, provides prompts for discussion and gives clearly explained, engaging activities to suit all learning styles. The lesson plans are based on 152 popular children's books. There are many cross-curricular opportunities, with specific links to literacy, particularly through the drama, speaking and listening plans of the Renewed Primary Strategy. The scheme also includes Circle Time games specially selected for their positive effect on the emotional well-being of the child. The author, who is an Advanced Skills Teacher, spent two years developing the scheme of work. Each lesson plan has been tried and tested in many schools and is steeped in excellent primary practice. The scheme is designed to support the aims of the Every Child Matters agenda. The plans are differentiated by year group and are set out in modules which each last for six weeks, making the resource a manageable format for class teachers to use and an ideal solution to the delivery of SEAL Primary.

This is a collection of approximately 20 poems all about anger. They look at what it means to be angry and how anger can be overcome. It takes a lighthearted approach to the serious subject, and the simple rhymes and short stanzas make it suitable for use in the National Literacy Strategy.

"Monica Hand's me and Nina is a beautiful book by a soul survivor. In these poems she sings deep songs of violated intimacy and the hard work of repair. The poems are unsentimental, blood-red, and positively true, note for note, like the singing of Nina Simone herself. Hand has written a moving, deeply satisfying, and unforgettable book."—Elizabeth Alexander In an intimate conversation with the "High Priestess of Soul," Monica A. Hand surveys the places and moods of alienation through poems that are as musical and stylistically diverse as Nina Simone's work. Hand readily embraces a "mass hypnosis" style, putting "a spell on [us]" with her intensely passionate cries and commitment to embracing both tragedy and exuberance in these insightful poems. From "Dear Nina": I am not recession depression oppression compression crooked line broken line polka dot parking lot or spot I am a Gift from God I know that I am an un-kept solo song Monica A. Hand is a poet and book artist currently living in Harlem, New York. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Aunt Chloe, Black Renaissance Noire, The Sow's Ear, Drunken Boat, Beyond the Frontier, African-American Poetry for the 21st Century, Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem's First Decade, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in poetry and poetry in translation from Drew University and is a founding member of Poets for Ayiti.

DescriptionMel Cross wrote her extraordinary book because, when in the depths of depression, she couldn't find a book to explain what it was really like to be in the place where she was. Like many sufferers Mel found that there were plenty of medical books and books which seemed patronising but no books expressing what it was really like to be deeply depressed. Melanie wanted to use her experience to help other people understand the illness and even be able draw on experiences from the book to help themselves, or friends or family who are suffering. This book describes how a 'normal' person with a 'normal' life overcomes chronic depression. Mel is not ashamed of her depression and hopes her book will allow others to feel the same way. About the AuthorMelanie Cross was born in Bristol in 1971 and now lives in the lovely Painswick valley in the Cotswolds with her husband, daughter and crazy cat George. In 1995 Melanie completed a B.Ed (Hons) degree and went on to teach at a primary school in Bristol, until she became ill in 1999. As she recovered she went on to run and manage an Animal Care Centre and took further qualifications in feline behaviour and became an assessor of NVQs in Animal Care. Mel took time off from her animal care work in order to write her book, she now lives a very happy life doing the most important job in the world - being a mum!

When down-at-heel Glasgow conjurer William Wilson gets booked for a string of cabaret gigs in Berlin, he's hoping his luck's on the turn. There were certain spectators from his last show who he'd rather forget. Like the one who's now a corpse. Amongst the showgirls and tricksters of Berlin's scandalous underground Wilson can abandon his heart, his head and, more importantly, his past. But secrets have a habit of catching up with him and, as he gets sucked into certain lucrative after-hours work, the line between what's an act and what's real starts to blur.

'What a read!' MARIAN KEYES 'Deeply moving and very funny...I loved it' LOUISE O'NEILL 'The funniest book you'll read this year' LAUREN BRAVO Katherine lives by the rules, ticks all the boxes and prepares for the worst, even while she hopes for the best. Then the worst actually happens and, as she tries to navigate life as a young widow, it turns out she was not prepared at all. Nothing scares Katherine more than stopping, but everyone insists she needs to take some time for herself. Head to a wellness retreat, they said. Enjoy some me-time, they said... Except this retreat isn't the pity party she was hoping for. Instead of massages, she has erotic meditation, and instead of spa treatments she has scream therapy. Katherine has never lost control in her life. In fact, she's fairly certain that if she starts screaming she might never stop. But she's about to let go, and everyone had better stand back... Hilarious, heartbreaking and honest, this is a story about learning how to stop playing it safe in a world that feels so dangerous - and showing up to the party, even when it feels impossible. *** 'Thought-provoking, charming, cathartic and hilariously vivid' SARAH KNIGHT 'Hilarious, moving and unexpected' REBECCA WAIT 'A standout novel - heartbreaking, observant, deeply relatable and impossibly funny' ROSIE WALSH 'Pity Party is perfection' LINDSEY KELK 'Unbelievably good' LUCY VINE 'I laughed, I cried, I screamed, I devoured every page... a laugh-out-loud balm' NIKKI MAY 'Daisy Buchanan makes me laugh out loud' KATHERINE HEINY 'Wonderfully funny. Her best book yet' NINA STIBBE 'Crackling with energy, humour, warmth, and quirk' JENNY MUSTARD 'Every line in this book is a wonder' CAROLINE CORCORAN 'Moving, funny and wise all at once' KATE RIORDAN 'Smart, sexy, and will grab hold of your heart' JADE BEER 'Nobody writes about the messiness of life like Daisy' JULIE OWEN MOYLAN 'Gloriously readable...I tore through it!' MARINA O'LOUGHLIN 'Original, moving and totally addictive' ROXY BOURDILLON