It's summertime, and Baby is looking for the beach ball--but where can it be? Little ones can lift the large, sturdy flaps in this board book to reveal pretty seashells, crawly crabs, and more! Babies will love this interactive adventure!

The irresistible novel that was adapted into a major motion picture starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The Khao San Road, Bangkok -- first stop for the hordes of rootless young Westerners traveling in Southeast Asia. On Richard's first night there, in a low-budget guest house, a fellow traveler slashes his wrists, bequeathing to Richard a meticulously drawn map to "the Beach." The Beach, as Richard has come to learn, is the subject of a legend among young travelers in Asia: a lagoon hidden from the sea, with white sand and coral gardens, freshwater falls surrounded by jungle, plants untouched for a thousand years. There, it is rumored, a carefully selected international few have settled in a communal Eden. Haunted by the figure of Mr. Duck -- the name by which the Thai police have identified the dead man -- and his own obsession with Vietnam movies, Richard sets off with a young French couple to an island hidden away in an archipelago forbidden to tourists. They discover the Beach, and it is as beautiful and idyllic as it is reputed to be. Yet over time it becomes clear that Beach culture, as Richard calls it, has troubling, even deadly, undercurrents. Spellbinding and hallucinogenic, The Beach by Alex Garland -- both a national bestseller and his debut -- is a highly accomplished and suspenseful novel that fixates on a generation in their twenties, who, burdened with the legacy of the preceding generation and saturated by popular culture, long for an unruined landscape, but find it difficult to experience the world firsthand.

This is a heartwarming and comical story set in post-war Dublin. It follows the trials and tribulations of a family from humble background. The father has illusions of grandeur, which results in them living far beyond their means. This is not helped by his habit of stopping off at the pub almost every night. The schemes that ensue in order to try and achieve this lifestyle lead to hilarious events. The author uses his own experiences to depict a true example of how Irish families of that era used whatever means possible, be it humour and sometimes stretching of the rules, to cope with the hardship of the times. The story centres on the youngest of the three brothers and includes many of the colourful characters that went into making Ireland the unique country it was at that time. The story follows the family’s journey from the childhood of the boys through to their adulthood.

Where’s Waldo? Enjoying a refreshed cover on his first adventure — plus two new pages of games and searches! In the amazing original that set off the worldwide search for Waldo, the intrepid traveler is trekking from the beach to the mountains, the city to the county fair. And everywhere he goes, he somehow manages to lose more belongings to be found.

DescriptionThis book follows on from when the story of my childhood, told in 'Child of the Thirties, ' ended. I begin this memoir in the summer holidays after I left school in 1945; free time in those days is very different from free time today! My mother was still in a psychiatric hospital. I have tried to contract the events of over sixty years into a single book, giving a personal view of some the many changes that have occurred in society, together with some incidents in my personal life. I discuss a number of issues concerning the changes in care of the mentally ill. There are many contrasts made between aspects of life during the past sixty years with expectations and aspirations of today.Constancy is a theme that occurs throughout the book. The constancy of my father's concern for my mother; his regular visiting, and unsuccessful attempt to have her living at home again; his lonely life was impressed upon me as I wrote. In 1959 I met m mother again, and saw her for the first time in twenty years. From then on I kept in constant touch my mother, visiting her regularly until she died in 1992About the AuthorSheila Brook was born in 1931 and lived in Middlesex for many years. Long periods of her early childhood were spent living in other people's homes owing to her mother's recurrent episodes of mental illness. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War her mother was again admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Twenty years passed before she and her mother met again.Sheila has lived in Hertfordshire for over forty years, and when her children were older she began a new career as a primary school teacher. Severe, long-standing, facial neuralgia forced her to take early retirement after some years of teaching, and the satisfaction she had in her chosen career made this hard to bear. Her first book, 'Child of the Thirties', covered the first fourteen years of her life, and her story now continues in 'Where is the Key', as she describes many of the changes that have occurred in her own life and in society in general through the second half of the twentieth century. Sheila has suffered from various forms of severe neuralgic pain but has managed to maintain an active life, playing tennis until she had turned seventy, and then enjoying a weekly Keep Fit class. She is an avid reader when time permits and loves her garden. She used to enjoy cooking, but finds this less satisfying since her husband's death in 2007. She enjoys doing jigsaw puzzles when time permits, but her writing has taken up all her spare time in recent years. The constant pain she suffers, made worse when sitting down, and also her acute sensitivity to loud noise now limit her involvement in many social activities.Sheila wrote her first book in her maiden name of Brook as a tribute to her late parents. Her mother features with affection in her second book. As she continued her story she appreciated how much anxiety and sorrow her father had suffered, and how mental illness had deprived her mother of her home, her family and her freedom.

Harry likes to play hide-and-seek, but it’s hard to hide a hippo! Little readers will love being in on the joke as they spot the formidable Harry. When Harry and his friends are at the beach, they always play their favorite game, hide-and-seek. In a hammock, under a sand castle, or behind a palm tree — there are so many places for Harry to hide. Or try to, at least!

World War II interrupted Anneros Valensis childhood. Born in East Germany in 1938, she was just six years old when the war and its fallout struck her and her family. In Where is Home? she shares the story of how she survived the miseries of war. In a narrative told from the perspective of a six-year-old child, this memoir shares the realities of what life was like during that time and what needed to be done to stay alive. Valensi tells the stories of war, beginning with the cruel Russian occupation of her homeland, the trauma of an unsettled life, her familys move to West Germany in 1946, the drafting of her father into the army, and life with her mother and four siblings when there was scant food and no shelter. Where is Home? follows Valensi as she seeks a new life first in London and then later in the United States. Providing stark, firsthand insight into the realities of war, Where is Home? tells one familys story, the challenges they encountered, and the long-term effects on their psyches.