Over 90 stories from the Bible, vividly retold by David Kossoff in this long-running bestseller. David Kossoff first starting retelling Bible stories for BBC radio in the early sixties. He was so popular that he was given his own television series, made records and public performances, and even had one of his pieces set to music and premiered at the Festival Hall. In this collection of tales from the Old Testament, ranging from Adam and Eve to Daniel, he sets vivid scenes and brings characters to life with simplicity and imagination, reaching every time to the very heart of the story. 'There is no more difficult task than to make the old new and the familiar interesting...This is the reason why I have read with such pleasure and delight David Kossoff's stories from the Bible. To my mind there is no doubt at all that he makes these stories come alive. He has the gift of making old stories new for he is a born story teller.' From the Foreword by William Barclay

This collection redefines the great canon of American poetry from its origins in the 17th century right up to the present. It features the work of more than 200 poets, almost three times as many as the 1976 edition. The book includes not only writers born since the previous edition, but also many fine poets overlooked in earlier editions or little known in the past but highly deserving of attention. Many more women and African-American poets are represented, and unexpected figures such as the musicians Bob Dylan, Patti Smith and Robert Johnson have a place.--From publisher description.

Was there ever life on Mars? Will Earth be hit by an asteroid? Are there any other solar systems? Backyard Astronomy guides you through the mysteries of the universe and tells you everything you need to know about becoming a proficient backyard astronomer.

Hidden Talents is the first novel in a hit supernatural duology for young readers by award-winning author David Lubar. This hilarious coming-of-age-with-powers story starring the misfits at Edgeview Alternative School was shortlisted for the Printz Award and is now available in trade paperback. When thirteen-year-old Martin Anderson arrives at the Edgeview Alternative School, it's the end of the road. Literally. He's been expelled from every other school. Edgeview is the last stop. A warehouse for the system's rejects. Martin fits right in. Everyone has given up on Martin. Even Martin. But at Edgeview Martin falls in with a group of five outsiders who make the other Edgeview rejects appear gifted by comparison. He makes a remarkable discovery: each of his friends possesses a remarkable talent. One is telekinetic. Another is empathic. Others have psychic abilities. Martin thinks these talents make them special. They think it makes them freaks. Martin has one shot to convince them otherwise. " Hidden Talents provides us with a glimpse of David Lubar as a writer whose comic talent is matched by his ability to write with sensitivity and power about adolescents." — The Alan Review

Kids can be such monsters. Literally. From the award-winning author of Hidden Talents, two remarkable short story collections - Kidzilla and The Witch's Monkey - together for the first time. Plus several brand new stories. Each hilarious and harrowing. A substitute teacher finds out she has some monsters for students. A group of kids attempt a levitation trick with hair-raising results. A neighborhood is so boring the grown ups are turning into...well...you know. And dozens more. So don't be a weenie! Read these stories!

Looniverse #2 is even wackier than the first book! This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line called Branches, which is aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow!Ed has to sell chocolate bars to raise money for his soccer team, but the bars have all melted. He must find another way to raise money--and fast! Ed uses his newfound ability to make strange things happen, but his plans go awry and Ed ends up needing money for the soccer team, his friend Mouse, AND two new windows! With surreal and funny antics throughout, the second book in this heavily illustrated early chapter book series is sure to keep kids laughing.

After Lud Mellon is bitten by a bevy of bizarre bugs, he has fun crawling up walls, drooling on his food, and rolling around in garbage but when his father calls in the exterminators, Lud must figure out how to stop his transformation before it is too late.

Just when Alex is getting close to the kickball home-run record at school, he starts getting hit with awful sneezing fits, completely messing up his game. He's allergic to a vampire!

Extremely Reform Judaism is one of the world's fastest growing denominations and also its most misunderstood-ever since the ancient forefathers first lifted their eyes to God to ask, "Why can't we have a Christmas Tree?" How to Be an Extremely Reform Jew pokes irreverent yet good-natured fun its subject, with chapters on the mandatory and optional Extremely Reform Jewish holidays; maintaining the Extremely Reform Jewish home; diaspora travel tips; Extremely Reform rites of passage (circumcision, bar mitzvah, intermarriage); and how to deprogram your Extremely Reform child after he has joined a religious cult. Highlights include "The Ten Suggestions"; a "Feast and Fast Yo-Yo Diet Guide to Jewish Holidays"; and "Glengarry Glen Purim, a David Mamet Purim Play." This humorous illustrated guide contains numerous quotations from ancient Extremely Reform Jewish texts, such as, "He who gives a coin to the poor is rewarded with six blessings, but he who makes a pledge to charity receives a free tote bag," and, "Thou shalt not stand outside the synagogue on the High Holy Days scalping thy tickets to the services." First published by Avon Books in 1994, the new edition preserves the content of the original in fresh paperback and ebook formats. It's an ideal gift for Hanukkah or any occasion.

Children have been recruited for fighting throughout history - as soldiers in regular and guerilla armies, in armed revolts, and for political terrorism. However, these children cannot always be viewed as victims of remorseless and criminal leaders. In some situations, joining the fighting is the best or the only alternative for the young. Ch. 2 (pp. 19-56), "Fighting for Their Lives: Jewish Child Soldiers of World War II", discusses children's participation in the Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. Using mainly material from resistance and partisan groups in Lithuania, Poland, and Belarus, shows that joining the fighters was sometimes the Jewish children's only hope for survival. The children were motivated by necessity and a sense of honor and duty. Zionist and leftist movements, in particular Hashomer Hatzair, which headed the resistance in many ghettos, cultivated independence and militancy of the young and were especially inclined to draw children into their ranks.

Each house, like each place, has its own topography, its own lore. A complex history comes down to us, through household jokes and anecdotes, odd family habits and irrational superstitutions, that forever shapes what we see and the way in which we see it. In his book, David Malouf, one of Australia's most prestigious writers, takes an unsentimental journey into his past. Beginning with his childhood home, he moves on to show other landmarks in his life, and the way places and things create our private worlds. Written with humour and uncompromising intelligence, 12 Edmondstone Street is an unforgettable portrait of one man's life.

These powerfully vivid stories from a great writer offer enormous pleasure, recognition and discovery. Ranging through the unreliable layers of family archaeology, they uncover earlier, vulnerable selves, moments of innocence or shame, and unfinished business, illumined by shocking flashes of unpredictable violence and pain, or glints of sly humour. In the brilliant cornerstone story the stuff of dreams is both real and imagined—rumoured fields of cannabis picked in secret by migrant workers, or a nightmare encounter on a dark city street. In “Night Training” a military recruit is scarred by his own complicity in a bizarre nightly ritual. From the image of a small boy entranced by his mother’s GI escort, yet still hoping for the return of a father missing in action, to “Sally’s Story” in which a comfort girl looks for comfort of her own, here are men and women in search of connection, or equally wary of it—whether with each other or with past selves. David Malouf evokes, like no other writer, dark shadows beneath the bright sun.

WINNER OF THE AUSTRALIA-ASIA LITERARY AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIME MINISTER'S LITERARY AWARD In these thirty-one stories David Malouf's imagination inhabits shocking violence, quick humour, appealing warmth and harsh cruelty with equal intensity. He shares tales of bookish boys, taciturn men and intimate stories of men and women looking for something they seem to have missed, or missed out on. A comprehensive compilation of David's shorter work, the stories are set in the stark and challenging Australian interior and the more lush and mysterious coastal enclaves; others are set in Australia's past. The youthful dreams, physical desires and mental despair of Malouf's richly varied characters as they explore their place in the world are always moving and universal. Readers won't want to skim a single page of the stories in this epic collection, a few of which are novella length. Together, they represent a quarter-century of a formidable craftsman's career. ______________________________________ 'Australia's finest writer' MIRIAM COSIC, THE AUSTRALIAN 'Malouf is a lyrical story-writer.' MALCOLM KNOX, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 'A richly imagistic writer, philosophical and literary in the best sense.' WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD 'A first-rate writer-a sensitive historian of the spirit.' WALL STREET JOURNAL

Within the framework of the position that the world will always hate the Jews and that Christian antisemitism remains strong while Muslim antisemitism is now fierce and lethal, focuses on Jewish self-hatred. Discusses apostate Jews, who are deemed guilty of race treason against their fellow Jews and are viewed as unaligned, non-observant, anti-Zionist "ex-Jews" suffering from Jewish guilt and self-loathing. Like non-Jews, apostate Jews are uncomfortable with the refusal of the State of Israel to accept victim status and they prefer dead Jews to live ones. Identifies such anti-Zionists with the American Left. Refers, at times, to apostate Jews as masochistic or neurotic. Deals extensively with the problem of the rejection by these Jews of a Jewish identity which, in any case, the world will not forget or forgive. Calls on them to return home to their people, who are the only ones that will accept them.

With this screenplay David Mamet gives the traditional prison-break story his special blend of gripping suspense, slapdash buffoonery, and ingenious plotting. Bob, a vicious killer, cheats the electric chair by shooting his way out of the penitentiary, forcing two reluctant convicts to come along. Desperately dodging the cops, Ned and Jim reach a river that runs along the Canadian border. The bridge across it becomes their only hope of reaching safety, but a checkpoint guards the crossing. Mamet builds the tension to the breaking point with a series of sizzling surprises as time and again the escaped jailbirds fail by a hairsbreadth to slip past the guards. Disguised as priests, Ned and Jim are mistaken for two famous theologians attending the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows at a local monastery. The wickedly funny Mamet takes his two heroes down a dizzying course of serpentine adventures, demonstrating once again his peerless mas-tery of the art of cinematic suspense.

A unique collaboration between David Milch, the co-creator of the Emmy-winning NYPD Blue, and Bill Clark, a former New York homicide detective and now the show's creative consultant, True Blue tells the stories on which NYPD Blue is based, as well as those considered too controversial even for this groundbreaking series. of photos.

A compelling account of how a group of Hasidic Jews established its own local government on American soil Settled in the mid-1970s by a small contingent of Hasidic families, Kiryas Joel is an American town with few parallels in Jewish history—but many precedents among religious communities in the United States. This book tells the story of how this group of pious, Yiddish-speaking Jews has grown to become a thriving insular enclave and a powerful local government in upstate New York. While rejecting the norms of mainstream American society, Kiryas Joel has been stunningly successful in creating a world apart by using the very instruments of secular political and legal power that it disavows. Nomi Stolzenberg and David Myers paint a richly textured portrait of daily life in Kiryas Joel, exploring the community's guiding religious, social, and economic norms. They delve into the roots of Satmar Hasidism and its charismatic founder, Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum, following his journey from nineteenth-century Hungary to post–World War II Brooklyn, where he dreamed of founding an ideal Jewish town modeled on the shtetls of eastern Europe. Stolzenberg and Myers chart the rise of Kiryas Joel as an official municipality with its own elected local government. They show how constant legal and political battles defined and even bolstered the community, whose very success has coincided with the rise of political conservatism and multiculturalism in American society over the past forty years. Timely and accessible, American Shtetl unravels the strands of cultural and legal conflict that gave rise to one of the most vibrant religious communities in America, and reveals a way of life shaped by both self-segregation and unwitting assimilation.

"In May of 1945, German forces surrendered to the Allied powers, effectively putting an end to World War II in Europe. But the aftershocks of this global military conflict did not cease with the signing of truces and peace treaties. Millions of lost and homeless POWs, slave laborers, political prisoners, and concentration camp survivors overwhelmed Germany, a country in complete disarray. British and American soldiers gathered the malnourished and desperate foreigners, and attempted to repatriate them to Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and the USSR. But after exhaustive efforts, there remained over a million displaced persons who either refused to go home or, in the case of many, had no home to which to return. They would spend the next three to five years in displaced persons camps, divided by nationalities, temporary homelands in exile, with their own police forces, churches, schools, newspapers, and medical facilities. The international community couldn't agree on the fate of the Last Million, and after a year of fruitless debate and inaction, an International Refugee Organization was created to resettle them in lands suffering from labor shortages. But no nations were willing to accept the 200,000 to 250,000 Jewish men, women, and children who remained trapped in Germany. In 1948, the United States, among the last countries to accept anyone for resettlement, finally passed a Displaced Persons Bill - but as Cold War fears supplanted memories of WWII atrocities, the bill only granted visas to those who were reliably anti-communist, including thousands of former Nazi collaborators, Waffen-SS members, and war criminals, while barring the Jews who were suspected of being Communist sympathizers or agents because they had been recent residents of Soviet-dominated Poland. Only after the passage of the controversial UN resolution for the partition of Palestine and Israel's declaration of independence were the remaining Jewish survivors finally able to leave their displaced persons camps in Germany."--