This humorous and interactive lift-the-flap book tells the rhyming story of the different presents that a family receive on Christmas Day. Children can lift the flaps to discover new text and hidden images, as if they are exploring the world in which the story unfolds. This lift-the-flap narrative is an ideal way for young children to practise their literacy and hand-eye coordination skills.

This humorous and interactive lift-the-flap book tells the rhyming story of the daily lives of the different animals that live on a farm. Children can lift the flaps to discover new text and hidden images, as if they are exploring the world in which the story unfolds. This lift-the-flap narrative is an ideal way for young children to practise their literacy and hand-eye coordination skills.

None of them would forget that week on the wild Norfolk coast. Best friends Rosie and Lisa's families had always been inseparable. But that summer, Lisa had an affair with Rosie's husband Nick. And now, after years of silence, she sends Rosie a letter begging for help. A letter which exposes dark secrets. Daughter Daisy's fragile hold on reality begins to unravel. Teenage son Max blames himself for everything that happened that long hot summer. And Nick must confront his own version of events. There are four sides to this story. Who will you believe?

Tae Hyun buys a mirror for his wife as a present. No one in his family has ever seen a mirror before. When the family members look in the mirror, they don't recognize themselves. Will they figure out that they are looking at their own reflection? Retold by Nick Harris.

When Nick worked as a high-flying British lawyer in Moscow, he was seduced by the enigmatic Masha, who led him through her city: the electric nightclubs, intimate dachas, and state-wide corruption. And as Nick fell for Masha, he found that he fell away from himself; he knew that she was dangerous, but life in Russia was addictive, and it was too easy to bury secrets - and corpses - in the winter snows... .

When Nick worked as a high-flying British lawyer in Moscow, he was seduced by the enigmatic Masha, who led him through her city: the electric nightclubs, intimate dachas, and state-wide corruption. And as Nick fell for Masha, he found that he fell away from himself; he knew that she was dangerous, but life in Russia was addictive, and it was too easy to bury secrets - and corpses - in the winter snows... .

Snowdrops. That's what the Russians call them - the bodies that float up into the light in the thaw. Drunks, most of them, and homeless people who just give up and lie down into the whiteness, and murder victims hidden in the drifts by their killers. When Nick worked as a high-flying British lawyer in Moscow, he was seduced by the enigmatic Masha, who led him through her city: the electric nightclubs, intimate dachas, and state-wide corruption. And as Nick fell for Masha, he found that he fell away from himself; he knew that she was dangerous, but life in Russia was addictive, and it was too easy to bury secrets - and corpses - in the winter snows...

Wartime Friends is a tale of unbreakable bonds in times of strife, by bestselling author Margaret Dickinson. It is 1940s coastal Lincolnshire and Carolyn Holmes is keen to do what she can for the war effort. Raised on the family farm, she is prevented by her mother from going to secretarial college. Phyllis Carter, a widow from the Great War, lives close by with her son, Peter, who works on the farm. Peter and Carolyn are great friends but do not see a future together, although it is the dearest wish of both mothers to see them marry. After their home town is caught in an air raid, Peter decides to volunteer – to the distress of his mother – and Carolyn leaves to join the ATS, where she meets Beryl Morley, who will become a lifelong friend. Carolyn and Beryl are posted to Beaumanor Hall as ‘listeners’, the most difficult of signals intelligence gathering, intercepting enemy messages which are then sent to Bletchley Park for deciphering. As the war unfolds and their work becomes even more vital, Carolyn and Beryl’s friendship strengthens and, in the dangerous times that follow, they will both need the support of the other as they face personal troubles of their own and the lives of those they love are put at risk.

The present volume is the fourth issue of the Yearbook series entitled 'Evolution'. The title of the present volume is 'From Big Bang to Nanorobots'. In this way we demonstrate that all phases of evolution and Big History are covered in the articles of the present Yearbook. Several articles also present the forecasts about future development. The main objective of our Yearbook as well as of the previous issues is the creation of a unified interdisciplinary field of research in which the scientists specializing in different disciplines could work within the framework of unified or similar paradigms, using the common terminology and searching for common rules, tendencies and regularities. At the same time for the formation of such an integrated field one should use all available opportunities: theories, laws and methods. In the present volume, a number of such approaches are used. The volume consists of four sections: Universal Evolutionary Principles; Biosocial Evolution, Ecological Aspects, and Consciousness; Projects for the Future; In Memoriam. This Yearbook will be useful both for those who study interdisciplinary macroproblems and for specialists working in focused directions, as well as for those who are interested in evolutionary issues of Cosmology, Biology, History, Anthropology, Economics and other areas of study. More than that, this edition will challenge and excite your vision of your own life and the new discoveries going on around us!

Carolyn Woods was living happily in a quiet Cotswolds village when an attractive stranger abruptly arrived in her life. Introducing himself as Mark Conway, he exuded confidence and to her surprise Carolyn quickly became captivated by this mysterious man. A rich Swiss banker (who later confessed to being a spy), he offered Carolyn companionship and introduced her to an exciting, glamorous world. In fact, some things were so astonishing she began to question her new lover. Was all as it seemed? The truth was even harder to believe. For a start, his real name was Mark Acklom, he was wanted by Interpol, and he was rich but for one reason only ... A true crime story that reads like a thriller, Sleeping with a Psychopath is a blow-by-blow account of the power of manipulation and a testament to the human will to survive.

Carolyn Woods was living happily in a quiet Cotswolds village when an attractive stranger abruptly arrived in her life. Introducing himself as Mark Conway, he exuded confidence and to her surprise Carolyn quickly became captivated by this mysterious man. A rich Swiss banker (who later confessed to being a spy), he offered Carolyn companionship and introduced her to an exciting, glamorous world. In fact, some things were so astonishing she began to question her new lover. Was all as it seemed? The truth was even harder to believe. For a start, his real name was Mark Acklom, he was wanted by Interpol, and he was rich but for one reason only ... A true crime story that reads like a thriller, Sleeping with a Psychopath is a blow-by-blow account of the power of manipulation and a testament to the human will to survive.

There's trouble at sea for an ex-war hero in this gripping thriller from the international bestselling author of the Sharpe novels In muddy waters, even heroes drown . . . With his father in prison for fraud, his ex-wife bleeding him dry and his spine shattered by a bullet, Falklands war hero Nick Sandman, VC, has no money and no prospects. Only his boat - Sycorax -and his dream of sailing her away from his troubles is keeping him alive. But Sycorax is as crippled as Nick. To rebuild his wrecked and stranded dream, Nick is forced into a devil's bargain with egomaniacal TV star Tony Bannister. Bannister is the owner of Wildtrack, an ocean racer, and he wants Nick to be part of the crew that will sail the ship to victory. Bannister, though, has made some powerful enemies who are out for revenge, leaving Nick caught in the middle . . . Can he keep Wildtrack and his dreams of escape aboard Sycorax afloat?

Ebenezer Scrooge is a mean-spirited old man who hates everything - even Christmas! But when three spirits visit him one Christmas Eve, Scrooge is taken on a journey into the past, present and future that will change him forever. Specially rewritten as part of the Usborne Young Reading Programme for readers growing in confidence.

July is a slave girl who lives upon a sugar plantation named Amity and it is her life that is the subject of this tale. She was there when the Baptist War raged in 1831, and she was present when slavery was declared no more. My son says I must convey how the story tells also of July's mama Kitty, of the negroes that worked the plantation land, of Caroline Mortimer the white woman who owned the plantation and many more persons besides - far too many for me to list here. But what befalls them all is carefully chronicled upon these pages for you to peruse.

July is a slave girl who lives upon a sugar plantation named Amity and it is her life that is the subject of this tale. She was there when the Baptist War raged in 1831, and she was present when slavery was declared no more. My son says I must convey how the story tells also of July's mama Kitty, of the negroes that worked the plantation land, of Caroline Mortimer the white woman who owned the plantation and many more persons besides - far too many for me to list here. But what befalls them all is carefully chronicled upon these pages for you to peruse.

The English see more ghosts than any other nation. From medieval times to the present day, stories have been told about ghosts who avenge injustice, souls who long for peace and spooks who just want to have fun. The English Ghost is a treasure trove of such sightings; comical and scary, like all the best ghost stories, these accounts, packed with eerie detail, range from the moaning child that terrified Wordworth's nephew at Cambridge to modern day hitchhikers on Blue Bell Hill.