Showing results by narrator "Debra Michaels" in All Categories

You can't avoid it, because it's everywhere. In the looks my kids get in certain spaces, the manner in which some people speak to them, the stuff that goes over their heads. Stuff that makes them cry even when they don't know why. How do you bring up your kids to be kind and happy when there is...

“A beautiful novel, suffused with fondness and wit. . . . A real triumph!” —Alexander McCall Smith Retired nurse, avid gardener, and renowned cake maker Miss Hortense has lived in Bigglesweigh, a quiet suburb of Birmingham, England, since she emigrated from Jamaica in 1960. She takes great...

Revolutions hold a distinct place in the popular imagination. This may be because their rhetoric, such as ‘liberty, fraternity, equality’, articulates aspirations with which we identify; or because we are shocked by the destructive forces unleashed when social conventions break down. Yet each revolution is unique, and the outcomes vary dramatically, from liberal reform to cruel dictatorship. Twenty-four leading historians, each writing about their country of origin, consider revolutions from England’s Glorious Revolution of 1688 to the Arab Spring of 2011.

That only happens to other people's kids, right? Wrong. In this compelling book, written by one of Britain's top experts in youth justice, Aika Stephenson reveals the extraordinary cases she deals with daily. From the obviously vulnerable to the A-grade student from a stable upbringing, Just for Kids Law, the campaigning charity co-founded by Stephenson in 2007, has helped thousands of children and young people overcome the

No One Talks About This Stuff is a support group for almost-parents. A place to share their journeys of loss and limbo, to confront social pressure and to find courage in the darkness of tragedies which happen every day yet are brushed under the carpet. So, we hear from a stepmother who wrestles...

Elemental spirits – the fiery Dragons, the airy Fumis, the watery Chads and the earthbound Magogs – have existed peacefully alongside humans for hundreds of years. Until today. A sleeping sickness hangs heavy in the air and monsters stir in dark corners...but who is to blame? Marisee and Robert are the Elemental Detectives chasing clues to avoid catastrophe, facing a riddling dragon, a tentacled plague monster from the deep and the ghosts of Hyde Park in their race-against-time mission to solve the mystery of the millennium.

Join Jada and Granny Jinks in this charming new series for readers aged 6+! Gorgeously illustrated throughout by Selom Sunu, and brimming with warmth, tricks and magic, this is the perfect read for fans of The Naughtiest Unicorn and Wigglesbottom Primary! Granny Jinks and Jada have officially...

Mary Jane Seacole (1805­-1881) was a British Jamaican nurse, author, world traveler, and businesswoman renowned for her work with the soldiers of the Crimean War.

Enjoy this collection of stories for children about life on the farm. In "Hector Helps Out", Calliope the hen enlists the help of Hector the rooster in an effort to retain her egg. They work to pull a fast one on Farmer Bean. Also included are nine other stories about animals and living on the farm: "Hatch!", "Fresh from the Farm", "Grandpa Drives a Milk Truck", "Mem and Grandpa at the Farm Stand", "Diggory Dog", "Fleece Fiber, Yarn Sweater", "Harvest Time with Papa", "Herbert, Hurry Up", and "A Rootin' Tootin' Cowboy".

Step into a London lit up by the Elemental spirits: the fiery Dragons, the airy Fumis, the watery Chads and the earthbound Magogs. A dragon is dreaming of a time when plague blighted the city, when a mysterious cauldron was used for wicked magic and what this would mean if it fell into the wrong hands now ... On a mission from the shores of the Thames, to the ghost-filled gardens of Hyde Park and the forbidding Tower of London, Marisee and Robert must use every ounce of ingenuity they possess to defeat the most villainous foe yet ... and find out some secrets about their own families.

The Short Story of the Universe is a new introduction to the subject of the universe. Covering 130 key components that make it up - from dwarf galaxies and spiral arms to red giants and the planets of the solar system - and linking these to the universe's structure and the theories that help us understand it, this book simplifies this riveting yet mind-boggling subject, telling the story of how it came into being and how it will eventually be no more.

A sparkling new Christmas novel from Julia Williams It’s Christmas, and Beth King is preparing to spend it in the bosom of her family, doing the same things they have done since time immemorial: arguing with each other, stuffing themselves silly, putting up with Grandad making them watch the...

Soul Sisters by Lesley Lokko is a rich, intergenerational tale of love, race, power and secrets which centres on the lifelong friendship between two women: Scottish Jen McFadden and South African-born Kemisa Mashabane, known to her friends as Kemi. Since childhood, Jen and Kemi have lived like...

An orchestra explodes in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and suddenly the music of London disappears...and a terrifying monster stirs off the Greenwich peninsular, threatening to trample London underfoot. The detectives must track down the thief behind the music's disappearance – via the Whispering Gallery of St Paul's Cathedral, a Windmill-with-teeth on the Isle of Dogs and the dark streets of Soho...where a shadowy villain and his mechanical animal spies live.

A moving, inspiring and thought-provoking collection of 50 coming-out stories from around the world. From the good, the sad, the surprising and the funny, no two stories are the same, yet all are by people who share the courage to be vulnerable, take huge risks to find love and acceptance and are brave enough to be their authentic selves. Whether you have any experience of coming out or not, these stories are incredibly powerful and moving.

An all-too-plausible terrorist plot to destroy the Houses of Parliament brings into focus much greater problems than the differences between two cultures in this gripping thriller from a former commissioned officer in the Parachute Regiment.

1934, Guyana. All her life, Mary Grace has wanted to know the truth about who her parents really are. As the mixed-race daughter of two white plantation owners, her childhood has been clouded by whispered rumours, and the circumstances of her birth have been kept a closely guarded secret. Aunt Winnie is the only person Mary Grace can confide in. Feeling lost and lonely, her place in society uncertain, Mary Grace decides to forge her own path in the world. And she finds herself unexpectedly falling for charming and affluent Jock Campbell, a planter with revolutionary ideas.

Inspired by real life stories of the Windrush Generation and her mother’s own experiences as a nurse coming to Britain from the Caribbean, Sarah Lee’s debut novel An Ocean Apart is a must for fans of Call the Midwife. It’s 1954 and, in Barbados, Ruby Haynes spots an advertisement for young...

Sunny grew in the mother and baby home on Grove Lane, London. The daughter of a wartime nurse and a Polish pilot, she was abandoned by her mother shortly after her birth and taken in by Nan, the warm and gentle proprietor of the home. Never having known her parents, Sunny has always felt like she doesn't quite fit in, but now, at 16 years old, she is ready to find her place in the world. Heading out to start her first job, she finally feels she has some idea of who she wants to be. As 1950s post-war London is changing at a rapid pace, so is Sunny.

On a misty Monday - 21st June 1948 - the MV Empire Windrush sailed up the Thames and anchored at Tilbury Dock, London. There were a total of 1,027 passengers on board with 802 passengers from British Colonies in the West Indies. The infamous images of the passengers walking down the gangplank the next morning would be the moment the Windrush Generation was born. A Circle of Five reflects on the stories of the 300,000 or so making the same journey between 1948 and 1971 by showcasing the voices of five Jamaican women, Evelyn, Emma, Irene, Ivy and Melissa.