Into The Sideways World

The moving, funny, thrilling and adventured-filled new novel for readers of 10 and up from bestselling author Ross Welford.

A raucous and surprising novel filled with wonderful details about wine, Rex Pickett's Sideways is also a thought-provoking and funny book about men, women, and human relationships. The basis for the 2004 comedy-drama road movie of the same name starring Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church. Sideways is the story of two friends-Miles and Jack-going away together for the last time to steep themselves in everything that makes it good to be young and single: pinot, putting, and prowling bars. In the week before Jack plans to marry, the pair heads out from Los Angeles to the Santa Ynez wine country. For Jack, the tasting tour is Seven Days to D-Day, his final stretch of freedom. For Miles--who has divorced his wife, is facing an uncertain career and has lost his passion for living-the trip is a week long opportunity to evaluate his past, his future and himself.

The world’s nearly 7,000 species of crabs are immediately recognizable by their claws, sideways movement, stalked eyes, and thick outer shells. These common crustaceans are found internationally, thriving in various habitats from the edge of the sea to the depths of the ocean, in fresh water or on land. Despite having the same basic body type as decapod crustaceans—true crabs have heavy exoskeletons and ten limbs with front pincer claws—crabs come in an enormous variety of shapes and sizes, from the near microscopic to the giant Japanese spider crab. In Walking Sideways, Judith S. Weis provides an engaging and informative tour of the remarkable world of crabs, highlighting their unique biology and natural history. She introduces us to recently discovered crabs such as the Yeti crab found in deep sea vents, explains what scientists are learning about blue and hermit crabs commonly found at the shore, and gives us insight into the lifecycles of the king and Dungeness crabs typically seen only on dinner plates. Among the topics Weis covers are the evolution and classification of crabs, their habitats, unique adaptations to water and land, reproduction and development, behavior, ecology, and threats, including up-to-date research. Crabs are of special interest to biologists for their communication behaviors, sexual dimorphism, and use of chemical stimuli and touch receptors, and Weis explains the importance of new scientific discoveries. In addition to the traditional ten-legged crabs, the book also treats those that appear eight-legged, including hermit crabs, king crabs, and sand crabs. Sidebars address topics of special interest, such as the relationship of lobsters to crabs and medical uses of compounds derived from horseshoe crabs (which aren’t really crabs). While Weis emphasizes conservation and the threats that crabs face, she also addresses the use of crabs as food (detailing how crabs are caught and cooked) and their commercial value from fisheries and aquaculture. She highlights other interactions between crabs and people, including keeping hermit crabs as pets or studying marine species in the laboratory and field. Reminding us of characters such as The Little Mermaid’s Sebastian and Sherman Lagoon’s Hawthorne, she also surveys the role of crabs in literature (for both children and adults), film, and television, as well in mythology and astrology. With illustrations that offer delightful visual evidence of crab diversity and their unique behaviors, Walking Sideways will appeal to anyone who has encountered these fascinating animals on the beach, at an aquarium, or in the kitchen.

The award-winning literary critic takes readers down the rabbit hole of Victorian cultural and intellectual influences on Lewis Carroll’s Alice books. In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Lewis Carroll created fantastic worlds that continue to live in the minds of readers today. Carroll conceived his Alice books during the 1860s, a time of intense intellectual upheaval, as new scientific, linguistic, educational, and mathematical ideas flourished around the world. Alice in Space explores these historic currents, revealing essential context for Carroll’s jokes, concerns, and hidden references. Parody and Punch, evolutionary debates, philosophical dialogues, educational works for children, math and logic, manners and rituals, dream theory and childhood studies—all fueled the fireworks of Carroll’s restless imagination. In this lively investigation, Gillian Beer convincingly shows him at play in the spaces of Victorian cultural and intellectual life, drawing on then-current controversies, reading prodigiously across many fields, and writing on multiple levels to please both children and adults in different ways. With a welcome combination of learning and lightness, Beer reminds us that Carroll’s books are essentially about the risks and pleasures of curiosity. Along the way, Alice in Space shares Alice’s exceptional ability to spark curiosity in us, too.

"Originally published in paperback in the UK by HarperCollins Children's Books, London, in 2018."

A brilliant and poetic exploration of the way that we experience time in our everyday lives. Why does time seem so short? How does women's time differ from men's? Why does time seem to move slowly in the countryside and quickly in cities? How do different cultures around the world see time? In A Sideways Look at Time, Jay Griffiths takes readers on an extraordinary tour of time as we have never seen it before. With this dazzling and defiant work, Griffiths introduces us to dimensions of time that are largely forgotten in our modern lives. She presents an infectious argument for other, more magical times, the diverse cycles of nature, of folktale or carnival, when time is unlimited and on our side. This is a book for those who suspect that there's more to time than clocks. Irresistible and provocative, A Sideways Look at Time could change the way we view time-forever.

The landmark new novel from Ross Welford, one of the fastest-growing and most critically acclaimed middle grade authors in the UK, this funny, moving and brilliant sixth book cements his position as the most exciting storyteller around for readers of 10+.

A surprising, stunningly beautiful, and funny novel about a girl who turns invisible and, in the process, discovers who she really is, from the author of TIME TRAVELING WITH A HAMSTER Twelve-year-old Ethel Leatherhead only meant to cure her acne, not turn herself invisible. But that's exactly what happens when she combines herbs bought on the Internet with time spent in a secondhand tanning bed. At first it's terrifying to be invisible . . . and then it's fun . . . but when the effect doesn't wear off one day, Ethel is thrown into a heart-stopping adventure. With her friend Boydy by her side, Ethel struggles to conceal her invisibility, all the while unraveling the biggest secret of all: who she really is. From the talented author of Time Traveling with a Hamster comes another utterly original, deeply poignant--and humorous--novel about a girl who, by disappearing, will write herself into your heart forever.