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In The Bone Chime Song & Other Stories, Joanne Anderton explores the darkness and the beauty of humans caught on the fringes and pushed to the very edge of the abyss. Enter worlds where terrible secrets are hidden in a wind chime's song, where crippled witches forge magic from scrap, and the beautiful dead dance for eternity. With deities built from circuits and wires, sacrificial drought-ridden towns, and artists who dabble in bone and decay, every story plots a course from the gothic to the fantastic and winds its way back again. Whether charting bleak futures or delving into the darkest of horrors, Anderton’s extraordinary talent weaves magic into every tale, presenting stories guaranteed to draw you in—and never let you go. Winner of both The Australian Shadows Award and Aurealis Award for best collection, The Bone Chime Song & Other Stories returns to entice a new generation of readers.

A fabulous debut of folk tales and fantasies by an award winning author and illustrator. Small fires start in the hearts of Kathleen Jennings’s characters and irresistibly spread to those around them. Journeys are taken, debts repaid, disguises put on, and lessons offered — although not often learned — in these fantastic tales. Jennings's confident voice lulls readers into stepping off the known paths to find "Undine Love,” “The Heart of Owl Abbas,” and further unexpected places and people.

With the increased focus on children’s language in Early Years education, poetry can be a valuable tool in enhancing speaking, listening and communication. This book provides parents and practitioners with a guide on how and where to start with using poetry with children. Combined with practical suggestions on finding and using poems with children of differing ages and language ability, it also offers advice on how to encourage children to create and develop their own poems. Exploring Poetry with Young Children includes an anthology of a wide range of poems to use with children based on their everyday experiences, ensuring that adults can enhance the learning experience as it happens and enrich the language development of the children in their care. Divided into two parts, this book covers: the nature of poetry and why it can be such important part of our well-being; ways of using and sharing poetry with babies and toddlers; how to share poetry with children as they become confident users of language; the rhyming aspects of verse and ways in which these can be used to develop children’s phonic awareness; the importance of establishing a poetic awareness in young children. This will be an essential guide for all Early Years practitioners, students and parents who are interested in using poetry to develop the speaking, listening and communication skills of young children.

Richard Adams, author of 'Watership Down' and described recently as a legend of literature, was born in Newbury in 1920 as the replacement for a baby brother who died in the great influenza epidemic of 1917-19. His mother was well over 40 at the time of his birth, and his was a solitary childhood spent in a large garden. Here he explains how his days spent watching bird, beetles and wild creatures around his home engendered in him a lifelong love of nature. His years at prep and public school, at Oxford and in the army are all vividly described, and their influence on the recurrent themes in his writing of battle, leadership, friendship, bullying, solitude and longing made plain.

A Write Good Read is based on years of hard-earned life experiences: good and bad; funny and sad, local and abroad. Our writers are a broad church and topics range from overseas travelogues to poetry with aboriginal influence to interplanetry travel and alien invasion. Reflecting the ages of our group, there are recognisable stories featuring children and grandkids too. There are meticulously researched historical pieces recalling wealthy mill owners' brutality and the resilience of the common man. Look out also for commandments broken and seven dwarfs hidden. Romance flickers in and out in tales of loss and love unrequited. And no respectable anthology could be complete without blood curdling, teeth chattering yarns of horror. In over 200 pages, the collection of eighty different pieces closes with drama aplenty in three playlets to savour, and begins with an assortment of pieces stimulated by today's (2018) technological wonders.

For aeons the universe has been ruled by the council of the Educational and Scientific Research Anomaly (ESRA). Their CEO, Draper, has developed a program of sending trainees to manage emerging planetary systems according to the ESRA doctrine of "create life in your own image." Draper sends what seems to be his favourite trainee, God, to the Sun system in the Milky Way to do just that, but, unbeknown to Draper, God has his own theory on life creation called evolution. God sets evolution in motion on the planet he has called Earth but when the development is too slow he starts to meddle with the process causing the planet to be populated by giant creatures he calls dinosaurs. He reports back to Draper who strangely, rather than giving him a bollicking, summons the Intergalactic Trouble-shooter, Armageddon, to help....... Armageddon manages to sort most of the problems and gradually gets seduced into helping God with his other hare-brained scheme called religion. Religion takes off in different forms so God sets himself up to become a Messiah to unite them all. The plan falters when he gets a local girl pregnant but Armageddon comes up with an idea that will make the child, Jesus Christ, the said Messiah. It all goes pear shaped when the local authorities crucify Jesus but Armageddon spirits him back to ESRA where they attempt to save his life. The ruling council aren't happy but they are sufficiently intrigued with evolution and religion that they approve a watching brief on Earth. As the planet sinks into a mess of wars, conflict and religious intolerance Armageddon finds a loophole in the directive and he and God help out where they can while preparing for the return of Jesus.