Nicholas On Vacation

A collection of stories focuses on the whimsical adventures and misadventures of little Nicolas on vacation.

Nicholas on Holiday is part of the acclaimed series of classic and much-loved stories about the endearing exploits of the cheeky French schoolboy, Nicholas. All the stories in this volume take place by the sea, during the summer holidays. There are eventful fishing trips, treasure hunts in the middle of the night and a whole new gang of friends with whom Nicholas can get into trouble.

UK edition. The day-to-day adventures of an amusing, endearing young school boy.

Nicholas goes to the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean to visit his grandparents and to see other family members. Life on the island is different from Canada where he is born, but he is interested in seeing new things. He learns to play some traditional games, he visits lots of fun places and most importantly, he learns about his family's cultural heritage and background. This story sheds light on the significance of one's cultural heritage and gives a better sense of who one is.

"The Nicholas Effect" is the story of the shooting of seven-year-old Nicholas Green. It tells how the Greens' decision to donate their son's organs saved the lives of five Italians and restored the sight of two others. It covers the murder trial, the making of "Nicholas' Gift," the Jamie Lee Curtis made-for-tv movie, the bell sent by Pope John Paul II to the Greens for their memorial tower and their unceasing campaign to bring attention to the tens of thousands of deaths caused every year by the worldwide shortage of donated organs. Running through it, like a thread, is the hearbreaking journey of Nicholas' parents and little sister to make something good come out of a senseless act of violence.

When Alexi learns from his babuskha that a Russian village church has been closed for sixty years, the resourceful young boy decides to prepare it for a Christmas miracle.

Finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction: “Nicholas Carr has written a Silent Spring for the literary mind.”—Michael Agger, Slate “Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply? Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer—Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways. Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic—a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many sources. Its ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and consumption—and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection. Part intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural criticism, The Shallows sparkles with memorable vignettes—Friedrich Nietzsche wrestling with a typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the brains of sea creatures, Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the thunderous approach of a steam locomotive—even as it plumbs profound questions about the state of our modern psyche. This is a book that will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.

Fishing trips, miniature golf, and a whole new gang of friends figure in the third book in the classic series about the cheeky French schoolboy, Nicholas. Illustrations.