Some of Agatha Christie's earliest stories — including her very first — which show the Queen of Crime in the making... A macabre recurring dream... revenge against a blackmailer... jealousy, infidelity and a tortured conscience... a stolen gemstone... the haunting attraction of an ancient relic... a race against time... a tragic love triangle... a body in a box... an unexpected visitor from beyond the grave... Nine quintessential examples of Agatha Christie's brilliance are contained in this new collection of early short stories — including the very first one she ever wrote — and provide a unique glimpse of the Queen of Crime in the making.

A selection of mysteries, some light-hearted, some romantic, some very deadly... Twelve tantalizing cases! the curious disappearance of Lord Listerdale; a newlywed's fear of her ex-fiance; a strange encounter on a train; a domestic murder investigation; a wild man's sudden personality change; a retired inspector's hunt for a murderess; a young woman's impersonation of a duchess; a necklace hidden in a basket of cherries; a mystery writer's arrest for murder; an astonishing marriage proposal; a soprano's hatred for a baritone; the case of the rajah's emerald. All have one thing in common: the skilful hand of Agatha Christie.

Within each of us is a warrior of light. Each of us is capable of listening to the silence of the heart, of accepting failure without letting it get us down and of holding onto hope even in the face of weariness and depression. Values like love for all things, discipline, friendship and learning to listen to our own hearts are the arms with which this warrior confronts the battles we face in the name of personal growth and in the defence of the light. On every page there is an inspirational thought, which can be read as part of Paulo Coelho's whole philosophy or used form the basis of a daily meditation. This text is a guide to the process.

A collection of macabre mysteries, including the superlative story Witness for the Prosecution… Twelve unexplained phenomena with no apparent earthly explanation… A dog-shaped gunpowder mark; an omen from ‘the other side’; a haunted house; a chilling seance; a case of split personalities; a recurring nightmare; an eerie wireless message; an elderly lady’s hold over a young man; a disembodied cry of ‘murder’; a young man’s sudden amnesia; a levitation experience; a mysterious SOS. To discover the answers, delve into the supernatural storytelling of Agatha Christie.

A middle-aged diplomat is accosted in an airport lounge and his identity stolen… Sir Stafford Nye’s journey home from Malaya to London takes an unexpected twist in the passnger loungs at Frankfurt – a young woman confides in him that someone is trying to kill her. Yet their paths are to cross again and again – and each time the mystery woman is introduced as a different person. Equally at home in any guise in any society she draws Sir Stafford into a game of political intrigue more dangerous than he could possibly imagine. In an arena where no-one can be sure of anyone, Nye must do battle with a well-armed, well-financed, well-trained – and invisble – enemy…

The Amazing Maurice runs the perfect Pied Piper scam. This streetwise alley cat knows the value of cold, hard cash and can talk his way into and out of anything. But when Maurice and his cohorts decide to con the town of Bad Blinitz, it will take more than fast talking to survive the danger that awaits. For this is a town where food is scarce and rats are hated, where cellars are lined with deadly traps, and where a terrifying evil lurks beneath the hunger-stricken streets.... Set in Terry Pratchett's widely popular Discworld, this masterfully crafted, gripping read is both compelling and funny. When one of the world's most acclaimed fantasy writers turns a classic fairy tale on its head, no one will ever look at the Pied Piper — or rats — the same way again!

Saturday night dates at the skating rink have been a tradition in the small southern town of Heartsdale for as long as anyone can remember, but when a teenage quarrel explodes into a deadly shoot-out, Sara Linton—the town's pediatrician and medical examiner—finds herself entangled in a terrible tragedy. What seemed at first to be a horrific but individual catastrophe proves to have wider implications. The autopsy reveals evidence of long-term abuse, of ritualistic self-mutilation, but when Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver start to investigate, they are frustrated at every turn. The children surrounding the victim close ranks. The families turn their backs. Then a young girl is abducted, and it becomes clear that the first death is linked to an even more brutal crime, one far more shocking than anyone could have imagined. Meanwhile, detective Lena Adams, still recovering from her sister's death and her own brutal attack, finds herself drawn to a young man who might hold the answers. But unless Lena, Sara, and Jeffrey can uncover the deadly secrets the children hide, it's going to happen again...

To accompany the release of the live action movie of The Cat in the Hat, starring Mike Myers, HarperCollins are proud to present Dr. Seuss's original, classic tale of the coolest, hippest cat in history! When the Cat in the Hat steps in on the mat, Sally and her brother are in for a roller-coaster ride of havoc and mayhem! The Cat can rescue them from a dull rainy day, but it means lots of thrills and spills along the way. The wonderfully anarchic Cat in the Hat is one of the most popular characters in children's fiction, and this book is ideal for budding readers to tackle on their own.

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go. In this delightful book, Dr. Seuss celebrates the joys of reading, encouraging young children to take pride in their budding reading abilities. With his unique combination of hilarious stories, zany pictures and riotous rhymes, Dr. Seuss has been delighting young children and helping them learn to read for over fifty years. Creator of the wonderfully anarchic Cat in the Hat, and ranked among the UK's top ten favourite children's authors, Seuss is firmly established as a global best-seller, with nearly half a billion books sold worldwide. As the first step in a major rebrand programme, HarperCollins is relaunching 17 of Dr. Seuss's best-selling books, including such perennial favourites as The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham and Fox in Socks. In response to consumer demand, the bright new cover designs incorporate much needed guidance on reading levels, with the standard paperbacks divided into three reading strands — Blue Back Books for parents to share with young children, Green Back Books for budding readers to tackle on their own, and Yellow Back Books for older, more fluent readers to enjoy. I Can Read With My Eyes Shut belongs to the Green Back Book range.

In this classic Seussian tale, the good doctor primes his readers against all the little mishaps and misadventures that can befall even the best of us — from bang-ups and hang-ups to lurches and slumps — encouraging us to take life in our stride! With his unique combination of hilarious stories, zany pictures and riotous rhymes, Dr. Seuss has been delighting young children and helping them learn to read for over fifty years. Creator of the wonderfully anarchic Cat in the Hat, and ranked among the UK's top ten favourite children's authors, Seuss is firmly established as a global best-seller, with nearly half a billion books sold worldwide. As the first step in a major rebrand programme, HarperCollins is relaunching 17 of Dr. Seuss's best-selling books, including such perennial favourites as The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham and Fox in Socks. In response to consumer demand, the bright new cover designs incorporate much needed guidance on reading levels, with the standard paperbacks divided into three reading strands — Blue Back Books for parents to share with young children, Green Back Books for budding readers to tackle on their own, and Yellow Back Books for older, more fluent readers to enjoy. Oh, The Places You'll Go! belongs to the Yellow Back Book range.

A once-respected college professor and novelist, Dale Stewart has sabotaged his career and his marriage — and now darkness is closing in on him. In the last hours of Halloween he has returned to the dying town of Elm Haven, his boyhood home, where he hopes to find peace in isolation. But moving into a long-deserted farmhouse on the far outskirts of town — the one-time residence of a strange and brilliant friend who lost his young life in a grisly accident back in the terrible summer of 1960 — is only the latest in his long succession of recent mistakes. Because Dale is not alone here. He has been followed to this house of shadows by private demons who are now twisting his reality into horrifying new forms. And a thick, blanketing early snow is starting to fall...

An illustrated A-Z guide to the names, places and events in the fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien's fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion have delighted millions of readers over the years. Middle-earth, the world in which the stories take place, is as real and complex as our own. Events, geography and names were created with care and loving attention by Tolkien, who wanted every single detail of his books to fit into their total pattern. A belief in perfection, the fun of the sub-creation and the desire to create something totally convincing involved him in map-making, endless charts of dates and events and the development of his many invented languages.

Written by the writer and broadcaster Brian Sibley, this slipcase features Tolkien's maps of The Hobbit, Beleriand and Middle-earth. Each map is presented in a box-set illustrated by Tolkien artist John Howe, the conceptual artist employed by Peter Jackson to work on his Lord of The Rings film trilogy. The maps, presented with individual books and wallets show Tolkien's mythical lands in detail — they are also bound with fewer folds, making them suitable for portfolios or framing.

How do fish breathe underwater? Do all birds fly? Why do some animals have fur? Children will learn the answers to these and other questions as they explore, with Pooh, the worlds of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, sea creatures, and insects and spiders! The 30 beautifully illustrated Discovery Cards in this set provide a unique educational experience, featuring stunning real-life images and fascinating facts for curious young minds.

Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer and Pen/Faulkner prizes, The Hours is a daring and deeply affecting novel inspired by the life and work of Virginia Woolf. A passionate, profound and haunting story of love and inheritance, hope and despair. Exiled in Richmond in the 1920s, taken from her beloved Bloomsbury and lovingly watched over by her husband Leonard, Virginia Woolf struggles to tame her rebellious mind and make a start on her new novel. In the brooding heat of 1940s Los Angeles, a young wife and mother yearns to escape the claustrophobia of suburban domesticity and read her precious copy of Mrs Dalloway. And in New York in the 1990s, Clarissa Vaughan steps out of her smart Greenwich Village apartment and goes shopping for flowers for the party she is giving in honour of her life-long friend Richard, an award-winning poet whose mind and body are being ravaged by AIDS. These are the characters in Michael Cunningham's exquisite and deeply moving novel, which takes Woolf's life and work as inspiration for a meditation on artistic behaviour, failure, love and madness. Moving effortlessy across the decades and between England and America, Cunningham's elegant, haunting prose explores the pain and trauma of creativity and the immutable relationship between writer and reader.

«A plain horse and wagon on Mulberry Street grows into a story that no one can beat!» In this delightful tale, Young Marco allows his imagination to run riot as he travels home from school one day, to the extent that a horse and cart is soon transformed into a chaotic carnival of colourful creatures. This delightful book forms part of the second stage in HarperCollins' major Dr. Seuss rebrand programme. With the relaunch of 10 more titles in August 2003, such all-time favourites as How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? and Dr. Seuss' Sleep Book boast bright new covers that incorporate much needed guidance on reading levels: Blue Back Books are for parents to share with young children, Green Back Books are for budding readers to tackle on their own, and Yellow Back Books are for older, more fluent readers to enjoy. And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street belongs to the Green Back Book range.»

Summerland is the story of Ethan Field, the worst sportsman in history. Recruited by a hundred-year-old scout and guided by a friendly werefox, Ethan struggles to defeat giants, bat-winged goblins, and one of the toughest baseball teams in the realms of magic, to save the Summerlands and ultimately the world. Michael Chabon is one of America's greatest living storytellers and in this book he delivers an unforgettable novel for young readers and adults alike.

«Una novela cautivadora y audaz del autor de «El Alquimista», bestseller con maucutes de un millon de ejemplares vendidos. En este nuevo relato, el novelista explora con gran sensibilidad la naturaleza sagrada del sexo y del amor y nos invita a enfrentar nuestros propios prejuicios y demonios.» «Once Minutos» relata la historia de Maria, una joven proveniente de una villa brasilena, cuyos primeros roces inocentes con el amor le dejan con el corazon destrozado. A su tierna edad, se convence de que jamas hallara el amor verdadero; al contrario, considera que «El amor es algo horrible que produce sufrimiento. «Un encuentro casual en Rio la lleva a Ginebra, donde suena con conseguir fama y fortuna. Sin embargo, termina trabajando de prostituta. En Ginebra, la opinion desesperanzada que Maria tiene del amor, se pone a prueba al conocer a un apuesto joven pintor. En esta odisea de descubrimiento personal, Maria debe elegir entre recorrer el camino de la oscuridad, el del sexo por el sexo mismo, o arriesgarlo todo para descubrir su propia «luz interior» y las posibilidad del sexo sagrado, es decir, del sexo dentro del contexto del amor.»

The definitive edition of this beloved children's classic, featuring a wealth of accompanying illustrations and notes which take the reader further into both the story, and the tale of how it was written. Seldom has any book been so widely read and loved as J.R.R. Tolkien's classic tale, The Hobbit. Since its first publication in 1937 it has remained in print to delight each new generation of readers all over the world, and its hero, Bilbo Baggins, has taken his place among the ranks of the immortals: Alice, Pooh, Toad! As with all classics, repeated readings continue to bring new detail and perspectives to the reader's mind, and Tolkien's Middle-earth is a vast mine of treasures and knowledge, its roots delving deep into folklore, mythology and language. The Hobbit is, therefore, an ideal book for annotation: as well as offering a marvellous and entrancing story, it introduces the reader to the richly imagined world of Middle-earth, a world more fully and complexly realised in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Douglas Anderson's annotations make fascinating reading. Additionally, many of Tolkien's own illustrations embellish the text, and numerous illustrations from foreign editions exhibit an extraordinary range of visual interpretation. In an appendix there are details of the revisions made by Tolkien at various times to the publsihed text, which provide an uncommon and privileged glimpse into the special concerns of an exceptional and painstaking writer.

Some people just won't take the hint when it's time to go to bed, but Marvin K. Mooney eventually gets the message! This fun tale by Dr. Seuss is aimed at young readers and remind them that they sometimes have to do what they are told! The new covers incorporate guidance on reading levels: Blue Back Books are for parents to share with young children, Green Back Books are for budding readers to tackle on their own, and Yellow Back Books are for older, more fluent readers to enjoy. This book belongs to the Green Back Book range.