Flying With A Broken Wing

'If Finn Maison shouts jump you jump or you are dead.' Twelve-year-old Willem has two main aims in life: to fly and to make at least two friends of his own age. But all the other boys from the Beckham Estate do is make him jump off things. First his desk - and now the wall. As his toes teeter on the edge, Sasha Bradley gives him a tiny little wink. Might she become his friend? Bullied by Finn and his gang the Beckham Estate Boyz, Willem has no choice but to jump. As he flies through the air he flaps his arms, wishing he could fly and escape into the clouds. Instead he comes crashing down and breaks his ankle. Sasha, angry with herself for not stopping Finn and his Boyz, is determined to put things right. And soon, while the gangs riot on their estate, Willem and Sasha form an unlikely friendship. Because they share a secret. Sasha longs to fly too. And when Magic Man Archie arrives with stories of war-flying spitfires, he will change the lives of the kids on the Beckham Estate for ever. And perhaps find a way for Willem and Sasha to fly ... Touching on themes such as friendship and bullying, this is a charming tale about overcoming obstacles and finding friendship in unlikely places. 'heart-rending, heartbreaking and heartening' The Best New Children's Books Guardian Supplement

Carrie Bailee fled Canada and came to Australia when she was twenty. Once here she was assisted by a number of Australian women, and was ultimately encouraged to apply for refugee status in order to stay in this country. So began her battle to be granted asylum in Australia. Carrie stood before the Refugee Review Tribunal and revealed the dark underbelly of child sexual abuse and organised crime rings in our privileged, first-world neighbourhoods. This is the story of one young woman’s heroic journey to survive, escape and soar above her shocking childhood experiences, and her powerful struggle for freedom and a beautiful life in Australia.

Abandoned by her mother at birth, visually impaired Cammie Deveau hopes to start a brand new life at a school for the blind in Halifax, but she must convince her bootlegging aunt to let her go.

"Cammie Deveau began life with a few strikes against her. She's visually impaired, abandoned by her mother at birth, her father was a casualty of the Second World War-and if all that isn't enough, she's being raised by her bootlegging aunt. No wonder she dreams of starting a brand new life. When Cammie learns about a school for blind and visually impaired children she becomes convinced a new life is waiting for her in Halifax, but how will she ever convince her aunt to let her go? With the help of her best friend, they devise a plan to blow up the local moonshiner's still. But Cammie has not managed to change her luck, and things get worse than she ever imagined."--

Flying with a Broken Wing tells the true story of a boy growing up in India in turbulent times. Sat Mehta was five years old when he and his family became refugees, caught up in the biggest migration in modern history at the time of Independence. His home was destroyed, his uncle murdered. Once very wealthy farmers, the Mehtas became destitute. Later, Sat suffered a broken arm - complications set in and amputation seemed inevitable. As he lay in hospital, a world famous surgeon, Professor Robert Roaf, strode on to the ward, choosing "hopeless cases" to help. Sat got a second chance. The gratitude he felt for the great man's skill shaped the rest of Sat's life. He qualified as a doctor and arrived in England, where he has lived and worked for 30 years. He says of his life: "It is a story of a disappearing world, sadhus, snakes and baking sun, monkeys, monsoons and riot and murder. As a boy, I saw it all."

For Phyllis Bivins, extreme poverty, hunger, and homelessness were just a part of growing up in 1960s Virginia. Her mother could only afford to raise her on a part-time basis, passing Phyllis around to family members and friends while seeking whatever work was fitting for a woman with a sixth-grade education. Some of the impromptu foster homes were nicer than others, but they didn't quell the revulsions that constantly tormented her from childhood into young adulthood-like the unspeakable horrors of repeated sexual abuse and domestic violence. While enduring the devastating traumas of poverty, abandonment, and abuse, Phyllis somehow found solace in her passionate love for education. School was her sanctuary, providing a relief that a life of pain and scarcity had stolen from her. The endearing words of her third-grade teacher implanted a seed of hope into Phyllis's heart that grew with her, even through her stepfather's savage beatings and an unexpected teen pregnancy. Phyllis was special, with a spirit too bold to be broken, and she was determined to carve out a path for herself that would lead her far away from the only life she'd ever known.

This “outstanding piece of research” on Hungary’s secret air force program “fills a critical gap in our understanding” of pre-WWII military advancement (John H. Morrow Jr., author of The Great War). In the aftermath of World War I, Hungary was officially banned from maintaining a military air service. Despite this mandate, however, the embattled nation was determined to rearm itself. Drawing upon a wealth of previously untranslated documents, this fascinating history reveals the story of how Hungary secretly built an entire air force during the interwar years. In the early 1920s, Hungarian officials managed to evade and obstruct Allied inspectors at every turn. Unable to pursue domestic manufacturing, the clandestine rearmament program secretly bought planes from Italy and Germany. Great efforts were made to stockpile equipment from the Great War, and the Hungarian government promoted the development of commercial aviation—partly as a front for military flight operations. During the late 1930s, the Hungarian air force went from a secret branch of the army to an independent modernizing force in its own right. But this success came at a heavy cost: increasing German support brought a growing Nazi influence over the country. Hungary entered the Second World War on the side of the Axis in 1941, with its air force soon becoming little more than a Luftwaffe auxiliary force. Besieged by Allied bombings, the Hungarian air force ended the Second World War much as they had the First—salvaging aircraft parts from downed invaders and fighting until they no longer had airfields from which to operate.

"On the Wing is the first book to take a comprehensive look at the evolution of flight in all four groups of powered flyers: insects, pterosaurs, birds, and bats."--Book jacket.

Dimensions: 8.5x5.5x0.34 inches, Weight 0.35 Lbs B/W Illust (by Gibran) Kahlil Gibran, Lebnese Poet, philosopher and painter, occupies a unique position in today's world. His name is synonymous with peace, spritual valuesand international understanding.

June is physically and emotionally abused by her stepmother, and the only person June feels safe telling is her friend Blister, but when a shocking tragedy occurs June finds herself trapped, potentially forever.