My Tutu Went Awol

ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR, IESTYN EDWARDS, BASS BARITONE, BOARDED H.M.S. VICTORY TO SING AT A NAVAL SUPPER IN THE PRESENCE OF HER MAJESTY. Stacks, Royal Marines Commando, was there on duty. He was also on duty when Iestyn turned up in the middle of the Iraq war on a Combined Services Entertainment tour, this time in a tutu... Despite trying to dry his ballet tights on the anti-blast wall,singing from a tank turret and confiscating the President of Estonia’s custard creams, the most unlikely friendship was formed. They even invited him back...

A fun and adorable Step 1 early reader about a girl's love for her tutu—and the companion book to the top-selling I Love Pink! A girl loves her tutu so much, she wants to wear it everywhere! To school, to soccer, to art class, to swimming lessons. . . . Wait! That's not a good idea. Really, the best place to wear a tutu is ballet class! This simple story is funny and fun to decode, and many parents will see their strong-willed, self-dressed child in our tutu-loving protagonist. Step 1 Readers feature big type and easy words for children who know the alphabet and are eager to begin reading. Rhyme and rhythmic text paired with picture clues help children decode the story. Young readers will LOVE the companion books too! I Love Pink!, I Love My Grandma!, and I Love Cake!

While holidaying in Atlantic City, Amanda Pepper is offered a bed by a woman friend staying in a hotel. She accepts, only to spend the rest of her holiday chasing a killer who put a body in her friend's bed. But at least she has good company, her detective boyfriend.

Sam's back and now she can see dead people! Following on from, Oh Great, Now I Can Hear Dead People, this fun tale follows Sam's journey as she develops on her eventful journey as a psychic. Sam is busy planning her wedding to her budding pop-star boyfriend Jack, so when she's asked to perform a seance for her mother's WI group on Halloween, she reluctantly agrees. Being preoccupied with seating plans, Sam forgets to close the circle and sets free a whole host of spirits in to our world, who refuse to go back unless they get an invite to the wedding. As Sam struggles with life as a modern psychic, planning her wedding, and trying to help her spirit guide Ange - a good-time Essex girl, who's only interest is what Cheryl Cole is wearing and Heat magazine, she is shocked to hear that Amy, her ex-best friend desperately needs her help and even more shocked when Amy decides her own fate. Oh Great, Now I Can See Dead People is a funny glimpse into the ever crazy world of Sam and her hilarious dead entourage!

From New York Times Bestseller Mimi Jean Pamfiloff comes a snarky Mystery with a side dish of Romance and two sprinkles of chaos, THE LIBRARIAN’S VAMPIRE ASSISTANT, Book Four. (Yep! These books are STANDALONES. But the more you read, the merrier!) SHE’S MINE. BUT HAS SHE FORGOTTEN? A crazy vampire has stolen my librarian. And if that’s not bad enough, it is my fault. Because I, too, am an ancient, deadly vampire, and it was my job to protect her. I failed. Now, just as I have reason to hope I will get her back, the situation turns into the biggest mystery of my existence. Apparently, this evil vampire has brainwashed her into thinking she belongs with him. I do not know how. I do not know why. But I will get to the bottom of this and win her back. Because I am the motherf*!$%ing librarian’s vampire assistant, and she belongs to me. Or, at least she used to?

Books four through six in the award-winning Amanda Pepper mystery series are now available in one volume! This collection includes: WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE Well-known Broadway playwright and TV producer Lyle Zacharias is throwing himself a lavish birthday party in his hometown of Philadelphia. Guests include his current wife, ex-wives, friends, former partners—not to mention Amanda Pepper and her own irrepressible mother, Bea. Yet when Lyle drops dead in the middle of a speech, it appears the likely perpetrator is none other than Bea, whose gift was fifty delicious, but apparently poisoned, tarts! It's up to Amanda to clear her mother's name and find the real murderer…before he or she strikes again! But Amanda herself may be the next target! Who says teaching isn't exciting? With any more excitement, Amanda will have to retire before she hits thirty-one…if she lives that long! HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION Amanda Pepper's friend Sasha has a photography assignment in Atlantic City, and she invites her broke schoolteacher friend to come along for a free mini-vacation. But the two quickly discover there's more to lose than money at the shore when Sasha finds a stranger bludgeoned to death in her bed. When a witness identifies Sasha as having been at the scene, she Goes Directly To Jail and does not pass "Go." Under the boardwalk and between the slot machines, and sometimes with the help of a motley crew of gamblers, Amanda works to unearth the truth and free her friend. IN THE DEAD OF SUMMER Mellow old Philadelphia, where life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have flourished for centuries, now has a new claim to fame. The City of Brotherly Love has been proclaimed number one in the nation...for hostility. English teacher Amanda Pepper, crabbily gearing up for summer school at exclusive Philly Prep, feels she fits right in with the hostility mode. And it's going to get worse. Amanda gets her first prickling of unease in her own classroom, where a reading of Romeo and Juliet activates some very strange chemistry. Then the computer science teacher begins receiving anonymous "go-back-to-Africa" phone calls. A young Vietnamese boy dies in a drive-by shooting. And late one night, outside a Chinatown massage parlor, student April Tuong is kidnapped. Random violence? Perhaps. But Amanda refuses to let gentle April vanish without at least asking a few questions, starting in her own classroom. Gillian Roberts's Philadelphia is the real thing. So, too, are her wit and humor, and her gripping story of Amanda's tenacious search for the missing girl--along the brick streets of historic Philadelphia, in exotic Chinatown, and through the shady, sinister back alleys of the impoverished. The truth, when she finds it, is appalling, deadly, and much too close to home.

In this long overdue and affectionate salute, celebrated comedy historian Robert Ross pays tribute to some of the finest, funniest and most fascinating names in comedy from both sides of the Atlantic. Monty Python’s Terry Jones wrote the foreword. With the passionate input of such comics as Tim Brooke-Taylor, Hattie Hayridge, Roy Hudd, Michael Palin, Ross Noble, Chris Addison and Bernard Cribbins, Ross honours these legends of humor who, for a variety of reasons, didn't quite reach the heady heights of stardom or, once they had, couldn't cope with the pressures. Whether it is a favorite from the distant smoke- and ale-stained world of the Music Hall like the great George Robey, or the downbeat poetry of Hovis Presley, who dropped disenchanted bombs on the late 1990s, Forgotten Heroes of Comedy will finally elevate them to the Hall of Fame where they belong. Forgotten, no longer. UK Joe Baker UK Eric Barker UK Alfie Bass UK Michael Bates India (to English parents) David Battley UK Michael Bentine UK Harold Berens UK Wilie Best USA Alec Bregonzi UK Michael Ward UK Douglas Byng UK Marti Caine UK Esma Cannon Australia (but moved to UK) Patrick Cargill UK Jimmy Clitheroe UK Danny Ross UK Billy Dainty UK Janet Davies UK Florence Desmond UK Jerry Desmonde UK Eddie Leslie UK Maidie Dickson UK Charlie Drake UK Jimmy Edwards UK Gus Elen UK Ray Ellington UK Dick Emery UK Pierre Etaix France Barry Evans UK Mario Fabrizi UK Doug Fisher UK Ronald Frankau UK Leslie Fuller UK Dustin Gee UK Peter Glaze UK Tommy Godfrey UK Harry Locke UK Ken Goodwin UK Bernard Gorcey Russia (died USA) Bert Gordon USA Monsewer' Eddie Gray UK Raymond Griffith USA Deryck Guyler UK Brian Hall UK Lloyd Hamilton USA Arthur Haynes UK Richard Hearne UK Dickie Henderson UK Gerard Hoffnung Germany (died UK) Shemp Howard USA Nat Jackley UK Rex Jameson UK Spike Jones USA John Junkin UK Dave King UK Roy Kinnear UK Dennis Kirkland UK Patsy Knox USA Debbie Linden UK Hugh Lloyd UK Malcolm McFee UK Moore Marriott UK Graham Moffatt UK Ray Martine UK Zeppo Marx USA Glenn Melvyn UK Eric Merriman UK Christopher Mitchell UK Albert Modley UK Robert Moreton UK Gladys Morgan UK Lily Morris UK Richard Murdoch UK Tom E. Murray USA David Nixon UK Larry Noble UK Ole Olsen USA Chic Johnson USA Ken Platt UK Sandy Powell UK Vince Powell UK Hovis Presley UK Cardew Robinson UK Joe E. Ross USA Patsy Rowlands UK Derek Roy UK Derek Royle UK Leslie Sarony UK Larry Semon USA Ronald Shiner UK Johnnie Silver USA Dennis Spicer UK Larry Stephens UK Jake Thackray UK Thelma Todd USA Jack Train UK Karl Valentin Germany Liesl Karlstadt Germany Norman Vaughan UK Tom Walls UK Ralph Lynn UK Elsie and Doris Waters UK Rita Webb UK John Wells UK George and Kenneth Western UK Gordon Wharmby UK Bert Wheeler USA Robert Woolsey USA Albert Whelan Australia (died UK) Robb Wilton UK Mike and Bernie Winters UK Georgie Wood UK Dolly Harmer UK Harry Worth UK Mario Zampi Italy (died UK)

In this journey of discovery, John Micklewright travels the slow way, on foot, on paths, tracks and byways from the Channel to the Alps – from the coast of Normandy to the flanks of Mont Blanc. The Opening Country is a beautifully written account of his progress through the French countryside, an evocative patchwork of landscape, nature, history, literature, film, and – drawing on his father’s diaries that stretch back to the 1930s – of memoir. Always curious, absorbing all around him, ready on a whim to divert from his chosen route as he heads unhurriedly southwards. The natural world unfolds as spring turns to summer with surprises of bird song and butterflies, against a constant background of reminders of the economic and social story of rural France and of wars past. The result is an engrossing record of a classic long-distance walk through Britain’s nearest continental neighbour. The Opening Country is a book to fire the imagination – a call to travel slowly, to open eyes and ears, to discover and explore.

The calling to parish ministry involves a journey leading through lowland thickets and high plateau vistas. It's a vocation not for weak spirits. The parish presents general challenges rather than specialist endeavors. So, wearing one hat after another, the pastor may speak from the pulpit, join a team processing a current social concern, visit the intensive care hospital unit, and offer counsel at birth, marriage, or death--maybe all in one day. Clergy and non-ordained alike will find that Parish, the Thought provides a closeup insight into this ministry, telling the truth about the defeats and victories experienced over the course of forty years in the parish. This memoir spends little time in navel gazing. Rather, the author explores the humor, conflicts, ventures, and achievements that rise in his memory. The reader will detect a commitment to priestly and prophetic ministry, one that seeks to comfort the distressed and to nudge the comfortable out of apathy, encompassing the personal and public dimensions of the faith. All this as an adventure following the Pioneer, Jesus, the Christ. ""The selections from this forthcoming book are elegantly written and spiritually profound in a way that effectively synthesizes a convincing true-to-life immediate concreteness of real persons in real situations of spiritual significance, on the one hand, with the essential Christian realities of guilt, confession, forgiveness, redemption, humility, humor, joy, hope, and a continuous sense of God's living presence in the heart, on the other."" --Russell Pannier, Professor, William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota ""David Bowman's pastoral recollections in Parish, the Thought is a Socratic exercise in an examined life. It is a collection of stories that stand on their own, but within which lie deeper truths that David has had both the wit and wisdom to mine. Insightful, sensitive, but most of all searching . . . an excellent example of a well-lived life I recommend it highly "" --Thomas E. Smith, Pastor, Presbyterian Chapel of the Lakes, Adjunct Instructor, Trine University ""Bowman's approach to ministry was to look directly at current moral and ethical issues, and using scripture and his own wisdom, to deal publicly and personally with the issues, encouraging community of dialogue. . . . Dave's voice then showed wisdom, insight, and patience, and those qualities persist in this engaging new book. I commend it to thoughtful readers."" --W. James Halfaker, Former Conference Minister for the United Church of Christ in Washington and North Idaho ""David Bowman's sketches and recollections each summon up a unique moment and place with crystal clarity; yet the characters, moods, and feelings are universal. His life in active ministry glosses on social protest, race, ecumenicism, and Alexander Calder's sculpture, and at the same time the delicateness of person-to-person pastoral relationships shine through with the same humanity and emotion as the largest historical trends. This memoir is a joy to read and an inspiration of lived faith."" --Joe Kanofsky, Rabbi, Toronto, Canada The Rev. David B. Bowman, PhD, lives in semi-retirement in Saratoga, California. He is the author of a previous book, Saints Along the Way: Women and Men Who Have Influenced My Life. His parish ministry, following doctoral studies at Glasgow University (Scotland), has spanned the continent from New York to California, including Michigan, Washington State, Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio. Such a journey led a friend to call him ""a wanderer in the earth.""

Dolores discovers ballet – and the limits of friendship "Duncan is my best friend," Dolores says about her cat. "And best friends do everything together." So when Dolores gets caught up in the world of ballet, she’s certain that Duncan will love it as much as she does. But will he? When Duncan suddenly disappears, Dolores is heartbroken. Is it possible that her best friend, wearing her best tutu, has run away from home? In order to track down Duncan (and her tutu), Dolores turns detective -- and in the process discovers a few things about what it means to be a friend. From the lively endpapers to the surprising finale, this is full of spunk and spirit -- and the fun of spotting Duncan in all the places Dolores doesn’t look!