Paullina Simons was born in Leningrad in 1963. As a child she emigrated to Queens, New York, and attended colleges in Long Island. Then she moved to England and attended Essex University, before returning to America. She lives in New York with her husband and children.

FROM THE AUTHOR OF NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER, FUNNY KID FOR PRESIDENT! Being funny is a good gig and it’s pretty much the only thing Max Walburt is good at. At least he thinks he’s good at it . . . . . . Max takes being funny very seriously. At home, he is the Chief-Walburt-Entertainer (CWE) and at school, he’s the funny kid. So when the Redhill Talent Quest comes to town, Max is confident that his jokes will make everyone laugh, win him the competition and a ten-million-pound book deal. That is until Tumbles the Clown auditions, who everyone thinks is hilarious. But who is the strange clown and why was he hiding in the bush on the day his granddad was kidnapped? With the help of his temporary best friend and life coach, Hugo, will Max solve the mystery of his grandfather’s whereabouts and overcome the pressures of fame and entertaining? For fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Tom Gates and Big Nate, comes FUNNY KID STAND UP, the hilarious sequel in the FUNNY KID series. By bestselling children’s author, Matt Stanton.

Michael Bond was born in Newbury, Berkshire on 13 January 1926 and educated at Presentation College, Reading. He served in the Royal Air Force and the British Army before working as a cameraman for BBC TV for 19 years. In 2015, Michael was awarded a CBE for his services to children’s literature, to add to the OBE he received in 1997. Michael died in 2017, leaving behind one of the great literary legacies of our time.

Jane O'Connor has always had a secret fondness for froufrou. An editor at a major publishing house, she has written more than thirty books for children. She lives with her family in the glamour capital of the world – New York City. Robin Preiss Glasser, who habitually sports glasses and jeans, discovered her "inner Nancy" while illustrating this book. "Wearing lace-trimmed socks helps me draw better," she says. She has illustrated many books and lives in Southern California with her family and tiara collection.

Michael Bond was born in Newbury, Berkshire on 13 January 1926 and educated at Presentation College, Reading. He served in the Royal Air Force and the British Army before working as a cameraman for BBC TV for 19 years. In 2015, Michael was awarded a CBE for his services to children’s literature, to add to the OBE he received in 1997. Michael died in 2017, leaving behind one of the great literary legacies of our time.

Relive the story of The Hobbit: There and Back Again in this fantastic photo-filled book. Join Bilbo Baggins and the company of dwarves on the final stage of their amazing journey to defeat the dragon, Smaug, in this fully illustrated storybook of the third of Peter Jackson’s stunning Hobbit movies. Packed with stills from the film, this is the book that Hobbit fans and movie-goers will not want to miss!

Kelly Clarkson is a Grammy award winning musician who hit the main stage as the first ever American Idol. Fourteen years, several awards, and multiple platinum hits later, Kelly is still making great music. She lives in Nashville, TN with her husband and daughter, River Rose.

The final instalment in this inspiring series about dancing, friendship and following your dreams. From best-loved author Jean Ure, whose books are described by Jacqueline Wilson as “funny, funky, feisty – and fantastic reads!”

Now a major motion picture! Enter the world of the owls and meet the heroes who keep it safe… Born in the forest of the barn owls, Soren loves life’s little pleasures, like the feel of a centipede pattering down his throat. But evil lurks in the owl world, and threatens to change the course of Soren’s life forever. One terrifying night the strangers come. They capture Soren and fly him to a deep canyon, where the destruction of all owls is being planned. Now Soren will have to do something he has never done before: he will have to fly…

The second story in a new series about dancing, friendship and following your dreams from best-loved author Jean Ure, whose books are described by Jacqueline Wilson as “funny, funky, feisty - and fantastic reads!” Maddy is delighted when she and her friends are accepted to the prestigious City Ballet School – it feels like one step closer to their dream of becoming professional dancers. But the school brings a whole new set of challenges – and soon Maddy finds herself tested like never before.

Learn how to leverage the features of the new Entity Framework Core APIs and use them to build pure .NET Core applications. About This Book ? Learn how to effectively manage your database to make it more productive and maintainable. ? Write simplified queries using LINQ to acquire the desired data easily ? Raise the abstraction level from data to objects so teams can function independently, resulting in easily maintainable code Who This Book Is For This book is for .NET Core developers who would like to integrate EF Core in their application. Prior knowledge of .NET Core and C# is assumed. What You Will Learn ? Create databases and perform CRUD operations on them ? Understand and build relationships (related to entities, keys, and properties) ? Understand in-built, custom, and remote validation (both client and server side) ? You will learn to handle concurrency to build responsive applications ? You will handle transactions and multi-tenancy while also improving performance In Detail Being able to create and maintain data-oriented applications has become crucial in modern programming. This is why Microsoft came up with Entity Framework so architects can optimize storage requirements while also writing efficient and maintainable application code. This book is a comprehensive guide that will show how to utilize the power of the Entity Framework to build efficient .NET Core applications. It not only teaches all the fundamentals of Entity Framework Core but also demonstrates how to use it practically so you can implement it in your software development. The book is divided into three modules. The first module focuses on building entities and relationships. Here you will also learn about different mapping techniques, which will help you choose the one best suited to your application design. Once you have understood the fundamentals of the Entity Framework, you will move on to learn about validation and querying in the second module. It will also teach you how to execute raw SQL queries and extend the Entity Framework to leverage Query Objects using the Query Object Pattern. The final module of the book focuses on performance optimization and managing the security of your application. You will learn to implement failsafe mechanisms using concurrency tokens. The book also explores row-level security and multitenant databases in detail. By the end of the book, you will be proficient in implementing Entity Framework on your .NET Core applications. Style and approach This book is filled with various examples that will help you use Entity Framework Core 2.0 to write efficient software.

Ted Dewan grew up in Massachusetts where he became a science teacher, but moved to London in 1988, making a living from drawing and playing the accordion. His picture book, Crispin, the Pig Who Had It All, won the Blue Peter Award and was an Honour book for the Kate Greenaway Award. The Bing books were first published in 2003. Ted and his wife, author/illustrator Helen Cooper, live in Oxford.

Valeria Luiselli was born in Mexico City in 1983. She is the author of the novels Faces in the Crowd and The Story of My Teeth, and of a collection of essays called Sidewalks. Her work has been published in magazines and newspapers such as Letras Libres, the New York Times, the New Yorker, Freeman’s, El Pais and Harper’s and she is published in fifteen languages. She is currently professor of Romance Language and Literature at Hofstra University and lives in New York City.

David Walliams – comedian, actor and author – continues to take the children’s literary world by storm. His tenth novel, BAD DAD, was an immediate number one, following the triumph of THE MIDNIGHT GANG, the biggest-selling children’s book of 2016. WORLD’S WORST CHILDREN 2, which published in early 2017, spent four weeks at industry number one and eight weeks at the top of the children’s chart. They have achieved unprecedented critical acclaim – and RATBURGER, DEMON DENTIST and AWFUL AUNTIE have all won the National Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year. David’s books have now exceeded 100 non-consecutive weeks in the children’s number-one spot, and have been translated into 50 languages, selling more than 22 million copies worldwide. Born in London, Tony Ross went to art school in Liverpool. His cartoons have appeared in famous publications the world over. His first book, HUGO AND THE WICKED WINTER, was published in 1972. Tony has since written over 100 books and illustrated over 2000! His creations Towser and The Little Princess have been turned into TV series. David and Tony have worked on six bestselling picture books together, as well as eight of David’s phenomenally successful children’s novels – BILLIONAIRE BOY, GANGSTA GRANNY, RATBURGER, DEMON DENTIST, AWFUL AUNTIE, GRANDPA'S GREAT ESCAPE, THE MIDNIGHT GANG and BAD DAD. David and Tony also collaborated on the 2017 World Book Day title, BLOB, and the two blockbuster short story collections, THE WORLD'S WORST CHILDREN and THE WORLD'S WORST CHILDREN 2.

The perfect gift for all ages, Pinocchio as you’ve never seen him before: telling his own story through the master storyteller and award-winning author of WAR HORSE. “Now – there’s no point in pretending here – I was, and still am deep down, a puppet. Everyone knows Pinocchio is a puppet. I reckon I must be just about the most famous puppet the world has ever known. But the truth is I’m not just a puppet, I’m more than just bits of wood and string. I’m me. So I thought it was about time that I, Pinocchio, told you my story…” So begins this stunningly beautiful interpretation of the classic story. Michael Morpurgo channels Pinocchio’s words to tell the famous puppet’s story in his own inimitable, cheeky and always funny way. Lavishly illustrated throughout in full colour by the acclaimed Emma Chichester Clark, this is a must-have gift for all book lovers, and an utterly charming and surprising adaptation of a much-loved tale.

Following on from the 1950s collection, this is the second collection of Brian Aldiss’ short stories, taken from the 1960s. A must-have for collectors. Part four of four. This collection gathers together, for the very first time, Brian Aldiss’ complete catalogue of short stories from the 1960s, in four parts. Taken from diverse and often rare sources, the works in this collection chart the blossoming career of one of Britain’s most beloved authors. From the first robot to commit suicide to the tale of a little boy who finds more companionship from his robot Teddy than from his parents – a story which was the literary basis for the first act of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster feature film A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. This book proves once again that Aldiss’ gifted prose and unparalleled imagination never fail to challenge and delight. The four books of the 1960s short story collection are must-have volumes for all Aldiss fans, and an excellent introduction to the work of a true master. THE BRIAN ALDISS COLLECTION INCLUDES OVER 50 BOOKS AND SPANS THE AUTHOR’S ENTIRE CAREER, FROM HIS DEBUT IN 1955 TO HIS MORE RECENT WORK.

The moving true story of a little girl with Asperger syndrome, controlled and abused by the one person she called her friend. Taylor had always struggled to make friends – she felt ‘different’. Taylor never knew her father and her mother wasn’t around much. She just didn’t understand people, and was alone and scared most of the time. That was until, aged just 11, an older married man called Tom befriended her. She loved having someone who would talk to her, listen to her, a protector. But when he moved away a few months later she was easy prey to the gang of drug dealers and petty criminals who groomed and abused her, using her as a form of currency to appease their debtors and amuse their friends. Increasingly isolated and desperate, it began to look as though the pattern of Taylor's life had been set – until she started to fight back, determined to build a safe future for herself, however long it took.

Dorothy Must Die meets Alice in Wonderland! This is not a story of happily ever after – it’s the twisted YA sequel in the origin story of an infamous villain… The once-future Queen of Hearts, Princess Dinah, has been exiled from Wonderland. Her vicious father who she always feared has framed her for a brutal murder and turned the kingdom against her. Now hiding in the mysterious Twisted Wood with only her war steed at her side, Dinah is faced with a choice – to leave Wonderland forever or stay and fight for the throne. A chance encounter with a long-lost enemy of the kingdom brings Dinah more allies than she ever could have imagined. But before battle, Dinah must confront truths about her heart and her destiny – no matter how dark those secrets may be. Revolution is rising in Wonderland. Dinah’s war has begun.

The final book in the epic fantasy-adventure series from ‘the Godmother of Fantasy’, Diana Wynne Jones. Now back in print! ‘Mitt arrived at the top of the steps, panting, and pushed open the door. “Oh, there you are,” said the Countess. “We want you to kill someone.”’ Since his arrival in the North of Dalemark Mitt has become disillusioned. The North seems no more free than the Holand he fled, a fugitive accused of attempted murder. And now he is trapped by the order to kill someone he doesn’t know or else risk the lives of his friends. Forced once more to flee, Mitt is joined by Moril, the quietly powerful musician, and Maewen – out of her time, but mysteriously fated to play a part in their quest. For the evil powers of the mage Kankredin are re-assembling, and only the Adon’s gifts – the ring, sword and cup – can once more unit Dalemark.

Emma studied art at the Royal College of Art . She has worked as a freelancer for magazines, publishers and advertising agencies as well as teaching art for several years, but now dedicates most of her time to children’s books.

Amsterdam 1654: a dangerous secret threatens to destroy a young widow’s new life. Following the sudden death of her husband, twenty-five year old Catrin leaves her small village and takes a job as housekeeper to the successful Van Nulandt merchant family. Amsterdam is a city at the peak of its powers: science and art are flourishing in the Golden Age and Dutch ships bring back exotic riches from the Far East. When a figure from her past threatens her new life, Catrin flees to Delft. There, her painting talent earns her a chance as a pottery painter. Slowly, the workshop begins to develop a new type of pottery to rival the coveted Chinese porcelain – and Delft Blue is born. But when tragedy strikes, Catrin has a hard choice to make. Rich and engrossing, Midnight Blue is perfect for fans of Tulip Fever and Girl with a Pearl Earring.