A World of Stone

From Mireille Saba Redford, author of A City Across the Night, The Waltz of Dust and The Wounded Virtue, and translator and editor of The Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry, here is a new collection of English poems that will take you to a forgotten land where nothing seems to matter anymore.
A World of Stone adopts the voice of a woman who finds her life turned upside down when faced with the harsh realities of the modern world and clings to her childhood memories, when the land of legends was a truly mysterious and captivating place.
It highlights her love that could not overcome her pride, her loneliness caused by the many losses she has encountered, and her sorrows amidst the fast and sad changes in the world, such as humanitarian crises, drug abuse, violence, alienation, inequality, power in the hands of the few and abuse of human rights.
Throughout the poems, you will hear and feel all the torments, disappointments and cries which somehow have the power to change the way some perceive the world. However, there is a clear message that despite losing its ‘gentility’, the world can still have a ‘Margin of Peace’ that would guarantee its security and sustainability.
This book of love and anger, of the living and the dead, displays the values that once formed the very pillars of our society, and sends a call to restructure what is left and to stop the decline in civil liberties. Its vivid descriptions shed light on the poet’s own experiences, while stressing the need both to save a world on the brink and to alleviate the suffering of the most vulnerable by a return to the humanitarian principles of equality and justice.

A Year of Words

The year is 2007 and my mind is full of poems and a need to write. These poems I wrote are a diary of emotions reflecting the day that they were written. They are an eclectic journey through my year. They reflect an emotional journey whose intent is to diarise in rhyme the moment they were written.

Oft the poems are whimsical, sometimes philosophical, and other times musing. The poems were written without edits, the poems in this compendium are of the moment, no revisions were ever considered. These poems are my conversation with you, they are your insight into a very mercurial mind, full of emotion.

I have written poems all my life, and now at 74 some of them have found a page and an audience, please enjoy.

A Zebra Called Hoops

Hoops was one fine zebra! He was happy, he was healthy, he was fast, he was handsome…but he looked different to the other zebras…and they noticed.

Some of them said things to him that made him feel sad. Instead of his stripes running down his body from top to bottom, they ran across his body from head to tail! He didn’t feel any different but he looked different. When his best friend, Zac, decided to show the other zebras that Hoops was really no different inside than all of them, he worked out a special way to prove it to them!

Find out what happens next. What do you think happened that night? How do you think Zac showed the other zebras that Hoops wasn’t any different to them?

Join Hoops to learn about special needs.

A-Z of Animal Collectives

Have you ever wondered what a group of ants is called? Or a group of ducks? Or eagles? Or lizards? There is a whole world of amazing “collective nouns” to describe these groups. Some of them are very funny! Join us on an alphabetical journey through some strange scenarios, silly predicaments, and crazy situations, as animal groups from apes to zebu join together in a funny word world all their own! Language is a wonderful way to engage and amuse kids!
This book of 26 short verse poems plays with the sounds and images language produces for children and encourages imagination in the young reader.

Insects in a Rabble went out to play.
They put on their shoes, yellow and grey.
But a Mess of Iguanas had taken the swings,
And the sandpit and climbers and jumpity things.

Inspired by the inquisitive nature of children and their endless quest for answers, this sweet, funny book will ignite the love of language, reading and imagination in young readers everywhere!

Twelve Beds of Oysters lined up in a row,

Trying to sleep, though finding sleep slow,

Called out to a Parliament of Owls flying low,

“The moonlight is making us restless, you know.”

Ahmed is The Angel of Egypt

Two very different worlds collide when Stella meets Ahmed through the internet. Ahmed is a Muslim from Cairo, Egypt and has been through much turmoil in his beloved homeland. Stella has lived a sheltered life in England and has recently split from her long-term boyfriend. Over time, despite the many cultural differences, love blossoms between the two and Stella decides to take the plunge and meet up with this dark, handsome stranger. How will Stella fare in this unfamiliar land?

Alexander Pugh’s Super Saturday!

Alexander Pugh (“Alex”) felt a burst of excitement! Today was going to be his ‘Super Saturday’! Thoughts about what might happen made his tummy feel delicious and his mouth water, as he and his dad walked quickly to the car. What could he be imagining? Alex was dropped off at a house and he knocked on the front door. Mary opened the door with a smile and Alex went inside… Find out the funny and unexpected things that happened as Alex and Mary work on something special together. How did it all work out? Was Alex pleased with what happened on his ‘Super Saturday’? Read Alexander Pugh’s Super Saturday! to find out!

All That I Am, All That I Could Be… Is Enough

A delightful book full of inspiration to help nurture and strengthen children’s self-belief, determination, and empathy.
A celebration of what makes us each unique and how we all are amazing on the inside and out.
We are all meant to be here.

Alucard

Emery is no ordinary teenage girl. She is the result of two gods that weren’t meant to fall in love, who were forbidden to love. She is the daughter of Goddess Indie Jones and the devil himself, Jethro Mist.

Emery’s life is far from ordinary. With people out to kill her, school bullies and living in the underworld, she has enough to worry about without him: her parted soul, her star-crossed lover, Tyler. He consumes her every thought and her body desires him in every way, yet he couldn’t care less.

Always There for You

This story delicately deals with the idea of separation anxiety in children. The story depicts how a mother handles the gentlest feelings of her little boy during separation anxiety. Their beautiful conversation about the butterfly is an engaging tale that helps the little boy understand that no matter where he goes his mother will always be there for him.

An Agony of Flame and the Fury and the Mire

A two-part climax to The Last Vigil, An Agony of Flame and The Fury and the Mire, concludes the story of the fall of Constantinople. Here is an intense evocation, both of the gruelling eight-week siege itself and of the chaotic as well as terrifying aftermath.

In part three, Niccolo and Demetrius serve on the great Roman land walls, enduring bombardment and nocturnal hand-to-hand combat. Nestor-Iskander reappears, a deserter now from the Turkish camp. Niccolo is badly wounded, recovering in Theodora’s house in the suburb of Studion. Then comes the night of the final Ottoman assault when, after a valiant defence, treachery leads to massacre (including the death of Demetrius) and Niccolo finds himself among a scatter of survivors. 

Part four centres on Niccolo’s frantic attempts to find a way through a city, now being systematically sacked. Moreover, he must think of others. Demetrius might be dead but Nestor-Iskander has survived and demands refuge. Then there is Theodora locked up with the faithful in Hagia Sophia. Can Niccolo reach her before the marauding enemy? So, he travels deeper and deeper into his adopted city’s heart of darkness. Nestor finds protectors, loses, then regains them. Theodora is found then lost forever. Mehmet appears once more; Cinnamon never reappears. Finally, after the city has been overwhelmed and pacified, Niccolo sets sail westward across the Mediterranean, not home to Venice but to an Atlantic shore where a new age of exploration is about to dawn.  

An American Comedian Lost In Bavaria

Travelling is one of the great pleasures in life. You are completely anonymous which means you can act like an idiot, say stupid things, wear a big ugly T-shirt, then go home and brag about how savvy you are. But when you live in a foreign country, you’re an idiot 24 hours a day. The language is the first hurdle, good luck with that. The few things you get right celebrate them, post them on FB for your friends to see. So they think you’re doing well in your new life living abroad. After a few years, your friends will say things like “I could never live in a foreign country” and you will become defensive. “Good, then don’t move here.” But don’t give up on acclimating, over time things will get better. You will start to learn new words in another language, then use them inappropriately which will make people laugh. You’ll make new friends who you can’t talk to because a simple sentence takes forever, and no one has an hour to listen to you. People will start to wave to avoid talking to you. If you’re lucky some will speak your language and you’ll stick to them like glue. You’ll know you’re beginning to fit in when you stop asking for ketchup. But no matter what you do or how long you stay, you’ll always be a fish out of water.

An Autumn's Tale

An amazing magical adventure from the animals at Snowdrop Hall, celebrating this time an autumn feast and Halloween with amazing stage effects. Then followed by music, including from Tilly, Pip, Oliver Fox and Ollie the German Shepherd, and the many animals who will be singing some wonderful and memorable songs. There is wonderful dancing and of course amazing magic from our wonderful wizards. A book that will touch your heart and soul, but more so you will sing with joy.