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Does My Head Look Big In This?
by Randa Abdel-FattahDon't panic - I'm Islamic! Amal is a 16-year-old Melbourne teen with all the usual obsessions about boys, chocolate and Cosmo magazine. She's also a Muslim, struggling to honour the Islamic faith in a society that doesn't understand it. The story of her decision to "shawl up" is funny, surprising and touching by turns.
The Friendship Matchmaker Goes Undercover
by Randa Abdel-FattahNow that Lara Zany has an Official Best Friend (OBF), her friendship matchmaking days are over. When a boy named Majur transfers to their grade and outplays the school bully, Chris Martin, on the soccer field, Chris's reign of terror is suddenly over. Alone and unable to make friends, Chris turns to Lara-who can't resist the challenge of finding this reformed bully a real friend. Between balancing her new friendships, making sure Majur, a refugee from Sudan, fits in, and finding Chris a friend, the Friendship Matchmaker has her work cut out for her-especially because she promised to put her matchmaking to rest. The only solution is to go undercover . . . which means the Friendship Matchmaker is back in business in this charming, laugh-out-loud sequel about finding true friends despite big differences.
Flatland: Large Print (Penguin Science Fiction)
by Edwin AbbottThe book that influenced writers from Carl Sagan to Stephen Hawking, Flatland is set in a two-dimensional world where life exists only in lines and shapes - until one of its inhabitants, 'A. Square', has his perspective transformed forever. This brilliantly eccentric classic is an invitation to see beyond our own reality.'At once a playful brainteaser about geometry, a pointed satire of Victorian manners - and a strangely compelling argument about the greatest mysteries of the Universe' Wall Street Journal'Flatland could lead to very profound thought about our Universe and ourselves' Isaac Asimov
What Abigail Did That Summer: A Rivers Of London Novella
by Ben AaronovitchThe brand new novella in the much-loved and #1 bestselling Rivers of London series!Ghost hunter, fox whisperer, troublemaker.It is the summer of 2013 and Abigail Kamara has been left to her own devices. This might, by those who know her, be considered a mistake. While her cousin, police constable and apprentice wizard Peter Grant, is off in the sticks chasing unicorns, Abigail is chasing her own mystery. Teenagers around Hampstead Heath have been going missing but before the police can get fully engaged, the teens return home - unharmed but vague about where they've been.Aided only by her new friend Simon, her knowledge that magic is real, and a posse of talking foxes that think they're spies, Abigail must venture into the wilds of Hampstead to discover who is luring the teenagers and more importantly - why?* * * * *PRAISE FOR THE BESTSELLING RIVERS OF LONDON SERIES'Highly entertaining' Sunday Express'Funny and wildly inventive' Mail on Sunday'Masterfully crafted ... gives the late, great Terry Pratchett a run for his money' The Sun'Ben Aaronovitch has created a wonderful world full of mystery, magic and fantastic characters. I love being there even more than the real London.' Nick Frost'Charming, witty, exciting' Independent'An incredibly fast-moving magical joyride for grown-ups' The Times
Robin Robin: The Official Book of the Film
by Aardman AnimationsRobin Robin is a stunning picture book adaptation of the animation from Aardman and Netflix, perfect for Christmas and beyond! When an egg rolls out of its nest and into a rubbish dump, the little robin inside is discovered and raised by a loving family of burglar mice. As Robin grows up, her differences become more obvious and she starts to feel out of place in her mouse family. Not quite a bird and not quite a mouse, but full of determination. Robin sets out on an adventure to prove herself and – just maybe – get a sandwich. Robin Robin: The Official Book of the Film is based on the hit Netflix film from Aardman Animations, creators of Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Morph. This heartwarming story features a cast of unforgettable characters including a treasure-hunting magpie (Richard E. Grant) and a thoroughly villainous cat (Gillian Anderson), and is full of excitement, daring escapades, and Christmas adventure.Featuring gorgeous artwork taken from the handcrafted stop-motion animation, and including lyrics to all the original songs, this charming, warm and witty story is perfect for picture book lovers and animation fans of all ages!
Humour, Seriously: Why Humour Is A Superpower At Work And In Life
by Jennifer Aaker Naomi Bagdonas'A smart, funny, brilliant book on how to be smart about being funny, brilliantly' Sarah Cooper'This book has finally convinced me that joking around can actually be important and powerful' Ed Gamble'Eye-opening, important and utterly enjoyable. Come for the humour, stay for the insights' Arianna HuffingtonHumour is a superpower. If you're not using it, the joke's on you.When we're kids we laugh all the time. The average four year-old laughs as many as 300 times a day, while the average forty year-old laughs 300 times every two and a half months! We grow up, start working and suddenly become "serious and important people", trading laughter for bottom lines, slide decks and mind-dumbing conference calls. But the benefits of humour for our work and life are huge. Studies have shown that humour makes us appear more competent and confident, strengthens our relationships, unlocks creativity and boosts resilience during difficult times. Dr. Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas are on a mission to help everyone discover the power of humour. Based on the popular Stanford Business course, this book will show you how to mine your life for material, explore the Four Deadly Humour Myths and help you figure out which style of humour you fall into - The Magnet, The Sweetheart, The Sniper or the Stand Up. Drawing on behavioural science, advice from world-class comedians and stories from top leaders, Humour, Seriously will show you how to harness the power of humour every day.
The Beatles and Humour: Mockers, Funny Papers, and Other Play
The Beatles are known for cheeky punchlines, but understanding their humor goes beyond laughing at John Lennon's memorable “rattle your jewelry” dig at the Royal Variety Performance in 1963. From the beginning, the Beatles' music was full of wordplay and winks, guided by comedic influences ranging from rhythm and blues, British radio, and the Liverpool pub scene. Gifted with timing and deadpan wit, the band habitually relied on irony, sarcasm, and nonsense. Early jokes revealed an aptitude for improvisation and self-awareness, techniques honed throughout the 1960s and into solo careers. Experts in the art of play, including musical experimentation, the Beatles' shared sense of humor is a key ingredient to their appeal during the 1960s- and to their endurance.The Beatles and Humour offers innovative takes on the serious art of Beatle fun, an instrument of social, political, and economic critique. Chapters also situate the band alongside British and non-British predecessors and collaborators, such as Billy Preston and Yoko Ono, uncovering diverse components and unexpected effects of the Beatles' output.
The Book of Hopes: Words and Pictures to Comfort, Inspire and Entertain
In difficult times, what children really need is hope. And in that spirit, bestselling author Katherine Rundell emailed some of the children's writers and artists whose work she loved most:'I asked them to write something very short, fiction or non-fiction, or draw something that would make the children reading it feel like possibility-ists: something that would make them laugh or wonder or snort or smile. The response was magnificent, which shouldn't have surprised me, because children's writers and illustrators are professional hunters of hope… I hope that the imagination can be a place of shelter for children and that The Book of Hopes might be useful in that, even if only a little.'This collection, packed with short stories, poems and pictures from the very best children's authors and illustrators, aims to provide just that. Within its pages you'll find animal friends from insects to elephants, high-flying grandmas, a homesick sprite, the tooth fairy, and even extra-terrestrial life.There are 133 contributions from authors and illustrators, including Anthony Horowitz, Axel Scheffler, Catherine Johnson, Jacqueline Wilson, Katherine Rundell, Lauren Child, Michael Morpurgo and Onjali Q. Raúf. A donation from the sale of each book will go to NHS Charities Together, in gratitude for the incredible efforts of all those who worked in hospitals over the quarantine period.'An anthology on the theme of hope… it includes a rich range of images, poetry, stories and non-fiction' Stories to charm on endless days, The Sunday TimesThe following proceeds from this ebook will be donated to NHS Charities Together: 35% of publisher's net receipts or at least £1.00 per copy.NHS Charities Together is a charity registered in England and Wales (registered charity no. 1186569)
Comics through Time [4 volumes]: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas [4 volumes]
Focusing especially on American comic books and graphic novels from the 1930s to the present, this massive four-volume work provides a colorful yet authoritative source on the entire history of the comics medium.Comics and graphic novels have recently become big business, serving as the inspiration for blockbuster Hollywood movies such as the Iron Man series of films and the hit television drama The Walking Dead. But comics have been popular throughout the 20th century despite the significant effects of the restrictions of the Comics Code in place from the 1950s through 1970s, which prohibited the depiction of zombies and use of the word "horror," among many other rules. Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas provides students and general readers a one-stop resource for researching topics, genres, works, and artists of comic books, comic strips, and graphic novels. The comprehensive and broad coverage of this set is organized chronologically by volume. Volume 1 covers 1960 and earlier; Volume 2 covers 1960–1980; Volume 3 covers 1980–1995; and Volume 4 covers 1995 to the present. The chronological divisions give readers a sense of the evolution of comics within the larger contexts of American culture and history. The alphabetically arranged entries in each volume address topics such as comics publishing, characters, imprints, genres, themes, titles, artists, writers, and more. While special attention is paid to American comics, the entries also include coverage of British, Japanese, and European comics that have influenced illustrated storytelling of the United States or are of special interest to American readers.
Critical Perspectives on the Hallmark Channel: Countdown to Romance
This multinational, multidisciplinary collection of essays focuses on Hallmark Channel movies and Hallmark’s position in the changing North American media landscape.This book covers the ‘Countdown to Christmas’ offerings, year-round productions, made-for-TV mysteries and romances, Hallmark’s use of specific filming locations, and its relationship to viewer desires. Chapters examine Hallmark’s position in a changing sociopolitical context and the tensions the company must navigate in creating more “progressive” content; they discuss issues of gender, race, sexuality, and place, as well as analyzing the extensive ranges and reactions of social media participants and interrogating the nature of Hallmark’s popularity.Suitable for scholars and students of film and tv and popular culture studies, this is a multifaceted look at both Hallmark and its viewers at a particular moment of Hallmark’s market dominance.
Funny Dostoevsky: New Perspectives on the Dostoevskian Light Side
Tapping into the emergence of scholarly comedy studies since the 2000s, this collection brings new perspectives to bear on the Dostoevskian light side. Funny Dostoevksy demonstrates how and why Dostoevsky is one of the most humorous 19th-century authors, even as he plumbs the depths of the human psyche and the darkest facets of European modernity. The authors go beyond the more traditional categories of humor, such as satire, parody, and the carnivalesque, to apply unique lenses to their readings of Dostoevsky. These include cinematic slapstick and the body in Crime and Punishment, the affective turn and hilarious (and deadly) impatience in Demons, and ontological jokes in Notes from Underground and The Idiot. The authors – (coincidentally?) all women, including some of the most established scholars in the field alongside up-and-comers – address gender and the marginalization of comedy, culminating in a chapter on Dostoevsky's "funny and furious" women, and explore the intersections of gender and humor in literary and culture studies. Funny Dostoevksy applies some of the latest findings on humor and laughter to his writing, while comparative chapters bring Dostoevsky's humor into conjunction with other popular works, such as Chaplin's Modern Times and Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton. Written with a verve and wit that Dostoevsky would appreciate, this boldly original volume illuminates how humor and comedy in his works operate as vehicles of deconstruction, pleasure, play, and transcendence.
Humor in Global Contemporary Art
Pursuing a new and timely line of research in world art studies, Humor in Global Contemporary Art is the first edited collection to examine the role of culturally specific humor in contemporary art from a global perspective.Since the 1960s, increasing numbers of artists from around the world have applied humor as a tool for observation, critique, transformation, and debate. Exploring how humorous art produced over the past six decades is anchored in local sociopolitical contexts and translated or misconstrued when exhibited abroad, this book opens new conversations regarding the functioning of humor and the ways in which art travels across the globe. With contributions by an impressive array of internationally based scholars covering six major continental regions, the book is organized into four distinct geographical sections: Africa and the Middle East, Asia and Oceania, South and North America, and Europe. This structure highlights the cultural specificity of each region while the book as a whole offers a critical perspective on the postcolonial, globalized art network.Reflecting on present-day processes of globalization and biennialization, which confront viewers with humorous art from a variety of cultures and countries, this book will provide readers with a culturally sensitive understanding of how humor has become vital to many contemporary artists working in an unprecedentedly interconnected world.
QEII We Love You: A Child's-eye Celebration of Queen Elizabeth II
Children answer questions about the Queen in this delightful tribute to our longest-serving monarch and celebration of the innocence of childhood.In September 2015 Queen Elizabeth became Britain's longest-reigning monarch, a position previously held by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. In this wonderful celebration of her reign, primary school children offer their charming and often hilarious views on the Queen, her life, her work and her corgis.Answering a variety of questions, such as 'What does the Queen do all day?', 'Where does the Queen like to go on holiday?' and 'What does the Queen like to watch on television?', children offer their insights into the Queen's life.Learn how she apparently likes to play with her corgis in the park, sit on her throne while reading the newspaper and drinking wine, watch all the soaps on TV and how she spends her working days waving to people and attending meetings. These entertaining and funny answers are accompanied throughout by the children’s highly imaginative drawings of the Queen.Published to coincide with this landmark occasion, this wonderful book is a tribute to our longest-serving monarch, and celebrates both her reign and the innocence of childhood.
Television Sitcom and Cultural Crisis (Routledge Advances in Television Studies)
This volume demonstrates that television comedies are conduits through which we might resist normative ways of thinking about cultural crises.By drawing on Gramscian notion of crisis and the understanding that crises are overlapping, interconnected, and mutually constitutive, the essays in this collection demonstrate that situation comedies do more than make us laugh; they also help us understand the complexities of our social world’s moments of crisis. Each chapter takes up the televisual representation of a modern cultural crisis in a contemporary sitcom and is grounded in the extensive body of literature that suggests that levity is a powerful mechanism to make sense of and cope with these difficult cultural experiences.Divided into thematic sections that highlight crises of institutions and systems, identity and representation, and speculation and futurism, this book will interest scholars of media and cultural studies, political economy, communication studies, and humor studies.
We Made Uranium!: And Other True Stories from the University of Chicago's Extraordinary Scavenger Hunt
Item #176: A fire drill. No, not an exercise in which occupants of a building practice leaving the building safely. A drill which safely emits a bit of fire, the approximate shape and size of a drill bit. Item #74: Enter a lecture class in street clothes. Receive loud phone call. Shout “I NEED TO GO, THE CITY NEEDS ME!” Remove street clothes to reveal superhero apparel. Run out for the good of the land. Item #293: Hypnotizing a chicken seems easy, but if the Wikipedia article on the practice is to be believed, debate on the optimal method is heated. Do some trials on a real chicken and submit a report . . . for science of course. Item #234: A walking, working, people-powered but preferably wind-powered Strandbeest. Item #188: Fattest cat. Points per pound. The University of Chicago’s annual Scavenger Hunt (or “Scav”) is one of the most storied college traditions in America. Every year, teams of hundreds of competitors scramble over four days to complete roughly 350 challenges. The tasks range from moments of silliness to 1,000-mile road trips, and they call on participants to fully embrace the absurd. For students it is a rite of passage, and for the surrounding community it is a chance to glimpse the lighter side of a notoriously serious university. We Made Uranium! shares the stories behind Scav, told by participants and judges from the hunt’s more than thirty-year history. The twenty-three essays range from the shockingly successful (a genuine, if minuscule, nuclear reaction created in a dorm room) to the endearing failures (it’s hard to build a carwash for a train), and all the chicken hypnotisms and permanent tattoos in between. Taken together, they show how a scavenger hunt once meant for blowing off steam before finals has grown into one of the most outrageous annual traditions at any university. The tales told here are absurd, uplifting, hilarious, and thought-provoking—and they are all one hundred percent true.
The World's Stupidest Headlines
This is an entertaining collection of the world's stupidest headlines, featuring over 300 examples of the most ludicrous headlines ever to be printed in newspapers throughout the world. At first glance they might seem perfectly reasonable, but on closer inspection their implied meaning can be something else entirely ... and it's not always pretty.
Writers on Writing: A Book of Quotations (Writers' and Artists')
Writers on Writing brings together a plethora of phrases, quotable lines, quips and putdowns about the writing process. Arranged in themes that follow the stages from idea to final publication and beyond, this little book of quotations brings together words of wisdom and withering wit from famous and infamous writers across the ages about their own work and that of fellow writers. Themes on the publishing process include: getting started, first drafts, agents, editing, publication day, book tours; and on different genres, forms and writing styles, such as plot, character, dialogue. Other topics covered are: rivals, censorship, writer's block, spelling, fame, money, plagiarism, and alcohol. The quotations are accompanied by their original source (where known), date and a short writer biographical note. ''A writer is a person who writes.'' John Braine ''Our book is found to be a drug, no man needs it or heeds it. In the space of a year our publisher has disposed but of two copies.'' Charlotte Brontë ''How rare, how precious is frivolity! How few writers can prostitute all their powers! They are always implying, 'I am capable of higher things'.'' E.M. Forster