Life on the rough side of New Zealand. In this South Auckland neighbourhood where gang culture, drink, drugs, sex and violence is already a way of life, a vicious attack on a teenage girl sparks a ripple effect of revenge and fury. Live the carnage through multiple viewpoints as the tale unfolds to a bloody climax. NOT for the fainthearted. WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT. Language and sexual references are graphic. 18+

A mechanic welcomes the reader to his garage where he will try to fix his car, but first needs help in finding his friends, Mouse, Crocodile, and Bird under lift-up flaps and fold-out pages. Full color.

You can't sell it outside if you can't sell it inside. You want maximum business performance? Look under the hood and you’ll find your employee culture: it is the power that drives the enterprise engine. To harness that rumbling power you’ve got to solve the mystery of what an employee culture actually is, how it operates and how to move it forward. These are the keys that this book will put right in your hands. Renowned business culture expert Stan Slap knows the difference between understanding your employees and understanding your employee culture. The distinction isn’t semantics; it’s the key to whether your strategies will succeed or fail. This myth-busting book reveals why an employee culture is an independent organism with its own rules, beliefs, and motivations—and the power to make or break any management plan (and any manager right along with it). Slap shows you how to get whatever you want from your employee culture, whether it’s improved accountability, innovation, flexibility, resilience, energy, loyalty, or trust. Along the way he solves mysteries that have puzzled managers since the first Mesopotamian farmer hired some help, including: Why does an employee culture really resist change? What does it care about more than money? Why does it respond to leadership differently than to management? How does it talk to itself, and what does it mean when it won’t talk to you? Why are company values the most dangerous threat to gaining its trust? If you have a wonderful employee culture, this book will help you scale it. If you have a troubled employee culture, this book will help you fix it. If you have an employee culture under pressure, this book will help you ease it. If you have a new employee culture, this book will help you shape it. And if you are investing in a company, this book will help you protect your greatest purchasable asset. Under the Hood is informed by immaculate research, including surveys of more than 15,000 employees from companies the world over. It’s packed with original tactics that have driven performance for many organizations and countless managers. And it includes jaw-dropping inside stories of employee cultures from the likes of Samsung, Oracle, Progressive, CNN during wartime, Paul McCartney’s band, and the Super Bowl film crew. It’s all delivered in classic Stan Slap style: profound and provocative, heartfelt and often hysterical. This is not simply a management book; it is the business case for humanity. Management advice doesn’t get realer or more important than this.

Blakely My life is a stage. Followed by millions, and loved by none. And me, the captain of control, steering my image through choppy waters. Making sure I stay on top. No one ever sees me. No one ever looks. Until him. But he's everything impossible, and a thousand shades of wrong. Falling for him would ruin everything I've worked for. So why can't I stay away?JacksonMy life is a back-up plan. Surrounded by friends, and loved by none. And me, the king of heartbreak, gluing my pieces back together. Making sure they stick. No one ever sees me. No one ever looks. Until her. But she's everything off-limits, and a thousand shades of sin. Falling for her would ruin everything I've worked for. So why won't she stay away?

Once an NYC Police Detective, Private Investigator Jonathan Hood becomes involved in a mystery, some unseen horror has butchered his client. He learns that an otherworldly beast has attached itself to an idol smuggled out of the Amazonian jungle. A door's opened to another dimension; a door that only the idol can close. What he knows; he can't tell, there's the risk of sounding insane. The creature goes on the hunt, Jonathan and maybe all of New York is on the menu. There's not much time left. What can he do and who can he get to believe and help him find the idol and close the door?

“This page-turning true-life adventure is filled with rich and riveting details and a timeless understanding of the things that matter most.”—Dashka Slater, author of The 57 Bus “Brilliantly told in verse, readers will love Ken Sparks.” —Patricia Reilly Giff, two-time Newbery Honor winner “Lyrical, terrifying, and even at times funny. A richly detailed account of a little-known event in World War II.” —Kirkus Reviews “Middle grade Titanic fans, here’s your next read.” —BCCB “An edge-of-your seat survival tale.” —School Library Journal (starred review) A Junior Library Guild Selection The 2019 Golden Kite Middle Grade Fiction Award Winner A 2019 ALSC Notable Children’s Book The 2019–2020 Lectio Book Award Winner The 2020–2021 Florida Sunshine State Young Readers Award List The 2020 Oklahoma Library Association’s Children’s Sequoyah Book Award Winner The Connecticut Book Award Winner In the tradition of The War That Saved My Life and Stella By Starlight, this poignant novel in verse based on true events tells the story of a boy’s harrowing experience on a lifeboat after surviving a torpedo attack during World War II. With Nazis bombing London every night, it’s time for thirteen-year-old Ken to escape. He suspects his stepmother is glad to see him go, but his dad says he’s one of the lucky ones—one of ninety boys and girls to ship out aboard the SS City of Benares to safety in Canada. Life aboard the luxury ship is grand—nine-course meals, new friends, and a life far from the bombs, rations, and his stepmum’s glare. And after five days at sea, the ship’s officers announce that they’re out of danger. They’re wrong. Late that night, an explosion hurls Ken from his bunk. They’ve been hit. Torpedoed! The Benares is sinking fast. Terrified, Ken scrambles aboard Lifeboat 12 with five other boys. Will they get away? Will they survive? Award-winning author Susan Hood brings this little-known World War II story to life in a riveting novel of courage, hope, and compassion. Based on true events and real people, Lifeboat 12 is about believing in one another, knowing that only by banding together will we have any chance to survive.

"An under-the-hood look at how the Ruby programming language runs code. Extensively illustrated with complete explanations and hands-on experiments. Covers Ruby 2.x"--