Books

Nobody has everything they need, all the time - so how can we make do with what we have? Economics is all about understanding the choices we make to solve this problem. With bright, infographics pictures, this informative book describes why markets are so important, how businesses work out what to sell, and how governments choose how to run a country. Includes Usborne Quicklinks to specially selected websites for more information.

Chapters in this book include:
- What is economics?
- What is an economy?
- What do economists study?
- How do you do economics?

Not enough to go around
The things we need to survive, how we choose them, and why there's never enough time: the big reasons why economies exist.

Markets
Buying and selling and how prices are set - as if by magic.

Making choices
How do people make choices and why are those choices often unexpected? How can businesses and governments change people's choices? Why would they want to?

Production, profit and competition
What big choices do businesses face? Why is competition so important? Why do some businesses produce pollution and what should we do about it?

Economic systems
Is there a set of rules that would make it possible to share everything fairly? Or is it better to have winners and losers? What systems have people tried?

Macroeconomics
What tools do governments use to measure the economy? What effects do their choices have on individual people and the economy as a whole?

International trade
Why everyone from around the world benefits from buying and selling each other's products - and why governments sometimes don't like it.

Big questions (and a few answers)
How the tools of economics help us make sense of everything, from war to famine to saving the planet.

What's next?

Philosophy is a way of thinking about just about anything. It asks big questions, such as "how can I be good?" or "what makes something beautiful?" Using lively examples, humorous illustrations and simple thought experiments, this book opens up the world of philosophy to children and adults with enquiring minds.

Chapters in this book include:
- What is philosophy?
- A world of philosophy?
- Doing philosophy
- How to argue
- Thought experiments
- Why do philosophy?

Knowledge
How do we know anything about the world around us - can we be sure that we know anything at all?

The mind
Is your mind somehow different from your body, and are you even in control of it?

Beauty and art
What is beauty, and what is art?
And why is it so hard to answer these questions?

God
If there is a God, is it possible to prove that he or she exists?

Politics
Are there any rules that everyone can agree on that would make a society a fair and happy place for everyone to live in?

How to be good
If you're not sure of the right thing to do, can the tools of philosophy help you find an answer?

Time and Identity
Everything changes with time - but how much can something change and still count as the same thing? What is time, anyway?

Logic and language
What are the rules of philosophy, and how can you follow them if people don't agree on what words themselves actually mean?

The meaning of life
Is philosophy merely a way asking questions about the world - or can it also be a way of life itself? Can it answer the ultimate question: what is the meaning of life?

What next?
Multiple mysteries
Famous Philosophers

Take a walk through the zoo to discover cheeky monkeys, tall giraffes and happy hippos!

This fun and chunky board book features bite-size facts and accessible information to engage even the youngest of readers. Toddlers will love peeping through the cut-out pages to wander through the zoo and meet a LOT of friendly animals along the way! With bright, bold illustrations and endless hidden details to spot, this is the perfect first introduction to animals.

What Can You See? At the Zoo is part of an early non-fiction series for curious toddlers. Each book is packed with fun facts and peep-through pages to captivate little learners.

Also available in the series: What Can You See? On the Farm, What Can You See? At Night, What Can You See? On the Building Site, What Can You See? In Space

Filled with rusting relics and tattered treasure maps, The Old Curiosity Shop is Nell Trent’s favourite place in the whole world. This is lucky, because it’s also her home.

Following the smash-hit sci-fi comedy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is the second part in Douglas Adams' multi-media phenomenon and cult classic series.

An illustrated adaptation of Charles Dickens's Victorian classic – at an easy-to-read level for readers of all ages! Pip’s just your average boy. He has no parents, lives with his scary sister and once met an escaped criminal on Christmas Eve – in the middle of a graveyard. Totally normal. And things get even stranger when a mysterious stranger starts paying him loads of money. Sure, Pip’s loving his new life of luxury, but will he ever find out who’s paying the bills, and what they want from him in return? About Sweet Cherry Easy Sweet Cherry Easy Classics adapts classic literature into illustrated stories for children, introducing these timeless tales to a new generation. ( All titles in the series are leveled for classroom use, including GRLs.)

"My satire is against those who see figures and averages, and nothing else," proclaimed Charles Dickens in explaining the theme of this classic novel. Published in 1854, the story concerns one Thomas Gradgrind, a "fanatic of the demonstrable fact," who raises his children, Tom and Louisa, in a stifling and arid atmosphere of grim practicality. Without a moral compass to guide them, the children sink into lives of desperation and despair, played out against the grim background of Coketown, a wretched community shadowed by an industrial behemoth. Louisa falls into a loveless marriage with Josiah Bouderby, a vulgar banker, while the unscrupulous Tom, totally lacking in principle, becomes a thief who frames an innocent man for his crime. Witnessing the degradation and downfall of his children, Gradgrind realizes that his own misguided principles have ruined their lives. Considered Dickens' harshest indictment of mid-19th-century industrial practices and their dehumanizing effects, this novel offers a fascinating tapestry of Victorian life, filled with the richness of detail, brilliant characterization, and passionate social concern that typify the novelist's finest creations. Of Dickens' work, the eminent Victorian critic John Ruskin had this to say: "He is entirely right in his main drift and purpose in every book he has written; and all of them, but especially Hard Times, should be studied with close and earnest care by persons interested in social questions."