Books with author Alan Duras

Fifteen year old Ross is tough, bright and into 'organized' fighting. He's the leader of a gang called The Judges, named after the book of Judges in the Old Testament of the Bible. The Old Testament is Ross's favourite read, which may sound odd if you haven't read it, but it's packed full of blow by blow accounts of classic battles, and that's what Ross really likes: the strategy, planning the attack - especially when it's against supporters of rival football teams. Things start to change when Ross inadvertently finds himself involved with a local Christian organization, and begins to question some of his beliefs. But, faced with violence at home and blood lust amongst his friends, it seems that it will take more than a bit of goodwill from a few do-gooders to take him from his path of violence and self-destruction.

Noah was fed up with the people in his world making a right mess of everything. He built a big boat to get away in, and invited his animal friends along couples only. The animals lined up by the boat, two by two. All except for Mrs. Shark, who came alone. It seemed she had accidentally eaten her husband. Would Noah be able to trust her on his boat Skylarks is a series of fiction books, divided by chapters, which cover a wide range of genres from adventure, humour and fairy tale to fantasy, mystery and science fiction. Each story comprises approximately 2,000 words, broken into 7 or 8 chapters and illustrated in full colour with a range of artwork styles, with one or two images per spread. This series will take young independent readers into real books .

With a caliber of stories and extracts several notches above the expected fare in a compilation, this collection includes contributions from Matt Christopher (Wingman on Ice), Walter Dean Myers (Slam!), Enid Bagnold (National Velvet), Ring Lardner (You Know Me Al), P. G. Wodehouse (Mike at Wrykyn), and George R. R. Martin (The Last Superbowl Game). From baseball and basketball to show-jumping and soccer, there's action and inspiration in abundance in this terrific introduction to classic sports writing for children and young adults.