Books in Selection series

A candid and very funny memoir from beloved children’s book author Dick King-Smith.Before he was a children’s book author, Dick King-Smith was a soldier, a farmer, a salesman, a factory worker, and a teacher. But he was always a devoted family man who loved the countryside he lived in and the animals he kept. In this insightful memoir, Dick King-Smith recounts the joys and failures of his life with equal humor and candor. And he remembers a delightful cast of animal characters–from Anna, the dachshund who turned out to be just stubborn, not deaf, to the 600-pound pig Monty, who liked to be scratched on top of his head, to Wilhelmina, a pet badger who was fond of love bites. As readers delight in recognizing the inspiration behind many of Dick King-Smith’s books, they’ll also see how a collection of experiences made a man a writer.From the Hardcover edition.

"All those years you tried your best to break me, and I'm still here. One day you'll see, I'm going to make something of myself." --Dave Pelzer, from A Man Named Dave These words were Dave Pelzer's declaration of independence to his mother, and they represented the ultimate act of self-reliance. Dave's father never intervened as his mother abused him with shocking brutality, denying him food and clothing, torturing him in any way she could imagine. This was the woman who told her son she could kill him any time she wanted to-and nearly did. The more than two million readers of Pelzer's previous international bestsellers, A Child Called "It" and The Lost Boy, know that he lived to tell his courageous story. A Man Named Dave is the gripping conclusion to his inspirational trilogy. With stunning generosity of spirit, Dave Pelzer invites readers on his journey to discover how he turned shame into pride and rejection into acceptance.