Best Selling Books by PAMELA ALLEN

After claiming the treasure that he and his brother haul out of the ocean, Herbert spends the rest of his life fearfully guarding it from possible thieves.

The Diva''s Gift traces the far-reaching impact of the first female stars on the playwrights and players of the all-male stage. When Shakespeare entered the scene, women had been acting in Italian troupes for two decades, traveling in Italy and beyond and performing in all genres, including tragedy. The ambitious actress reinvented the innamorata, making her more charismatic and autonomous, thrilling audiences with her skills. Despite fervent attacks, some actresses became the first international stars, winning royal and noble patrons and literary admirers in France and Spain. After Elizabeth and her court caught wind of their success in Paris, Italian troupes with actresses crossed the Channel to perform. The Italians'' repeat visits and growing fame posed a radical challenge to English professionals just as they were building their first paying theaters. Some writers treated the actress as a whorish threat to their stage, which had long minimized female roles. Others saw a vital new model full of promise. Lyly, Marlowe, and Kyd endowed innamorata parts with hot-blooded, racialized passions, but made them self-aware agents, not counters traded between men. Shakespeare, Jonson, Webster and others followed, ringing changes on the new type in comedy, tragedy, and romance. Like the comici they recycled actress-linked theatergrams and star scenes, such as cross-dressing, the mad scene, and the sung lament. In this way, the diva''s prodigious virtuosity and stardom altered the horizons of playmaking even on the womanless stage. Capitalizing on the talents of boy players, the best playwrights created bold new roles endowed with her alien glamour, such as Lyly''s Sapho and Pandora, Marlowe''s Dido, Kyd''s Bel-Imperia, Webster''s Vittoria, and Shakespeare''s Beatrice, Viola, Portia, Juliet, and Ophelia. Cleopatra is not alone in her superb theatricality and dazzling strangeness. As this book demonstrates, the diva''s gifts mark them all.

Cuthbert loves being the centre of attention, but when his mum and dad bring home four baby sisters no-one seems to have time for him anymore. Cuthbert wishes for someone big and bad to play with and, out at sea, in their dreams, three pirates hear his call.

The Authentic Spiritual Leadership model encourages development of leaders who demonstrate a combination of authentic and spiritual leadership behaviors. This book has practical implications for leaders and organizations interested in confronting the current crisis in leadership regarding leadership ethics and leadership accountability. Diverse organizations require leaders who actually demonstrate how this unique approach contributes to a renewed focus on the well-being of people, psychological well-being, ethical well-being, sense of purpose, meaning, calling, and spiritual, moral, authentic, transparent and socially responsible behaviors. Organizations seeking to provide spiritual leadership development training could incorporate spiritual leadership into the design. But combining spiritual, authentic, ethical, and transformational leadership models into the training would also determine if other leadership styles exist within the organizational framework. Additional value should include study of spiritual leadership in one of the fastest-growing and sustainable corporations in the twenty-first century: The Mega Church. This book encourages development of a mega church corporate model as the new organizational form that includes authentic spiritual leadership and other leadership styles. The mega church is the new corporation of the twenty-first century, challenging leaders to join what Scharmer (2009) describes as a cultural-spiritual shift toward the rise of a new consciousness in models of leadership.

The reader is invited to guess who causes the boat to sink when five animal friends of varying sizes decide to go for a row.

In a study that explodes the assumption that early modern comic culture was created by men for men, Pamela Allen Brown shows that jest books, plays, and ballads represented women as laugh-getters and sought out the laughter of ordinary women. Disputing the claim that non-elite women had little access to popular culture because of their low literacy and social marginality, Brown demonstrates that women often bested all comers in the arenas of jesting, gaining a few heady moments of agency. Juxtaposing the literature of jest against court records, sermons, and conduct books, Brown employs a witty, entertaining style to propose that non-elite women used jests to test the limits of their subjection. She also shows how women''s mocking laughter could function as a means of social control in closely watched neighborhoods. While official culture beatified the sheep-like wife and disciplined the scold, jesting culture often applauded the satiric shrew, whether her target was priest, cuckold, or rapist. Brown argues that listening for women''s laughter can shed light on both the dramas of the street and those of the stage: plays from The Massacre of the Innocents to The Merry Wives of Windsor to The Woman''s Prize taught audiences the importance of gossips'' alliances as protection against slanderers, lechers, tyrants, and wife-beaters. Other jests, ballads, jigs, and plays show women reveling in tales of female roguery or scoffing at the perverse patience of Griselda. As Brown points out, some women found Griselda types annoying and even foolish: better be a shrew than a sheep.

''Stay close, take care,'' quacked Alexander''s mother. But Alexander did not stay close and he did not take care. He straggled behind with his head in the air - and disappeared down a deep dark hole. Can you help Alexander''s mother, his brothers and sister and all the passers-by solve the problem? Beloved and award-winning author, Pamela Allen, has captivated readers worldwide with her enchanting stories and timeless characters for over 45 years, and Alexander''s Outing is no exception, continuing to win the hearts of new generations.

A royal household is disrupted when a lion runs off with the baby.

Mr McGee when out to play, down to the beach one windy day... When along comes a jumping, biting flea. ''OOOO! OWWW! EEEEE! cries Mr McGee. Told in Pamela Allen''s famously irresistible rhyme, she portrays the hilarious sequence of events as Mr McGee tries to rid himself of the biting flea, one article of clothing at a time!

Children''s picture book about Old Tom and his efforts to milk the temperamental cow, Belinda. Colourfully illustrated by the author, winner of the Children''s Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year Award 1983 and 1984, and twice winner of the New South Wales Premier''s Award for the best children''s book. Other books include TWho Sank the Boat?'' TMy Cat Maisie'', and TBertie and the Bear''. The book was shortlisted for the 1993 Children''s Book Council Picture Book Award.

One of 5 animal friends is guilty of sinking the boat.

Little Red Hen hatches her chicks to accompanying barnyard noises.

On Fridays Jack spends the day with Grandma. One day they make potato people, but then when Jack doesn''t visit for a few weeks, the potato people shrivel up and spout stalks. Grandma plants them in the garden and when Jack finally does visit, there''s a big surprise. Suggested level: junior, primary.