New Releases by ROSS COLLINS

A girl acquires more and more chickens as pets until they themselves decide she has too many.

Pox, a young germ on his first assignment, not only refuses to infect a girl with chicken pox, he also helps defend her from other germs and, for his heroism, is made Honorary Chief of the Immune System.

In this lively history of writing, six goofy birds - a penguin, two toucans, an owl and two chickens - team up to tour the world of writing: how it developed, where alphabets came from, and the origins of international languages such as Latin, Esperanto and Morse Code. They begin their time-travelling journey in 4000 BCE with the Sumerians, who invented pictograms out of the necessity to keep trading records. One of the toucans flies on a kite tail to China to learn about characters, the penguin walks like an Egyptian in full headdress across the desert sands to uncover hieroglyphs, and then there''s a mad rush of characters who pass the idea of an alphabet around Europe and the Near East. Illustrated in full colour, Write Around the World includes light-hearted and informative sections on the world''s alphabets, languages, handwriting, calligraphy, typefaces and punctuation, icons, and secret codes as well as a glossary of important words.

Describes the Christmas traditions, beliefs, and celebrations found throughout Europe and offers a variety of ideas for every aspect of the season''s festivities.

Ben and his dog Belly live by the sea, and the sea is doing strange things. Ben and Belly set sail in their little boat, braving the rough seas until they find a hole, right in the middle of the sea.