Most Popular Books by Tim Bowler

Grandpa is dying. He can barely move his hands any more but, stubborn as ever, refuses to stay in hospital. He''s determined to finish his last painting, ''River Boy'', before he goes. At first Jess can''t understand his refusal to let go, but then she too becomes involved in the mysterious painting. And when she meets the river boy himself, she finds she is suddenly caught up in a challenge of her own that she must complete - before it''s too late . . .

Zinny''s life is falling apart. Shadowy figures are following him. His parents are keeping secrets but he can''t figure out why. Then his mum ends up in hospital, his dad disappears, and Zinny has to do whatever he can to save his family. Even if it means helping the very men he''s been running from . . . As the clock ticks, Zinny knows it''s only a matter of time before someone ends up dead - and it could be him.

Somehow the boat was still afloat - another wave had lifted it clear of the first rock and was driving it further inshore. It bumped against the base of Crab Rock and skewed around, then tipped momentarily to starboard . . . and as it did so, she saw a figure crouching in the bottom. Hetty''s always been a bit of a loner, preferring to keep to the outer edges of the close-knit island community. But when a strange woman is washed up on the shore, Hetty finds herself under increasing scrutiny from the islanders. There''s a connection between Hetty and the woman that makes people suspicious, so when death comes to the community the woman is branded a bad omen and Hetty has no choice but to take matters into her own hands. As she heads out to sea, a storm is breaking and the whispers that she''s heard before are louder than ever. Voices from the very depths of the sea . . . and they''re calling her name.

Luke''s father is dead and he feels his mother is moving on too quickly. Since his father''s death Luke has changed his priorities, and has fallen into bad company. His new friends persuade him to break into a house when its owner, an unfriendly and unlovable old woman, is out. Once inside he is confronted with the sound of a girl crying, and through a locked keyhole sees a young girl standing alone, crying in despair. Luke becomes drawn into finding out who the girl is, why she is in the house, and why she is so unhappy. Finding the answers will change all of their lives. Prize-winning author: Tim Bowler has won the Carnegie Medal, the Angus Book Prize (twice), and the Lancashire Children''s Book Award

Fifteen-year-old Kit and his parents must ground their sinking sailboat on a rocky island inhabited by a primitive sect who believe the stranded family has been sent by the devil.

"Shadows" is a gritty, uncompromising book and also, unusually, a boy''s love story. It focuses on Jamie, a fifteen-year-old squash prodigy and his relationship with his overbearing father, who is determined that his son will achieve the success he himself never enjoyed and drives the boy to apoint almost beyond endurance. Then Jamie finds a girl hiding in his shed, and in helping her to escape from the danger that is pursuing her, he is at last able to deal with his own problems. He realises that he can''t run away for ever. He has to come out of the shadows and face up to his father,whatever the cost. * Winner of the Angus Book Prize and the Lancashire Children''s Book Award. * Major prize-winning author: Tim Bowler won the Carnegie Medal with "River Boy". * Strong themes of overcoming fears, helping others, and standing up for what you believe. * New cover treatment to match Tim Bowler''s wonderful new novel, "Storm Catchers". * Author was born and brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, and now lives in Totnes, Devon

Fin is devastated by guilt when his sister, Ella, is kidnapped. She is snatched away from the house in the middle of a storm. As the kidnappers make their demands, Fin''s guilt is replaced by a fierce determination to find his sister by whatever means he can, and bring the criminals to justice. But as the drama unfolds, a complex web of family secrets is revealed. It emerges that Ella''s kidnapping is revenge for mistakes Fin''s father made, years before. The consequences will change all their lives forever.

Will lies in a deserted lane. All he knows is that he''s had an accident and that his life is slipping away. Against all the odds he survives - but with an almost total loss of memory. He does not even know himself. And that is not all. At night he is tormented by visions, in the daytime by hostile strangers. Why does he have so many enemies? And who is the strange child who seems to have a story to tell him? Something has happened in this town, something terrifying. Will can sense it but he can''t work out what it was. Perhaps the old Will knew. But that was before the accident. The new Will must search for the answers again - and this is a dangerous task. For the town has a secret and there are those who will do everything in their power to preserve it. Even kill.

Benjamin has terrible nightmares. Ever since taking the stone from Dragon''s Rock he feels the beast chasing him. Sleep has become a place of fear, where the dragon hunts him. Benjamin returns to Dragon''s Rock in the hope that he can put things right and so get rid of the visions. Once there, his nightmares become even more dangerous. And Benjamin realizes that he''s no longer the only person at risk ...

Design, develop, and deploy feature-rich, high-performance PHP web applications using the Symfony framework Key Features Create powerful web applications by leveraging the power of this Model-View-Controller-based framework Covers all the new features of version 1.3 ñ many exciting plug-ins for you Learn by doing without getting into too much theoretical detail ñ create a "real-life" milkshake store application Includes best practices to shorten your development time and improve performance Book DescriptionWith its flexible architecture, the Symfony framework allows you to build modern web applications and web services easily and rapidly. The MVC components separate the logic from the user interface and therefore make developing, changing, and testing your applications much faster. Using Symfony you can minimize repetitive coding tasks, optimize performance, and easily integrate with other libraries and frameworks. Although this framework contains with many powerful features, most developers do not exploit Symfony to its full potential. This book makes it easy to get started and produce a powerful and professional-looking web site utilizing the many features of Symfony. Taking you through a real-life application, it covers all major Symfony framework features without pushing you into too much theoretical detail, as well as throwing some light on the best practices for rapid application development. This book takes you through detailed examples as well as covering the foundations that you will need to get the most out of the Symfony framework. You will learn to shorten the development time of your complex applications and maintain them with ease. You will create several useful plug-ins and add them to your application and automate common tasks. The book also covers best practices and discussions on security and optimization. You will learn to utilize all major features of this framework by implementing them in your application. By the end, you should have a good understanding of the development features of Symfony (for Propel as well as Doctrine editions), and be able to deploy a high-performance web site quite easily.What you will learn Set up the foundations for a database-driven web site using Symfony Create a list of products by accessing data from a database, paginate the menu, and then customize its look Create formsófrom simple contact forms to complex onesówith user-defined fields using sfFormExtraPlugin Send email notifications to the customers using PHP SwiftMailer library Create quick development task plug-ins to save your development time and package them into your application Configure and customize Symfony s admin generator to create a nice looking back-office Secure your backend application with the Symfony authentication mechanism, leveraging the power of the sfGuardPlug-in security and authentication plug-in Create an advanced admin panel with JavaScript that allows image files to be uploaded and thumbnails to be automatically generated Enhance your search mechanism by using the JQueryAutoComplete Widget to add an auto-complete feature to it Allow your users to choose their preferred language for display by introducing internationalization and localization to your application Integrate a component from another framework into your application with minimum effort Optimize the response time of your site by using compression and caching Who this book is for This book is for PHP web developers who want to get started with Symfony 1.3. If you are already using Symfony 1.0 or are new to Symfony, you will learn how to use it in the best way to produce better applications faster.Basic knowledge of Object Oriented design and ORM will be quite helpful.

Meet Blade. But be careful. You might not like what you see. He''s dangerous. He needs to be. Because there are people who want him dead. It''s dog eat dog in his world. Win or die. He thought he was safe. But now they''ve found out where he is. And they''re coming. Part one of the unmissable Blade series.

Dusty’s life has fallen apart. Her mother left after Dusty’s brother mysteriously disappeared, and her father is devastated. Then Dusty gets a seemingly random phone call: a boy’s voice saying, “I’m dying.” At first Dusty doesn’t care, but then the boy says things that only Dusty knows. Things that lead her to believe he knows where her brother is. And after a few more calls, Dusty wants to find this boy, but he doesn’t want to be found. He claims he is too dangerous, and there are many people who agree. Can Dusty avoid getting hurt and still protect this mysterious boy who may not be of this world? Watch a Video

While struggling to cope with the death of his father, a gifted musician, fourteen-year-old Luke must deal with a dangerous bully, a lonely old woman, a blind young girl, his mother''s romantic involvement, and his own musical talent.

Midget is fifteen and three foot tall. Trapped in a body he hates, Midget is tortured by his cruel older brother Seb. His father is kind but unaware of Seb''s treatment of Midget.But Midget can sail and his dream is to sail his own boat. Everyone says it''ll take a miracle, but that''s when Midget starts to realise that he has a special power. He can make things happen. But in the process people get hurt - including his brother Seb. Through this crisis, the brothers find anew understanding.

It was meant to be the perfect venture. A beautiful guesthouse in a beautiful village with a sprawling forest nearby. Maya''s parents have sunk all their money and hopes into The Rowan Tree and they''re determined to make it work. Then Maya strays into the forest - and into a nightmare. A stunning new novel from a multi-award-winning author.

Luc possède un véritable don pour le piano. Son père aussi était un musicien exceptionnel, avant de mourir il y a deux ans. Depuis, Luc n''est plus le même : il se laisse entraîner dans un cambriolage par Skin et sa bande. Son esprit est hanté par des sons étranges, des mélodies qu''il n''arrive pas à déchiffrer... Mais une mystérieuse petite fille va bouleverser sa vie.