Twelve-year-old Tod's mystical links with a spirit, half man and half fox, and with the natural world surrounding his grandmother's house in the Australian countryside challenge his attempt to adjust to the real world.

The first book to assess critically mystery in children's literature, this collection charts a development from religious mystery through rationally solved detective fictions to insoluble supernatural and horror mysteries. Written by internationally recognised scholars in the field, these thirteen original essays offer challenging and innovative readings of both classic and popular mysteries for children. This volume will be essential and stimulating reading for anyone with an interest in children's literature or in mystery fiction.

This book provides a re-conceptualization of grammar in a period of change in the communication landscape and widening disciplinary knowledge. Drawing on resources in systemic functional linguistics, the book envisions a ‘functional grammatics’ relevant to disciplinary domains such as literary study, rhetoric and multimodality. It re-imagines the possibilities of grammar for school English through Halliday’s notion of grammatics. Functional Grammatics is founded on decades of research inspired by systemic functional linguistics, and includes studies of grammatical tools useful to teachers of English, research into visual and multimodal literacies and studies of the genre–grammar connection. It aims to be useful to the interpretation and composition of texts in school English, portable in design across texts and contexts and beneficial for language development. The book will be of interest to researchers and teacher educators, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students and practicing teachers committed to evidence-based professional development.

A Stanford University Press classic.

As the seed of the Elvish Empire takes root in the scar of the world, Fox struggles with the mantle of Champion. Time has chiseled away at the boy and made him a man, but the ghosts of his past arise to threaten his future. He still owes a debt to find three lost swords, and that continues to eat at his core. The swords must be found. In the rocky stone of Shard Keep in the North Mountains, an evil stirs. As Bhaal sat quietly on his throne, the remnants of his once-proud empire crumbled away. Things that should not have been forgotten were left neglected for far too long, things that demanded his careful attention. Nevertheless, that was not left unnoticed by the authorities of such things. Bhaal cheated Death in a most intimate way, a way that leaves a festering wound. In the end, Death will have her way. Or will she?

The bridge at Canterbri cannot be ignored. Either a conduit to the east or a conduit into hell, but the bridge is not quite as abandoned as it first appears. The shard has awoken something in the mountains, something ancient and evil. A monstrosity has been alone for far too long and is hungry. From its hidden lair, the fiend threatens with nightmares. The beast simply will not allow the ranger to rest. Drawn to the prospect of expansion like a moth to a flame, Fox sets out to make his mark and carve an empire of his own, but will Emperor Bhaal tolerate the ranger’s trespass? Fox quickly learns simply taking something is not the same thing as owning it. A deadly assassin steps onto the field, but his motives are not truly exposed. It seems death is not finished with the ranger yet. Fox must avoid the pitfalls of success to regain what was lost and navigate the road to paladinhood.

This textbook outlines the basic theoretical knowledge teachers need to have about visual and verbal grammar and the nature of computer-based texts in school learning. It includes both theoretical frameworks and detailed practice guidelines.

The Lost Words by composer James Burton takes its inspiration and text from the award-winning 'cultural phenomenon' and book of the same name by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris: a book that was, in turn, a creative response to the removal of everyday nature words like acorn, newt and otter from a new edition of a widely used children's dictionary. Both the book and Burton's 32-minute work, which is written in 12 short movements for upper-voice choir in up to 3 voice parts (with either orchestral or piano accompaniment), celebrates each lost word with a beautiful poem or 'spell', magically brought to life in Burton's music. At its heart, the work delivers a powerful message about the need to close the gap between childhood and the natural world. Burton's piece was co-commissioned by the Hallé Concerts Society for the Hallé Children's Choir and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The piano accompaniment version was premiered at the Tanglewood Festival in 2019 by the Boston Symphony Children's Choir, of which Burton is founder and director. The Hallé Children's Choir will premiere the orchestral version of the full work in Manchester, UK, post-pandemic. Vocal Score Co-commission by Boston Symphony and Hallé Concerts Society for their respective Children's Choirs. Two versions - with orchestral or with piano accompaniment. The vocal score is the same for both versions. James Burton is a composer but also a conductor. He is conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and choral director of the Boston Symphony. The book The Lost Words, exquisitely designed, has won multiple awards and is an international best-seller. The vocal score includes Jackie Morris's beautiful imagery in its cover design.