This plush doll of everyone's favorite mouse comes with a little cloth backpack containing a sturdily attached mini-board-book edition of "Maisy Goes Shopping." Consumable.

A stunning celebration of girlhood around the world, from the New York Times Featuring and photographed by young women, This Is 18 is an immersive look at what it means to be on the cusp of adulthood around the world and across cultures. Twenty-two empowering and uniquely personal profiles, expanded from the New York Times interactive feature and curated by Gender Editor Jessica Bennett, with Sandra Stevenson, Anya Strzemien, and Sharon Attia, give teen readers a rare glimpse at the realities and interests of their contemporaries. With stunning photography and a gifty design, This Is 18 is a perfect tribute to girlhood for readers of all ages.

Last Shop Standing: Whatever Happened To Record Shops? documents the sad disappearance of a cultural icon from our high streets. Once a thriving industry, the UK has gone from having over 2000 independent record shops in the 1980s to just 269 in 2009. Written by Graham Jones, who has worked in the distribution industry for over 25 years as a record company salesman, this book presents a snapshot of a business that is under threat of going the same way as the stamp shop, the coin shop and the candlestick maker. Jones’ speaks to 50 record shop owners to see why they have survived while nearly two thousand others have closed. These interviews form the basis of the book, which celebrates the rich social history in which the record shop is steeped. In 2012 Last Shop Standing was made into an award winning 50 minute film, featuring interviews with Johnny Marr, Norman Cook, Richard Hawley, Paul Weller and Billy Bragg, alongside many of the record shop owners featured in the book. Given a new tagline – ‘the rise, fall and rebirth of the independent record shop’, the film has been screened around the globe and was an official selection at the Chicago International Movies & Music Festival in 2013.

When Adam Smith wrote in 1776 that England was a nation of shopkeepers, he meant that commerce was a major factor in political decisions. Smith's observation was even more on-target for Victorian England: shopkeepers, shops, and shopping were a vital part of life. Those Victorians with resources could shop often and had many choices. Industrialization and their imperial connections gave them an almost unprecedented array of goods. Even the poor and working classes had more to eat and more to spend as the century progressed. Here, Graham explores the world of Victorian shops and shopping in colorful detail. She offers information on the types of shops and goods they offered, the people who owned and operated them, those who frequented them, and the contribution of shops and shopping to the Victorian lifestyle and economy. Shopping in Victorian England reached a level of importance not wholly appreciated even by Victorians themselves. New types of shops appeared, offering an expanding array of goods inventively packaged and displayed for an expanding group of shoppers. As the shops grew, so did the activity — part excursion for provisions, part entertainment. Women shopped most often, but men, too, had their shops. Victorians could, by the end of the 19th century, shop without even leaving their homes: orders could be placed by mail, telegraph, or telephone. Shops catered to all classes — the rich, the poor, and the in-betweens. This book will help modern readers envision the Victorian shopping experience by taking them inside the shops and up to the counters. Readers will learn how the shop was organized, what services and goods were available, and how goods made their way from the shop to the home. Graham's compelling account provides a vivid glimpse into a vital—but largely unappreciated— aspect of Victorian life.

We spend more time shopping than doing anything else, after sleep and work. So why is it not taken more seriously? The answer: we take shopping for granted. Indeed, culture can only ‘work’ by being taken for granted. This paradox – that what is most familiar, like shopping, is also the hardest to ‘see’ analytically – provides the starting point for this compelling examination of the many dimensions of the shopping experience. Shopping enables readers to realize the significance of their shopping memories and milestones, how the rhythm of the day or week revolves as much around shop opening hours as working hours or bus times, and why Mayor Giuliani was right after 9/11 to tell Americans to keep on shopping. From an exciting cultural perspective, Jenny Shaw explores how shopping is viewed, the history behind its ‘fall from grace’, its part in the common culture, its role in helping us craft new identities, hold on to old ones, adjust to change, and generally ‘hold us together’ both as individuals and communities. Students of sociology, anthropology, social psychology, media and business studies interested in culture and the everyday world will be gripped by this engaging and accessible guide to the meaning behind what the ordinary shopper actually does and why shopping remains so popular despite social and cultural changes.

A new way forward for sustainable quality of life in cities of all sizes Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity is a book of forward-thinking ideas that breaks with modern wisdom to present a new vision of urban development in the United States. Presenting the foundational ideas of the Strong Towns movement he co-founded, Charles Marohn explains why cities of all sizes continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, and reveals the new paradigm that can solve this longstanding problem. Inside, you’ll learn why inducing growth and development has been the conventional response to urban financial struggles—and why it just doesn’t work. New development and high-risk investing don’t generate enough wealth to support itself, and cities continue to struggle. Read this book to find out how cities large and small can focus on bottom-up investments to minimize risk and maximize their ability to strengthen the community financially and improve citizens’ quality of life. Develop in-depth knowledge of the underlying logic behind the “traditional” search for never-ending urban growth Learn practical solutions for ameliorating financial struggles through low-risk investment and a grassroots focus Gain insights and tools that can stop the vicious cycle of budget shortfalls and unexpected downturns Become a part of the Strong Towns revolution by shifting the focus away from top-down growth toward rebuilding American prosperity Strong Towns acknowledges that there is a problem with the American approach to growth and shows community leaders a new way forward. The Strong Towns response is a revolution in how we assemble the places we live.

What will become of the shops? More than ever, the high street appears to be under mortal threat, its shops boarded up as the sad 'bricks and mortar' survivals of a pre-online retail world. But behind the bleak appearance, there is more to see. Back to the Shops offers a set of short and surprising chapters, each one a window into a different shop type or mode of selling. Old shopping streets are seen from new angles; fast fashion shows up in eighteenth-century edits. Here are pedlars and pop-ups, mail order catalogues and mobile greengrocers' shops. Here too are food markets open till late on a Saturday night, and tiny subscription libraries tucked away at the back of the sweet shop. Over time, shops have occupied radically different places in cultural arguments and in our everyday lives. They are essential sources of daily provisions, but they are also the visible evidence of consuming excess. They are local community hubs and they are dreamlands of distraction. Shops are inherently spaces of imagination as well as of practicality. They belong with their own surrounding streets and town; they bring back the times and places of our lives. They linger in stories of all kinds, whether far-fetched or round the corner. From butcher to baker and from markets to motor vans—after reading this book, you will want to go back to the shops.

Writing activities for elementary to intermediate learners.

Social care workers in residential or domiciliary settings need to be able to communicate effectively in order to carry out their work. Supporting people with a variety of difficulties including hearing loss, impaired speech, visual impairment, dementia and physical and learning disabilities requires a range of communication skills, such as listening, sign language, writing notes, and using body language, touch and stimulation. This workbook will provide workers with the ability to enable adults with limited or no verbal communication skills to make decisions, and to express their views in their preferred method of communication. Effective Communication includes practical guidance on using communication tools, such as computers, staff photo rota boards and pictorial menu boards, and use of photographs as visual reminders. The workbook meets the requirements of care standards and also refers to the importance of recording and reporting, and dealing with sensitive and complex issues, such as breaking the news of a family bereavement, or communicating with a person who has been abused. Designed to meet the requirements of Health and Social Care (Adults) NVQ Level 3, Unit 31, this workbook is also a valuable source of guidance for any social care worker wanting to improve communication with the people they support.