This is Lesley Milne's second adventure story for young readers. She does not flinch from exploring tough issues, yet she does this with humour, warmth and understanding.

‘An extraordinary book of real passionate research’ Edmund de Waal In 1945, Ezra Pound was due to stand trial for treason for his broadcasts in Fascist Italy during the Second World War. But before the trial could take place Pound was pronounced insane. Escaping a potential death sentence he was shipped off to St Elizabeths Hospital near Washington, DC, where he was held for over a decade. At the hospital, Pound was at his most contradictory and most controversial: a genius writer – ‘The most important living poet in the English language’ according to T. S. Eliot – but also a traitor and now, seemingly, a madman. But he remained a magnetic figure. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell and John Berryman all went to visit him at what was perhaps the world’s most unorthodox literary salon: convened by a fascist and held in a lunatic asylum. Told through the eyes of his illustrious visitors, The Bughouse captures the essence of Pound – the artistic flair, the profound human flaws – whilst telling the grand story of politics and art in the twentieth century.

In 1890s San Francisco, former Pinkerton operative Sabina Carpenter and her detective partner, ex-Secret Service agent John Quincannon, tackle two seemingly unrelated cases that are complicated by two murders and the interference of Sherlock Holmes.

In 1945, the American poet Ezra Pound was due to stand trial for treason for his broadcasts in Fascist Italy during the Second World War. Before the trial could take place, however, he was pronounced insane. Escaping a possible death sentence, he was sent to St. Elizabeths Hospital near Washington, D.C., where he was held for more than a decade. At the hospital, Pound was at his most infamous, and most contradictory. He was a genius and a traitor, a great poet and a madman. He was also an irresistible figure and, in his cell on Chestnut Ward and on the elegant hospital grounds, he was visited by the major poets and writers of his time. T. S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, John Berryman, Charles Olson, and Frederick Seidel all went to sit with him. They listened to him speak and wrote of what they had seen. This was perhaps the world’s most unorthodox literary salon: convened by a fascist, held in a lunatic asylum, with chocolate brownies and mayonnaise sandwiches served for tea. Pound continues to divide all who read and think of him. At the hospital, the doctors who studied him and the poets who learned from him each had a different understanding of this wild and most difficult man. Tracing Pound through the eyes of his visitors, Daniel Swift’s The Bughouse tells a story of politics, madness, and modern art in the twentieth century.

Six bugs find a tennis ball and turn it into a wonderful house for themselves.

For Ralph Rojas, be-bop drummer supreme, it's a tale of two “pretties”. Should he stay in Oaktown with the sultry temptress Clarise? Or return to Bugtown and the embrace of longtime squeeze Liz? Ralph, make up your mind already! They're both hotties. Clarise, she's a sly minx, but Liz is tough as nails and she don't give up!

A unique combination of tavern, university and nonstop wild party, the College in its heyday (1951-1961) was for many years Chicago's outstanding outsider outpost. The writings collected here by the College's Founder and Janitor, Slim Brundage (1903-1990), chronicle the colorful history of what may well be the oldest continuous dissident working class intellectual community in the US. Hobo, Wobbly, Soapboxer, veteran of Bughouse Square and the Dil Pickle, 'little theater' playwright/actor, president emeritus of the Hobo College in the 1930s, housepainter, humorist, and chief architect of the scandalous Beatnik Party during the 1960 elections, Brundage was very much a maker of the history he writes about. Here are exciting first-person accounts of tramping, open forums, the fabulous Pickle, the hobo colleges, the Radical Bookshop, and the hilarious story of the College of Complexes as it evolved from the last of the old-time free-speech forums into Chicago's Number One 'beatnik bistro'. Franklin Rosemont's introduction discusses the IWW/hobohemian roots of the College, outlines the Janitor's radical (and Dadaist) critique of education, and relates Brundage's life, the College and Chicago's hobo/beat scenes to the broader struggles for a better, freer, truly egalitarian and non-exploitative society.

The snow bugs discover wonderful ways to play on a snowy day.

Lindy doesn't want to move to the bug house. That's what she calls her family's new beachfront house on stilts. She misses her best friend and her life back in Chicago. But her feelings change during a storm when Lindy hears a cry for help . . . from a mermaid! Are there really mermaids in Lindy's backyard? And if so, what can one clumsy girl do to help them? Fans of Hamster Magic and The Very Little Princess books will love this heartfelt and accessible Stepping Stones fantasy.