Play yourself happy! The educational-therapeutic games and materials of our Sternwiese-Verlag enable individual access to the child's emotions and thoughts. With help of exciting strategies, unique concepts and personable characters will be developing and strengthening of social and emotional skills varied support.
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Discover our JUNGLE list: comic series for kids, teens and YA. Jungle recently published best-selling comic series, adapted from teens novels such as The Enola Holmes Mysteries (now on Netflix) and The Diary of an 8-bit warrior (Cube Kid). Discover our STEINKIS list: graphic documentaries and graphic adaptation for adults. Steinkis essentially publishes non-fiction graphic books (memoirs, docu-fiction, investigations) and also published graphic adaptation of literary works.
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"Tania, the lovely daughter of the late Lord Amesly, leaves her school in Paris and is travelling to Boulogne when her train crashes. Amongst the fear and confusion she is helped and befriended by a charming young Englishman – Captain Rupert More – and with him she reaches the ferry where she unexpectedly meets two friends of her late parents, Charles and Selina Bracebridge. Captivated by Tania, and awed by her bravery in the face of adversity, Rupert is convinced that she is uniquely special. Tania, innocent in the ways of love having spent so long in her convent school, is similarly smitten by the dashing young Captain. It seems that Cupid’s bow has struck in the most unusual of circumstances, but as the young couple get to know each other their happiness is shattered by the threat of war in the Crimea. Promising that she will wait for him, Rupert prepares himself for the battlefield. Back in London Tania’s hostile stepmother makes it clear that her stepdaughter is no longer welcome in her own home. Eager to discharge her duties as legal guardian, the second Lady Amesly decides the easiest way is to marry her pretty stepdaughter off as quickly as possible. So when Lord Watford, an eligible widower with a shady past, asks for Tania’s hand in marriage, her stepmother is determined that the answer will be ‘yes’. Terrified at the idea of having to marry someone she does not love, and wishing that Rupert were still close by, Tania runs away to the Bracebridges and begs them to help. The Bracebridges are close friends of Florence Nightingale, who is determined to recruit nurses to look after the troops wounded in the war. Joining Florence and training as fast as she can, Tania secretly leaves England, following Rupert to the frontline. As war breaks out and the casualty figures rise, Tania works tirelessly in the British Military Hospital in Scutari. With every newly injured soldier arriving needing care and comfort, Tania eagerly scans their faces hoping to see her lost love, and begs for news of Rupert. Will they find each other again? And if they do can their love survive the horrors of war? Or will Lady Amersly discover her whereabouts and demand that she return home to marry a man she neither loves nor respects? Tania will need all of her courage and belief in the powers of true love for the challenges ahead.
Wealthy businessman John Gardner counts his wife, the widowed Countess Napier, as his finest possession. Beautiful, refined and a devoted mother, the Countess has the one thing that all his money cannot buy – a place in Society. When she dies still grieving for her first husband, the volatile Mr Gardener decides that his stepdaughter, Lady Selina, should become his passport into the titled classes. Eager to fit into a world that values birthright over cash, he decides to marry her off to the highest bidder. But he hasn’t bargained for his vivacious stepdaughter’s willful defiance. Determined to marry only for love, Selina flees the harsh discipline of Gardener Manor and takes her chances on the open road. Rescued from peril by the Marquis of Castleton, a serious and thoughtful man committed to doing his best for the people of his estate, Selina finds in him an unlikely ally. Equally appalled at plans for his own arranged marriage, the pair join forces against those intent on pushing them up the aisle. Pitched into an exciting adventure that sees them chased across Europe, Selina and the Marquis soon discover that despite their age difference they are both romantics searching for true love. But will they find it, or will their sense of duty see them both married to the wrong person? Trickery, deception and a tangled web of emotions will see their good intentions pushed to the limits, before the final explosive showdown where the Marquis finally proves himself a man of shrewd wit – and passion.
This is the 2n d book in the trilogy which also can be read as a stand alone. The Only Child 2 is a psychological thriller compared to Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs.Unkyung, who’s married to a surgeon and just found out she’s pregnant with his child, feels like a tightrope walker at all times. Her stepdaughter, Hayoung, is one unnerving mystery that flails a knife at a stray bat. Her husband has also proven to be a tough nut to crack, even more so when he insists on moving against her will, supposedly for the wellbeing of her and their unborn child. While she tries to adapt to her new life in a small seaside village, terrifying truths from the past, one by one, surface—about her stepdaughter, her husband, his dead ex-wife, and the house they’ve moved into.
When Lady Verena’s widowed father suddenly remarries, she finds that her stepmother is anxious to make a match of convenience for her new stepdaughter and produces a suitor who repels her. Verena has always sworn that when she marries, it will be for love and for no other reason. Feeling that she has no choice but to run away, Verena makes a daring midnight escape from her home. With the help of the family groom she reaches the nearest port intending to flee to France, only to find that the tide is against her. A change of identity and a stroke of luck soon see Verena sailing away to a new life, where her culinary skills learnt at school come in surprisingly useful. But meeting the Marquis of Hilchester brings a new dilemma – as her feelings for him grow, how can she win the heart of the man she loves when she is not who she claims to be? And when a friend of her stepmother’s enters the picture, events take a sinister turn. Can Verena find love and true happiness or will she be unmasked and sent back to England and a marriage she dreads or even be thrown into a French prison? All is unraveled in this exciting and romantic novel by BARBARA CARTLAND.
When Safiah lost her mother at the age of 4, she experienced life differently. One day, things change when her father introduces a young lady as his friend to the family. How does Safiah react to this? What happens when her father decides to marry this lady? Would Safiah accept Auntie Su as her mother? In this book, the main character, Safiah inspires children and adults to understand changes of emotions and feelings through such events in life.
Murder and miscarriage of justice in a rural communityThe townsfolk of Logan, Ohio, a mined-out area of the Appalachian foothills, cheered as an innocent man was convicted and sent to death row. The occasion was the conviction of Dale N. Johnston. His trial ended nothing; the tragedies had just begun. What really happened on that bitter cold day in January 1984 was the total collapse of the local criminal justice system.It began with a lovers’ quarrel. On October 4, 1982, Johnston’s stepdaughter Annette Cooper Johnston—an 18-year-old beauty contestant, horsewoman, and aspiring computer programmer—fought and quickly made up with her 19-year-old boyfriend, Todd Schultz. They were last seen walking together on the C&O Railroad tracks, crossing a trestle bridge over the Hocking River. Ten days later their mutilated torsos were found floating in the river. The next day their heads and limbs were found buried in a cornfield between the river and the tracks.Dale Johnston was the sole suspect from the beginning. It took a year, but investigators and prosecutors built a case against him, alleging he had kidnapped the victims near downtown Logan and killed them in the presence of his wife and his other stepdaughter at their mobile home ten miles outside of town. He was accused of butchering the corpses and carting them back to Logan for burial and disposal. The state’s case was built on rumors of an incestuous relationship between Johnston and Annette and was bolstered by a hypnotized “eyewitness” and a disputed footprint expert. Most of what was presented at the three-week trial was based on fabrications, melodramatic fiction, and forensic fairy tales. As a reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal, author Bill Osinski covered the trial and was shocked by the guilty verdict.After five years on death row, Johnston was released on appeal. Prosecutors were forced to dismiss the charges, but Johnston and the rest of his family remained under a cloud of presumed guilt for nearly two more decades. In 2008 two other men were indicted for the murders of Todd and Annette.True crime buffs, historians, legal professionals, and readers who enjoy an extraordinary story will find Guilty by Popular Demand a compelling addition to true crime literature.
Once upon a time there was a Queen, who only cared about her looks. She believed she was the most beautiful woman in the world, except for her stepdaughter Snow White. She was really beautiful and the jealous queen could not accept it, so she decided to get rid of Snow White. And what happened to the beautiful princess and her evil stepmother? You can read that in the fairy-tale encyclopedia Discovering the Underground with Snow White. In addition to the well-known fairy tale there are seven folding and richly illustrated maps where you can also learn about what lies underground, who works there apart from the seven dwarfs, and which animals live there. You can also learn about underground structures and other curiosities associated with the “realm” below the Earth’s surface. Discovering the Underground with Snow White is a unique mix of the fairy story and encyclopaedia that pleases but also instructs all young readers and their parents.
Calling herself "the housewife of the senate," Helen Ring Robinson was Colorado's first female state senator and only the second in the United States. Serving from 1913 to 1917, she worked for social and economic justice as a champion of women, children, and workers' rights and education during a tumultuous time in the country's history. Her commitment to these causes did not end in the senate; she continued to labor first for world peace and then for the American war effort after her term ended. Helen Ring Robinson is the first book to focus on this important figure in the women's suffrage movement and the 1913, 1914, and 1915 sessions of the Colorado General Assembly. Author Pat Pascoe, herself a former Colorado senator, uses newspapers, legislative materials, Robinson's published writings, and her own expertise as a legislator to craft the only biography of this contradictory and little-known woman. Robinson had complex politics as a suffragist, peace activist, international activist, and strong supporter of the war effort in World War I and a curious personal life with an often long-distance marriage to lawyer Ewing Robinson, yet close relationship with her stepdaughter, Alycon. Pascoe explores both of these worlds, although much of that personal life remains a mystery. This fascinating story will be a worthwhile read to anyone interested in Colorado history, women's history, labor history, or politics.
Inspired by true events and written as a dialogue between two men, Algus’s debut novel offers an opportunity to peer deep into the darkest currents of the human soul in today’s internet-entangled world. The story is captivating in such a horrifying way that one delves into the fi nest nuances almost unintentionally, envisioning minute details and experiencing fear as well as sympathy in situations into which one might otherwise never have thought of putting themselves, much less expecting to understand them. Something Real is an intense expedition that plunges the reader into issues of loneliness, foolishness, greed, as well as simple chance and curiosity. The shadowy world of the internet gives one of the characters – a young man recently released from prison – the abhorrent idea to use his young stepdaughter to lure perverts out of the murkiest layers of the web. A middle-aged man who is fed up with his marriage and is a regular patron of porn sites takes the expertly-placed bait, starts chatting with the young girl offering sexual services, and ultimately asks to meet. Once he arrives, the man finds himself staged to be guilty of statutory rape. He falls into the blackmailer’s disgusting trap, though he soon discovers that many others have taken the ever-younger internet bait as well – some of them genuine monsters. The men’s alternating perspectives of the escalating situation only add tension as the plot arrives at critical, odious, unnerving, and unexpected twists. Algus depicts what is inarguably a filthy version of reality – addictions, extortion, fear, cruelty – but in doing so, he somehow manages to show its polar opposite of caring and despair. One reviewer called the drama of disquiet ‘as sharp as a razor blade’ – keen, precise, masterful, and cutting to the core of what is true. The keywords cinema, universality, and contemporaneity can also be applied. Algus himself has asked: ‘If we spend more and more of our days in a virtual state, what will it do to us over time?’ Justifiably, he has also asserted that every topic in the work realistically exists in Estonia and the greater world right now.
Artist, poet, novelist, singer-songwriter, icon – there has never been a figure like Leonard Cohen. He was a truly international sensation, entertaining and inspiring the world with his art. From his groundbreaking and bestselling novels, Beautiful Losers and The Favourite Game, to timeless songs such as “Suzanne” and “Hallelujah,” Cohen is one of the world’s most cherished artists. His death in 2016 was felt around the world by the legion of fans and fellow artists who would miss his warmth, humor, intellect, and piercing insights. Leonard Cohen, The Untold Stories follows the great man as he travels the globe developing his style and enigmatic character. This is the story of his early years, from boyhood in Montreal, university, and his growing career in to the 60s that took him to the world’s stage. It probes his public and private life, through the words of those who knew him best: his family and friends, colleagues and contemporaries, rivals, business partners, and his many lovers. From Montreal to Greece, London to Paris and New York, Cohen touched lives everywhere. It's also a snapshot of a golden era – the times that helped foster his talents and successes. In this revealing and entertaining first of three planned volumes, bestselling author and biographer Michael Posner draws on dozens of interviews to present a uniquely true and compelling portrait of Cohen – as if we’re right there beside him, overhearing a private conversation in a New York café.
In The Vagabond Lover, author Garry O’Connor performs a delicate balancing act, writing his own life vis-à-vis that of his father, Cavan O’Connor, the famous ‘Vagabond of Song’. The result is a memoir that fully explores the father-son relationship. It’s an account that takes as its backdrop the theatrical, financial, psychological and emotional course of both lives, on a plot line threading both popular and ‘high’ culture. Older readers will remember Cavan as the legendary ‘Vagabond of Song’, who from a poor Nottingham background, after serving in the Great War, won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. He married the niece of soprano Dame Maggie Teyte. His heyday coincided with the earliest days of radio, when his broadcasts reached listening figures of over thirteen million. He appeared on thousands of records under a range of different names, with the great bands of his era. As a stage performer he topped Variety bills from the late 1920s to his death at nearly a hundred. He never stopped singing. Intercut with these chapters are the author’s growing up and work, tinged with his reluctance to write his life at all. Much turns on his traumatic early days when he rounded on his family, in all its domestic tensions, the only palliative for which was in the plays he wrote, first using as a veil the characters he invented, then explicitly drawing on personal experience as the veil on those characters fell. These chapters touch on episodes surrounding the Paris Odéon Theatre siege in 1968, the scene of early love affairs entered into by the son, but in the shadow of the image and reputation of the father, by then a romantic, legendary figure. Against the family portraits, the beau monde is treated to the author’s asides and vignettes. There is the little aired affair of Harold Macmillan and Eileen O’Casey. There are further revelations of Peggy Ashcroft and Harold Pinter. We glimpse the correspondence of Margaret Drabble. There are sketches of Iris Murdoch and Samuel Beckett. As a student O’Connor was fully immersed in that great flowering famed as Cambridge’s theatrical ‘Mafia’. From that we see sketches of Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellen, Corin Redgrave, Peter Cook, David Frost, Peter Hall, and many, many more, and are given an insight into the ethos of King’s College, Cambridge. The profound and main theme, and unifying force of the book, emerge from O’Connor’s initial reluctance to enter into his father’s life, a preference that in the end gives way to its polar opposite. The Vagabond Lover is a probing search into the nature of celebrity, and for its author reaches its catharsis in shrugging off the flaws and setbacks packaged as part of the celebrity deal. The climax is dramatic, when Cavan suffers a mighty fall. Available at Amazon and other online retailers.
Journey through time and space with this graphic novel history of the Sci-Fi genre, from Mary Shelley to William Gibson and Philip K. Dick to Ken Liu and Ted Chiang, and more. Trace the progress of SF through modern times and learn why key figures and inventors like Thomas Edison and Elon Musk have looked to Sci-Fi to predict the future.For the first time in illustrated form, this comprehensive history of Sci-Fi traces its origins and charts its history from its beginnings as a “schlock” genre to its respected status today.Who is considered the world’s first science fiction author? How did American science fiction begin? What sci-fi novel is the all-time best-seller? Discover the origins of your favorite page-to-screen Sci-Fi movies. Find out why Sci-Fi so effortlessly captures our imaginations and makes us dream of new worlds.The answers are here, along with detailed chapters dedicated to the founders of the genre and their modern-day successors.
Always Forward is the ninth book in the Bregdan Chronicles historical fiction series. As of today, there are 10 books in the series. Make sure you start reading with # 1 – Storm Clouds Rolling In. It's readers like you who have turned the series into a world-wide best-seller. Thank you!Book Description:Can America survive the struggle to rebuild?Carrie and Robert’s dream comes true, but is Carrie strong enough to survive what comes next? Rose’s school comes under attack by vigilantes. No one could have predicted what will happen next. Abby makes the choice to go to Kansas to fight for Woman Suffrage, and almost pays the ultimate price. Violence and hatred run rampant through the country as America tries to come to grips with 2,000,000 freed slaves. So many of the characters you have come to know and love face both challenges and joys in this turbulent time in history. Volume # 9 of the Bregdan Chronicles continues the sweeping historical saga that now encompasses the second year of American Reconstruction. How many books will be in the Bregdan Chronicles? No one knows yet… Ginny intends to write these character's stories, one year at a time, for as long as she is able to write. She is passionate about bringing history to life through historical fiction. Since she is amazingly healthy, that could be for a very long time! She doesn’t like stories to end any more than you do. This one won't end for a very long time!
Heir to the throne of Valdina, beautiful Attila vows two things – to do everything in her power to return her beloved sick father, King Sigismund, to health and to find true love. But it seems that her stepmother, the scheming and selfish Queen Margit has other ideas for her future. Desperate to marry her as quickly as possible to Prince Otto, a young man with a shadowy past, Queen Margit’s eyes are set firmly on the throne for herself. And it seems she will stop at nothing to get her own way and rule Valdina alone.Turning to Father Jozsef, her childhood mentor, for help Attila agrees to go on a pilgrimage to the Shrine of St. Janos, not only to avoid Prince Otto, but also to pray for the King’s speedy recovery. Guided by the spirit of her mother and the unconditional love of Father Jozsef, she also fervently prays that she will find a man to love worthy of her royal blood. In a journey filled with spiritual insights, adventure and great sadness, Attila comes to realise the true meaning of love when a handsome stranger awakens in her feelings that she has only dreamt of.But will the happiness she finds be snatched from her as Attila bravely returns home? Will she be forced into a loveless, but politically astute marriage? Or will true love protect her from the dangers surrounding her?One thing is for certain life in Valdina will ever be the same again as love battles to overcome the difficulties of royal duty and the intrigues of Queen Margit.
"Lady Lolita Vernon, daughter of the late Earl of Walcott and Vernon, has run away. Her stepfather, Ralph Piran is forcing her to accept the attentions and perhaps an offer of marriage from his business partner, Murdock Tanner, who is very rich but old and repulsive. While she is trying to cover her tracks in London she bumps into a small boy, Simon, who is weeping because he has been beaten cruelly by his stepmother. Because it seems a strange coincidence and because Lolita is desperately sorry for the small boy, she listens to his story and agrees to take him to his uncle, Lord Seabrook, who lives in a castle by Lake Ullswater. When they arrive at the castle, Lord Seabrook accepts Lolita’s suggestion that she is employed as Simon’s governess, calling herself Mrs. Bell. Lord Seabrook is being pursued by Lady Cressington, one of the great beauties of London, and she has stolen a valuable necklace from the fiancé she has jilted. How Lolita unwittingly starts a chain of events which alerts her stepfather to her whereabouts, how she attempts to run away again this time from Lord Seabrook, and eventually finds the happiness she is seeking is all told in this enchanting romance by BARBARA CARTLAND."
"‘How could you, Mama? Papa has not even been dead a year!’ When the beautiful Lucia Mountford’s mother remarries less than a year after her father’s death on the Titanic, she is shocked when the family’s fortunes suddenly go into rapid decline and her mother becomes ill. Deeply in debt her stepfather borrows a considerable sum of money from the handsome but roguish Lord Winterton. Horrified, Lucia discovers that not only has she been pressed into working for him as his secretary to repay the debt, but that she has been promised to Lord Winterton in marriage. To add further misery to her burden, her mother’s condition worsens and her life hangs in the balance. In the meantime, Lucia is being secretly wooed by the staid but good-looking Edward de Redcliffe who is intent on making her his own. As Lucia struggles with herself over her growing attraction for her employer, events take a strange turn when the wilful and beautiful Lady Shelley sets her sights on becoming Lady Winterton. How Lucia finds true love and what happens when Lord Winterton mysteriously disappears is all told in this intriguing novel by BARBARA CARTLAND."
When Shona became secretary to the Marquis of Chi worth, all she was told was that they were going abroad so that he could write a book. She never suspected the dark secret in his heart or the terrible thing he meant to do. As they travelled on, she learned more about the tragedy that drove him, and she faced the fact that she was falling love with a man whose heart was in the grave. Haunted by memories of his dead wife, the Marquis tried to shut out the possibility of a new love. But love would not be denied. First in Greece and then on the magical island of Cyprus, they finally confronted their feelings. But was it too late? Could the Marquis free himself from the past and allow Shona to take him towards the future.
After the end of the celebration, the dinner tablecloth is spread out. Pamir is unwilling to eat as usual. He eats a few reluctant bites, leaves the table sooner than others, and goes to the room. He lights up his cigarette and sits on a chair by the window. He fixes his eyes on a faint star flickering in the corner of the sky. The nostalgic grief that the star shoulders is felt and heard as much as its remoteness. It leaves a bitter aftertaste in his mouth, bitterer than the thick cigarette smoke circling his head, bringing his loneliness's in Kabul’s Darulamann in a straitjacket right before his eyes, in a dilapidated house with most of its rooms in a state of severe disrepair and uninhabited. He lit up his first cigarette right at the time the pain of love was running to his bones. Moreover, for fear of losing, being forgotten, and cheated, he counted stars all his nights. “I don’t understand why I have this feeling for you . . .”Sophia is the name of one of the three main characters in the story. The sad story of Sophia and why she and her husband resorted to illegal immigration is the reality of the lives of thousands of Afghan men and women who have been grappling with countless accidents and disturbances for the past forty years. The story is written in the romantic-social genre, narrated through two (dramatic and fictional) timelines. The Baran character in the story’s dramatic timeline is the same young Sophia of the novel’s fictional timeline. After living in Germany for 20 years, Baran (Sophia) spends the last days of her life in a nursing home. She is forty-eight and suffers from brain cancer. Her adopted son, Ahura, is her only delight that had survived the ravages of time. He is a physician doctor and works in a hospital where Baran would eventually land. Ahura addresses Baran as a mom. Ahura’s childhood is included in detail in the novel’s fictional timeline. He is the son of Mahrokh (one of the three main characters in the story). There is a great secret in Ahura’s life that he himself is not aware. According to Mahrokh’s will, Baran took custody of Ahura after her death and invited him to Germany. Ahura’s mistress is a girl named Mandegar who works as a nurse in a hospital. The madness that brought Ahura to his knees out of this gray love often evokes the past in Baran’s mind. Years ago, not too long after Baran arrived in Germany and right after he was released from the lunatic asylum, he began writing his memoirs. His memoirs narrate the fictional timeline of the novel.Afghanistan’s civil war between the country’s ethnic and political sects hit the nail of the Taliban terrorist regime in 1996 on the head of an unfortunate population. This marked another beginning for people to flee over the borders.
The beautiful Lady Eleta Renton returns from France where she has stayed long over her time at the Convent School in Paris. Because her mother had married again after becoming widowed and then she died too, Eleta was in no hurry to come home When she arrives back in London, rather sad at leaving the Convent School, she is horrified when her stepfather, whom she had never liked, tells her that she is to marry the Duke of Hazelware, because he is important to him in his business of shipbuilding and the Duke requires a wife with money. As she had never even seen the Duke, Eleta protested violently, especially when she learns her intended husband is over fifty, but her stepfather informs her that he is her Guardian by law until she is twenty-one and that will not be until the end of the year. As she is terrified at being forced into this marriage, she decides that the only course open to her is to run away She learns from her mother’s maid, Betty, of whom she is very fond, that there is an Agency nearby where she might be able to find a position as a secretary or a Governess. At the Agency the only place available is with the Marquis of Teringford, who has a very tiresome, badly behaved child of nine years of age, with whom no Governess will stay and has apparently run through a large number of them. One of them actually said when she left that she was a child of the Devil. Because she is desperate and despite Betty’s misgivings at the Marquis’s apparently doubtful reputation, Eleta takes the position and goes to his magnificent house in Hertfordshire. Here she finds that the small child has never been loved, which is the reason why she is so difficult. Also the Marquis is seldom there and, when he is, he scolds and lectures his daughter to distraction. How Eleta eventually tames and finds love for her pupil and for herself is all told in this romantic and moving tale by BARBARA CARTLAND.
What could be more pleaceful than living life as a vicar’s wife in the English countryside? That’s what newlywed Ellie Kent believes as she begins her life with her clergyman husband Graham. Unfortunately, she is no sooner ensconced in their cottage than an unknown man is found murdered in the graveyard near the vicarage. It’s bad enough that Ellie discovered the old man’s body, but bad turns to worse when the local constabulary begin to suspect her. After all, she is a foreigner and new to the area and she did discover the body. Then, to top off those seemingly innocuous reasons, it’s discovered that the deadman was wearing Italian underwear and Ellie was formerly married to an Italian man and had vacationed in Italy. When a local antiques dealer finds a book of Italian poetry in the surrounding woods and gives it to Ellie, she sees the book as a possible clue to the man’s identity and mayabe a means of discovering the true killer and removing herself from the top of the list of suspects. As Ellie begins to study the book, she becomes intrigued and mystified by its possible connections to the dead man. Was it his? And if so, who is the “Cara Mia” that he mentions in the inscription? Why is there no information about the author? The plot thickens and before Ellie is able to track down the killer and regain her reputation, other victims may fall.
