Despite strong recent economic growth, Sub-Saharan Africa has levels of economic transformation, poverty reduction, and skill development far below those of other regions. Smart investments in developing skills—aligned with the policy goals of productivity growth, inclusion, and adaptability—can help to accelerate the region's economic transformation in the 21st century. Sub-Saharan Africa's growing working-age population presents a major opportunity to increase shared prosperity. Countrie...

The Dark Pirate quickly captures its readers, wrapping them in the ago-old dramas of intense greed, cruelty, rape, murder, and bitter-sweet romance. David K. Evans crafts a tight plot with vivid glimpses of the turbulent 1700s; a time when the Caribbean island of Roatn was the rendezvous for Brethren of the Coast - lusty, hard-living pirates of the Western Caribbean.Seen through the eyes of Peter Halsey, a young New England skipper of a fishing schooner ca...

Despite strong recent economic growth, Sub-Saharan Africa has levels of economic transformation, poverty reduction, and skill development far below those of other regions. Smart investments in developing skills—aligned with the policy goals of productivity growth, inclusion, and adaptability—can help to accelerate the region’s economic transformation in the 21st century. Sub-Saharan Africa’s growing working-age population presents a major opportunity to increase shared prosperity. Countrie...

The fourth installment in the New York Times bestselling Brotherband series, for fans of Lord of the Rings and Game of ThronesHal and his fellow Herons have returned home to Skandia after defeating the pirate captain Zavac and reclaiming Skandia's most prized artifact, the Andomal. With their honor restored, the Herons turn to a new mission: tracking down an old rival turned bitter enemy. Tursgud—leader of the Shark Brotherband and Hal's constant opponent—...

For fans of Hatchet and Island of the Blue Dolphins comes Theodore Taylor’s classic bestseller and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award winner, The Cay.Phillip is excited when the Germans invade the small island of Curaçao. War has always been a game to him, and he’s eager to glimpse it firsthand–until the freighter he and his mother are traveling to the United States on is torpedoed.When Phillip comes to, he is on a small raft in the middle o...

**The Herons take to the high seas to fend off pirates and rescue the heir to an empire in the newest adventure from John Flanagan, author of the worldwide bestselling Ranger's Apprentice!Includes BONUS content--a brand-new Ranger's Apprentice short story featuring fan-favorites Will and Maddie!**In Hallasholm, Stig is contesting the annual Maktig competition to decide Skandia’s greatest warrior. But a late-night knock on the door brings someone Stig never expected to see a...

On the night of November 29, 1929, eleven schooners set sail for home from the comfort and safety of St. John’s harbour. They all headed north: directly into the teeth of a deadly hurricane. Here for the first time are the stories of the eleven schooners that were caught in the gale of 1929. Newfoundland’s favourite storyteller, Gary Collins, takes us aboard each one in turn to witness the terrifying ferocity of a storm at sea through the eyes of the schoonermen who battled it. These inter...

Twenty-five-year-old Jack Sparrow is a clean-cut merchant seaman pursuing a legitimate career as a first mate for the East India Trading Company. He sometimes thinks back to his boyhood pirating days, but he doesn't miss Teague's scrutiny or the constant threat of the noose. Besides, he doesn't have much choice—he broke the Code when he freed a friend who had been accused of rogue piracy, and he can no longer show his face in Shipwreck Cove. When Jack's ship is attacked by pirates and his ...

Inspired by True Events In 1934, North America lay stripped of its riches by a great depression. When the land refused to yield its bounty and the sea grew stingy, everyone in the Western World found it harder to survive, especially those in the isolated outports of Newfoundland. The Last Farewell tells the true story of a crew of logger-sailors who left their home port of Hare Bay aboard a two-masted schooner in early June of that year. Along her route to St. John’s, the crew of the Ethel...

In the Texas borderlands, Jessie and Ki go gunning for a dangerous band of rustling raiders!Nightriders are raiding the ranches near the Starbuck spread, so Jessie and Ki set out to raid the raiders. Then their trails split. Jessie's leads to a remote US Army outpost and the arms of a cavalry officer, while Ki's leads him South of the Border, where the fighting gets cold-steel hot!

In the novel The Cay, a young white boy and an old black man are stranded on a small sandy cay in the Caribbean Sea following a shipwreck. Eleven-year-old Phillip was blinded by flying debris when a torpedo struck the SS Hato, and old Timothy has taught him how to survive. This prequel-sequel tells the rest of their tale in alternating chapters--the compelling story of two very different people who share the courage and tenacity to turn their dreams into reality.

A wry, swashbuckling tale of greed and deceit that traverses the excitement—and fury—of the 18th-century's golden age of piracy.An injured French officer struggles along a desolate stretch of West African coastline, desperate to hold on to a secret.His tale soon ends—violently—but a young pirate recruit, Patrick Devlin, leaves that same beach unscathed, with a new pair of boots and a treasure map in his possession. Now, the adventures of the pirate Devlin, hi...