Vin Diesel is everywhere -- the newly crowned king of the box office and the newsstand. But who is he really? The world's hottest star is also its most mysterious. Few fans realize that this so-called overnight success is actually the product of a lifetime of planning and struggle.This book follows every step of Vin Diesel's rise from his days as a poor but happy mischief-maker in New York's Greenwich Village -- where an act of vandalism led to his stage debut at the age of seven --...

This seminal book in the literature of child protective services stimulates critical thinking and informed discussion for those professionals and educators concerned with the quality of children’s protective services. The first book of its kind to present scholarly reports on false allegations, Assessing Child Maltreatment Reports tackles the age-old problem of deciding which reports, verbal or written, represent truth and which represent falsehood. When one deals with accusations in the a...

Authors Robin Moore and Michael Lennon team up in this exciting new novel to tell the fictionalized” stories of the men who have risked it all for the U.S.A.: the Green Berets. They take us from firefights on the Cambodian border during the Vietnam War to the streets and alleyways of Iraq today. They teach us what it was really like to patrol the streets of Mogadishu in the days of Black Hawk Down. They show the horror that was Saddam’s Iraq during the first Gulf War. They take us to the ...

MICHAEL OWEN'S new autobiography will enable him to open up about his football life for the first time and set the record straight once and for all. It promises to make for an explosive read and one of the most hotly anticipated football books of the year.The legendary striker published his first book Off The Record in 2004 but feels he didn't have a voice during his playing days and now, six years after hanging up his boots, he can finally lift the lid on what really happened durin...

In their previous book, The New Rules of Retail, Dart and Lewis predicted nearly every defining characteristic of today's marketplace. Here, they do the same for the next era, in which retailers will have to be ready for anything.For one hundred years, retail was designed for the car—buildings and malls to travel to. Now it is designed for the mobile smart device—for consumers to travel with. In a world with an overabundance of material go...

Beloved children's author Michael Morpurgo has re-imagined Raymond Briggs' classic The Snowman for a new generation of readers.One December morning, James is thrilled to wake up to see snow falling.He spends the whole day making his perfect snowman; he has coal eyes, an old green hat and scarf and a tangerine nose... just like the snowman from his favourite story.That night, something magic...

Ingenuity and surprise rule in this funny and colorful companion to Red: A Crayon’s Story written and illustrated by Michael Hall, the New York Times–bestselling creator of My Heart Is Like a Zoo.The crayons are ready to tell the thrilling tale of Frankencrayon. The costumes are made, the roles are cast, the pages are all set—but then disaster strikes. Someone has scribbled on the page! Hideous! Horrifying! The story can’t go on! Try as they migh...

A blue crayon mistakenly labeled as ""red"" suffers an identity crisis in this picture book by the New York Times–bestselling creator of My Heart Is Like a Zoo and It's an Orange Aardvark! Funny, insightful, and colorful, Red: A Crayon's Story, by Michael Hall, is about being true to your inner self and following your own path despite obstacles that may come your way. Red will appeal to fans of Lois Ehlert, Eric Carle, and The Day the Crayon...

Recess. A swing set. Anargument. A resolution! Michael Hall’s transformative Swing isa celebration of friendship, joy, and kindness. Readers of all ages will lookforward to seeing how four unlikely friends navigate their differences. A surprisingand standout story from the acclaimed and bestselling creator of Red:A Crayon’s Story and Perfect Square.It’s recess! Four letters(O, V, E, and L) race to...

In a world where it's easy to punch back, Badger's friends choose to patch things up. Perfect for kids navigating big emotions!When Badger bullies his friends Frog, Moose, Elephant, and Bear, they teach him an unforgettable lesson about empathy, kindness, and forgiveness in this funny and thematically rich social and emotional read-aloud from the acclaimed creator of Red: A Crayon's Story.Badger, Frog, Moose, Elephant, and Bear are...

From Michael Korda, author of the New York Times bestselling Eisenhower biography Ike and the captivating Battle of Britain book With Wings Like Eagles, comes the critically-acclaimed definitive biography of T. E. Lawrence—the legendary British soldier, strategist, scholar, and adventurer whose exploits as “Lawrence of Arabia” created a legacy of mythic proportions in his own lifetime. Many know T.E. Lawrence from David Lean’s Oscar-winning 1962 biopic—based, its...

SummarySpark GraphX in Action starts out with an overview of Apache Spark and the GraphX graph processing API. This example-based tutorial then teaches you how to configure GraphX and how to use it interactively. Along the way, you'll collect practical techniques for enhancing applications and applying machine learning algorithms to graph data.About the TechnologyGraphX is a powerful graph processing API for the Apache Spar...