Mina'S MatchboxOn sleepless nights, I open the matchbox and reread the story of the girl who gathered shooting stars After the death of her father, twelve year old Tomoko is sent to live for a year with her uncle in the coastal town of Ashiya. It is a year which will change her life. While the 1970s transform Japan, her uncle''s magnificent colonial mansion is a place out of time; its sprawling gardens are even home to a pet pygmy hippo. Equally beguiling are

gave his life for his two closest friends - one a fellow British officer

on a brutal marriage and a longed-for only son scarred by his parents' battles

including classic records such as Master of Puppets (1986) and Metallica ('The Black Album') (1991)

Vista Point is home to many mysterious landmarks: The great domed Tower casts inscrutable shadows and what is the cryptic message in its ceiling medallion

But now the queen has been cursed

Whether it was in Pop Warner football

It's the one place she's felt she belongs

always with a sharp and sympathetic eye

series for readers upwards of age 10

the fal'Cie sometimes choose humans to do their bidding-and life will never be the same for these people marked by fate

Periodic Tests

When he's killed in action