Search results for ""Author Jez""

‘Come, you drunken spirits. Come, you battalions. You fields of ghosts who walk these green plains still. Come, you giants!’ When Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2009, it served notice of an astonishing development in the career of a writer whose debut, Mojo, had premiered on the same stage nearly fifteen years before. Unearthing the mythic roots of contemporary English life, and featuring Mark Rylance in an indelible central performance as Johnny 'Rooster' Byron, the play transferred to the West End and then to Broadway, before returning to the West End in 2011. 'Storming… restores one's faith in the power of theatre' Independent. 'Unarguably one of the best dramas of the twenty-first century' Guardian. Jerusalem was followed by the bewitching chamber play The River (Royal Court, 2012), a 'magnetically eerie, luminously beautiful psychodrama' Time Out. 'A delicately unfolding puzzle… all of it is wrapped in marvellous language… extraordinary' The Times. This volume concludes with the multi-award-winning The Ferryman (Royal Court and West End, 2017; Broadway, 2018), an excavation of lives shattered by violence, set in a farmhouse in Northern Ireland in 1981. 'A richly absorbing and emotionally abundant play… an instant classic' Independent. 'A magnificent play that uses, brilliantly, the vitality of live theatre to express the deadly legacy of violence' Financial Times. Also included here is the screenplay for the short film The Clear Road Ahead (2011), published here for the first time, and an edited transcript of a conversation between Butterworth and the playwright Simon Stephens.

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A slick and violent black comedy set in the Soho clubland of the 1950s. The hit debut play from the author of Jerusalem. In the seedy gangster underworld of the rock'n'roll scene, club owners fight for control of Johnny Silver, the latest young sensation. First premiered at the Royal Court in 1995, Jez Butterworth's play Mojo won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy and earned Butterworth the George Devine Award and Evening Standard Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright. This edition of Mojo was published alongside the play's 2013 revival in London's West End.

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Four full-length plays and two previously unpublished shorts from the multi-award-winning author of Jerusalem. Jez Butterworth burst onto the theatre scene aged twenty-five with Mojo, 'one of the most dazzling Royal Court main stage debuts in years' (Time Out). This first volume of his Collected Plays contains that play plus the three that followed, as well as two short one-person pieces published here for the first time – everything in fact that precedes Jerusalem, 'unarguably one of the best dramas of the twenty-first century' (Guardian). Plays One includes: Mojo, staged in 1995 but set in the Soho clubland of 1958, 'superbly captures the atmosphere of the infant British rock and roll scene where seedy low-lifers hustle for the big time' (Daily Telegraph). It is 'Beckett on speed' (Observer) by a 'dramatist of obvious talent and terrific promise' (The Times). The Night Heron (2002) is set in the Cambridgeshire Fens amongst assorted oddballs, birdwatchers and the local constabulary. 'It's funny, it's sad, it's haunting and it also strangely beautiful. Above all, it is quite unlike anything you've ever seen before' (Daily Telegraph). In The Winterling (2006) a gangland fugitive is visited by two associates from the city who have other things on their mind than a jolly reunion. 'The dialogue is testosterone taut, a sense of menace invades every conversation... and as tales of torture and treachery unfold, the black comedy never misses' (Time Out). Leavings (previously unpublished), a short monologue about an old man whose dog has gone missing. The housing estate in Parlour Song (2008) is 'a place of illicit desire and painful memories, of bad dreams and mysterious disappearances... a play that combines the comic, the erotic and the downright disconcerting with superb panache' (Daily Telegraph). The Naked Eye (previously unpublished), a short monologue about a family preparing to watch Halley's Comet as it passes through the night sky. Introducing the plays is an interview with Jez Butterworth specially conducted for this volume.

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A blackly hilarious exploration of deceit, paranoia and murderous desire, as the spirit of the Blues lands in leafy suburbia. Demolition expert Ned lives in a nice new house on a nice new estate on the edge of the English countryside. He loves his job. Barbecues. Car-boot sales. Fitness programmes. Outwardly his life is entirely unremarkable. Not unlike his friend and neighbour Dale. So why has he not slept a wink in six months? Why is he so terrified of his attractive wife Joy? And why is it every time he leaves on business, something else goes missing from his home? Jez Butterworth's play Parlour Song was first performed at the Atlantic Theater, New York, in Febraury 2008, before receiving its European premiere at the Almeida Theatre, London, in March 2009.

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New cover reissue in million copy best-selling Duck in the Truck series. Plop! goes the drip that drops from the cup.Duck looks down and Duck looks up.‘A leak in the roof, oh! What bad luck.This is a job for FIX-IT DUCK.’ Can he fix it? No he can't! Duck wants to show off his DIY skills. But, the trouble is, when Duck starts fixing things, the problems are only just beginning…

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Celebratory 25th anniversary edition of the much-loved family favourite.A case of mistaken identity among teddy bears – and a phenomenal bestseller! Little Eddy loses his toy bear and has to go looking for him in the dark, horrible woods – where he’s in for a gigantic surprise.

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Cuddle up with this adorable sequel to the ever-popular, award-winning Hug.Bobo the baby chimp is walking through the jungle. Everyone seems to be taller than he is! So he climbs on top of a lizard, a lion cub, an elephant and even a giraffe in his attempt to be tallest ... until he wobbles, and wobbles ... and slips! Luckily, mummy is there to rescue him. Bobo realizes that sometimes the size you are is the size you're meant to be!

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'This house. It's called "Sea View". It's just I've looked out of every window, and you can't. You can't see the sea.' Blackpool, 1976. The driest summer in two hundred years. The beaches are packed. The hotels are heaving. In the sweltering backstreets, far from the choc ices and donkey rides, the Webb Sisters are returning to their mother's run-down guest house, as she lies dying upstairs. Jez Butterworth's play The Hills of California was first performed at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End in 2024, directed by Sam Mendes, and produced by Sonia Friedman Productions and Neal Street.

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"Dictionary Stories isn’t just a book for word nerds, but for anyone for whom language and story matter. Everybody will find themselves thoroughly in love with this book." —Kory Stamper, editor for Merriam-Webster, and author of Word by WordEveryone has looked up a word in the dictionary. Some of us have even asked for it to be used in a sentence during our 2nd grade spelling bee. But few of us have ever really considered those example sentences: where they come from, how they’re generated…and why in heaven’s name they are so darn weird.Jez Burrows opened the New Oxford American Dictionary and sat, mystified. Instead of the definition of "study" he was looking for, he found himself drawn to the strangely conspicuous, curiously melodramatic sentence that followed it: "He perched on the edge of the bed, a study in confusion and misery." It read like a tiny piece of fiction on the lam and hiding out in the dictionary—and it wasn’t alone. Was it possible to reunite these fugitive fictions? To combine and remix example sentences to form new works? With this spark and a handful of stories shared online, Dictionary Stories was born. This genre-bending and wildly inventive collection glows with humor, emotion, and intellect. Effortlessly transcending sentence level, Burrows lights between the profound and the absurd, transporting readers into moments, worlds, and experiences of remarkable variety. Featuring original illustrations by the author, Dictionary Stories is a giddy celebration of the beauty and flexibility of language.

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Consigned to the deep freeze of critical and commercial reception upon its release in 1982, The Thing has bounced back spectacularly to become one of the most highly regarded productions from the 1980s 'Body Horror' cycle of films, experiencing a wholesale and detailed reappraisal that has secured its place in the pantheon of modern cinematic horror. Thirty years on, and with a recent prequel reigniting interest, Jez Conolly looks back to the film's antecedents and to the changing nature of its reception and the work that it has influenced. The themes discussed include the significance of The Thing's subversive antipodal environment, the role that the film has played in the corruption of the onscreen monstrous form, the qualities that make it an exemplar of the director's work and the relevance of its legendary visual effects despite the advent of CGI. Topped and tailed by a full plot breakdown and an appreciation of its notoriously downbeat ending, this exploration of the events at US Outpost 31 in the winter of 1982 captures The Thing's sub-zero terror in all its gory glory.

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'I like London. I like the pavements. I like to walk out my door and not sink up to my tits in primordial sludge.' A comedy thriller from the author of the Olivier Award-winning Jerusalem. West waits in a burnt-out farmhouse, on Dartmoor, in the depths of winter, for two associates from the city. The wine has been poured and the revolver loaded. But who is waiting upstairs? Jez Butterworth's play The Winterling was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2006.

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Hilarious, action-packed new title in the bestselling Duck in the Truck series from highly-regarded picture book creator, Jez Alborough. Make way SUPER DUCK is here! Goat is eager to try out his new kite with the help of friends, Sheep and Frog. But, just they are about to see if it will fly, Super Duck arrives in his super truck. And, as always when Duck is around, things are bound to go wrong! Indeed it is not long before Frog is carried up into the sky on the end of the kite’s string. Poor Frog! Can Super Duck save the day?

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Jez Butterworth's hugely acclaimed, prize-winning play - a comic, contemporary vision of life in England's green and pleasant land. On St George's Day, the morning of the local country fair, Johnny 'Rooster' Byron, local waster and Lord of Misrule, is a wanted man. The council officials want to serve him an eviction notice, his son wants to be taken to the fair, a vengeful father wants to give him a serious kicking, and a motley crew of mates wants his ample supply of drugs and alcohol. Jerusalem premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in July 2009 in a production directed by Ian Rickson and starring Mark Rylance. It transferred to the Apollo Theatre in the West End in January 2010, and played on Broadway in 2011. Jez Butterworth's play won the Evening Standard Best Play Award and the Critics Circle and Whatsonstage.com awards for Best New Play.

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Exciting new board book version of the much-loved family favourite.For over 25 years, children have read and loved this fabulous shout-out-loud story of a case of mistaken identity among teddy bears! A phenomenal bestseller, Where's My Teddy? tells the tale of Little Eddy who loses his toy teddy bear and has to go looking for him in the dark, horrible woods – where he’s in for a gigantic surprise!

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On a moonless night in August when the sea trout are ready to run, a man brings his new girlfriend to the remote family cabin where he has come for the fly-fishing since he was a boy. But she's not the only woman he has brought here – or indeed the last. A bewitching story from the author of global smash hit Jerusalem, Jez Butterworth's play The River was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in October 2012.

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A tiny chimp invokes the universal language, uniting his friends in a group hug to end all group hugs. Just try to resist Jez Alborough's latest charmer!Ever feel like you need a hug? A really big hug from someone who loves you? That's how Bobo, the little chimp in this book, feels. Walking through the jungle he passes lots of creatures enjoying a cuddle together: elephants, chameleons, lions, giraffes, hippos – even the snakes have got someone special to squeeze. But poor Bobo is alone. Will he ever find the hug he needs? Using only the single word "hug" throughout the book, this simple, endearing story is told through Jez Alborough's gorgeous, detailed artwork.

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‘Vanishing. It’s a powerful word, that. A powerful word.’ County Armagh, Northern Ireland, 1981. The Carney farmhouse is a hive of activity with preparations for the annual harvest. A day of hard work on the land and a traditional night of feasting and celebrations lie ahead. But this year they will be interrupted by a visitor. Developed by Sonia Friedman Productions, Jez Butterworth's play The Ferryman premiered to huge acclaim at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in April 2017, before transferring to the West End and then Broadway. The production was directed by Sam Mendes. It went on to win the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play, and the Critics' Circle, Olivier and WhatsOnStage Awards for Best New Play. It also won the 2019 Tony Award for Best Play.

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A Sight & Sound Book of the Year Jez Stewart charts the course of this extraordinarily fertile area of British film from early experiments with stop-motion and the flourishing of animated drawings during WWI. He reveals how the rockier interwar period set the shape of the industry in enduring ways, and how creatives like Len Lye and Lotte Reiniger brought art to advertising and sponsored films, building a foundation for such distinctive talents as Bob Godfrey, Alison De Vere and George Dunning to unleash their independent visions in the age of commercial TV. Stewart highlights the integral role of women in the industry, the crucial boost delivered by the arrival of Channel 4, the emergence of online animation and much more. The book features ‘close-up’ analyses of key animators such as Lancelot Speed and Richard Williams, as well as more thematic takes on art, politics and music. It builds a framework for better appreciating Britain’s landmark contributions to the art of animation, including Halas and Batchelor’s Animal Farm (1954), Dunning’s Yellow Submarine (1968) and the creations of Aardman Animations.

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Any consideration of the song writing craft would be incomplete without the inclusion of American singer/songwriter Aimee Mann. From her first steps as singer and bass player with '80s synth pop band 'Til Tuesday, who scored a massive MTV hit with 'Voices Carry' in 1985, she has continually produced starkly autobiographical and often ironically melodic songs that cut through the emotional detail. With a career now spanning almost forty years, she has built a catalogue of nine studio albums since going solo in the early 1990s and, via a series of record label frustrations, has developed into a fiercely independent recording artist, flying outside the mainstream. Her critical acclaim has never wavered, and whilst happy to work in a niche market, her soundtrack for the film Magnolia and the accompanying Oscar nomination raised her profile considerably, adding to her stalwart army of fans. This book gives an overview of Aimee Mann's career from her earliest days, making it big with 'Til Tuesday and onward through her solo career to date, investigating every recorded track in a comprehensive guide for fans and new listeners keen to investigate a true original and double Grammy winner whose songs should be much more widely recognised.

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Watch out! Here comes Duck in a brand new edition of the first book in the million copy bestselling series! This is the tale of a duck in a truck -a truck that was stuck in some yucky brown muck.A sheep in a jeep and a frog in a bushsaw the truck stuck and gave it a push.But the truck stayed stuck!What now, can you guess?Could a goat in a boatget them out of this mess?

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Sometimes being small means you can be the biggest hero of all!Jamie and Abby are camping with Dad and they tell a bedtime story together. This story will star their favourites: a prince, a witch, a thief and some bears. "And the frog!" says Abby. This time there's a terrible giant who's stolen all the keys to the kingdom. No one can get into their homes! No one can start their horses! It's a real mess. Our heroes must sneak into the giant's castle and retrieve the keys. But when it comes to the crunch, only a tiny froggy hero, who's also a NINJA, can defeat the mighty giant!A story within a story that celebrates family time together.

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Released a matter of days after the end of the Second World War and a dozen years ahead of the first full-blooded Hammer Horror, the Ealing Studios horror anthology film Dead of Night featured contributions from some of the finest directors, writers and technicians ever to work in British film. Since its release it has become evermore widely regarded as a keystone in the architecture of horror cinema, both nationally and internationally, yet for a film that packs such a reputation this is the first time a single book has been dedicated to its analysis. Beginning with a brief plot précis 'road map' in order to aid navigation through the film's stories, there follows a discussion of Dead of Night's individual stories, including its frame tale ('Linking Narrative'), a consideration of the potency of stillness and the suspension of time as devices for eliciting goose bumps, an appraisal of the film in relation to the very English tradition of the festive ghost story, and an analysis of the British post-war male gender crisis embodied by a number of the film's protagonists. The book includes a selection of rarely seen pre-production designs produced by the film's acclaimed production designer, Michael Relph.

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How do you get people who work in pig abattoirs to wash their hands? How does painting the walls of a canteen pink make construction workers behave more safely? And how can baby faces spray painted onto shop shutters reduce anti-social behaviour? Ripple is about how small behaviour changes can have wide-reaching effects in the real world. By applying behavioural science in your working life, you can have positive ripple effects on the world around you. While nudging is now commonplace in politics, most of our daily interactions with companies, products, and services have not yet been transformed with behavioural science. Doing so is often a messy process but, armed with this book, you'll have the practical toolkit to get started. Through storytelling and practical tips, Ripple takes you on a journey across the globe which will leave you inspired to start applying behavioural science to improve the world around you.

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From Lollies Award-winning Michelle Robinson comes this colourful rhyming story following trains, boats and planes in their busy day. But where are they all going? Join three busy transport vehicles as they speed their doggy passengers to the Big Festival! The running isn’t smooth, and there’s a rainstorm on the way... Trains, boats and planes: which one would you ride? Featuring hundreds of vehicles, all with doggy drivers, and with a wind-down bedtime ending, this book is sure to keep your little one busy spotting every time you read it together. The first book in the series, Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry, has been shortlisted for the BookTrust Storytime Prize!

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Become an engineer for the day in this interactive STEAM book for vehicle-loving children aged 3+ years. Find out what's gone wrong with the vehicles using the clues and cross-sections to help you, Fix them by spotting the right tools to do the job, and then they can Go! For fans of Usborne’s Look Inside Things That Go and Penny Dale’s Dinosaur Zoom. Perfect for exploring STEAM and other high-interest topics. Bite-sized text and hands-on learning make this a really fun introduction to things that go. The engaging characters bring each vehicle to life and the book features all of the vehicles that little ones love: trains, diggers, cement mixers, helicopters, aeroplanes and spacecraft. With so much to spot and problems to solve, this great value book will keep littles ones busy for hours and they won't even realise how much they are learning along the way. It is a perfect gift for children who love machines and inspiring the next generation of engineers.

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An action-packed storytelling adventure that flips the traditional fairy tale on its head.When it’s time for Jamie’s bedtime story, his dad begins to tell an age-old fairy tale about a prince in a faraway land full of dragons, wolves and princesses in distress. Inquisitive Jamie can’t help but add to his dad’s story, and the prince is soon joined by an evil-eyed witch who turns people to jelly, a broccoli-wielding ninja frog and a jewel-thief, lock picking princess. It may not be the story Dad set out to tell, but together, he and Jamie create something much more energetic and hilarious than they could have alone.

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With sing-along song from David Gibb, Lollies Award-winning Michelle Robinson's busy story based on the tongue-twister is bursting with trucks, doggie drivers, vehicles and colour! Red Lorry and Yellow Lorry must get to the construction site, but they have a snow-drift, a breakdown and a speeding tractor to contend with along the way... Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry: which one would you drive? Jam-packed with lorries, trucks, cars, motorbikes and all kinds of vehicles! Sing along with a QR code link to the official Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry song by David Gibb! 'Dares to dive deep into a magnificent fiasco, a delight for the youngest of truck aficionados' KIRKUS 'A celebration of traffic jam-packed with fun. It will be essential reading for any young transportophile, but just as entertaining for the rest of the family too' LoveReading4Kids

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Winner of the 2011 Jolt Excellence Award! Getting software released to users is often a painful, risky, and time-consuming process.This groundbreaking new book sets out the principles and technical practices that enable rapid, incremental delivery of high quality, valuable new functionality to users. Through automation of the build, deployment, and testing process, and improved collaboration between developers, testers, and operations, delivery teams can get changes released in a matter of hours—sometimes even minutes–no matter what the size of a project or the complexity of its code base. Jez Humble and David Farley begin by presenting the foundations of a rapid, reliable, low-risk delivery process. Next, they introduce the “deployment pipeline,” an automated process for managing all changes, from check-in to release. Finally, they discuss the “ecosystem” needed to support continuous delivery, from infrastructure, data and configuration management to governance. The authors introduce state-of-the-art techniques, including automated infrastructure management and data migration, and the use of virtualization. For each, they review key issues, identify best practices, and demonstrate how to mitigate risks. Coverage includes Automating all facets of building, integrating, testing, and deploying software Implementing deployment pipelines at team and organizational levels Improving collaboration between developers, testers, and operations Developing features incrementally on large and distributed teams Implementing an effective configuration management strategy Automating acceptance testing, from analysis to implementation Testing capacity and other non-functional requirements Implementing continuous deployment and zero-downtime releases Managing infrastructure, data, components and dependencies Navigating risk management, compliance, and auditing Whether you’re a developer, systems administrator, tester, or manager, this book will help your organization move from idea to release faster than ever—so you can deliver value to your business rapidly and reliably.

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Grab your pickaxes and jump back into the action in this third installment of the Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior graphic novel series! Perfect for fans of Minecraft and the hit series Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior, volume three will knock your blocks off!The pixelated adventures continue in this graphic novel adaptation of the bestselling Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior series! Readers can reconnect with their favorite characters and the beloved Minecraft universe while enjoying a colorfully illustrated story off-screen.In this adventure, Runt and his friends return from the End and are looking forward to taking a break. When they arrive, they are greeted by villagers who throw a great feast in their honor. But things are not quite what they seem . . . After defending the village from a zombie attack, Runt and his crew decide to go back to Maggie’s and regroup. However, they are deeply troubled by Alberic's disappearance and Bagel won’t rest until she brings him back from the dead. Everyone agrees that they should, but not on how to go about it. The crew splits up as tension grows, and some of them find themselves in a place that looks familiar.

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Grab your pickaxes and jump back into the action in this fourth installment of the Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior graphic novel series. Runt and his crew are back for the fourth installment of the Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior Graphic Novel series. As they prepare for the epic battle against the evil incarnate of Minecraftia: Herobrine, they know they'll be stronger together, but first they have to get Sweetpea on their side. Unfortunately, the baby dragon does what he pleases. As they contemplate their best strategy, Runt and Blurp have the same nightmare: Herobrine won’t let anyone get out alive … unless they give him back Sweetpea. What should they do? Do they stand a chance of defeating Herobrine without losing all their friends? They will need to find courage to face this formidable adversary. The zany fun continues as Runt embarks on his latest pixelated adventures with his friends. Grab your pickaxe and shovel and get ready for more fun!

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Grab your pickaxes and jump back into the action in this second installment of the Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior graphic novel series.The pixelated adventures continue in this graphic novel adaptation of the bestselling Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior series! Readers can reconnect with their favorite characters and the beloved Minecraft universe while enjoying a colorfully illustrated story.In this installment, Runt and his unusual crew—a friendly zombie, a loyal wolf, and a clumsy human—embark on a quest to defeat the ender dragon . . . if they can go five minutes without getting lost, that is. But if vanquishing a legendary boss monster weren’t a big enough challenge, along the way the gang learns of an even more mysterious enemy lurking just around the corner. The second installment of this graphic novel series will knock your blocks off!

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For the first time ever, fans of Minecraft and the hit series Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior can enjoy these fun and fully illustrated graphic novels.This new graphic novel series is an adaptation of the best-selling Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior series. Readers will reconnect once again with their favorite characters in a familiar Minecraft world and embark on new, heart-pounding adventures. Runt is not a village boy like all the others. Growing carrots doesn’t really interest him and selling them interests him even less. All he wants is to be a warrior! One day, he gathers up all his courage and decides to head off on a journey. He meets a zombie who dreams of being a human, and together, they set off on an extraordinary journey. Follow these two unlikely friends as they trek across the Minecraft universe in search of excitement and a little bit of danger—now in graphic novel format.

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