Despite being an early work, Pinball shares many elements with Murakami's later novels. It describes itself in the text as "a novel about pinball," but also explores themes of loneliness and companionship, purposelessness, and destiny. As with the other books in the "Trilogy of the Rat" series, three of the characters include the protagonist, a nameless first-person narrator, his friend The Rat, and J, the owner of the bar where they often spend time.

To capture and maintain the interest of young learners, Listening Starter follows a set of young characters through everyday situations at home and at school.
Multiple dialogs and large full-color illustrations and photos within each unit support larners’comprehension of audio samples, while the wide range of activities used throughout the series reinforces newly-learned language elements. In addition, each unit in the books presents target vocabulary as keywords as well as in phrases and expressions.

Scripts added

Listening Starter is a three-book series designed to help young, beginning EFL learners improve their English listening comprehension. The goal of the series is to introduce students to everyday high-frequency expressions common for e...

Listening Starter is a three-book series designed to help young, beginning EFL learners improve their English listening comprehension. The goal of the series is to introduce students to everyday high-frequency expressions common for elementary and middle school English students.