大象传媒

In 2007 a film based on the bestselling book 'The Kite Runner' was released. It told the story of two young Afghan boys who form a strong friendship across class and tribal boundaries. Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada from Kabul was 9 years old when he was given the leading role of Hassan in the film. The experience took him from his ordinary family background to international fame. But it also lost him his country.

The American/Korean writer Krys Lee recently worked as a volunteer helping North Korean asylum seekers who had escaped to China. The experience resulted in her debut novel, which depicts the harsh realities of living on that border.

A fishy tale from the American town of Schenectady in New York State. In mid-July local lifeguard and amateur fisherman Julian Canavan spotted something very unusual in the town's lake. Actually, he says it's more of a pond than a lake, but anyway, there was something in the water that didn't belong there. It was an alligator gar - a type of fish that usually lives in warm waters much further south.

Jason Leach is one of those people who loves old vinyl records. He runs a dance music label from his home town of Scarborough on the North East coast of England. But Jason has come up with a new - and some might say rather gruesome way - of producing vinyl discs. He makes them out of the ashes of people who've been cremated, as a kind of sound memorial to the dead.