"I loved every page. This is middle grade fiction at its best."-- Ann Patchett From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Magicians comes a must-read, wholly original middle-grade debut perfect for fans of The Chronicles of Narnia and Roald Dahl. Dear Uncle Herbert, You've never met me, but I'm your niece Kate, and since it is my birthday tomorrow and you are super-rich could you please send me a present? Kate and her younger brother Tom lead dull, uninteresting lives. And if their dull, uninteresting parents are anything to go by, they don't have much to look forward to. Why can't Kate have thrilling adventures and save the world the way people do in books? Even her 11th birthday is shaping up to be mundane -- that is, until her mysterious and highly irresponsible Uncle Herbert, whom she's never even met before, surprises her with the most unexpected, exhilarating, inappropriate birthday present of all time: a colossal steam locomotive called the Silver Arrow. Kate and Tom's parents want to send it right back where it came from. But Kate and Tom have other ideas -- and so does the Silver Arrow -- and soon they're off to distant lands along magical rail lines in the company of an assortment of exotic animals who, it turns out, can talk. With only curiosity, excitement, their own resourcefulness and the thrill of the unknown to guide them, Kate and Tom are on the adventure of a lifetime . . . and who knows? They just might end up saving the world after all. This thrilling fantasy adventure will not only entertain young readers but inspire them to see the beautiful, exciting, and precious world around them with new eyes.

Containing star charts, a guide to the constellations, and details about seasons and the movement of the objects we see in the sky, this classic book makes H. A. Rey's passion for astronomy evident on every page. New updates concentrate on the planetary and solar system information in the latter part of the book. Facts and figures for each planet have been revised, and new scientific information has been added, such as Pluto's reclassification as a dwarf planet. There's also a new online resource that allows readers to track the positions of the planets in the night sky till the year 2100.

WINNER of Mass Books Early Reader Must Reads/Picture Books! "An imaginative and original depiction of one of life's everyday miracles." -- KIRKUS STARRED REVIEW From award-winning and NY Times bestselling children's and beloved birder, Jane Yolen, and award-winning illustrator, Bob Marstall, comes On Bird Hill the first in a series created for bird-lovers and dreamers alike! On Bird Hill is first in a new Jane Yolen series developed for the Cornell Lab, the world's leading authority on bird's. Loosely based on "The Green Grass Grew All Around," a nursery rhyme first published as a song in 1912, this whimsical version follows a boy and his dog as they find a bird in a nest on a hill in a strange valley. This beautiful and enchanting story is perfect for young minds taking flight. 35% of the net proceeds from every Cornell Lab Publishing Group book purchase will support projects such as children's educational and community programs. About the ON BIRD HILL & BEYOND SERIES The ON BIRD HILL & BEYOND series invites children to reclaim the freedom to explore, wander and adventure outdoors. Created especially for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology - the world leader in the study, appreciation, and conservation of birds - by New York Times bestselling author Jane Yolen and renowned illustrators Bob Marstall and Elizabeth Dulemba. The series artfully engages the senses to see, feel, hear, and touch the natural world and the life within. Back matter contains information on birds and wildlife depicted with full-color photos and "How You Can Help" suggestions for budding naturalists and birders. RAVE REVIEWS FOR ON BIRD HILL... "Expressively captures a luminous moment of discovery in the natural world. On Bird Hill leaves space for the imagination and underscores the surprising wonder found in everyday moments." -- School Library Journal "It's a sweetly surreal meditation on the everyday wonders that await in the wild."--Publisher's Weekly "...opens your eyes to the extraordinary in the ordinary of nature. I look forward to more books in the series..."--NC Teacher Stuff

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to the twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004, edited by Steven Pinker, is another "provocative and thoroughly enjoyable [collection] from start to finish" (Publishers Weekly). Here is the best and newest on science and nature: the psychology of suicide terrorism, desperate measures in surgery, the weird world of octopuses, Sex Week at Yale, the linguistics of click languages, the worst news about cloning, and much more.

Unforgettable images of the natural world by a best-selling photographer that will delight and inform. A snow monkey emerges from a hot spring. A Camargue horse streaks through a marsh in a blur of movement. Brown bears from Alaska wait in a waterfall for sockeye salmon. Scarlet and blue-yellow macaws sweep across the Peruvian sky. Red-crowned cranes gather to feed in snow-covered Japanese marshland. A bright-eyed baby sifaka clings to its mother as she hops along in Madagascar sunlight. A bottlenose dolphin skims over Honduran waters at breathtaking speed... At first fired by curiosity, Steve Bloom's photographic explorations of the natural world were soon imbued with a fierce urgency as the full force of man's destruction of the environment and its creatures was revealed to him. His goal has been to search for the spirit of the world's wildlife, from the tiger's eyes gleaming brightly in the jungles of India to polar bear cubs seeing the world for the first time to the few mountain gorillas left in Africa. The result embodies nature's choreography, an intimate exploration that reveals not only the animals but much that is new about ourselves. Accompanied by his own commentaries, as passionate as they are informed, and thought-provoking quotes from Mahatma Gandhi, Gerald Durrell, Emily Dickinson, and others, Spirit of the Wild brings to the fore the common experiences of all living creatures. 60+ color photographs.

"Sophie is an amateur naturalist with a rare genetic gift: the ability to see a marvelous kingdom of invisible, sentient creatures that share a vital, symbiotic relationship with humankind. To record her observations, Sophie creates a personal bestiary and, as she relates the strange abilities of these endangered beings, her tales become extraordinary meditations on love, sex, evolution, extinction, truth, and self-knowledge"--

Long ago unicorns lived in a haven of sun-dappled glades and flower-filled dells. But as civilization spread over the ages -- with its fierce knights, its chugging trains, its thick smogs -- unicorns had to find a new sanctuary. But where? Jane Yolen finds a magical answer in the traditional unicorn myth. Her rhythmic, rhymed text is irresistible to read aloud. And Ruth Sanderson's brilliant artwork gives unicorns a bold reality in everything from ancient cave paintings to their secret, present-day home. After reading this tribute to the mystical, mysterious unicorn, children will enjoy looking for these elusive creatures in the world around them.

Now a major motion picture starring Drew Barrymore, Ted Danson, Kristen Bell, Tim Blake Nelson, John Krasinski, and Vinessa Shaw—an account of the dramatic rescue of three gray whales trapped under the ice in Alaska in 1988. Set in Cold War–era 1988, Freeing the Whales tells the real story behind the remarkable, bizarre, and oftentimes uproarious event that mesmerized the world for weeks. On October 7, an Inuit hunter near Barrow, Alaska, found three California Gray whales imprisoned in the Arctic ice. In the past, as was nature's way, trapped whales always died. Not this time. Tom Rose, who was covering the event for a Japanese TV station, compellingly describes how oil company executives, environmental activists, Inupiat people, small business people, and the U.S. military boldly worked together to rescue the whales. He also tells the stories of some of the more than 150 international journalists who brought the story to the world's attention. The rescue was followed by millions of people around the world as Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev joined the forces of their two nations to help free the whales.

Burrow into this classic tale about a family of rabbits from the author of Bambi . Hops and his young rabbit friends must face all the triumphs and trials in the first year of life in the woods. Life is dangerous in the forest, especially for the fifteen young rabbits who are learning to navigate their home. While there are many wonderful things and other animals to get to know—including a deer by the name of Bambi—there are also dangers, and the constant threat of man. In order to thrive, the rabbits must stick together... Felix Salten’s story of the lives of fifteen rabbits is brought back to life in this beautiful repackage.

Abundant fish along North America's West Coast Coast have nurtured rich and diverse cultures for centuries. But today millions of sockeye salmon routinely seem to disappear from the Fraser River, chinook salmon populations are collapsing, the abalone fishery is one of several that has been shut down and oolichan populations are in dramatic decline. At the same time, biodiversity is being lost as the remaining stocks are concentrated into fewer populations. Will the Pacific fishery go the way of the Atlantic fishery? How can it be better managed? And what can be done to ensure its long-term sustainability? In Dead Reckoning, award-winning journalist Terry Glavin attempts to answer these troublesome questions. He begins at Byrne Creek, a local stream that shaped his boyhood world, then takes us up the Fraser River, where Coyote once assigned fishing rights and techniques, and out onto the high seas. It is later than we think - but not too late, says Glavin. In precise, highly visual and moving prose, he presents concrete alternatives for fishing communities on the West Coast and around the globe, and introduces us to some of the fishers, biologists and average citizens who are working to conserve and restore the world's great fisheries today.

Against the background of austere and beautiful Aberdeen, Woolfson observes the seasons, the streets and the quiet places of her city over the course of a year. She considers the geographic, atmospheric and environmental elements which bring diverse life forms together in close proximity, and in absorbing prose writes of the animals among us: the birds, the rats and squirrels, the spiders and the insects. Her close examination of the natural world leads her to question our prevailing attitudes to urban and non-urban wildlife, and to look again at the values we place on the lives of individual species.