By the much-loved author of The Journey Home and Dinosaur Farm. Everyone knows that once a lemur takes a fancy to you there is not much that can be done about it. While being followed by lemurs one day, a boy tries hiding up a tree (without luck), disguising himself (without success) and even tries to sail off in a boat to get away from them – only to discover the lemurs snorkeling behind him. Eventually,after climbing mountains, taking trains and going through the air in a balloon, he finally thinks that he has lost them. Or has he? In the process, he has managed to get himself lost, and it is only then that he realizes that the cunning lemurs might just be helpful after all...
This inspiring memoir of one woman's experience in the field is an exotic adventure story, a surprise journey of self-discovery, and a deeply personal appreciation of a place that's unlike any other. At age twenty-five, graduate student Keriann McGoogan traveled into the wilds of Madagascar to study lemurs in their natural habitat and to set up a permanent field site in the remote northwest--a site to which she could later return to do research for her PhD in biological anthropology. Despite careful planning, the trip spiraled out of control. Food poisoning, harrowing backcountry roads, grueling hikes, challenging local politics, malaria, and an emergency evacuation would turn a simple reconnaissance into an epic adventure. In an engaging narrative, the author vividly describes the challenges of life in an isolated forest region while also bringing to life the wonders of Madagascar's incredible biodiversity, especially its many varieties of lemurs. Sadly, these rare animals are the most endangered group of primates in the world. At first accompanied by her thesis advisor, McGoogan is soon left alone when her mentor must return home. She carries on as the lone woman amid a small band of local male assistants, diligently conducting research on the lemur population around the camp. But when her right-hand man becomes delirious with malaria, she is forced to lead her team on a desperate three-day trek to safety. This fascinating memoir is equal parts a journey of self-discovery, an adventure story, and a heartfelt appreciation of a wonderful island country teaming with unique species and peopled by the warm and welcoming Malagasies with their intriguing indigenous culture.
Between the years 2005 to 2007, Ms. Rivera kept an online blog at MSN. Most pronounced are her innermost thoughts about the men of the rock group INXS. Also included are her experiences with breeding chihuahuas, showing, evil show breeders, other INXS fans, and Rockstar: INXS. The story begins in April of 2005, when the diary began, and a short-lived battle she had with a contemptible teenager named Serena Weiner, who first came to Ms. Rivera in 2003, hoping to learn how to breed chihuahuas the right way, but yet could not handle the truth. Read about Dee's trip to LA to meet her favorite band, INXS with a woman named Danna Ballswinger. Read about her struggles to keep her kennel together. Read about how she conquered her nemesis, Catsredrum, and also how she got out of breeding after the loss of her favorite dog, Groucho. Also included within the entries are follow-up paragraphs that describe in further detail what she was thinking when she wrote each blog entry.
Award-winning writer and illustrator Andrea Antinori takes us on a whimsical journey that marries fiction and fact as it explores the history, habits, and habitats of lemurs, one of the funniest (and most fun to draw) animals on the planet. Have you ever heard a lemur sing? Did you know that in the morning lemurs sunbathe while doing yoga and worshiping the sun? And some can even levitate. In this whimsical, fictional take on lemurs, which incorporates many true facts, award-winning writer and illustrator Andrea Antinori amusingly chronicles the history, habits, and quirks of one of the most unusual animals on the planet. The lemurs’ story begins fifty million years ago, when they left Africa on the back of a sperm whale and landed in Madagascar (maybe)…and the rest is an unnatural history. Comprehensive educational backmatter presents amazing (and true) facts about these incredible and seriously endangered animals.
Chronicles the rich human, plant, and animal diversity of this Isle off the East Coast of Africa, home to lemurs, unusual reptiles, and other creatures more at home in mythology than natural science.
Playing house in the mountains was supposed to be temporary, but a woman would have to be made of stone to resist the most eligible bachelor in Pine Ridge and all his small-town charm.… Denny Torres needs a break. After a series of embarrassments on and off the field, the Adirondacks provide the perfect hideout for his new, quiet, post-football life. The fresh mountain air is a welcome balm for his soul, but what’s even more soothing? The sexy, sweet touch of fellow Pine Ridge newcomer Bethany Jones. If only she planned to stay.... Bee does not have time for a hunky former athlete—no matter how good he looks shirtless. Her artistic ambitions are in ruins, her brother is a disaster, and while Pine Ridge has its charms, the small town is nothing more than a pit stop on her way to getting back on track. Bee’s just going to ignore the fact that when Denny offers her the chance to channel her creative energy into redesigning his house, she finds herself building the home—and the life—of her dreams. With their time together coming to an end, Denny will have to move quickly to prove he can be the man Bee needs. Who better than a defensive back to knock down those walls?
A teen plunges into a downward spiral of addiction in this classic cautionary tale. January 24th After you’ve had it, there isn't even life without drugs… It started when she was served a soft drink laced with LSD in a dangerous party game. Within months, she was hooked, trapped in a downward spiral that took her from her comfortable home and loving family to the mean streets of an unforgiving city. It was a journey that would rob her of her innocence, her youth—and ultimately her life. Read her diary. Enter her world. You will never forget her. For thirty-five years, the acclaimed, bestselling first-person account of a teenage girl’s harrowing decent into the nightmarish world of drugs has left an indelible mark on generations of teen readers. As powerful—and as timely—today as ever, Go Ask Alice remains the definitive book on the horrors of addiction.
The most ambitious work of fiction by a writer widely considered the most important novelist working in China today In this darkly comic novel, a group of women inhabits a world of constant surveillance, where informants lurk in the flowerbeds and false reports fly. Conspiracies abound in a community that normalizes paranoia and suspicion. Some try to flee—whether to a mysterious gambling bordello or to ancestral homes that can only be reached underground through muddy caves, sewers, and tunnels. Others seek out the refuge of Nest County, where traditional Chinese herbal medicines can reshape or psychologically transport the self. Each life is circumscribed by buried secrets and transcendent delusions. Can Xue's masterful love stories for the new millennium trace love's many guises—satirical, tragic, transient, lasting, nebulous, and fulfilling—against a kaleidoscopic backdrop drawn from East and West of commerce and industry, fraud and exploitation, sex and romance.
