The Girl Who Sailed the Stars

The Girl Who Sailed the Stars

Author: Matilda Woods

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2019-06-25

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0525515240

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Adventure, friendship, and magical realism come together in this heartwarming, whimsical story. Perfect for fans of A Snicker of Magic and The Penderwicks. When Oona Britt was born in the magical town of Nordlor, where all of the homes are built from wrecked ships, her parents never expected her to be a girl. Having listened to a faulty prediction from a washed-up soothsayer, they were promised a "bold and brave son," so as the youngest of seven sisters, Oona's birth became a disappointment -- especially to her sea captain father, who doesn't believe there's a place for girls aboard ships. But Oona is different from the rest of her family. She longs for adventure and knowledge. So she steals aboard her father's ship just as he's about to set sail for his annual winter whale hunt, and suddenly finds herself in the midst of a grand adventure! The ship has its own sea cat, Barnacles, and a navigator named Haroyld, who show Oona how to follow the stars. But for all that, Oona's father is furious. Can she prove to him that she's worth his love and pride, even though she's not the bold and brave son he was promised? This follow-up to The Boy, the Bird & the Coffin Maker carries just as much heart and charm as Matilda Woods's first novel. The characters, story, and illustrations will dazzle readers. Praise for The Girl Who Sailed the Stars: * "Woods's intoxicating mix of whimsical details and taut adventure will keep [readers] enrapt." --Booklist, starred review "A richly imaginative fantasy that brings to mind Joan Aiken's Wolves Chronicles with a dash of Roald Dahl . . . Strong world-building joins lyrical prose and a fine leavening of humor, adventure, and magic, to make a winning combination." --SLJ Praise for The Boy, the Bird & the Coffin Maker: * "Woods has penned a gentle fable, one rich in hope that promotes the strength of kindness. Her magical realism nods to the like of Isabel Allende and Gabriel García Márquez, perfectly tailoring the genre for a middle-grade audience. Anuska Allepuz's whimsical illustrations add to the magical feel. Sweet, earnest and not to be missed." --Shelf Awareness, starred review * "Elegantly told from start to finish and enhanced by Allepuz's evocative images and decorations, debut author Woods has created a fairy tale that will linger with readers." --Publishers Weekly, starred review * "This uplifting book will enthrall readers, enveloping them in its gentle charm." --Booklist, starred review


Shards of Earth

Shards of Earth

Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2021-08-03

Total Pages: 469

ISBN-13: 0316705829

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The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us an extraordinary space opera about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man's discovery will save or destroy us all. The war is over. Its heroes forgotten. Until one chance discovery . . . Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade him in the war. And one of humanity's heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers. After earth was destroyed, mankind created a fighting elite to save their species, enhanced humans such as Idris. In the silence of space they could communicate, mind-to-mind, with the enemy. Then their alien aggressors, the Architects, simply disappeared—and Idris and his kind became obsolete. Now, fifty years later, Idris and his crew have discovered something strange abandoned in space. It's clearly the work of the Architects—but are they returning? And if so, why? Hunted by gangsters, cults and governments, Idris and his crew race across the galaxy hunting for answers. For they now possess something of incalculable value, that many would kill to obtain.


Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus

Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus

Author: Dusti Bowling

Publisher: Union Square & Co.

Published: 2017-09-05

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 1454923466

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“Aven is a perky, hilarious, and inspiring protagonist whose attitude and humor will linger even after the last page has turned.” —School Library Journal (Starred review) Aven Green loves to tell people that she lost her arms in an alligator wrestling match, or a wildfire in Tanzania, but the truth is she was born without them. And when her parents take a job running Stagecoach Pass, a rundown western theme park in Arizona, Aven moves with them across the country knowing that she’ll have to answer the question over and over again. Her new life takes an unexpected turn when she bonds with Connor, a classmate who also feels isolated because of his own disability, and they discover a room at Stagecoach Pass that holds bigger secrets than Aven ever could have imagined. It’s hard to solve a mystery, help a friend, and face your worst fears. But Aven’s about to discover she can do it all . . . even without arms. Autumn 2017 Kids’ Indie Next Pick Junior Library Guild Selection Library of Congress's 52 Great Reads List 2018


Going Interstellar

Going Interstellar

Author: Les Johnson

Publisher: Baen

Published: 2021-09-07

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 9781982125615

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ONE THING WE CAN ALL AGREE ON: HARD SF AT ITS BEST. A collection of tales by an all-star assortment of award winning authors including Ben Bova, Mike Resnick, Jack McDevitt, Michael Bishop, Sarah A. Hoyt, and more, together with essays on high technology by space scientists and engineers—all taking on new methods of star travel. BUILD STARSHIPS NOW Some humans may be content staying in one place, but many of us are curious about what’s beyond the next village, the next ocean, the next horizon. Are there others like us out there? How will we reach them? Others are concerned with the survival of the species. It may be that we have to get out of Dodge before the lights go out on Earth. How can we accomplish this? Wonderful questions. Now get ready for some answers. Here is the science behind interstellar propulsion: reports from top tier scientists and engineers on starflight propulsion techniques that use only means and methods that we currently know are scientifically possible. Here are in-depth essays on antimatter containment, solar sails, and fusion propulsion. And the human consequences? Here is speculation by a magnificent array of award-winning SF writers on what an interstellar voyage might look like, might feel like—might be like. It’s an all-star cast abounding with Hugo and Nebula award winners: Ben Bova, Mike Resnick, Jack McDevitt, Michael Bishop, Sarah A. Hoyt, and more. Comprehensive teacher's guide available. About Stellaris: People of the Stars, coedited by Les Johnson: “[A] thought-provoking look at a selection of real-world challenges and speculative fiction solutions. . . . Readers will enjoy this collection that is as educational as it is entertaining.”—Booklist “This was an enjoyable collection of science fiction dealing with colonizing the stars. In the collection were several gems and the overall quality was high.”—Tangent About Mission to Methone, by Les Johnson: “The spirit of Arthur C. Clarke and his contemporaries is alive and well in Johnson’s old-fashioned first-contact novel, set in 2068. . . . includes plenty of realistic detail and puts fun new spins on familiar alien concepts. . . . There’s a great deal here for fans of early hard SF.”—Publishers Weekly “With equal parts science fiction and international intrigue. . . . an exciting, fast-paced read that you will not want to put down.”—Booklist About Rescue Mode, by Ben Bova and Les Johnson: “. . . a suspenseful and compelling narrative of the first human spaceflight to Mars.”—Booklist About Jack McDevitt: “The logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.”—Stephen King “‘Why read Jack McDevitt?’ The question should be: ‘Who among us is such a slow pony that s/he isn’t reading McDevitt?’”—Harlan Ellison “You should definitely read Jack McDevitt.”—Gregory Benford


The Boy, the Bird and the Coffin Maker

The Boy, the Bird and the Coffin Maker

Author: Matilda Woods

Publisher: Scholastic UK

Published: 2017-05-04

Total Pages: 139

ISBN-13: 1407179535

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Alberto lives alone in the town of Allora where fish fly out of the sea and everyone knows everybody's business. There he makes coffins for the great and small, but being the only coffin maker in town can be lonely. That is until a little boy and a magical bird enter his life and change it forever.


Fighting for Space

Fighting for Space

Author: Amy Shira Teitel

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Published: 2020-02-18

Total Pages: 427

ISBN-13: 1538716038

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Spaceflight historian Amy Shira Teitel tells the riveting story of the female pilots who each dreamed of being the first American woman in space. When the space age dawned in the late 1950s, Jackie Cochran held more propeller and jet flying records than any pilot of the twentieth century—man or woman. She had led the Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots during the Second World War, was the first woman to break the sound barrier, ran her own luxury cosmetics company, and counted multiple presidents among her personal friends. She was more qualified than any woman in the world to make the leap from atmosphere to orbit. Yet it was Jerrie Cobb, twenty-five years Jackie's junior and a record-holding pilot in her own right, who finagled her way into taking the same medical tests as the Mercury astronauts. The prospect of flying in space quickly became her obsession. While the American and international media spun the shocking story of a "woman astronaut" program, Jackie and Jerrie struggled to gain control of the narrative, each hoping to turn the rumored program into their own ideal reality—an issue that ultimately went all the way to Congress. This dual biography of audacious trailblazers Jackie Cochran and Jerrie Cobb presents these fascinating and fearless women in all their glory and grit, using their stories as guides through the shifting social, political, and technical landscape of the time.


Zero Hour

Zero Hour

Author: Clive Cussler

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Published: 2014-06-03

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 0425267776

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It is called zero point energy, and it really exists - a state of energy contained in all matter everywhere, and thus all but unlimited. Nobody has ever found a way to tap into it, however - until one scientist discovers a way. Or at least he thinks he has. The problem is, his machines also cause great earthquakes, even fissures in tectonic plates. One machine is buried deep underground; the other is submerged in a vast ocean trench. If Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala and the rest of the NUMA team aren't able to find and destroy them, and soon, the world will be on the threshold of a new era of earth tremors and unchecked volcanism.


Manifold: Time

Manifold: Time

Author: Stephen Baxter

Publisher: Del Rey

Published: 2003-12-16

Total Pages: 622

ISBN-13: 0345475577

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“Reading Manifold: Time is like sending your mind to the gym for a brisk workout. If you don’t feel both exhausted and exhilirated when you’re done, you haven’t been working hard enough.”—The New York Times Book Review The year is 2010. More than a century of ecological damage, industrial and technological expansion, and unchecked population growth has left the Earth on the brink of devastation. As the world’s governments turn inward, one man dares to envision a bolder, brighter future. That man, Reid Malenfant, has a very different solution to the problems plaguing the planet: the exploration and colonization of space. Now Malenfant gambles the very existence of time on a single desperate throw of the dice. Battling national sabotage and international outcry, as apocalyptic riots sweep the globe, he builds a spacecraft and launches it into deep space. The odds are a trillion to one against him. Or are they? “A staggering novel! If you ever thought you understood time, you’ll be quickly disillusioned when you read Manifold: Time.”—Sir Arthur C. Clarke


Cognition in the Wild

Cognition in the Wild

Author: Edwin Hutchins

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1996-08-26

Total Pages: 403

ISBN-13: 0262581469

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Edwin Hutchins combines his background as an anthropologist and an open ocean racing sailor and navigator in this account of how anthropological methods can be combined with cognitive theory to produce a new reading of cognitive science. His theoretical insights are grounded in an extended analysis of ship navigation—its computational basis, its historical roots, its social organization, and the details of its implementation in actual practice aboard large ships. The result is an unusual interdisciplinary approach to cognition in culturally constituted activities outside the laboratory—"in the wild." Hutchins examines a set of phenomena that have fallen in the cracks between the established disciplines of psychology and anthropology, bringing to light a new set of relationships between culture and cognition. The standard view is that culture affects the cognition of individuals. Hutchins argues instead that cultural activity systems have cognitive properties of their own that are different from the cognitive properties of the individuals who participate in them. Each action for bringing a large naval vessel into port, for example, is informed by culture: the navigation team can be seen as a cognitive and computational system. Introducing Navy life and work on the bridge, Hutchins makes a clear distinction between the cognitive properties of an individual and the cognitive properties of a system. In striking contrast to the usual laboratory tasks of research in cognitive science, he applies the principal metaphor of cognitive science—cognition as computation (adopting David Marr's paradigm)—to the navigation task. After comparing modern Western navigation with the method practiced in Micronesia, Hutchins explores the computational and cognitive properties of systems that are larger than an individual. He then turns to an analysis of learning or change in the organization of cognitive systems at several scales. Hutchins's conclusion illustrates the costs of ignoring the cultural nature of cognition, pointing to the ways in which contemporary cognitive science can be transformed by new meanings and interpretations. A Bradford Book