Hitch a ride on the Albatross Express and travel the globe with Plume: World Explorer. This exciting new picture book series for little ones celebrates culture, diversity and the natural wonders of our world. Plume is not your typical Antarctic penguin. Sporting a bright yellow plume on the top of his head, Plume is bored of black and white, of shuffling around and snoozing on icebergs. He much prefers to cook, read, knit and sky dive. He craves colour, adventure, excitement! He wants to seize the world he’s discovered in the books of his fantastical, glacier library (the largest in the Southern Hemisphere). Plume's great hope is to grow the hearts and minds of his penguin friends. Through his travels, children will engage with themes such as friendship, acceptance, understanding and the wellbeing of our planet. Plume is truly a book series for our times.
From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe: everything you never knew you never knew about every country on Earth.A scientist by training and an explorer by passion, Dr. John Oldale has logged half a million miles visiting more than ninety nations. Now, he celebrates our weird and wonderful world in a cornucopia of fascinating facts brought vividly to life through the unexpected stories behind them. Touching on history, travel, politics, natural history and more, he paints a unique portrait of each country from the mightiest to the most miniscule. You won't find the following in your average travel guide: · Why is kissing on trains banned in France? · In what country are litigants expected to present their case at court in the form of a poem? · Which war did women win in 1929 just by sitting down? · If Panama hats aren’t from Panama, where are they from? · Who eat fresh camel dung as a cure for dysentery (and why does it work)? · Why were US disk jockeys once told they could play birthday requests on any day except the one requested? · Which modern dictator banned old age, libraries and gold teeth, and was later replaced by his dentist? · And 2,000 more funny, trivial, poignant, and telling facts A must for active and armchair globe-trotters alike, A World of Curiosities will engross anyone who is at all curious about the world beyond their door. Explore and enjoy.
"Frightening...Firestorm comes alive when Struzik discusses the work of offbeat scientists." —New York Times Book Review "Comprehensive and compelling." —Booklist "A powerful message." —Kirkus "Should be required reading." —Library Journal For two months in the spring of 2016, the world watched as wildfire ravaged the Canadian town of Fort McMurray. Firefighters named the fire “the Beast.” It acted like a mythical animal, alive with destructive energy, and they hoped never to see anything like it again. Yet it’s not a stretch to imagine we will all soon live in a world in which fires like the Beast are commonplace. A glance at international headlines shows a remarkable increase in higher temperatures, stronger winds, and drier lands– a trifecta for igniting wildfires like we’ve rarely seen before. This change is particularly noticeable in the northern forests of the United States and Canada. These forests require fire to maintain healthy ecosystems, but as the human population grows, and as changes in climate, animal and insect species, and disease cause further destabilization, wildfires have turned into a potentially uncontrollable threat to human lives and livelihoods. Our understanding of the role fire plays in healthy forests has come a long way in the past century. Despite this, we are not prepared to deal with an escalation of fire during periods of intense drought and shorter winters, earlier springs, potentially more lightning strikes and hotter summers. There is too much fuel on the ground, too many people and assets to protect, and no plan in place to deal with these challenges. In Firestorm, journalist Edward Struzik visits scorched earth from Alaska to Maine, and introduces the scientists, firefighters, and resource managers making the case for a radically different approach to managing wildfire in the 21st century. Wildfires can no longer be treated as avoidable events because the risk and dangers are becoming too great and costly. Struzik weaves a heart-pumping narrative of science, economics, politics, and human determination and points to the ways that we, and the wilder inhabitants of the forests around our cities and towns, might yet flourish in an age of growing megafires.
Now more than ever, children are encouraged to value and appreciate our world. I Heart the World is a beautifully illustrated romp around the planet, celebrating the people, cultural delights, natural and man-made wonders, and the breathtaking flora and fauna, that occupy our land, sea and sky. Organised into chapters for each world continent, Tania's illustrations will have any child or parent poring over the pages for many hours, and learning great facts about places near and far.
Traces the story of Quebec's founder while explaining his influential perspectives about peaceful colonialism, in a profile that also evaluates his contributions as a soldier, mariner, and cultural diplomat.
Pippa, Pia, Poppy, Polly and Peg are quintuplets. Since birth, they’ve done everything the same — cry, eat, sleep, sit. But as they get a little older, things start to change. Now they want to do things differently — very differently. Can Mum and Dad keep their little girls as matching peas in a pod, or will those five very individual personalities win out in the end? Gorgeous illustrations perfectly complement this simple yet highly entertaining storyline. Sure to be enjoyed by kids and their parents!
E. H. Gombrich's Little History of the World, though written in 1935, has become one of the treasures of historical writing since its first publication in English in 2005. The Yale edition alone has now sold over half a million copies, and the book is available worldwide in almost thirty languages. Gombrich was of course the best-known art historian of his time, and his text suggests illustrations on every page. This illustrated edition of the Little History brings together the pellucid humanity of his narrative with the images that may well have been in his mind's eye as he wrote the book. The two hundred illustrations—most of them in full color—are not simple embellishments, though they are beautiful. They emerge from the text, enrich the author's intention, and deepen the pleasure of reading this remarkable work. For this edition the text is reset in a spacious format, flowing around illustrations that range from paintings to line drawings, emblems, motifs, and symbols. The book incorporates freshly drawn maps, a revised preface, and a new index. Blending high-grade design, fine paper, and classic binding, this is both a sumptuous gift book and an enhanced edition of a timeless account of human history.
In 1949, Rosamond Halsey Carr, a young fashion illustrator living in New York City, accompanied her dashing hunter-explorer husband to what was then the Belgian Congo. When the marriage fell apart, she decided to stay on in neighboring Rwanda, as the manager of a flower plantation. Land of a Thousand Hills is Carr's thrilling memoir of her life in Rwanda—a love affair with a country and a people that has spanned half a century. During those years, she has experienced everything from stalking leopards to rampaging elephants, drought, the mysterious murder of her friend Dian Fossey, and near-bankruptcy. She has chugged up the Congo River on a paddle-wheel steamboat, been serenaded by pygmies, and witnessed firsthand the collapse of colonialism. Following 1994's Hutu-Tutsi genocide, Carr turned her plantation into a shelter for the lost and orphaned children-work she continues to this day, at the age of eighty-seven.
New York Times selection for Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2017 In this lovely book, young readers are introduced to a variety of beautiful birds, from the familiar chicken to the exotic ibis. But lurking in the background of every page is a cat, who also seems very interested in the birds. With its funny illustrations and engaging concepts, this clever counting book will invite readers to linger over every page.
