Every spring in the eastern region of the United States, warmer nights with steady rain bring the migration of thousands of spotted salamanders to ponds and pools, often across busy roads. These crossings are magical, and secretive--most people don't even know they happen. Salamander Sky features a mother and daughter who go out on a rainy night to help the salamanders cross the road safely. This dramatic, full-color, picture book introduces readers to the elusive spotted salamanders and the perilous nighttime journey they take each spring. Amphibians worldwide desperately need protection. This book is a valuable tool for getting children engaged in conservation.
Nicholas Flood, an unassuming eighteenth-century London printer, specializes in novelty books -- books that nestle into one another, books comprised of one spare sentence, books that emit the sounds of crashing waves. When his work captures the attention of an eccentric Slovakian count, Flood is summoned to a faraway castle -- a moving labyrinth that embodies the count's obsession with puzzles -- where he is commissioned to create the infinite book, the ultimate never-ending story. Probing the nature of books, the human thirst for knowledge, and the pursuit of immortality, Salamander careens through myth and metaphor as Flood travels the globe in search of materials for the elusive book without end.
Named one of NPR's Best Books of 2021 From the author of Annihilation, a brilliant speculative thriller of dark conspiracy, endangered species, and the possible end of all things. Security consultant “Jane Smith” receives an envelope with a key to a storage unit that holds a taxidermied hummingbird and clues leading her to a taxidermied salamander. Silvina, the dead woman who left the note, is a reputed ecoterrorist and the daughter of an Argentine industrialist. By taking the hummingbird from the storage unit, Jane sets in motion a series of events that quickly spin beyond her control. Soon, Jane and her family are in danger, with few allies to help her make sense of the true scope of the peril. Is the only way to safety to follow in Silvina’s footsteps? Is it too late to stop? As she desperately seeks answers about why Silvina contacted her, time is running out—for her and possibly for the world. Hummingbird Salamander is Jeff VanderMeer at his brilliant, cinematic best, wrapping profound questions about climate change, identity, and the world we live in into a tightly plotted thriller full of unexpected twists and elaborate conspiracy.
A boy takes charge to help his beloved salamanders. Evan can hardly wait for Big Night. During the first warm night rain of spring—Big Night—spotted salamanders by the hundreds crawl out of the woods and down to a natural pool across the road. There they will breed and lay their eggs. How can Evan and his parents help these delicate creatures cross the road in safety? Evan has the solution. . . . Sarah Marwil Lamstein delivers a moving story of genuine caring. In this Smithsonian's Notable Book for Children, Carol Benioff's colorful and animated illustrations transport the reader into Evan's world, where a child can do small yet wonderful things to help other creatures.
On Sara's camping trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, "she becomes the first human ever to witness a Salamander Ball."--Cover. Includes illustrations and information on fifteen types of salamanders
A boy’s nomadic life in Mongolia is under threat in a novel that “captures the mountains, valleys and steppes in all their surpassing beauty and brutality” (Minneapolis Star-Tribune). In the high Altai Mountains of northern Mongolia, a young shepherd boy comes of age, tending his family’s flocks on the mountain steppes and knowing little of the world beyond the surrounding peaks. But his nomadic way of life is increasingly disrupted by modernity. This confrontation comes in stages. First, his older siblings leave the family yurt to attend a distant boarding school. Then the boy’s grandmother dies, and with her his connection to the old ways. But perhaps the greatest tragedy strikes when his dog, Arsylang—“all that was left to me”—ingests poison set out by the boy’s father to protect his herd from wolves. “Why is it so?” Dshurukawaa cries out in despair to the Heavenly Blue Sky, to be answered only by the wind. Rooted in the oral traditions of the Tuvan people, The Blue Sky weaves the timeless story of a boy poised on the cusp of manhood with the story of a people on the threshold. “Thrilling. . . . Tschinag makes it easy for his readers to fall into the beautiful rhythms of the Tuvans’ daily life.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review “In this pristine and concentrated tale of miraculous survival and anguished loss, Tschinag evokes the nurturing warmth of a family within the circular embrace of a yurt as an ancient way of life lived in harmony with nature becomes endangered.” —Booklist
Although the spirit beings of the four elements of nature have been represented in literature, religion, and folk tales, descriptions of these creatures have been vague, and direct experience with them is quite rare. Yet each of the four elemental kingdoms offers great gifts to humanity, if we are willing to recognize that the psychological and spiritual qualities they embody are already inherent in human nature. Mermaids dwell in the oceans, lakes, and rivers. They offer love and sharing, a sense of wonder, beauty, and innocence. Sylphs roam the sky; they represent harmony, balance, and the attainment of freedom. Gnomes live underground. Their quiet inner wisdom banishes depression and sorrow. Salamanders dwell in volcanoes and vast caverns of magma beneath the earth. They offer the power of intense heat to refine, transform, and integrate. Who are these mysterious creatures of water, air, earth, and fire? Author William Mistele has devoted a significant portion of his life to finding out. Addressing the perennial questions Why are we here? What is the deepest purpose of life? What are our options?, Mermaids, Sylphs, Gnomes, and Salamanders takes the reader directly into the realms of these spirits, telling stories from their perspective. Weaving together fairy tales and poems, thoughtful analysis, and meditative exercises, Mistele illuminates the qualities these beings have mastered and humanity must begin to embrace: empathy, an inner peace with the universe, a divine level of sensuality, and a love that is everywhere in every moment.
