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Hoot |
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| Author: |
Carl Hiaasen |
 Book Review
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Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0440419395 |
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Book Review
Roy Eberhardt is the new kid--again. This time around it's Trace Middle School in humid Coconut Grove, Florida. But it's still the same old routine: table by himself at lunch, no real friends, and thick-headed bullies like Dana Matherson pushing him around. But if it wasn't for Dana Matherson mashing his face against the school bus window that one day, he might never have seen the tow-headed running boy. And if he had never seen the running boy, he might never have met tall, tough, bully-beating Beatrice. And if he had never met Beatrice, he might never have discovered the burrowing owls living in the lot on the corner of East Oriole Avenue. And if he had never discovered the owls, he probably would have missed out on the adventure of a lifetime. Apparently, bullies do serve a greater purpose in the scope of the... |
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A Guide to the Birds of the Southeastern States: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, And Mississippi |
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Book Review
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0813028612 |
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Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 22, 2006
If you're heading south and want to know where to go birding, Rappole can point you in the right direction.
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings |
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| Author: |
Maya Angelou |
Book Review
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Paperback |
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0553279378 |
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Ships within 2-3 days. |
Book Review
In this first of five volumes of autobiography, poet Maya Angelou recounts a youth filled with disappointment, frustration, tragedy, and finally hard-won independence. Sent at a young age to live with her grandmother in Arkansas, Angelou learned a great deal from this exceptional woman and the tightly knit black community there. These very lessons carried her throughout the hardships she endured later in life, including a tragic occurrence while visiting her mother in St. Louis and her formative years spent in California--where an unwanted pregnancy changed her life forever. Marvelously told, with Angelou's "gift for language and observation," this "remarkable autobiography by an equally remarkable black woman from Arkansas captures, indelibly, a world of which most Americans are shamefully ignorant."
--This text refers... |
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Gooney Bird Greene |
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| Author: |
Lois Lowry |
Book Review
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Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0440419603 |
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Usually ships within 24 hours. |
From Publishers Weekly
Two-time Newbery Medalist Lowry (The Giver; Number the Stars) introduces a feisty, friendly heroine in this light novel. Readers know immediately that red-haired, freckle-face Gooney Bird Greene is as unorthodox as her name: wearing pajamas and cowboy boots, she arrives at the door of her new second-grade classroom all alone, "without even a mother to introduce her." She announces she has just moved from China (which turns out to be the name of a town, not the country) and demands "a desk right smack in the middle of the room, because I like to be right smack in the middle of everything." Dressed each day in another eccentric outfit, she relays to the class a series of stories that are "absolutely true" even though they initially seem anything but. Stretching the facts creatively through some wily wordplay,... |
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National Audubon Society: The Sibley Guide to Birds |
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| Author: |
David Allen Sibley |
Book Review
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Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0679451226 |
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Book Review
More than 10 years in the making, David Sibley's Guide to Birds is a monumental achievement. The beautiful watercolor illustrations (6,600, covering 810 species in North America) and clear, descriptive text place Sibley and his work squarely in the tradition of John James Audubon and Roger Tory Peterson; more than a birdwatcher and evangelizer, he is one of the foremost bird painters and authorities in the U.S. Still, his field guide will no doubt spark debate. Unlike Kenn Kaufman's Focus Guide, Sibley's is unapologetically aimed at the converted. Beginning birders may want to keep a copy of Sibley at home as a reference, but the wealth of information will have the same effect on novices as trying to pick out a single sandpiper in a wheeling flock of thousands. The familiar yellow warbler, for instance, gets no less than... |
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A Nest Full of Eggs (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science, Stage 1) |
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0064451275 |
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From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2?A young boy and girl observe the activities of a robin family from the first "cheer-up" call of spring, through nest building, hatching, and fledging. Additional information about other kinds of birds and their behaviors is touched upon. One double-spread shows development within the egg. The format is open and inviting with illustrations that have child appeal. However, the colors appear rather flat and washed out, lacking the exuberance one associates with the season. An adequate accompaniment to Barrie Watts's Birds' Nest (Silver Burdett, 1991), a photographic presentation of the nesting season of the blue titmouse.?Diane Nunn, Richard E. Byrd Elementary School, Glen Rock, NJCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of... |
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The Encyclopedia of North American Birds |
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| Author: |
Michael Vanner |
Book Review
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Hardcover |
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0760772746 |
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Where Do Chicks Come From (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1) |
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0064452123 |
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From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2 - Sklansky's clear and accurate text begins with fertilization when the rooster's "sperm joins the growing egg" and concludes with the dry, fluffy baby. She uses the correct terminology to discuss the anatomy of the egg and the purpose of each part. She also explains that the "egg you eat for breakfast" is unfertilized and cannot grow into a chick. As the hen sits on her nest for the 21-day incubation period, the day-to-day development of the embryonic chick is detailed in easy-to-understand paragraphs and full-color drawings. The illustrations are soft and friendly, but retain enough realism for children to understand the subject matter. Suggested activities and a list of stories about chicks are appended. This is an enjoyable and informative introduction to scientific information. -... |
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American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer |
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| Author: |
Kai Bird |
Book Review
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Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0375726268 |
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Book Review
In American Prometheus, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin delve deep into J. Robert Oppenheimer's life and deliver a thorough and devastatingly sad biography of the man whose very name has come to represent the culmination of 20th century physics and the irrevocable soiling of science by governments eager to exploit its products. Rich in historical detail and personal narratives, the book paints a picture of Oppenheimer as both a controlling force and victim of the mechanisms of power. By the time the story reaches Oppenheimer's fateful Manhattan Project work, readers have been swept along much as the project's young physicists were by fate and enormous pressure. The authors allow the scientists to speak for themselves about their reactions to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, avoiding any sort of preacherly tone... |
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Guardians of Ga'hoole #7 |
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| Author: |
Kathryn Lasky |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0439739500 |
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Usually ships within 24 hours. |
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6–The fascistic Pure Ones, a tribe of barn owls who believe that they alone are fit to rule, lost their king, the evil Kludd, during a great battle in The Burning (Scholastic, 2004). In this seventh book in the series, Kludd's sinister widow Nyra continues to plot to conquer all of the owl kingdoms, especially the heroic, egalitarian owls who dwell in the great tree of Ga'Hoole. She raises her hatchling son Nyroc to one day take his father's place and teaches him to believe in the power of hate. But the older he grows, the more he disagrees with his mother's ways, and after he learns the horrible truth about a deadly ceremony the Pure Ones have planned for him, he realizes that he must leave his home and his mother. While Lasky has combined fascinating details of how real owls live with her... |
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Tomb of the Golden Bird (Amelia Peabody Mysteries) |
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| Author: |
Elizabeth Peters |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover
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| ISBN: |
0060591803 |
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Usually ships in 24 hours |
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The absorbing 18th entry in MWA Grand Master Peters's bestselling Amelia Peabody series (after 2005's The Serpent on the Crown) centers on one of the great real-life discoveries in Egyptology—the opening of Tutankhamon's tomb in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. Amelia's husband, Radcliffe Emerson (aka "the Father of Curses"), has been wooing Lord Carnavon and Howard Carter to let him excavate in the Valley of the Kings where they have digging rights, leading his competitors to think there must be something worth unearthing in the area. The eventual uncovering of King Tut's burial chamber and its magnificent contents attracts a host of museum curators, antiquities specialists, government officials, reporters and thieves. The arrival of Emerson's shady half-brother, Sethos, desperately ill... |
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Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! |
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| Author: |
Mo Willems |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
078681988X |
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Usually ships within 24 hours. |
From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2-A brilliantly simple book that is absolutely true to life, as anyone who interacts with an obdurate three-year-old can attest. The bus driver has to leave for a while, and he makes one request of readers: "Don't let the pigeon drive the bus." It's the height of common sense, but the driver clearly knows this determined pigeon and readers do not-yet. "Hey, can I drive the bus?" asks the bird, at first all sweet reason, and then, having clearly been told no by readers, he begins his ever-escalating, increasingly silly bargaining. "I tell you what: I'll just steer," and "I never get to do anything," then "No fair! I bet your mom would let me." In a wonderfully expressive spread, the pigeon finally loses it, and, feathers flying and eyeballs popping, screams "LET ME DRIVE THE BUS!!!" in huge,... |
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Hoot |
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| Author: |
Carl Hiaasen |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback
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| ISBN: |
0375829164 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
Book Review
Roy Eberhardt is the new kid--again. This time around it's Trace Middle School in humid Coconut Grove, Florida. But it's still the same old routine: table by himself at lunch, no real friends, and thick-headed bullies like Dana Matherson pushing him around. But if it wasn't for Dana Matherson mashing his face against the school bus window that one day, he might never have seen the tow-headed running boy. And if he had never seen the running boy, he might never have met tall, tough, bully-beating Beatrice. And if he had never met Beatrice, he might never have discovered the burrowing owls living in the lot on the corner of East Oriole Avenue. And if he had never discovered the owls, he probably would have missed out on the adventure of a lifetime. Apparently, bullies do serve a greater purpose in the scope of the... |
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All the Backyard Birds: East |
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| Author: |
Jack L. Griggs |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0062736310 |
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Pete Dunne, V.P. NJ Audubon Society
"These guides are the best thing to hit backyard birding since black oil sunflower seed. Not a kitchen window sill in North America should be without."
Book Description
American Bird Conservancy (ABC) Compact Guides are specialized bird guides, focused on specific groups of birds. The superb illustrations and organization are derived from the definitive North American bird guide, ABC's All the Birds of North America. All the Backyard Birds tells you everything you need to know about the birds you'll see in your backyard, in the parks and along the roadside. It features: Up-to-date information on all the species seen in neighborhoods and parks and on roadsides. Spectacular, full-color illustrations by America's finest bird artists. Tips on... |
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The Grail Bird |
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| Author: |
Tim Gallagher |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0618456937 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships within 24 hours. |
From Scientific American
This book is an outstanding example of the behind-the-recent-headlines genre. It tells the story of the obsessive quest to find the ivory-billed woodpecker, which was feared to be extinct (no confirmed sightings since 1944). Big, mysterious, iconic, the bird is "a symbol of everything that has gone wrong with our relationship to the environment." In the 19th century, it was plundered by collectors, and in the 20th, extensive habitat destruction seemingly drove it to extinction. Gallagher, editor of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology's publication Living Bird, has searched for the bird off and on for three decades. One day in February 2004 he read a posting on a canoe club Web site about a strange woodpecker that a kayaker named Gene Sparling had seen on a float trip down a remote bayou in eastern Arkansas.... |
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National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region |
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| Author: |
John L. Bull |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0679428526 |
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Book Review
Covering 508 bird species found east of the Rocky Mountains, the revised second edition takes into account changes in taxonomy and uses improved photography. At the heart of the guide is a set of 646 well-made color photographs whose subjects are organized by easily discerned characteristics (e.g., "chicken-like marsh birds," such as the clapper rail; "gull-like birds," such as the kittiwake; and "upright-perching water birds," such as the common murre). The photographs are then keyed to textual descriptions of the birds' appearance, range and habitat, nesting characteristics, and behavior. Easy to use and handsomely produced, this belongs in every eastern birdwatcher's collection. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
Introduced in 1977 and completely revised in 1994, these... |
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Stellaluna |
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| Author: |
Janell Cannon |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0152802177 |
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Usually ships within 24 hours. |
Book Review
Baby bat Stellaluna's life is flitting along right on schedule--until an owl attacks her mother one night, knocking the bewildered batlet out of her mother's loving grasp. The tiny bat is lucky enough to land in a nest of baby birds, but her whole world has just turned upside down. Literally. Stellaluna's adoptive bird mom accepts her into her nest, but only on the condition that Stellaluna will act like a bird, not a bat. Soon Stellaluna has learned to behave like a good bird should--she quits hanging by her feet and starts eating bugs. But when she finally has an opportunity to show her bird siblings what life as a bat is like, all of them are confounded. "How can we be so different and feel so much alike?" one asks. "And how can we feel so different and be so much alike?" asks another. "I agree," Stellaluna responds.... |
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Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! |
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| Author: |
Mo Willems |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover
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| ISBN: |
0786837462 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2-The star of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (Hyperion, 2003) returns in another irresistible tale. Hurrying away to brush his teeth, the pajama-clad bus driver implores readers not to let his feathered friend stay up late. Youngsters are thrust into the role of caregiver as the puerile pigeon attempts to talk his way out of the inevitable, coming up with requests that range from manipulative (I hear there's a good show about birds on TV tonight. Should be very educational) to cajoling (Y'know, we never get to talk anymore. Tell me about your day-¦) to classic (Can I have a glass of water?). Meanwhile, the fowl fights yawns and tries to keep his wide eye open, despite a drooping lid. Defying drowsiness to the last, he finally falls asleep, clutching his stuffed bunny tightly under... |
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1000 Facts on Birds |
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| Author: |
Jinny Johnson |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0760745692 |
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Poppy |
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Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0380727692 |
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Ships within 2-3 days. |
From Publishers Weekly
Newbery Honor author Avi (Tom, Babette and Simon, reviewed June 12) turns out another winner with this fanciful tale featuring a cast of woodland creatures. As ruler of Dimwood Forest, Ocax the hoot owl has promised to protect the mice occupying an abandoned farmhouse as long as they ask permission before "moving about." Poppy, a timid dormouse, is a loyal, obedient subject-until she sees Ocax devour her fiance and hears the owl deny her father's request to seek new living quarters. To prove that the intimidating ruler is really a phony, Poppy embarks on a dangerous and eye-opening quest, which ends with her one-on-one battle with Ocax. While the themes about tyranny and heroism are timeless, Avi leavens his treatment with such 20th-century touches as Poppy's jive-talking boyfriend and Poppy's own romantic vision... |
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Bird by Bird : Some Instructions on Writing and Life |
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| Author: |
Anne Lamott |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback
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| ISBN: |
0385480016 |
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Usually ships in 24 hours |
Book Review
Think you've got a book inside of you? Anne Lamott isn't afraid to help you let it out. She'll help you find your passion and your voice, beginning from the first really crummy draft to the peculiar letdown of publication. Readers will be reminded of the energizing books of writer Natalie Goldberg and will be seduced by Lamott's witty take on the reality of a writer's life, which has little to do with literary parties and a lot to do with jealousy, writer's block and going for broke with each paragraph. Marvelously wise and best of all, great reading.
From Publishers Weekly
Lamott's ( Operating Instructions ) miscellany of guidance and reflection should appeal to writers struggling with demons large and slight. Among the pearls she offers is to start small, as their father once... |
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Bedside Book of Birds: An Avian Miscellany |
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| Author: |
Graeme Gibson |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0385514832 |
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From Publishers Weekly
In this intriguing, beautifully illustrated volume, Canadian writer and birder Gibson (Five Legs) employs poems, folk tales, parables, legends, and extracts from the works of naturalists and others to explore humans' relationship with birds through the centuries. Some of the material—Peter Matthiessen's tribute to shorebirds, Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem about wild swans, Thomas Hardy's ode to a darkling thrush—reflect the joy many people feel on seeing or hearing a bird. But a number of the pieces, such as Robinson Jeffers's wrenching poem about a hurt hawk, Gabriel García Márquez's story involving sinister curlews and Kafka's threatening fantasy about a vulture, do not make the best bedtime reading. Numerous selections dwell on the human propensity for killing, exploitation and... |
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The Singing Life of Birds : The Art and Science of Listening to Birdsong |
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| Author: |
Donald Kroodsma |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover
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| ISBN: |
0618405682 |
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From Publishers Weekly
Kroodsma, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, shares what he's learned from more than three decades of recording and analyzing the songs of birds in this intriguing, instructional book. Using "sonagrams" (also known as sound spectrograms, they plot a sound's frequency over time), he illustrates the songs of 30 birds, from the familiar American robin to the exotic three-wattled bellbird of Costa Rica. He considers how birds acquire their songs (some species learn them; others have their tunes "encoded somehow in nucleotide sequences of the DNA"), what makes the songs unique, what functions they serve, and how they've evolved. No two species sound alike, of course, but groups of birds within each species have their own dialects, and individual birds have their own repertoires as well. A CD of the... |
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Blood Brother |
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| Author: |
Anne Bird |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0060838574 |
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Ships within 2-3 days. |
From Publishers Weekly
As true crime books go, this addition to the Scott and Laci Peterson library isn't particularly riveting, salacious or revealing, which is strange considering Bird's unique perspective. Adopted as a child, Bird reunited with her birth mother, Jackie Peterson, Scott's mother, in late 1997. Bird takes every opportunity to stress that she grew very close to the Peterson family, but there's very little evidence of this apart from Bird's own assertions. The reader learns tidbits about Scott and Laci: i.e., Laci loved flowers, and Scott "was a real charmer, the kind of guy who lights up a room." But such details hover on the surface. In fact, this book reveals more about the author's self-delusional behavior than the crime itself. Laci's abduction occurs early on, and for the rest of the book, Bird relates how, despite... |
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National Geographic Complete Birds of North America |
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| Author: |
Jonathan Alderfer (Editor) |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0792241754 |
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* Birders rejoice! National Geographic has come through once again with a volume that libraries and bird enthusiasts will welcome to their shelves. Ornithologist and illustrator Alderfer is the general editor of this fine resource that, as he acknowledges, is too large to be a field guide, although many may throw it in their bags while birding. Described as a "companion to the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America," the book pulls together a remarkable amount of information into what can only be described as one of the finest one-volume reference works ever published on North American birds.The organization will be familiar to bird aficionados everywhere. Each of the 82 avian families is treated in an individual section that begins with a brief essay covering the special... |
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A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America (The Peterson Field Guide) |
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| Author: |
Roger Tory Peterson |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0395740460 |
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Book Description
Roger Tory Peterson had already made his mark with his innovative field guide when he conducted DDT research during World War II. His friend and fellow naturalist Rachel Carson built on these efforts and eventually wrote Silent Spring, a landmark text that, along with Peterson's field guide, jump-started the modern environmental movement. By combining the tireless observation of a scientist with the imaginative skills of an artist and writer, Peterson created a field guide that Robert Bateman, in his foreword to the fifth edition, says was the doorway for millions of people into the wonderland of natural history. The Peterson Identification System has been used in the more than fifty books that make up the Peterson Field Guide series. Peterson's magnum opus, now in its fifth edition, created the trail for countless... |
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The Emotionally Healthy Church |
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| Author: |
Peter Scazzero |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0310246547 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships within 24 hours. |
Book Description
True Discipleship Integrates Emotional and Spiritual Health.
New Life Fellowship in Queens, New York, had it all: powerful teaching, dynamic ministries, an impressive growth rate, and a vision to do great works for God. Things looked good—but beneath the surface, circumstances were more than just brewing. They were about to boil over, forcing Peter Scazzero to confront needs in his church and himself that went deeper than he’d ever imagined. What he learned about the vital link between emotional health, relational depth, and spiritual maturity can shed new light on painful problems in your own church. Here are refreshing new insights, and a different and challenging slant on what it takes to lead your congregation to wholeness and maturity in Christ.
Our churches are in trouble, says... |
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The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America |
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| Author: |
David Allen Sibley, Rick Cech |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Turtleback
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| ISBN: |
067945120X |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
From Publishers Weekly
Providing birders the convenience of portability, Sibley's newest volume breaks down the information in The Sibley Guide to Birds into specific regions (The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America will be published the same month). The guide includes much of the basic information in the Guide to Birds, such as the parts of a bird and general color-coded maps, but focuses most of its attention on birds who make their home east of the Rocky Mountains, such as the Double-crested Cormorant and the Eastern Screech-Owl. The color-coded maps that accompany each bird show where the birds live throughout North America, so that birders in, say, Pennsylvania, will know to look for the Northern Mockingbird in California as well. And, of course, Sibley's beautiful full-colored paintings of birds jump out at every... |
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The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! |
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| Author: |
Mo Willems |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover
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| ISBN: |
0786818697 |
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| Availability: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
Book Review
Sesame Street veteran and Emmy Award-winner Mo Willems returns with a fast, funny follow-up to Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!--only this time, the short-tempered pigeon faces his perfect foil in a "special guest star" duckling. In the previous Pigeon book, author and illustrator Willems expertly distilled the escalating emotions of preschoolers all too anxious to get their way. The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog--also a simple and sparsely illustrated story--explores the flip side of that coin, exposing the poker-face persuasive powers of young negotiators. The pigeon just wants to greedily eat the hot dog that he's found: "Oooooh! A hot dog! Yummy! Yummy! Yummy!" Then along comes the duckling, "scooty scoot scoot!" with his insistent questions about hot dogs: "What do they taste like?...Would you say that it tastes like... |
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