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Juanita and Miguel’s great aunt, Tía Lola, comes from the Dominican Republic to help take care of them after their parents divorce, and soon she is so involved in their small Vermont community that when her visa expires, the whole town turns out to support her.
How animals big and small have shaped today’s world. From furry felines to hard-working horses, animals have had a tremendous impact on world history. For example, rats, through the diseases they carry, have probably killed more people than any war or natural disaster, goats may have been the first to discover coffee and, thanks to camels, people were able to survive for long periods in the desert and open up trade routes between Europe and Asia. However, animals can also be destructive. Mosquitoes spread deadly diseases — and may even have killed Alexander the Great. Some animals have changed the environment by damaging whole ecosystems, creating deserts in their wake. Others, like the elephant, have been used as weapons of war. Among the more than 20 animals featured in this book are dogs, sheep, dolphins, silk moths and beavers, all of which have changed the course of history for better or for worse. Lighthearted and humorous, with intriguing photos and informative sidebars, this book ensures that readers will appreciate all animals with newfound awe and respect.
For thirteen years, Ben Tomlin was an only child. But all that changes when his mother brings home Zan — an eight-day-old chimpanzee. Ben’s father, a renowned behavioral scientist, has uprooted the family to pursue his latest research project: a high-profile experiment to determine whether chimpanzees can acquire advanced language skills. Ben’s parents tell him to treat Zan like a little brother. Ben reluctantly agrees. At least now he’s not the only one his father’s going to scrutinize. It isn’t long before Ben is Zan’s favorite, and Ben starts to see Zan as more than just an experiment. His father disagrees. To him, Zan is only a specimen, no more, no less. And this is going to have consequences. Soon Ben is forced to make a critical choice between what he is told to believe and what he knows to be true — between obeying his father or protecting his brother from an unimaginable fate. Half Brother isn’t just a story about a boy and a chimp. It’s about the way families are made, the way humanity is judged, the way easy choices become hard ones, and how you can’t always do right by the people and animals you love. In the hands of master storyteller Kenneth Oppel, it’s a novel you won’t soon forget.
Eleven-year-old Fish, seeking a way to help his family financially, becomes a reluctant cabin boy on a pirate ship, where he soon makes friends–and enemies–and is asked to help decipher clues that might lead to a legendary treasure.
The author of Tiempos Lejanos: Poetic Images from the Past returns to his roots in a new and exciting book of poetry about his childhood in Guadalupe, New Mexcio, originally called Ojo del Padre, presumably in honor of a priest who discovered a still-bubbling spring in the area. The village of Guadalupe is no more, but Garciacute;a’s vibrant word pictures transport us to a time and place of true community and existence. Written first in Spanish, then translated to English, these poems paint his young life and the lives of his family members and neighbors in west central New Mexico in the mid-twentieth century. Garcia’s perceptions of a wider world and all it includes, but still anchored in the routines of home and play and work, were imparted by his mother, who never attended a day of school in her life.
Fish in trees? Frogs underground? Who knew?No one would expect to see a bird at the bottom of a stream, yet that is precisely where the American dipper hunts for food. How about a tortoise that lives in the desert? The way it keeps cool is even more surprising.Readers will be amazed to discover how the 36 animals featured in this book have evolved in order to live in hostile environments. From searing heat to glacial cold and from high in the sky to deep in the earth, these species endure extreme weather conditions and make their homes in the unlikeliest of places in order to hide from predators or to hunt for food.Some of the animals featured in the book are: Northern shrews whose brains and internal organs shrink during hibernation Snakes in Borneo that fly through the air Freshwater eels that travel over land to find food or a new source of water Salamanders that can go without food for 10 years!The full-color photographs and surprising, informative text will appeal to animal lovers of all ages.
The Game is just the beginning? It’s the year 2154. Lisse and her friends have been deemed unemployable in the eyes of society. Now they must scavenge the disintegrating city for food and shelter, just to make ends meet. But their dismal existence starts to look up when Lisse and her friends are invited to participate in The Game, an experience highly regarded in their society. The Game is a virtual reality experience where they are challenged to survive. But as they spend more time in The Game, the line between reality and fantasy starts to blur. What started as a simple exercise quickly becomes a test of endurance, trust, and their will to live.
In the second installment of the Century Quartet, Italian author P. D. Baccalario continues the mystery that will take four cities and four extraordinary kids to solve.Four kids. A wooden top. And four postcards with secret instructions.New York City, March 15 Another mysterious artifact reunites Harvey from New York, Elettra from Rome, Mistral from Paris, and Sheng from Shanghai in their attempt to save the world. When they meet people who knew Alfred Van Der Berger, the murdered professor who sent them on their quest in Rome, they realize that the challenge is far from over. And when they discover a series of four postcards written in code years ago by the professor himself, their destiny becomes even clearer.The cards send the kids all over New York City, through old libraries and abandoned tunnels, in search of the Star of Stone, an ancient object fundamentally connected to the earth. But a new set of villains, predators of Manhattan nightlife, will do anything to stop them….
Fresh from the spotlight of their first television experience, the Amigas Inc. team is back, but the heat is always on in Miami and when they get hired to do an unusual quince for a bratty debutante, the temperature goes sky high.
The second book in Westerfeld’s masterful series. Sequel to: Leviathan. Continues the story of Austrian Prince Alek who, in an alternate 1914 Europe, eludes the Germans by traveling in the Leviathan to Constantinople, where he faces a whole new kind of genetically-engineered warships.