Nature Culture

Bactrian camels roam grasslands and rocky deserts. Learn all about these rugged travelers and their habitats in Camels.

"A diamond is forever." Who among us doesn't recognize this slogan and, with it, the fascination that diamonds hold in our collective imagination as emblems of royalty, glamor, and eternal love? Rachelle Bergstein's cultural biography illuminates the enticing, often surprising story of our society's enduring obsession with diamonds - and the people who have worked tirelessly to ensure their continued allure.

Old Babushka, known throughout all of Moskva for her beautifully painted eggs, is preparing her eggs for the Easter Festival when she takes in an injured goose. She names the goose Rechenka, and they live happily together until one day when Rechenka accidentally overturns a basket, breaking all of Babushka's lovingly crafted eggs.

Iceland, Greenland, Northern Norway, and the Faroe Islands lie on the edges of Western Europe, in an area long portrayed by travelers as remote and exotic - its nature harsh, its people reclusive. Since the middle of the 18th century, however, this marginalized region has gradually become part of modern Europe, a transformation that is narrated in Karen Oslund's Iceland Imagined. This cultural and environmental history sweeps across the dramatic North Atlantic landscape, exploring its unusual geography, saga narratives, language, culture, and politics, and analyzing its emergence as a distinctive and symbolic part of Europe.

Mim Cohen roams the world in a travelling bookshop, with her dad and brother and a horse called Flossy. Flossy leads them where she will, to the place where they're needed most...the place where the perfect book will find its way home. Now Mim has arrived in Puddling Muddlebury in the Cotswolds, England, just in time for the annual dog show. The judge, Lord Melville-Timms, is in a pickle. He has judged cakes and flowers and vegetables, but never a dog show. Furthermore, his beloved bulldog, Bubbles, is the most disobedient dog in the county.

Aloo-ki glances up from fishing and sees her sled dogs floating off on an ice floe. She races after them and comes upon an igloo. Being a curious girl, she goes inside only to find no one home. That's because the polar bear family who lives there is out walking while their breakfast cools off. Aloo-ki eats some soup, tries on their boots, and finally crawls into the smallest bed for a nap. Meanwhile, Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear see her dogs adrift, swim out to rescue them and return home to find Aloo-ki fast asleep in Baby Bear's bed.

This photo-based tour of Hawaii includes over 60 pictures from the following sites: Sea Life Park (Oahu), USS Arizona Memorial (Pearl Harbor), Hanauma Bay (Oahu), the Polynesian Cultural Center (Laie), and a nature hike (Oahu.)

The fishermen on Lesvos call her Kanella because of her cinnamon color. She's a scrawny, nervous stray - intimidated by the harbor cats and the other dogs that compete for handouts on the pier. One spring day, a dinghy filled with weary, desperate strangers comes to shore. Other boats follow, crowded with refugees who are homeless and hungry. Kanella knows what that is like, and she follows them as they are taken to a temporary refugee camp set up in the parking lot of an abandoned nightclub. There she comes to trust a bearded man - an aid worker.

Trump the Animal Liaison Officer has her paws full with Dr. Jeanie’s new patient. Cranky Paws, the cat hates everyone: people, dogs, cats, and other animals. Dr. Jeanie can heal her injuries, but what will happen after that? Is there anyone who can offer Cranky Paws a home? And will Cranky Paws accept?

In Nature and Culture in the Early Modern Atlantic, historian Peter C. Mancall reveals how Europeans and Native Americans thought about a natural world undergoing rapid change in the century following the historic voyages of Christopher Columbus. Through innovative use of oral history and folklore maintained for centuries by Native Americans as well as original use of manuscript atlases, paintings that depict European representations of nature, and texts that circulated across the ocean, he reveals how the encounter between the old world and the new changed the fate of millions.

Clem and her friends Ash and Zara are members of the Thames and Tide Club! Every weekend they go mudlarking by the river, searching for treasures that have washed up on the shore. Clem has found old things, new things and a whole heap of rubbish. But one day, she finds something really special. Something magical that belongs in the river and must be returned to its rightful owner…or else. Before they know it, the Thames and Tide Club are on the weirdest, wildest underwater-iest adventure they could possibly have imagined on a mission to save Underwater London!

Covering essential curriculum areas such as human geography, physical geography, geology and ecology, First Earth Encyclopedia is a comprehensive introduction to the world around us and answers questions including: how does our planet work; what shapes it; and how do people use Earth's resources? Children can explore fascinating topics including where and how people live, weather, world environments, how to use maps and the way our planet is changing.

Thirteen-year-old Nandu lives in the newly established Royal Elephant Breeding Center on the edge of the jungle. Here, the King's elephants are to be raised under the protective watch of the stable. Nandu - along with his adoptive father Subba-sahib, his mentors, friends, and the rest of the elephant drivers - is tested by man and nature as earthquakes, drought, wild herds, and rumors of poachers threaten the center.

"Why do we do what we do?" This may seem like a simple question at first; in practice however, the closer we examine where our decisions come from, the less intention and independent reasoning we find. Instead, we find primitive instincts and ideas that are often based on nothing more than the imagination of someone who has been dead for centuries.

Two girls survive a terrible flood in the Tasmanian bush and are rescued by a pair of Tasmanian tigers who raise them in the wild. Their story of survival is remarkable, as they adapt to the life of the tiger, learning to hunt and to communicate without the use of human language. When they are discovered and returned to civilization, neither can adapt to being fully human after their extraordinary experience. Totally believable, their story will both shock and captivate listeners as it explores the animal instincts that lie beneath our civilized veneer.

Muhammad wants to join the sheikh's camel race—but his camel, Jamila, is difficult and refuses to let Muhammad ride her. No matter what he does, she will not cooperate. With some help from his local imam and merchant, will Muhammad learn to train his camel in time for the race? Or will he be forced to watch from the sidelines?

Adventure-loving Arthur is a dog on a mission. And nothing wags his tail more than a run around his beautiful country. Tracking treasures from airport to train to bus, he doesn’t want to miss a single precious place. With eyes wide, looking at giant presidents’ heads carved into a granite mountain and thrilling rides under massive waterfalls, he can barely believe what he sees. But with so many wonders in store, he’s sure he’ll have even more awesome tales to tell all his animal friends back home! What cool points of interest will Arthur uncover on his sight-seeing quest?

The Lambchops are on a family vacation to San Francisco, California. But when Stanley saves a girl from barreling down one of San Francisco's famously steep hills, he's shocked to find that she's actually been looking for him. The girl, Lily, is trying to perform an amazing trick that no one has done before - escape from Alcatraz prison - and she needs Stanley's help! Can the famous flat boy help with this tricky stunt?

Rivers wind through the earth, cutting down and eroding the soil for millions of years, creating a cavity in the ground 277 miles long, 18 miles wide, and more than a mile deep known as the Grand Canyon. Home to an astonishing variety of plants and animals that have lived and evolved within its walls for millennia, the Grand Canyon is much more than just a hole in the ground. Follow a father and daughter as they make their way through the cavernous wonder, discovering life both present and past.

Fluffy emperor penguin chicks. Playful Arctic fox kits. Learn how polar babies survive frigid temperatures and how many of them change color to blend in with their snowy environments.