Nature Myths

You think you know the story of "Three Billy Goats Gruff"? You're in for a surprise. The troll SAID he wanted to gobble up the billy goats, but what's the real story behind his stomps and roars? A classic fairy tale gets a trip-trapping twist as the troll tells all.

Presenting scientific evidence from diverse fields, including anthropology, biology, and psychology, Fuentes devises a myth-busting toolkit to dismantle persistent fallacies about the validity of biological races, the innateness of aggression and violence, and the nature of monogamy, sex, and gender. This revised and expanded edition provides up-to-date references, data, and analyses, and addresses new topics, including the popularity of home DNA testing kits and the lies behind ‘"incel" culture.

Jo is a gifted archer with a burden on his back and a fire within. Eager to see the Longtreaders receive justice, he travels from his Halfwind Citadel home to a Cloud Mountain poised on the brink of war. What he finds there will confront his convictions and test his resolve as the war begins and King Jupiter's heir is revealed. A kingdom in the balance. An arrow aimed at the heart of darkness. Who will take the shot?

Most monsters know better than to mess with Princess Harriet Hamsterbone. She's a fearsome warrior, an accomplished jouster, and is so convincing that she once converted a beastly Ogrecat to vegetarianism. So why would a pack of weasel-wolf monsters come to her for help? Well, there's something downright spooky going on in the forest where they live, and it all centers around a mysterious girl in a red cape. No one knows better than Harriet that little girls aren't always sweet. Luckily, there's no problem too big or bad for this princess to solve.

James Marshall retells the familiar tale in which one of three pigs survives a wolf's attacks by using his head.

This book is a three-part journey into the rabbit hole we call the nature of reality. Its ultimate destination is a plausible, living validation of transcendence. Each of its three parts is like a turn of a spiral, exploring recurring ideas through the prisms of religious myth, truth, and belief, respectively. With each turn, the book seeks to convey a more nuanced and complete understanding of the many facets of transcendence.

The classic story told from the wolf's point of view.

When eight-year-old Kirstie brings home a strange egg from the Scottish shore, her family never expects it to hatch. But the next day, Kirstie discovers a baby sea monster swimming in her bathtub! Part horse, part toad, part turtle and part crocodile, he's the oddest-looking creature Kirstie's family has ever seen. Only Kirstie's grandfather knows what the beastie really is: a Water Horse! This lovable creature is the perfect pet. The only trouble is, he can't stop growing.

Penny isn't just the fourth little pig—she's an engineer. So when big bad Wolfgang destroys her brothers' homes, Penny comes to the rescue! When Wolfgang returns, Penny must use all her engineering know-how to save her family from his huffing and puffing.

Coryn, Soren, and the Band preside over a new golden age of the Great Tree under the subtle influence of the ember. All seems well, but beneath the prosperity of peace, Coryn is tortured by the suspicion that his evil mother, Nyra, is a hagsfiend and that his own blood carries the haggish taint. He wanders afar, searching for the truth from hagsfiends themselves - putting the Great Tree in danger. Soren and the Band follow their new king to strange parts to guard him from the consequences of his obsession.

In this animal fantasy series, 12-year-old Leo is next in line for the throne of Singara. But before he can become king, he must prove his worth in a fight to the death with a slaycon, a scorpion-like monster. However, killing a slaycon may be the least of Leo's problems. The Maguar, Singara's sworn enemy, are rising up, and closer to home, Singara is being torn apart by Leo's cousin. Even worse, Leo is a Spinner, cursed with a dangerous, forbidden magic.

Nils Holgersson is a naughty boy who pulls the tails of cats and trips up his mother while she is carrying the milk pail. Then one day he discovers he has been magically turned into a tiny imp. He climbs on the back of a gander and takes off with a flock of wild geese as they fly over Sweden, soaring above patchwork fields, through storms, to castles and lakes and even to a city under the sea. As he learns about the world, he also learns what it means to care for living things, in Selma Lagerlöf's timeless and beloved fable.

From the author of the best-selling Guardians of Ga'Hoole series comes the story of the wolves of Ga'Hoole. This is the inspiring story of an abandoned wolf pup, Faolan, who is determined to survive.

Edgar Award-nominated author Brenda Seabrooke reimagines the tale of the three little pigs in this enchanting fable. Here James, Marvin, and Lester Pygg have just put the finishing touches on their new brick house when a knock sounds at the door. It’s a wolf! But the Pyggs know better than to let a big, bad wolf in. So the wolf hatches a new plan - sit and wait until the Pyggs come out.

Hoping to erase her tragic past, Empress Wu fills her kingdom with all beautiful things. She wants the Nightingale for its beautiful song. After sending her advisors to find the bird, Nightingale comes to her and offers to stay in her kingdom. Saddened by his captivity, Nightingale wishes to leave. Will the empress allow him to go?

Sassy, sassier, sassiest! That Brer Rabbit was the back-sassiest critter in 10 counties and it got so Brer Fox just couldn't bear it another second. So he stirred himself up a sticky, gooey Tar Baby and left it on a log for Brer Rabbit to run smack into.

What do you do when your new best buddy has been designated a scourge by the community and marked for imminent extermination? Just ask Kenny Rabbit. When the simple folks in the sleepy little village of Roundbrook catch wind that there's a dragon running loose in the countryside, they get the wrong idea and the stage is set for a fight to the death.

Could griffins have been real? When Adrienne Mayor carefully read the ancient Greek and Roman descriptions, this mythic hybrid of a lion and an eagle sounded like something people had actually seen. What could explain that evidence? After a decade of hunting through myths, poring over old maps, and tracing the discoveries of modern dinosaur hunters, she found the answer: awesome dinosaur fossils observed by ancient gold hunters in the Gobi desert.

¡¿A quién le gustan las cucarachas?! Pues esta cucarachita, ¡les va a encantar! Esta tierna historia musical nos enseña que cultivar la paciencia nos premiará con el regalo del verdadero amor y la amistad.

Many people believe that, at its core, biological sex is a fundamental, diverging force in our development. According to this familiar story, differences between the sexes are shaped by past evolutionary pressures - women are more cautious and parenting-focused, men seek status to attract more mates - re-created in each generation by sex hormones and male and female brains. This, in turn, is the basis of supposedly entrenched inequalities in our modern societies.