Blue Heron

What is magic really for? As Maggie approaches her thirteenth birthday, she wants to believe that some kind of magic can stop the changes all around her. Her visit with her father and his new family at a lakeside cabin makes her wonder. Will he still love her as much, now that he has a new family, or will he love her baby half-sister more? Her father seems troubled and withdrawn and, while he insists nothing is wrong, she worries. Alone with her own secret thoughts, Maggie finds comfort in the beautiful blue heron she visits at the lake every morning. With each visit, she grows more attached to the bird, and she becomes aware that someone else is watching, too -- someone who's putting the bird in great danger. Through her determination to protect the bird, Maggie begins to understand the magic of change in her own life, and in the constantly changing world around her.

February 2016. Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Tareq Hadhad was worried about his father: Isam did not know what to do with his life. Before the war began in Syria, Isam had run a chocolate company for over twenty years. But that life was gone now. The factory was destroyed, and he and his family had spent three years in limbo as refugees before coming to Canada. So, in an unfamiliar kitchen in a small town, Isam began to make chocolate again. This remarkable book tells the extraordinary story of the Hadhad family -- Isam, his wife Shahnaz, and their sons and daughters -- and the founding of the chocolatier, Peace by Chocolate. From the devastation of the Syrian civil war, through their life as refugees in Lebanon, to their arrival in a small town in Atlantic Canada, Peace by Chocolateis the story of one family. It is also the story of the people of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and so many towns across Canada, who welcomed strangers and helped them face the challenges of settling in an unfamiliar land.

With its striking plumage, the great blue heron is one of the most widely recognized wading birds in North America. Riding on kelp beds in the Queen Charlotte Islands, wading in coastal streams along the mainland, poised motionless at the water's edge on a misty morning, or nesting in the limbs of old-growth forests, this stately bird is a familiar sight on the coast of British Columbia. The largest colonies are on the Fraser River delta, an area of great ecological significance to the north Pacific. Despite a growing body of knowledge regarding many aspects of the species' breeding biology and courtship behaviour, the foraging and population ecology of this bird remains something of an enigma. In his beautifully illustrated book, Robert Butler follows the great blue heron through a year on the coast of British Columbia. He draws on more than a decade of work to throw light on the adaptability of this magnificent bird to a temperate climate, its diet and breeding habits, habitat use, and conservation. Although the great blue heron has become a symbol of wetland conservation, in recent years it has had to face new challenges as a consequence of rapid urbanization of its environment. In The Great Blue Heron the author also describes the B.C. coast and shares a vision for the conservation of the Strait of Georgia and the Fraser River delta.

While vacationing in the Seychelles, Tim discovers a well-guarded private island where he learns of a devious plot that threatens the endangered local giant tortoise.

Chronicles the author's devastating educational experiences, his diagnosis of a learning disability and the incredible work he has done from that pivotal moment.

This book features one of the author's favorite birds, The Great Blue Heron. He hopes you enjoy this intimate look into the life of a truly magnificent American bird. Most of these photos were taken by him in the beautiful Hocking Hills area of southeastern Ohio. This book is intended as a photographic essay concerning one bird species, the Great Blue Heron. It is not a technical piece by any means. My intent is to let these photographs speak for themselves as much as possible. I might interject my observations into its photographic narration at some points, but only as clarification or to point out an observation of my own pertaining to what these great birds have taught me about themselves. They were the teachers, I was the eager student. They still have much to teach me. I'll never live long enough to know it all. I was amazed to find that I had over 9,000 images of Great Blue Herons in my computer folders. I know I will run across some photographs later on and say to myself: I should have included this one, or that one. I still take more photos each time I go to my lake. I can't help myself. Who knows if the next photo will teach me something else about these aptly named birds. I'm almost afraid to check my picture files for all the other species I have photographed. If all goes well with this offering, I may do other books on other species in at some point in the future.

Books in the Hello, Everglades! series take young readers on a journey through the Everglades, exploring the flora and fauna of the region. Each book uses the whole language approach to literacy, a combination of sight words and repetition builds recognition and confidence. Bold, colorful photographs correlate directly to text to help guide readers through the book. Books in this series include author biography and teaching guides.

Here Sr. Melannie hopes to pique the curiosity, slow us down, and reaffirm for the mystery and beauty of daily life with its light and shadows, joys and sorrows, perplexities and understanding. She also hpes these prayer-poems will nudge us to prayer. Great spiritual reading!