Owl S Outstanding Donuts

Warned by an owl, ten-year-old Mattie discovers that someone is secretly polluting the land near her aunt's Big Sur donut shop and sets out to stop them.

A wild California mystery full of feathers, sprinkles, and more Ever since Mattie Waters lost her mother, she's been sharing a trailer with her aunt Molly, the proud owner of Owl's Outstanding Donuts. This hoot of a donut shop serves up delicious snacks to people driving down California's Highway One—treats like the Turkey Talon, the Banana Slug Bar, and the Strawberry Iced Classic. Mattie loves her aunt and the shop, even if she's still dealing with a life without her mom. But not everybody is a fan of Owl's Outstanding Donuts. When an owl taps on Mattie's window one night, Mattie looks out to see suspicious activity not far from the shop. A shady duo is dumping gloop near the highway. And soon people want to blame Aunt Molly! With help from her friends, Mattie sets out to find the real gloopers. Along the way, she'll face fears that have followed her since her mother's passing—and get to know Alfred, a stuffy, donut-loving owl who's also on the case. "Readers of all ages will be cheering—and hooting!—for Mattie and her friends as they track down the culprits in this brilliant, high-stakes mystery with heart. Owl's Outstanding Donuts is, well, simply outstanding!"—Kristen Kittscher, author of The Wig in the Window

Four young men are recruited into the O.S.S. at the beginning of World War II. Their job is to use their superior intellect to enhance the Allied War efforts. Follow their exploits, both adventurous and amorous, as they aid America's top spy, "Wild Bill" Donovan, and assist in achieving the American victory. The action is continuous, and the inside information about the war is quite revealing. Men read it and say it is an action adventure story. Women read it and say it is a love story. It carries you rapidly along through some of the most interesting events of the period.

An enthralling account of a modern voyage of discovery as we meet the clever, social birds of prey called caracaras, which puzzled Darwin, fascinate modern-day falconers, and carry secrets of our planet's deep past in their family history. “Deftly intertwine[s] natural history and human history, with insights and lessons that go far beyond the subject birds.”—David Sibley, author of What It's Like to Be a Bird “Utterly captivating and beautifully written, this book is a hugely entertaining and enlightening exploration of a bird so wickedly smart, curious, and social, it boggles the mind.”—Jennifer Ackerman, author of The Bird Way In 1833, Charles Darwin was astonished by an animal he met in the Falkland Islands: handsome, social, and oddly crow-like falcons that were "tame and inquisitive . . . quarrelsome and passionate," and so insatiably curious that they stole hats, compasses, and other valuables from the crew of the Beagle. Darwin wondered why these birds were confined to remote islands at the tip of South America, sensing a larger story, but he set this mystery aside and never returned to it. Almost two hundred years later, Jonathan Meiburg takes up this chase. He takes us through South America, from the fog-bound coasts of Tierra del Fuego to the tropical forests of Guyana, in search of these birds: striated caracaras, which still exist, though they're very rare. He reveals the wild, fascinating story of their history, origins, and possible futures. And along the way, he draws us into the life and work of William Henry Hudson, the Victorian writer and naturalist who championed caracaras as an unsung wonder of the natural world, and to falconry parks in the English countryside, where captive caracaras perform incredible feats of memory and problem-solving. A Most Remarkable Creature is a hybrid of science writing, travelogue, and biography, as generous and accessible as it is sophisticated, and absolutely riveting.