Silent Summer

Over the past 20 years dramatic declines have taken place in UK insect populations. Eventually, such declines must have knock-on effects for other animals, especially high profile groups such as birds and mammals. This authoritative, yet accessible account details the current state of the wildlife in Britain and Ireland and offers an insight into the outlook for the future. Written by a team of the country's leading experts, it appraises the changes that have occurred in a wide range of wildlife species and their habitats and outlines urgent priorities for conservation. It includes chapters on each of the vertebrate and major invertebrate groups, with the insects covered in particular depth. Also considered are the factors that drive environmental change and the contribution at local and government level to national and international wildlife conservation. Essential reading for anyone who is interested in, and concerned about, UK wildlife.

Danielle Washington has experienced one of the greatest losses in life. And the last three words she says to her mother are the final ones she speaks aloud. Stuck in grief, Danielle and her brother go to spend a summer with their grandmother in Calm Beach. Trevor Williams plans on enjoying the summer before college with no attachments … until he literally runs into Danielle. He quickly learns that she doesn’t speak, and they find other ways to communicate. The more he discovers about her, the more his feelings grow for her as he realizes that she’s unlike any other girl he’s ever known. But can their newfound relationship survive the silent summer?

City girl hates the cottage. But she hasn’t tried the pie yet. Minnow is bitter, because she's spending the summer with elderly relatives in the middle of nowhere. As the season progresses, however, she learns to appreciate the loons, the lake, and the wisdom of her three quirky cabinmates. Will Minnow swim all the way to Picnic Island, or will she give up before achieving her goal? What is the reason for her great-aunt’s silence? And why did her neighbor’s house catch on fire? During her stay, Minnow performs rowboat ballet, meets a boisterous friend her own age, and contemplates life from a boulder she calls her own. Change is happening on Birch Lake, and some people aren’t ready for it. "The Summer of the Purple Paddle was both a sad and lovely summer, but it was more lovely than sad." A cherished classic, this second edition of That Silent Summer—first published in 1999 by Scholastic Canada—is sure to delight a new generation of middle-grade readers. If you like books with endearing characters and a nostalgic feel, you’ll love Elaine Medline’s poignant multigenerational novel. "This is a thoughtful, sweet summer story. . . The beauties of the natural world and of family affection shine through the doom of development and loss, and human eccentricity is quietly celebrated." A Guide to Canadian Children's Books ". . . quirky, engaging, lovely. . . Medline has the knack of sparking interest with oblique but loaded comments, giving perspective not just on the maturing Minnow, but also on the narrator herself, who learns and grows as much as Minnow over the course of the summer." Toronto Star ". . . a compelling tale. . ." Ottawa Citizen

When no one listens, what's the point of talking?Kyle McGinley doesn't say a word. Fed up with being shuttled from one foster care home to another, he has stopped speaking. But at the home of Scott and Jill Wardman, with the help of a crow, and a swamp, and an excess of blank paint, he begins to think that maybe, just maybe, life could be better.As long as his frigging dad doesn't mess things up.

That Silent Summer is a warmhearted middle-grade book set in a season of discovery, friends and family.

People are born in one place. Traditionally humans move around more than other animals, but in modernity the global mobility of persons and the factors of production increasingly disrupts the sense of place that is an intrinsic part of the human experience of being on earth. Industrial development and fossil fuelled mobility negatively impact the sense of place and help to foster a culture of placelessness where buildings, fields and houses increasingly display a monotonous aesthetic. At the same time ecological habitats, and diverse communities of species are degraded. Romantic resistance to the industrial evisceration of place and ecological diversity involved the setting aside of scenic or sublime landscapes as wilderness areas or parks. However the implication of this project is that human dwelling and ecological sustainability are intrinsically at odds. In this collection of essays Michael Northcott argues that the sense of the sacred which emanates from local communities of faith sustained a 'parochial ecology' which, over the centuries, shaped communities that were more socially just and ecologically sustainable than the kinds of exchange relationships and settlement patterns fostered by a global and place-blind economy. Hence Christian communities in medieval Europe fostered the distributed use and intergenerational care of common resources, such as alpine meadows, forests or river catchments. But contemporary political economists neglect the role of boundaried places, and spatial limits, in the welfare of human and ecological communities. Northcott argues that place-based forms of community, dwelling and exchange – such as a local food economy – more closely resemble evolved commons governance arrangements, and facilitate the revival of a sense of neighbourhood, and of reconnection between persons and the ecological places in which they dwell.