Silent Swoop

An owl swoops down to lay her egg in a coal yard a dangerous spot for a fragile egg! Rescued by Walter, a bird expert with a big heart and a warm shirt pocket, the egg miraculously hatches and is aptly named Coal. Thus begins a tender story of rescue, rehabilitation, and most of all, friendship. After meticulously researching the facts, Michelle Houts tells Coal's story with warmth and humor. The connections between Coal and the people whose lives he touches are captured by Deb Hoeffner's illustrations, done in her unique style of soft realism. "Explore More for Kids" answers children's questions with facts and photos of Great Horned Owls and Walter Crawford "The Man Who Saved Coal." Parents and teachers will appreciate literacy connections and STEM activities that extend the learning of the story.

Often translated as "A Nest of Gentlefolk", "Home of the Gentry", "Liza" or "Nobel Nest" (Дворянское гнездо in Russian), Home of the Gentry was written between 1856-1858. This novel portrays the struggle of the protagonist, Lavretsky, who returns to Russia after a failed marriage to find new love, only to be confronted by the past. This is a new 2023 translation from the original Russian manuscript with a new Afterword by the Translator, a glossary of Turgenev's philosophic terms, and a timeline of his life and major contributions.

Currently, space flight is a reality restricted to just a few hand-chosen persons participating in government programs around the world. Thanks to companies like Virgin Galactic, space travel will become available to the public in the near future, provided one has enough money to pay for the trip. In the meantime, you are invited to join in these imaginary explorations. This verse master meets intelligent alien life in space amid lessons of mind0traveling wisdom, interjects a vortex of humor, and is content to exist in an unparalleled acceptance of true destiny within each phrase within her interstellar wit. She plots the excitement of bending space, shaking hands with aliens, and coexisting in a nebula of stars. She hopes these poems offer a unique perspective of insight, which allows the readers to tag along for the ride as though it were their own. After all, its no fun to travel alone!

Elizabeth Greenwood studied sculpture at St. Martins School of Art, and in Florence and Rome. She had a classical education, preferring Greek to Latin for the richness of its vocabulary and her sculpture with its reference to Greek mythology reflects this predilection; she is also a dedicated writer. Apart from poetry, she enjoys producing emblematic fiction based on Mary Poppins philosophical song a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, thus fulfilling the writers task as entertainer cum moralist, Both creative activities date from early childhood. Although they were largely ignored, she was fortunate in having been born into a family where close relatives had universal minds, uniting a passion for Literature with a keen interest in Politics, the Cinema and Science, especially Space Science. Officially, she began her writing career by producing educational scripts for the BBC World Wide Services which taught her the invaluable benefit of dedicated researching. In later years, to counteract a tendency to create works of the imagination, she has applied herself to the discipline of academic work in the field of biblical studies with particular regard to the Dead Sea discoveries, now well-documented, which give insights into the rise of Christianity. Her particular interest in Sherlock Holmes as an innovative detective relates to his having been born in America in a play on Broadway where it was an immediate success, with a famous actor in the lead while Conan Doyle, the British creator of Sherlock Holmes, was serving with the Friends Ambulance Service as a volunteer front-line surgeon during the Boer war in South Africa.

11th century, Bilad al-Maghrib, the Land of the Setting Sun. Located between Europe to the North, and Bilad al-Sudan, the Land of the Blacks, to the South. The powerful force of religion takes hold in Yahya ibn Ibrahim, returning from the Mecca with the dervish Abdallah ibn Yassin. Together, they start their freligious movement, with little success. After a retreat in a ribat on the Atlantic island of Tidra, they emerged in History at the forefront of the al-Murabitun movement, Those of the Convent. Their struggles will soon be known to the christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, which will know them as the Almoravids. The slave trade, old as humanity, is its economic pillar. By controlling the strategic african cities of Sijilmassah in the North, and Audaghost in the Sahel, they can fully dedicate themselves to Bilad al-Maghrib. In the middle, the Sahara desert. Its ruthless geography imposes its laws, and entire caravans, with thousands of people, disappear victims of its extreme climatology. But even in some of these areas, the human species is able to survive. These tribes, known in modern times as the Tuareg, played a key role as guides for the caravans. Without them, the crossing of the Sahara was simply impossible. With exceptions, for the he people who became slaves and survived the crossing of the Sahara dessert, their life cycle was impregnated with their social status, inferior to that of the people on the places where they end up living.