The Seagull And The Sea Captain

From New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award Nominee Sy Montgomery comes the sweet, brightly illustrated true story of a seagull and a sea captain who became friends over the course of four summers. In a quiet harbor in New England, a sea captain named Ellis is visited by a seagull that lands on the back of his family’s passenger schooner one afternoon. Ellis feeds the seagull, and by the end of the week, it was eating crackers right out of his hand! Their friendship lasted the summer, and four years later, the wild seagull Polly still visits. This nonfiction story about an unlikely friendship is sure to charm young readers.

FROM HOLLYWOOD TO THE HIGH SEAS A chance encounter in Los Angeles airport with a Swedish Sea Captain and Jill left the movie business and was swept out to sea. From the glamour of Hollywood to life on board a rough cargo ship to playing Mother Goose on a remote Scottish farm, TRAVELS WITH MY SEA CAPTAIN is full of stories about the Captain and his international crew of characters, the many ports as Jill found herself travelling all over the world, life in the glen and how love can really change everything. REVIEWS: Travels With My Sea Captain by Jill Vedebrand A warm, humorous account of one woman's tempestuous affair and marriage to a fiery Swedish sea captain. After meeting by chance in Los Angeles airport, Jill and Tomas fell in love and she decided to join him on some of his voyages to exotic locations including Japan, Singapore, Cuba, South America, India and Russia. There is no shortage of drama as she paints a vivid picture of months spent aboard a ship where she was often the only female. At times resented by the crew, she also often adopted the role of agony aunt and compassionately recounts the hardship endured by men who can spend several years away from their families. There are stories of drunken cooks, surly engineers, brutal fights, macho wrestling competitions, and frantic shore searches for men who had gone missing in the local brothels. The physical aspect of being on board ship also poses problems as she struggles to adapt to the confined spaces, isolation of the open ocean and the violent weather they encounter. The often stunning and sometimes frightening places she visited during her time at sea are colourfully portrayed and she has a knack for bringing to life the sights, smells and atmosphere. Intertwined with the tales of her sea voyages are stories of Jill and Tomas' home life in rural Scotland. They buy a farm and there are accounts of their battles to restore the property and about their menagerie of ducks and pets. In these parts the story reminded me a little of James Herriot or Lillian Beckwith's stories about life in the Hebrides and I think it would have great appeal to these markets. Part travelogue, part humorous account of life in the wilds of Scotland, this is an engaging, romantic, very human story. SENIOR EDITOR

In Bello Yellow's Amazing Surprise, Barbara Kathleen Welch shares a delightful story of a motorboat who comes to accept herself as she is through the kindness of her friends, Mr. Lobsterine and Mrs. Sailentail. When a captain and his wife come to the harbor to buy a boat, all of the sailboats flaunt their assets. Bello Yellow is sure she can't impress the couple with her small boat. But Bello Yellow will soon realize that her uniqueness may be just what one couple needs. Inspire children to believe in themselves in Bello Yellow's Amazing Surprise.

Get to know all the fantastic minifigures who populate the LEGO world, including the LEGO Movie characters in the LEGO Minifigures Character Encyclopedia: LEGO Movie Edition. Go on the ultimate LEGO adventure and meet every single LEGO Minifigure character, from the Punk Rocker and Lawn Gnome to the DJ and Pirate Captain, plus the exciting new characters from The LEGO Movie, scheduled for release in February 2014. Inside you'll find character biographies and fun LEGO facts, not to mention information on each Minifigures' personality, its likes and dislikes, and real-world information behind its creation. Enhanced with fun animations to bring readers closer than ever to the LEGO Minifigures world, the LEGO Minifigures Character Encyclopedia: LEGO Movie Edition is a must-have for any LEGO fan.

While most continents float freely on the face of Mother Sea, the Land of Dhrall survives anchored by the will of the Gods. All Gods, Elder and Younger, share the people and the land of Dhrall equally. But the one place they never enter is The Wasteland: a barren and hideous wilderness ruled by the Vlagh--a god-like creature whose young are evil spawn. Now, as the Elder Gods are about to transfer their power to the Younger Gods, the Vlagh plans to take advantage of their weakened state and neutralize them, eventually conquering the world. To do so, it is breeding a terrible force borne of monsters and demons. But one ray of hope shines through the darkness: four children called the Dreamers. They alone hold the power to change the course of history...and stop the Vlagh in its quest for total world domination.

Allegory about a sea gull who seeks to attain perfect flight. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

BOLT FROM THE BLUE: This is it! Captain Cat and the Umbrella Kid’s most Cataclysmic Caper yet!! The Sinister Snowman escapes from Hammerstein Prison*but that’s only the beginning. The giant washing-machine of Maxburg is the first of the world’s great monuments to be vaporised by an energy beam from space. Who is the Menacing Mastermind behind this outrage? Could it be international crime syndicate FFANG? To solve the mystery, the Tremendous Two will have to travel to Egypt to prevent the Sphinx from being zapped, break into a maximum security girls’ school, don disguises to check into a gangster-packed hotel and, finally, come face to face with their most Fiendish Foe yet * the diabolical Big Boss of FFANG! DAY OF THE DINOSAURS: Monumental Studios want Captain Cat!! * to star in their latest movie extravaganza about rampaging dinosaurs. The Umbrella Kid is keen*until he discovers his part is to be played by obnoxious child star Tom Timm. But Captain Cat has no time for such frivolities. The prized teddy bear belonging to Theodore Thursday, the Brekkie-Bikks billionaire, has been kidnapped by the terrible, terrible Toymaker! And that’s not all. Pterodactyls are attacking Aunt Titania’s washing-line, plesiosaurs are cavorting in park ponds, and Tyrannosaurs are striding down free-ways! Monumental Studio’s life-sized robot dinosaurs are out of control. A mechanical fault? Or can the Toymaker be playing a duplicitous double-game? Whatever the reason, the Day of the Dinosaurs is going to be a very long day!

An old man nearly chokes to death after stuffing dandelion heads into his mouth. A pregnant cow repeatedly runs headlong into a fence post. Oscar Basaran investigates a series of strange events on the Kidney Island. “From its highly original premise to its deliciously isolated setting, Gregory Bastianelli’s SHADOW FLICKER hooked me and kept me squirming until the very last page. An entertaining and emotional read. I had a blast!” — Jonathan Janz, Author of THE SIREN AND THE SPECTER and THE RAVEN Investigator Oscar Basaran travels to Kidney Island off the coast of Maine to document the negative effects of shadow flicker from wind turbines on residents living near the windmills, but is unprepared for what he encounters from the islanders. Oscar’s research shows that sleep deprivation, light deficiency and ringing headaches brought on by the noise and constant strobe-like effect of the sun filtered through the spinning blades of the turbines brings on hallucinatory episodes for the closest neighbors to the machines. Melody Larson’s elderly father nearly chokes to death after stuffing dandelion heads into his mouth. The Granberrys' pregnant cow repeatedly runs headlong into a fence post. Tatum Gallagher mourns her young son who vanished more than a year ago, presumed swept out to sea by a wave while fishing on the rocky shore, but several people claim to see him appear only in the glimmer of the shadow flicker. Aerosource, the energy corporation that owns the turbines, hired Oscar to investigate the neighbors’ claims, but the insurance agent shows no allegiance to the conglomerate, especially after learning a previous employee sent to the island a year before has disappeared without a trace. When Oscar meets former island school science teacher Norris Squires, fired for teaching his students about the harmful effects of shadow flicker, he learns a theory regarding Aerosource that sounds too preposterous to believe. While it seems the shadow flicker effect has driven some of the island’s animals crazy, is it possible it’s caused an even worse mental breakdown among the human inhabitants? Or is something more nefarious at work on the island? As Oscar’s investigation deepens, he discovers the turbines create an unexpected phenomena kept secret by a select group of people on Kidney Island who have made a scientific breakthrough and attempt to harness its dark power. FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.