The Twelve Birds Of Christmas

Naturalist Stephen Moss digs beneath the surface of some of our most popular Christmas carols in an ornithological celebration of the Festive Season. Using the structure of the carol as a jumping off point, he explores the place of twelve fascinating British birds in our history, culture and landscape. Some of the birds are obvious, there's the swan and of course the partridge. Other chapters are loose interpretations of a verse: for drummers drumming he delves into the woodpecker's distinctive drumming tap. Woodpeckers, he explains, have special padded skulls to mitigate against using its head like hammer drills. They carefully select dead trees for the most hollow, sonorous sound. With brilliant anecdotes and insights, Stephen Moss weaves history, culture, bird behaviour and folklore into a compelling narrative for each species, tracing its fortunes over the past two centuries. 'A superb naturalist and writer' Chris Packham 'Moss has carved out an enviable niche as a chronicler of the natural world' Daily Mail

Celebrate the season with 12 carol-inspired crochet patterns in this festive addition to the Edward's Menagerie series. For this cheerful collection of projects, Kerry Lord takes inspiration from beloved Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas." You'll crochet your way through each verse to create a flock of feathered friends, including a hen, a goose, and of course, a partridge. Beginner-friendly tutorials will help you pick up the essential techniques in a snap, while whimsical character bios for each personality-packed bird will make you chuckle. Your finished creations will be a winning addition to any Christmas tree and are sure to delight anyone who finds them in a stocking. All patterns are written with US crochet terms.

Celebrate Christmas with Elmo--and this new board book format with a cool die-cut in the cover! In this hilarious Sesame Street version of "The 12 Days of Christmas," Elmo and friends celebrate the holidays as only they can! Young children will get a kick out of counting to 12, both forward and back, as they sing about three French friends, two yummy cookies, and a red monster up in a tree.This new board book edition has sturdy pages and a diecut in the cover showcasing everyone's favorite red monster, Elmo. Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, aims to help kids grow smarter, stronger, and kinder through its many unique domestic and international initiatives. These projects cover a wide array of topics for families around the world.

The cast of Donna Andrews’ New York Times bestselling Meg Langslow mystery series is back for an unforgettable holiday story in The Twelve Jays of Christmas. Meg and Michael’s annual holiday celebration is well underway, with a throng of out-of-town relatives staying at their house. Hosting these festivities is a little harder than usual—they have to relocate all the events normally held in their library, currently occupied by Roderick Castlemayne, the irascible wildlife artist who’s creating twelve paintings of birds to illustrate Meg’s grandfather’s latest nature book. Still, the celebrations continue—and the entire family rejoices to learn that Meg’s brother Rob and his longtime fiancée Delaney have finally decided to tie the knot. Unfortunately, they decide to do this in the middle of Meg and Michael’s annual New Year’s bash, dashing their mothers’ hopes of planning the wedding to end all weddings. Delaney’s mother sneaks into town so she and Meg’s mother can secretly plot a way to talk the happy couple into having a big bash. Hiding her only adds to Meg’s holiday stress—it’s almost a full-time job fending all the visitors who want to confront Castlemayne—reporters, bill collectors, process servers, and several ex-wives in search of unpaid alimony. Then someone murders Castlemayne in the middle of a blizzard and sets loose the birds he was painting. Can Meg help the police crack the case before the killer strikes again? Can she keep Christmas merry in spite of the body in the library? Can she negotiate a compromise between Rob and Delaney and their disappointed mothers? And can she recapture the twelve escaped jays before they begin nesting in the Christmas tree? This intrigue-filled Christmas mystery takes readers home to Caerphilly to join in Meg's family's holiday celebration—including, of course, another baffling mystery.

A centuries-old favorite holiday carol, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was one of the first to celebrate the secular tradition of gift-giving. This sumptuously illustrated version features not only the gifts of a suitor to his true love but a loving family's Christmas preparations, how to say "Merry Christmas" in 12 different language, and a vast array of charming woodland animals.

Acclaimed naturalist and birdwatcher Stephen Moss brings us this year's perfect Christmas gift: a year in the life of Britain's favourite bird - the robin. In The Robin Moss records a year of observing the robin both close to home and in the field to shed light on the hidden life of this apparently familiar bird. We follow its lifecycle from the time it enters the world as an egg, through its time as a nestling and juvenile, to the adult bird; via courtship, song, breeding, feeding, migration - and ultimately, death. At the same time, we trace the robin's relationship with us: how did this bird - one of more than 300 species in its huge and diverse family - find its way so deeply and permanently into our nation's heart and its social and cultural history? It's a story that tells us as much about ourselves as it does about the robin itself. No other bird is quite so ever-present and familiar, so embedded in our culture, as the robin. But how much do we really know about this bird? 'There is no doubt that Moss's book, with its charming cover and quaint illustrations, will make it into many a stocking this year' The Times

"Celebrate the magic of Christmas time with this well-loved traditional poem, The Twelve Days of Christmas, beautifully illustrated by Laura Hawthorne."--Provided by publisher.

A very special book which captures the true spirit of the Yultide season through the enchanting images of photographer Anne Geddes.