Once Upon a River


Book Description

From the instant #1 New York Times bestselling author of the “eerie and fascinating” (USA TODAY) The Thirteenth Tale comes a “swift and entrancing, profound and beautiful” (Madeline Miller, internationally bestselling author of Circe) novel about how we explain the world to ourselves, ourselves to others, and the meaning of our lives in a universe that remains impenetrably mysterious. On a dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours, when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed. Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens. The child herself is mute and unable to answer the essential questions: Who is she? Where did she come from? And to whom does she belong? But answers proliferate nonetheless. Three families are keen to claim her. A wealthy young mother knows the girl is her kidnapped daughter, missing for two years. A farming family reeling from the discovery of their son’s secret liaison stand ready to welcome their granddaughter. The parson’s housekeeper, humble and isolated, sees in the child the image of her younger sister. But the return of a lost child is not without complications and no matter how heartbreaking the past losses, no matter how precious the child herself, this girl cannot be everyone’s. Each family has mysteries of its own, and many secrets must be revealed before the girl’s identity can be known. Once Upon a River is a glorious tapestry of a book that combines folklore and science, magic and myth. Suspenseful, romantic, and richly atmospheric, this is “a beguiling tale, full of twists and turns like the river at its heart, and just as rich and intriguing” (M.L. Stedman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Light Between Oceans).




Once a River


Book Description

Like many rivers of the arid Southwest, the Gila is for much of its length a dry bed except after seasonal rains. Yet a mere century ago it hosted a thriving biological community, and two centuries ago American Indians fished from its banks. It is no mystery how the desert swallowed up the Gila. Beaver trapping, overgrazing, and woodcutting first ruined natural watersheds, then damming confined the last drops of its surface flow. Historical sources and archaeological data inform us of the Gila's past, but its bird life further testifies to the changes. Amadeo Rea traces the decline of bird life on the Middle Gila in a book that addresses the broader issue of habitat deterioration. Bird lovers will find it a storehouse of data on avian migration patterns and on ornithological classification based on skeletal structure. Anthropologists can draw on its Piman ethnoclassification of birds, which links the Gila River tribe with various other Uto-Aztecan peoples of Mexico's west coast. But for all concerned with protecting our environment, Once a River offers evidence of change that might be apprehended elsewhere. It is a case history of a loss that perhaps need never have occurred.




Once Upon a River: A Novel


Book Description

"A demonstration of outstanding skills on the river of American literature." —Entertainment Weekly Bonnie Jo Campbell has created an unforgettable heroine in sixteen-year-old Margo Crane, a beauty whose unflinching gaze and uncanny ability with a rifle have not made her life any easier. After the violent death of her father, Margo takes to the river in search of her mother with only a biography of Annie Oakley to her name. Her river odyssey through rural Michigan becomes a defining journey, one that leads her beyond self-preservation and to deciding what price she is willing to pay for her choices.




One River


Book Description

The story of two generations of scientific explorers in South America—Richard Evans Schultes and his protégé Wade Davis—an epic tale of adventure and a compelling work of natural history. In 1941, Professor Richard Evan Schultes took a leave from Harvard and disappeared into the Amazon, where he spent the next twelve years mapping uncharted rivers and living among dozens of Indian tribes. In the 1970s, he sent two prize students, Tim Plowman and Wade Davis, to follow in his footsteps and unveil the botanical secrets of coca, the notorious source of cocaine, a sacred plant known to the Inca as the Divine Leaf of Immortality. A stunning account of adventure and discovery, betrayal and destruction, One River is a story of two generations of explorers drawn together by the transcendent knowledge of Indian peoples, the visionary realms of the shaman, and the extraordinary plants that sustain all life in a forest that once stood immense and inviolable.




Bellman & Black


Book Description

Killing a bird with his slingshot as a boy, William Bellman grows up a wealthy family man unaware of how his act of childhood cruelty will have terrible consequences until a wrenching tragedy compels him to enter into a macabre bargain with a stranger in black.




Over in a River


Book Description

Learning becomes fun for everyone in this book about the geography of north American rivers and about the animals that live in this habitat. The amazing artwork in this book will inspire kids in classrooms and at home to appreciate the world around us! The great rivers of North America are teeming with life and on the pages of Over in a River—from blue herons in the Hudson to salmon in the Columbia, and from dragonflies in the Rio Grande to mallards in the St. Lawrence. Children will "slither" like water snakes and "slide" like otters while singing to the tune of "Over in a Meadow." Read about the snake, beaver, frog, otter, dragonfly, and more that lives along the rivers! Kids love counting books, too! What a delightful way to learn about riparian habitats and geography at the same time! Backmatter Includes: Further information about rivers and the animals in this book! Music and song lyrics to "Over in the River" sung to the tune "Over in the Meadow"!




What Is a River?


Book Description

A river is a thread, embroidering our world. This non-fiction picture book brings attention to the rivers that stitch and thread our world together.




After the River the Sun


Book Description

Will Eckhart find the courage to rise from his past—and climb to his future? This quest for home is a stunning companion to Eva of the Farm. When Eckhart Lyon arrives at Sunrise Orchard, all he wants to do is play video games and read about King Arthur’s knights. Anything that helps him forget that his parents drowned in a river, forget his own cowardliness. Eckhart doesn’t want to clear the dead orchard, or explore the canyon, or do anything else that stern Uncle Al asks. After all, Uncle Al is only taking him in on trial, and Eckhart can’t imagine the orchard ever becoming his real home. Then, up in the canyon, he meets Eva—a girl with a wild imagination and boundless hope who knows all about King Arthur’s knights. With her help, Eckhart sees that he is on a knightly quest of his own: a quest for home and courage. But what if he’s forced to choose between a new home and his most treasured possession—a gift from his mom? In this companion to Eva of the Farm, author Dia Calhoun shows that with friendship, determination, and the grace of nature, we can overcome tragedy and rise toward the sun.




After River


Book Description

He will change their lives forever. . . . At fifteen, Natalie Ward believes her life is perfect. Growing up on a dairy farm in the mountains of British Columbia less than two miles from the American border, she knows little of the outside world. But she knows family. A family so close and loving that they are the envy of the nearby town of Atwood. Friends and neighbors, young and old alike, show up regularly on their farmhouse porch—all willing to share in the never-ending daily chores in exchange for a place at the Ward family table. Natalie cherishes her position as the only daughter of the beautiful Nettie Ward—the pride of the Catholic Ladies Auxiliary—and the town's milkman, Gus Ward—the darling of Atwood housewives. She adores her three brothers, especially the eldest, Boyer, whom she idolizes with a childlike worship. Like her mother, Natalie believes their lives are blessed, as rich and as sweet as the fresh milk that is their livelihood. Everything changes one hot July afternoon in 1966 when a long-haired stranger walks up the winding dirt road to their door. The arrival of this soft-spoken American, a Vietnam War resister, will test the morals and beliefs of the Ward family and their close-knit community. The catastrophic events that are set in motion will leave relationships shattered and Natalie separated from the family she loves in ways that she could never have imagined. Thirty-five years later, Natalie receives a late-night phone call from her now-estranged brother Boyer. Their mother is dying. Torn between the love of her mother and the fear of the past, Natalie returns to the town she has spent her entire adult life avoiding. As she travels back to her childhood home she steels herself against the bittersweet memories of that summer day in 1966 and the tragedy that followed. But before Natalie can find redemption, she must confront the secrets and horrors of a past she has desperately tried to forget.




Once on this River


Book Description

It is 1760. Monday de Groot and her mother, Lesley, a midwife, sail from their home in Madagascar to New York, to testify on behalf of Lesley's brother Frederick, who has been falsely imprisoned and taken as a slave. Because Lesley has the only papers to prove that Frederick is in fact a free black man, she risks the journey despite its danger for Monday--the potential discovery of the secret of her "own birth. While in New York, Monday meets a brother she never knew she had and learns the truth of her heritage. She is" not a free African child, as she's always believed, but a child of slaves. The effects of this revelation are astonishing, as Monday comes to grips with her identity and meets her birth mother. Based on historical documents from the 1800s, this compelling story and its remarkable characters will live on in the readers' memory long after the book has been closed.