The Spangled Drongo


Book Description

Eleven-year-old Sam has soccer fever. He lives with his eccentric Aunt Amshara and Ronaldo the dog. His best friend is Goose, captain of the local team . . . that is, until soccer-mad Jessica moves in next door. Sam soon discovers there's more to life than scoring goals and chasing a ball . . . An award-winning comic verse novel of friendship, resilience and letting go of the past.




Disguising Demons


Book Description

An Agatha Christie style murder mystery set in Australia. The dead body of a gentle monk is found at the bottom of a cliff. Four months later, the killer is still at large. Dusty Kent, investigative journalist renowned for her ability to solve cold cases, is called in. Who want to kill such a gentle soul? Is the killer a fellow monk with psychopathic traits? Had small town prejudice against the community of monks manifested into violent hatred? Dusty must uproot secrets and unearth motives in her quest to exhume the truth. Disguising Demons is the fourth book in the Dusty Kent Murder Mystery series.




Atlas of Amazing Birds


Book Description

'No budding ornithologist should be without Matt Sewell's Atlas of Amazing Birds... sumptuous illustrations and brief captions tell us all we need to know.' The Telegraph Matt Sewell, creator of Our Garden Birds, presents his personal selection of the most amazing birds from around the world, with dazzling watercolour illustrations, witty and informative descriptions and maps of every continent. Did you know that the bald eagle holds the record for the world's biggest nest - weighing more than two tons? When the elf owl gets into trouble, it plays dead rather than fighting? The Adelie penguin can hold its breath for six minutes and leap up to three metres out of the water? Discover these and many more fascinating facts in this fabulous and beautiful book. Every bird chosen to appear in this book is amazing in its own individual way - birds that migrate thousands of miles, have strange and showy mating rituals, survive in extreme environments, are brilliant builders, are super-fast, super-brave or super-big! Sections on each continent - Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia, North America, South America and Antarctica - include maps to pore over. Travel the world to see magnificent eagles, resilient penguins, tiny hummingbirds, towering ostriches, stunning peacocks and many more. Colourful, clever, song-filled, strange and stunning - this book is a celebration of bird life!




Birds of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos


Book Description

An authoritative pocket guide to the birds of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are becoming increasingly popular with all kinds of visitors, not least birdwatchers, who can visit many national parks and reserves harbouring a bounty of amazing species. The three countries are home to about 1,000 species of birds including such rarities as Bengal Florican, Giant Ibis, Green Peafowl and Vietnamese Cutia. This concise and easy-to-use guide features 252 of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia's most interesting and spectacular birds, each illustrated in full colour with key information on ID, habitat and distribution. Illustrated with clear colour photography and brief but authoritative descriptions the Pocket Photo Guides highlight the species of birds and animals from each region that the traveller is most likely to see, as well as those that are genuinely endemic (only to be seen in that country or region) or special rarities. The genuine pocket size allow the books to be carried around on trips and excursions and will take up minimal rucksack and suitcase space.




The Birds World


Book Description

Birds are among the most extensively studied of all animal groups. Hundreds of academic journals and thousands of scientists are devoted to bird research, while amateur enthusiasts (called birdwatchers or, more commonly, birders) probably number in the millions. Birds are categorised as a biological class, Aves. The earliest known species of this class is Archaeopteryx lithographica, from the Late Jurassic period. According to the most recent consensus, Aves and a sister group, the order Crocodilia, together form a group of unnamed rank, the Archosauria. Phylogenetically, Aves is usually defined as all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of modern birds (or of a specific modern bird species like Passer domesticus), and Archaeopteryx. Modern phylogenies place birds in the dinosaur clade Theropoda. Modern birds are divided into two superorders, the Paleognathae (mostly flightless birds like ostriches), and the wildly diverse Neognathae, containing all other birds.




The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English


Book Description

Reviews of the two-volume New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2005: The king is dead. Long live the king! The old Partridge is not really dead; it remains the best record of British slang antedating 1945 Now, however, the preferred source for information about English slang of the past 60 years is the New Partridge. James Rettig, Booklist, American Library Association Most slang dictionaries are no better than momgrams or a rub of the brush, put together by shmegegges looking to make some moola. The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, on the other hand, is the wee babes. Ian Sansom, The Guardian The Concise New Partridge presents, for the first time, all the slang terms from the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English in a single volume. With over 60,000 entries from around the English-speaking world, the Concise gives you the language of beats, hipsters, Teddy Boys, mods and rockers, hippies, pimps, druggies, whores, punks, skinheads, ravers, surfers, Valley girls, dudes, pill-popping truck drivers, hackers, rappers and more. The Concise New Partridge is a spectacular resource infused with humour and learning its rude, its delightful, and its a prize for anyone with a love of language.




A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines


Book Description

'... it is hoped that this book will 'Kick-start' interest in the Philippine's birds, both at home and abroad, before it is too late' Birding World