The Humane Gardener


Book Description

In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.




Mother Nature Is Trying to Kill You


Book Description

A fun exploration of the darker side of the natural world reveals the fascinating, weird, often perverted ways that Mother Nature fends only for herself. It may be a wonderful world, but as Dan Riskin (cohost of Discovery Canada’s Daily Planet) explains, it’s also a dangerous, disturbing, and disgusting one. At every turn, it seems, living things are trying to eat us, poison us, use our bodies as their homes, or have us spread their eggs. In Mother Nature Is Trying to Kill You, Riskin is our guide through the natural world at its most gloriously ruthless. Using the seven deadly sins as a road map, Riskin offers dozens of jaw-dropping examples that illuminate how brutal nature can truly be. From slothful worms that hide in your body for up to thirty years to wrathful snails with poisonous harpoons that can kill you in less than five minutes to lustful ducks that have orgasms faster than you can blink, these fascinating accounts reveal the candid truth about “gentle” Mother Nature’s true colors. Riskin’s passion for the strange and his enthusiastic expertise bring Earth’s most fascinating flora and fauna into vivid focus. Through his adventures— which include sliding on his back through a thick soup of bat guano just to get face-to-face with a vampire bat, befriending a parasitic maggot that has taken root on his head, and coming to grips with having offspring of his own—Riskin makes unexpected discoveries not just about the world all around us but also about the ways this brutal world has shaped us as humans and what our responsibilities are to this terrible, wonderful planet we call home.




Earth Mother


Book Description

Portrays a day in the life of Earth Mother who, as she tends plants and animals around the world, meets three of her creations with advice on how to make the world more perfect.




Experiencing Nature with Young Children


Book Description

Connecting Children to the Wonder of Nature There's a whole world outdoors waiting to embrace young children--with their curiosity, imagination, and enthusiasm--and to impart its treasures. Experiencing Nature With Young Children invites you to explore this world with children from birth to age 8 in ways that will - Awaken their enjoyment and appreciation of nature - Nurture their emotional development - Enhance their cognitive growth - Spark their creativity - Help them discover how we all--people, animals, plants--are connected - Engage families and communities in preserving nature Along the way, children will learn to love nature and its inhabitants. And in learning to love, they will learn to care--helping to ensure that our natural environment will be well looked-after by the next generation. Part ballad to nature, part irresistible invitation to teachers, this book will awaken and renew your own joy in nature--and move you to experience it with young children.




Bringing Nature Home


Book Description

“With the twinned calamities of climate change and mass extinction weighing heavier and heavier on my nature-besotted soul, here were concrete, affordable actions that I could take, that anyone could take, to help our wild neighbors thrive in the built human environment. And it all starts with nothing more than a seed. Bringing Nature Home is a miracle: a book that summons butterflies." —Margaret Renkl, The Washington Post As development and habitat destruction accelerate, there are increasing pressures on wildlife populations. In his groundbreaking book Bringing Nature Home, Douglas W. Tallamy reveals the unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife—native insects cannot, or will not, eat alien plants. When native plants disappear, the insects disappear, impoverishing the food source for birds and other animals. Luckily, there is an important and simple step we can all take to help reverse this alarming trend: everyone with access to a patch of earth can make a significant contribution toward sustaining biodiversity by simply choosing native plants. By acting on Douglas Tallamy's practical and achievable recommendations, we can all make a difference.




The Kitchen Pantry Scientist Ecology for Kids


Book Description

The Kitchen Pantry Scientist: Ecology for Kids features biographies of 25 leading ecologists, past and present, accompanied by accessible and engaging experiments and activities to bring the history and principles of ecology alive.




The Mishomis Book


Book Description

For young readers, the collected wisdom and traditions of Ojibway elders.




Earth's Changing Environment


Book Description

Give your students, librarians, and teachers accurate and reliable information on climate change with Earth's Changing Environment. Written for ages 10 to 17, this comprehensive look at the environment focuses on climate, greehouse effect, global warming, and the Kyoto Protocol while exploring the delicate web of life with articles on ecology, biogeography, biodiversity, endangered species, deforestation and desertification. The effects fo environmental pollution and efforts to protect the environment and to convserve its resources are also addressed.




Ecological Messages in Indian Children’s Literature


Book Description

ECOLOGICAL MESSAGES IN INDIAN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE:CONVERSATIONS WITH THE CREATORS -----Dr.Shobha Ramaswamy Indian writing in English for children and young adults has come of age, with a plethora of talented and dedicated writers contributing their creative efforts towards the growth of this new field. The book is based on the author’s interviews with the creators of English-language fiction for the young in India. Specially selected are those who have a deep love for nature. Writers, illustrators, publishers, editors and also environmentalists have been interviewed. The University Grants Commission, New Delhi’s grant of a Major Research Project to the author made these interviews possible. The galaxy of those interviewed include: Meeting the Authors • Nilma Sinha • Ira Saxena • Shamim Padamsee • Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan • Benita Sen • Deepak Dalal • Zai Whitaker • Ranjit Lal • Leela Gour Broome • Sreekumar Varma • Sandhya Rao • Dr.Graeme Macqueen • Ken Spillman • Anushka Ravishankar • Asha Nehemiah • Harini Gopanswami Srinivasan • Radha H.S. • Sowmya Rajendran • Niveditha Subramaniam • D.Ronald Hadrian Views of the Illustrators • Ashok Rajagopalan • Maya Ramaswamy • Priya Kuriyan • Januka Deshpande What the Editors and Publishers Have to Say • Himanshi Sharma, TERI Books, New Delhi • Maegan ,Tara Publishers,Chennai • Mala Kumar, Pratham Books, Bangalore • Saraswathy Rajagopalan, Mango Books, Kochi • Shobha Viswanath,Karadi Tales,Chennai • Mini Krishnan, Editor ,OUP,Chennai. • Sandhya Rao,author and former editor, Tulika,Chennai) Some Suggestions from Environmentalists • Payal B.Molur (Author and Wildlife Educator) ‘OSAI’ Kalidas, Conservat




Rocky Mountains Plants and Animals


Book Description

Nature lovers, environmentalists, and coloring book fans alike will delight in these lifelike pictures of plants and animals that inhabit the Rocky Mountain region of North America. Twenty-seven illustrations accurately depict detailed images of a hawk circling high, a puma watching its cubs, a chipmunk sampling pine nuts, and other scenes.