Island Birthday


Book Description

*2016 Maine Lupine Award Winner* Riley’s birthday is coming, but the mail plane with his gifts from the mainland hasn’t been able to get to the island for days because of bad weather. In a mood that matches the weather, he agrees to help Uncle Harv collect driftwood to make furniture. One thing leads to another as it always does on a small island, and eventually Riley realizes that everything he needs for a great birthday is already right at hand. Fountas & Pinnell Level O




Peaks Island


Book Description




Picture This


Book Description

Jacqueline Sheehan made serious waves with her much beloved runaway bestseller, Lost and Found. Now she treats readers to a sequel, Picture This—a story of rebirth and personal redemption that is as moving, funny, and heart-soaring as its predecessor. Peaks Island, Maine vibrates with its own special magic, a unique flow to life that knits together the small community that calls it home. The people, the animals, and even the houses have a charm and personality all their own. Just ask Rocky Pelligrino. Devastated by her husband Bob’s sudden death, she found hope thanks to a relentlessly loyal black Lab named Cooper. Warm friends and a new job—as the island’s Animal Control Warden—have helped Rocky chart a course toward a promising future. She’s even ready to try at love again with Hill, the gentle and patient archery instructor. And there is an old house haunted by lost love and forgotten secrets that speaks to her soul. But a phone call from a troubled young woman looking for her biological father shakes Rocky’s newfound joy. Could this young girl hold a tendril of the man who was the love of her life? Or could the girl’s appearance throw Rocky’s world into chaos . . . and shatter her heart again?




Go By Boat


Book Description

Fresh out of training, Dr. Chuck Radis moves with his wife and daughter to Peaks Island, Maine, to fulfill a Public Health scholarship obligation. Absent-minded and initially oblivious to island mores, Dr. Radis slowly adapts to a medical practice where x-rays and advanced laboratory testing are available only on the mainland. When he travels to the outer islands of Casco Bay for house calls, he relies on his physical examination skills and a tackle box of emergency medications to successfully manage his patients. With stories ranging from hilarious to heart breaking, Go by Boat is a respite from contemporary living, immersing the reader in the distinct culture of Maine island communities. Come along with Dr. Radis as he finds acceptance and friendship on the hardscrabble islands of Casco Bay.




Poor Your Soul


Book Description

"At age twenty-eight, Mira Ptacin discovered she was pregnant. Though it was unplanned, she soon embraced the pregnancy and became engaged to Andrew, the father. Five months later, an ultrasound revealed birth defects that would give the child no chance of survival outside the womb. Mira was given three options: terminate her pregnancy, induce early delivery, or wait and inevitably miscarry. Mira's story is woven together with the story of her mother, who emigrated from Poland, also at the age of twenty-eight, and adopted a son, Julian. Julian would die tragically, bringing her an unimaginable grief. A memoir about loss and self-preservation, grief and recovery, and mothers and daughters, [this book] is [an] ... examination of free will, love, and the fierce bonds of family"--




Oregon's Island in the Sky


Book Description

At 4,097 feet Marys Peak towers over other mountains in the Oregon Coast Range. Dr. Robert J. Lillie draws on his experience as a geology professor, graphic illustrator and park ranger to tell the geological story of Marys Peak and its connections to Oregon's natural and cultural history. The book's vivid photographs and easy-to-follow illustrations allow the reader to imagine geological forces in action during a drive up the peak and short walk to its summit. From volcanic eruptions on an ancient seafloor, to powerful forces between tectonic plates, to the durability of hard intrusive rock, a journey up Marys Peak is truly like visiting an "Island in the Sky."




Evolution in Hawaii


Book Description

As both individuals and societies, we are making decisions today that will have profound consequences for future generations. From preserving Earth's plants and animals to altering our use of fossil fuels, none of these decisions can be made wisely without a thorough understanding of life's history on our planet through biological evolution. Companion to the best selling title Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science, Evolution in Hawaii examines evolution and the nature of science by looking at a specific part of the world. Tracing the evolutionary pathways in Hawaii, we are able to draw powerful conclusions about evolution's occurrence, mechanisms, and courses. This practical book has been specifically designed to give teachers and their students an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of evolution using exercises with real genetic data to explore and investigate speciation and the probable order in which speciation occurred based on the ages of the Hawaiian Islands. By focusing on one set of islands, this book illuminates the general principles of evolutionary biology and demonstrate how ongoing research will continue to expand our knowledge of the natural world.




Islands in the Snow


Book Description

Two days east of Lukla was a pleasant yak pasture surrounded by high peaks. When Col. Jim Roberts set out to look for it in 1953, he ended up making the first ascent of Mera Peak and sowing the seeds of Himalayan tourism. Mera Peak has become a popular goal for trekkers and novice mountaineers, but few people climb to its true summit, and fewer still travel beyond it to find the secret yak pasture that sparked Roberts’ journey. The yak pasture was the Hongu Valley, a hidden sanctuary of grassland, lakes and glaciers linking Mera Peak with the Everest region and Island Peak to the north. Fifty years after Roberts, Mark Horrell embarked on a trek through Nepal’s Khumbu region to follow in his footsteps, climb the two trekking peaks at either end of the valley, and resolve a long-standing mystery about Mera Peak’s height. Join Mark on a captivating journey through this enchanting region of high mountains and remote valleys.




Islanders


Book Description

Virginia Thorndike, Maine's own version of Studs Terkel, traveled to all the Maine coast islands that still maintain a year-round population and persuaded the islanders to talk openly about their lives. The result is a compulsively readable, unvarnished, and appealing portrait, much of it in the islanders? own words. The 15 islands not accessible by bridge that still have year-round populations are: Isle au Haut, Islesboro, the Cranberry Isles (near Mt. Desert Island), Eagle Island, Long Island (Frenchboro), Long Island (Casco Bay), Matinicus, Monhegan, North Haven, Swans Island, Vinalhaven, Peaks, Chebeague, Great Diamond, and Cliff.