Helen Plum Library

The adventures of Duane the polar bear and his arctic friends continue in this charming sequel to the modern-day classic “The Very, Very Far North”. Past the place where icebergs shiver, you will find the Very, Very Far North, where Duane and his friends are sure to make you feel right at home. You might like to share a delicious Snow Delight with warmhearted Duane. While you're slurping away, if C. C. suddenly asks you where you've come from,...

Duane the polar bear and the other animals of the very, very far north find their friendships deepening as they are challenged by the arrival of a contentious weasel and an unexpected departure

"What if you woke up one morning and found you'd acquired another self--a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you'd devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience--she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent...

"There are more than 180 exotic species in the Great Lakes. Some, such as green algae, the Asian tapeworm, and the suckermouth minnow, have had little or no impact so far. But a handful of others--sea lamprey, alewife, round goby, quagga mussel, zebra mussel, Eurasian watermilfoil, spiny water flea, and rusty crayfish--have conducted an all-out assault on the Great Lakes and are winning the battle. In Lake Invaders: Invasive Species and the Battle...

For hundreds of thousands of years Great Auks thrived in the icy seas of the North Atlantic, bobbing on the waves, diving for fish and struggling up onto rocky shores to mate and hatch their fluffy chicks. But by 1844, not a single one of these magnificent birds was alive. In this stunningly illustrated non-fiction picture book, award-winning author and illustrator Jan Thornhill tells the tragic story of these birds that "weighed as much as a sack...

"An explosive global history that redefines the historical origins of the modern world through the life of Sultan Selim I and his Ottoman Empire. Long neglected in accounts of world history, the Ottoman Empire was a hub of flourishing intellectual fervor, geopolitical power, and enlightened pluralistic rule. At the helm of its ascent was the omnipotent Sultan Selim I (1470-1520), who, with the aid of his extraordinarily gifted mother, Gülbahar, hugely...

"This nation's history and self-understanding have long depended on the notion of a "colonial America," an epoch that supposedly laid the foundation for the modern United States. In Indigenous Continent, Pekka Hämäläinen overturns the traditional, Eurocentric narrative, demonstrating that, far from being weak and helpless "victims" of European colonialism, Indigenous peoples controlled North America well into the 19th century. From the Iroquois...

"A heart-wrenching, eye-opening, and giggle-inducing memoir about what it's like to grow up not sure if you're (a) a boy, (b) a girl, (c) something in between, or (d) all of the above"-- "From the moment a doctor in Raleigh, North Carolina, put 'male' on Jacob Tobia's birth certificate, everything went wrong. Alongside 'male' came many other, far less neutral words: words that carried expectations about who Jacob was and who Jacob should be, words...

From the award-winning co-author of 'I Am Malala', this book asks just how the might of NATO, with 48 countries and 140,000 troops on the ground, failed to defeat a group of religious students and farmers? How did it go so wrong? Twenty seven years ago, Christina Lamb left Britain to become a journalist in Pakistan. She crossed the Hindu Kush into Afghanistan with mujaheddin fighting the Russians and fell unequivocally in love with this fierce country...

An irresistible gathering of shorts by some of the world's most imaginative word artists. Short spans genres, languages, and centuries, to offer the tradition - and glorious present - of this popular form. Coverage includes: Precursors : sixteenth to eighteenth centuries ; Girolamo Gardano ; Michel de Montaigne ; Baltasar Gracian ; Francois de la Rochefoucauld ; John Aubrey ; Jean de la Bruyere ; Louis-Sebastien Mercier ; Chamfort ; Joseph Joubert...