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Australia (Rookie Read-About Geography: Continents)
by Rebecca HirschAn introcuction to Australia, focusing on its geographical features, people and native animalsRookie Read-About: Continents series gives the youngest reader (Ages 3-6) an introduction to the components that make each continent distinctive and exceptional. Readers will get to know each continents' geography, history, and wildlife.
The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero
by Timothy Egan<P>From the National Book Award-winning and best-selling author Timothy Egan comes the epic story of one of the most fascinating and colorful Irishman in nineteenth-century America. <P>The Irish-American story, with all its twists and triumphs, is told through the improbable life of one man. A dashing young orator during the Great Famine of the 1840s, in which a million of his Irish countrymen died, <P>Thomas Francis Meagher led a failed uprising against British rule, for which he was banished to a Tasmanian prison colony. He escaped and six months later was heralded in the streets of New York -- the revolutionary hero, back from the dead, at the dawn of the great Irish immigration to America. <P>Meagher's rebirth in America included his leading the newly formed Irish Brigade from New York in many of the fiercest battles of the Civil War -- Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg. Twice shot from his horse while leading charges, left for dead in the Virginia mud, Meagher's dream was that Irish-American troops, seasoned by war, would return to Ireland and liberate their homeland from British rule. <P>The hero's last chapter, as territorial governor of Montana, was a romantic quest for a true home in the far frontier. His death has long been a mystery to which Egan brings haunting, colorful new evidence. <P><b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
The Wake of the Lorelei Lee: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, on Her Way to Botany Bay (Bloody Jack #8)
by L. A. MeyerJacky Faber, rich from her exploits diving for Spanish gold, has purchased the Lorelei Lee to carry passengers across the Atlantic. Believing she has been absolved of past sins against the Crown, Jacky docks in London to take on her crew, but is instead arrested and sentenced to life in the newly formed penal colony in Australia. To add insult to injury, the Lorelei Lee is confiscated to carry Jacky and more than 200 female convicts to populate New South Wales. Not one to give in to self pity, Jacky rallies her sisters to "better" their position--resulting in wild escapades, brushes with danger, and much hilarity. Will Jacky find herself a founding mother of New South Wales, Australia? Not if she has anything to do about it!
The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific
by Paul TherouxThe author of The Great Railway Bazaar explores the South Pacific by kayak: &“This exhilarating epic ranks with [his] best travel books&” (Publishers Weekly). In one of his most exotic and adventuresome journeys, travel writer Paul Theroux embarks on an eighteen-month tour of the South Pacific, exploring fifty-one islands by collapsible kayak. Beginning in New Zealand's rain forests and ultimately coming to shore thousands of miles away in Hawaii, Theroux paddles alone over isolated atolls, through dirty harbors and shark-filled waters, and along treacherous coastlines. Along the way, Theroux meets the king of Tonga, encounters street gangs in Auckland, and investigates a cargo cult in Vanuatu. From Australia to Tahiti, Fiji, Easter Island, and beyond, this exhilarating tropical epic is full of disarming observations and high adventure.
The Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea (Scientists in the Field Series)
by Sy Montgomery Nic Bishop<P>It looks like a bear, but isn't one. It climbs trees as easily as a monkey- but isn't a monkey, either. It has a belly pocket like a kangaroo, but what's a kangaroo doing up a tree? Meet the amazing Matschie's tree kangaroo, who makes its home in the ancient trees of Papua New Guinea's cloud forest. And meet the amazing scientists who track these elusive animals. <P>[This text is listed as an example that meets Common Core Standards in English language arts in grades 4-5 at http://www.corestandards.org.] <P><P> Winner of the Sibert Honor
Keeper of the Night
by Kimberly Willis HoltThis is the story of young girl who is struggling to take care of her families' responsibility after her mother's suicide as her father has withdrawn into himself. Includes questions for discussion at the end.
Trouble on the Tracks
by Donna Jo NapoliWhile traveling across the Australian outback on a train, thirteen-year-old Zach and his younger sister, Eve, uncover an endangered bird-smuggling ring and try to save two trains from a full-speed collision.
Return to Uluru: The Hidden History of a Murder in Outback Australia
by Mark McKenna"THIS WEEK'S HOTTEST NEW RELEASES: Murder befouls the outback... [A] gripping work of true crime." —USA TODAYReturn to Uluru explores a cold case that strikes at the heart of white supremacy—the death of an Aboriginal man in 1934; the iconic life of a white, "outback" police officer; and the continent's most sacred and mysterious landmark.Inside Cardboard Box 39 at the South Australian Museum&’s storage facility lies the forgotten skull of an Aboriginal man who died eighty-five years before. His misspelled name is etched on the crown, but the many bones in boxes around him remain unidentified. Who was Yokununna, and how did he die? His story reveals the layered, exploitative white Australian mindset that has long rendered Aboriginal reality all but invisible. When policeman Bill McKinnon&’s Aboriginal prisoners escape in 1934, he&’s determined to get them back. Tracking them across the so called "dead heart" of the country, he finds the men at Uluru, a sacred rock formation. What exactly happened there remained a mystery, even after a Commonwealth inquiry. But Mark McKenna&’s research uncovers new evidence, getting closer to the truth, revealing glimpses of indigenous life, and demonstrating the importance of this case today. Using McKinnon&’s private journal entries, McKenna paints a picture of the police officer's life to better understand how white Australians treat the center of the country and its inhabitants. Return to Uluru dives deeply into one cold case. But it also provides a searing indictment of the historical white supremacy still present in Australia—and has fascinating, illuminating parallels to the growing racial justice movements in the United States.
Animals of Australia
by Jo ParkerExplore the Australian Outback to find koalas, kangaroos, crocodiles, and more!Did you know kangaroos can jump 10 feet high? And they can travel up to speeds of 40 miles per hour!Learn more fun facts about some of Australia's favorite animals! In connection with the publication of Animals of Australia, Penguin Random House will donate a portion of the proceeds to support efforts to provide Australian bushfire relief.
Kapaemahu
by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu Dean Hamer Joe WilsonAn Indigenous legend about how four extraordinary individuals of dual male and female spirit, or Mahu, brought healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaii, based on the Academy Award–contending short film. In the 15th century, four Mahu sail from Tahiti to Hawaii and share their gifts of science and healing with the people of Waikiki. The islanders return this gift with a monument of four boulders in their honor, which the Mahu imbue with healing powers before disappearing. As time passes, foreigners inhabit the island and the once-sacred stones are forgotten until the 1960s. Though the true story of these stones was not fully recovered, the power of the Mahu still calls out to those who pass by them at Waikiki Beach today. With illuminating words and stunning illustrations by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson, and Daniel Sousa, KAPAEMAHU is a monument to an Indigenous Hawaiian legend and a classic in the making.
Poukahangatus: Poems
by Tayi TibbleThe American debut of an acclaimed young poet as she explores her identity as a twenty-first-century Indigenous woman. Poem by poem, Tibble carves out a bold new way of engaging history, of straddling modernity and ancestry, desire and exploitation.Intimate, moving, virtuosic, and hilarious, Tayi Tibble is one of the most exciting new voices in poetry today. In Poūkahangatus (pronounced &“Pocahontas&”), her debut volume, Tibble challenges a dazzling array of mythologies—Greek, Māori, feminist, kiwi—peeling them apart, respinning them in modern terms. Her poems move from rhythmic discussions of the Kardashians, sugar daddies, and Twilight to exquisite renderings of the natural world and precise emotions (&“The lump in her throat swelled like a sea that threatened to take him from her, and she had to swallow hard&”). Tibble is also a master narrator of teenage womanhood, its exhilarating highs and devastating lows; her high-camp aesthetics correlate to the overflowing beauty, irony, and ruination of her surroundings. These are warm, provocative, and profoundly original poems, written by a woman for whom diving into the wreck means taking on new assumptions—namely, that it is not radical to write from a world in which the effects of colonization, land, work, and gender are obviously connected. Along the way, Tibble scrutinizes perception and how she as a Māori woman fits into trends, stereotypes, and popular culture. With language that is at once colorful, passionate, and laugh-out-loud funny, Poūkahangatus is the work of one of our most daring new poets.
Rangikura: Poems
by Tayi TibbleA fiery second collection of poetry from the acclaimed Indigenous New Zealand writer that U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo calls, &“One of the most startling and original poets of her generation.&”Tayi Tibble returns on the heels of her incendiary debut with a bold new follow-up. Barbed and erotic, vulnerable and searching, Rangikura asks readers to think about our relationship to desire and exploitation. Moving between hotel lobbies and all-night clubs, these poems chronicle life spent in spaces that are stalked by transaction and reward. &“I grew up tacky and hungry and dazzling,&” Tibble writes. &“Mum you should have tied me/to the ground./Instead I was given/to this city freely.&” Here is a poet staking out a sense of freedom on her own terms in times that very often feel like end times. Tibble&’s range of forms and sounds are dazzling. Written with Māori moteatea, purakau, and karakia (chants, legends, and prayers) in mind, Rangikura explores the way the past comes back, even when she tries to turn her back on it. &“I was forced to remember that,/wherever I go,/even if I go nowhere at all,/I am still a descendent of mountains.&” At once a coming-of-age and an elegy to the traumas born from colonization, especially the violence enacted against indigenous women, Rangikura interrogates not only the poets&’ pain, but also that of her ancestors. The intimacy of these poems will move readers to laughter and tears. Speaking to herself, sometimes to the reader, these poems arc away from and return to their ancestral roots to imagine the end of the world and a new day. They invite us into the swirl of nostalgia and exhaustion produced in the pursuit of an endless summer. (&“My heart goes out like an abandoned swan boat/ghosting along a lake&”). They are a new highpoint from a writer of endless talent.
Lunar New Year: A Celebration of Family and Fun (Big Golden Book)
by Mary Man-KongCelebrate the Lunar New Year and learn about all of its traditions with this Big Golden Book!Every year, millions of Asian families come together to celebrate the first new moon in the sky. Now preschoolers can learn about the zodiac animals, the delicious food, the exciting parades, and all the fun traditions. Filled with colorful illustrations and simple, yet informative text, this Big Golden Book is perfect for reading again and again to the whole family. Happy Lunar New Year!
Falcon and the Charles Street Witch (Falcon's Egg #2)
by Luli GraySince Egg flew off into the night more than a year before, Falcon fears she will never see her dragon again. Her mother wants to forget that Egg ever existed and her father never believed in dragons at all. But the magic finds Falcon again. First she leaps out of a plane after her younger brother, Toody. Then, blown to safety on a current of dragon's breath, Falcon lands in an enchanted garden on Charles Street in New York City where she is greeted by the wonderfully peculiar Blinda Cholmondely. With the help of an ancient doggerel-spouting dragon named Dirus Horribilus, the rakish Saint George, and the astonishing Charles Street Witch, Falcon sets out to rescue Toody. In this rollicking tale of adventure and surprise, not only will Falcon see her beloved Egg again, she will also discover her own extraordinarily courageous self.
The Fire Raiser
by Maurice GeeThe night Dargie's stables burns down, Kitty Wix is knocked tumbling to the ground by strange, loping man fleeing the scene. Who is the fire-raiser who has been terrorizing the small town? Kitty and her friend Irene begin to have their suspicions as to who has been committing the crimes, as do Kitty's brother Noel and his friend Phil. Their curiosity leads them to reluctantly join forces to try and track down the arsonist. The children know they will have to act fast and catch the fire-raiser in the act for anyone to believe them. While Noel and Phil keep watch, the fire-raiser a madman with fires constantly burning in his head, strikes again -- and this time there are lives at stake....
In God They Trust?: The Religious Beliefs of Australia's Prime Ministers 1901-2013
by Roy WilliamsMost of Australia's leaders since Federation believed in God. Some were serious Christians and very few were indifferent towards religion. In this timely and original book, Roy Williams examines the spiritual life of each of our Prime Ministers from Edmund Barton to Julia Gillard. He explores the ways in which - for good and ill - their beliefs (or agnosticism) shaped the history and development of the nation. Featuring extensive interviews with John Howard and Kevin Rudd, and pulling no punches, IN GOD THEY TRUST? will appeal to voters across party lines and excite plenty of debate among believers and non-believers alike.
Confessions of a Meddlesome Economist
by Ian HarperIan Harper just cannot stop meddling. During his 35-year career as a professional economist, he has worked with governments, banks, corporates and leading professional services firms at the highest level. Whether it be reviewing Australia’s competition policy, Victoria’s state finances or chairing the Australian Fair Pay Commission, he acts out of a passionate belief that economists can actually be useful.Ian’s career in economics has enabled him to participate in some of the most important debates over the future of Australia and influence some of the nation’s most talented emerging leaders. In Confessions of a Meddlesome Economist, the long-awaited revised and updated edition of his prize-winning book Economics for Life, published in 2011, Ian revisits some old debates and introduces new ones – including the purpose of place – all in the context of his professional life. There is no trace of self-indulgence or self-congratulation in this narrative, rather a thoughtful account of choices, successes and disappointments.The aim the same: to illustrate the power of good economics to improve people’s material lives and the power of the Christian faith in helping this practising economist keep his professional life in proper perspective.
Bush Parson
by Leon MorrisThis … is my tribute to the big-hearted people I met in the outback. I want to acknowledge my debt to so many battlers in their very difficult situations. And with them I want to link those in our cities who are interested enough in what is done in this vast country to support with their prayers and their gifts those who go out to minister to their outback cousins. I am indebted to them both.,Dr Leon Morris, former principal of Ridley College, Melbourne, was best known as a respected Bible scholar and lecturer of international stature.Few would know that he spent the years of World War 2 with The Bush Church Aid Society among the people of the Minnipa Mission on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. With a population depleted by the war effort and tough farm conditions, Leon and Mildred Morris carried out their ministry in a parish covering thousands of square miles.In this new edition of Bush Parson celebrating the centenary of Bush Church Aid, we join with Leon in his tribute to the big-hearted people of the Australian outback.
Judging the Macquaries: Injustice and Mercy in Colonial Australia
by John HarrisThe Black Lives Matter movement is bringing the characters of powerful people in colonial times into sharp focus, particularly their attitudes and actions towards slavery and indigenous peoples. Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie are among those being scrutinised and reassessed. They arrived at the penal colony of NSW, a remote outpost of the British empire in 1809. The European invaders had barely survived two decades in an alien environment but, for countless millennia, home to its Aboriginal inhabitants. Lachlan was the new governor. Elizabeth, his wife, was his closest friend and fiercest supporter.The colony was an unruly mix of convicts, soldiers and settlers. At the time, Lachlan Macquarie’s leadership was judged by his handling of the convicts. Lachlan and Elizabeth treated the convicts humanely, forgiving them and restoring them to society. His superiors considered him far too lenient, yet to Sydneysiders, as ‘The Father of Australia’, he had gifted them the path to a prosperous future.Today, Lachlan is being judged by his treatment of Aboriginal people. The Macquaries thought they were being kind, yet they ignored the injustice of dispossession. Aboriginal people were British citizens under the protection of British law – a law they were expected to obey. Although known for his humanity, Lachlan had a fatal flaw. When hostilities broke out between Aborigines and settlers on the outskirts of the colony, he took the fateful decision to send in the military. This will never be forgotten, yet his sins were the sins of the empire he tried so hard to serve.Award-winning author and historian John Harris never baulks at handling controversial subjects. In this timely book, he tackles the disputes that marked Lachlan Macquarie’s period as governor and the complex controversies which still surround his actions today.
Judging the Macquaries: Injustice and Mercy in Colonial Australia
by John HarrisThe Black Lives Matter movement is bringing the characters of powerful people in colonial times into sharp focus, particularly their attitudes and actions towards slavery and indigenous peoples. Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie are among those being scrutinised and reassessed. They arrived at the penal colony of NSW, a remote outpost of the British empire in 1809. The European invaders had barely survived two decades in an alien environment but, for countless millennia, home to its Aboriginal inhabitants. Lachlan was the new governor. Elizabeth, his wife, was his closest friend and fiercest supporter.The colony was an unruly mix of convicts, soldiers and settlers. At the time, Lachlan Macquarie’s leadership was judged by his handling of the convicts. Lachlan and Elizabeth treated the convicts humanely, forgiving them and restoring them to society. His superiors considered him far too lenient, yet to Sydneysiders, as ‘The Father of Australia’, he had gifted them the path to a prosperous future.Today, Lachlan is being judged by his treatment of Aboriginal people. The Macquaries thought they were being kind, yet they ignored the injustice of dispossession. Aboriginal people were British citizens under the protection of British law – a law they were expected to obey. Although known for his humanity, Lachlan had a fatal flaw. When hostilities broke out between Aborigines and settlers on the outskirts of the colony, he took the fateful decision to send in the military. This will never be forgotten, yet his sins were the sins of the empire he tried so hard to serve.Award-winning author and historian John Harris never baulks at handling controversial subjects. In this timely book, he tackles the disputes that marked Lachlan Macquarie’s period as governor and the complex controversies which still surround his actions today.
Strange Objects
by Gary CrewAfter discovering valuable relics from a seventeenth-century shipwreck, a sixteen-year-old Australian disappears under mysterious circumstances.
The Champion
by Maurice GeeIn 1943 twelve-year-old Rex sees his quiet New Zealand village dramatically changed by the arrival of a black American soldier on leave from the war.
The Last Blank Spaces
by Dane KennedyThe challenge of opening Africa and Australia to British imperial influence fell to a coterie of proto-professional explorers who sought knowledge, adventure, and fame but often experienced confusion, fear, and failure. The Last Blank Spaces follows the arc of these explorations, from idea to practice, intention to outcome, myth to reality.
Progressive New World: How Settler Colonialism and Transpacific Exchange Shaped American Reform
by Marilyn LakeIn a bold argument, Marilyn Lake shows that race and reform were mutually supportive as Progressivism became the political logic of settler colonialism at the turn of the 20th century. She points to exchanges between American and Australasian reformers who shared racial sensibilities, along with a commitment to forging an ideal social order.
Transit of Venus
by Julian EvansJulian Evans won a host of awards for this smart, funny, and thoughtful travelogue through the South Pacific islands. Evans was raised in Australia, but moved to England as a teenager, and forever longed to return to the Pacific of his childhood. He sails on a freighter from Australia to cross the Pacific, stopping at a series of ever more remote islands. Along the way he discusses the politics, history, and culture of the Pacific Islanders and the Europeans with whom they so uneasily co-exist. English, not American, spelling and punctuation; also dialect here and there