Lad, a courageous and dignified 80-pound collie, lived in The Place. The Place was thick with woods, abounding with squirrels to chase, and a cool lake in which to plunge -- a beautiful kingdom -- and Lad was its undisputed king. Lad\'s loyalty to his chosen Master and Mistress knew no bounds. The stories in this book are all about Lad. Some will make you laugh out loud, some will make you cry. And when the book comes to its conclusion, you will know one thing for sure -- that Lad was a dog with a soul . . .

Once upon a time that was called 1828, before all the living things on the land and the fishes in the sea were destroyed, there was a man named William Buelow Gould, a convict in Van Dieman's Land who fell in love with a black woman and discovered too late that to love is not safe. Silly Billy Gould, invader of Australia, liar, murderer, forger, fantasist, condemned to live in the most brutal penal colony in the British Empire, and there ordered to paint a book of fish. Once upon a time, miraculous things happened...

PETER RABBIT PLANS A JOKE The Imp of Mischief, woe is me,Is always busy as a bee. That is why so many people are forever getting into trouble. He won\'t keep still. No, Sir, he won\'t keep still unless he is made to. Once let him get started there is no knowing where he will stop. Peter Rabbit had just seen Jimmy Skunk disappear inside an old barrel, lying on its side at the top of the hill, and at once the Imp of Mischief began to whisper to Peter. Of course Peter shouldn\'t have listened. Certainly not. But he did. You know Peter dearly loves a joke when it is on some one else. He sat right where he was and watched to see if Jimmy would come out of the barrel. Jimmy didn\'t come out, and after a little Peter stole over to the barrel and peeped inside. There was Jimmy Skunk curled up for a nap. Peter tiptoed away very softly. All the time the Imp of Mischief was whispering to him that this was a splendid chance to play a joke on Jimmy. You know it is very easy to play a joke on any one who is asleep. Peter doesn\'t often have a chance to play a joke on Jimmy Skunk. It isn\'t a very safe thing to do, not if Jimmy is awake. No one knows that better than Peter. He sat down some distance from the barrel but where he could keep an eye on it. Then he went into a brown study, which is one way of saying that he thought very hard. He wanted to play a joke on Jimmy, but like most jokers he didn\'t want the joke to come back on himself. In fact, he felt that it would be a great deal better for him if Jimmy shouldn\'t know that he had anything to do with the joke. As he sat there in a brown study, he happened to glance over on the Green Meadows and there he saw something red. He looked very hard, and in a minute he saw that it was Reddy Fox. Right away, Peter\'s nimble wits began to plan how he could use Reddy Fox to play a joke on Jimmy. All in a flash an idea came to him, an idea that made him laugh right out. You see, the Imp of Mischief was very, very busy whispering to Peter. "If Reddy were only up here, I believe I could do it, and it would be a joke on Reddy as well as on Jimmy," thought Peter, and laughed right out again. "What are you laughing at?" asked a voice. It was the voice of Sammy Jay. Right away a plan for getting Reddy up there flashed into Peter\'s head. He would get Sammy angry, and that would make Sammy scream. Reddy would be sure to come up there to see what Sammy Jay was making such a fuss about. Sammy, you know, is very quick-tempered. No one knows this better than Peter. So instead of replying politely to Sammy, as he should have done, Peter spoke crossly: "Fly away, Sammy, fly away! It is no business of yours what I am laughing at," said he. Right away Sammy\'s quick temper flared up. He began to call Peter names, and Peter answered back. This angered Sammy still more, and as he always screams when he is angry, he was soon making such a racket that Reddy Fox down on the Green Meadows couldn\'t help but hear it. Peter saw him lift his head to listen. In a few minutes he began to trot that way....

One of the most beloved characters in children\'s literature, Peter Cottontail is up to his long-whiskered nose in rib-tickling escapades in this delightful classic. With gentle charm and humor, famed storyteller Thornton W. Burgess draws young readers into the timeless world of the Green Forest, the Smiling Pool and the Purple Mountains.Warmth and whimsy are the order of the day as Peter discovers the folly of changing his name, outwits the ever-hungry Reddy Fox, manages a number of hare\'s-breadth escapes and finally makes an ill-advised decision to hibernate-as Johnny Chuck and other woodland creatures do. The silliness of trying to do what nature never intended is one of the gentle morals of these adventures that combine the fun of a good story with little lessons about wildlife, the environment and being true to one\'s self.Newly reset in large easy-to-read type, this unabridged childhood classic will delight young readers today just as it did their parents and grandparents.

My poems about the rapture, salvation,and Bible prophecy.Meri and her friends Jethro, The Tackling Dummy, Wut, and Perfit have crossed over The Mistercald River and go by The Land of Falling You. It's snowing, and sometimes snow falls in the shapes of giant snowflakes, sometimes in the shapes of houses, and sometimes even exactly like YOU if you happen to be passing by or go inside. Imagine copies of YOU falling down as snow! The Land of Raining Faces is nearby, so you may even see your own face made of raindrops. The visitors see other fascinating lands. In The Land of Buffalo Unicorns, they meet Jethro's mother, Meridia. She's extremely friendly---and pleasingly flamboyant! She especially loves hats. She loves Perfit's beautiful yellow hair and wants a wig just like it! They meet Minglemint and Globe, who are also Buffalo Unicorns. As the five friends are flying back across The Mistercald River with their flying wands, suddenly Pumphrey The WaterSpout rises out of the water below them. At the moment he's an enormous whirlpool! He's immediately pleased by the novelty of having company up in the air, where he's usually so lonely. He can't resist approaching. But Perfit is blown out of the saddle and Jethro begins to fall downward toward The Land of Wrong Kites. He has only seconds to live. Here comes the grass! He can see dummies running toward the site of the expected crash. Him! When they reach The Land of Loving Yellow, suddenly Perfit disappears. Someone else loves her beautiful yellow hair. In fact, everyone in the whole Land!

This collection of more than 200 of bestselling author Hiaasen's "Miami Herald" columns. . . shows you that Hiaasen's seemingly implausible fictional premises aren't really far-fetched at all. He just knows Florida ("Playboy").

"Disney is so good at being good that it manifests an evil; so uniformly efficient and courteous, so dependably clean and conscientious, so unfailingly entertaining that it's unreal, and therefore is an agent of pure wickedness. . . . Disney isn't in the business of exploiting Nature so much as striving to improve upon it, constantly fine-tuning God's work." --from TEAM RODENT TEAM RODENT How Disney Devours America "Revulsion is good. Revulsion is healthy. Each of us has limits, unarticulated boundaries of taste and tolerance, and sometimes we forget where they are. Peep Land is here to remind us; a fixed compass point by which we can govern our private behavior. Because being grossed out is essential to the human experience; without a perceived depravity, we'd have nothing against which to gauge the advance or decline of culture; our art, our music, our cinema, our books. Without sleaze, the yardstick shrinks at both ends. Team Rodent doesn't believe in sleaze, however, nor in old-fashioned revulsion. Square in the middle is where it wants us all to be, dependable consumers with predictable attitudes. The message, never stated but avuncularly implied, is that America's values ought to reflect those of the Walt Disney Company, and not the other way around."

Something is definitely wrong with Peter Rabbit . . . he has no appetite! Deciding he is terribly lonely, Peter sets off to visit some friends in the Old Pasture but instead finds himself narrowly escaping the clutches of Hooty Owl, experiencing a nasty encounter with Jed Thumper (a big gray rabbit) and eventually staring right into the soft, gentle eyes of Miss Fuzzytail. Before you know it, Peter has a new bride!Children will love sharing the adventures of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Rabbit as they start a new ― and often precarious ― life together in the Dear Old Briar-Patch. As they enjoy the story, youngsters absorb gentle lessons about nature, wildlife, and simple human virtues. Eight charming new illustrations, based on the originals by Harrison Cady, enhance this delightful tale, newly reprinted in large, easy-to-read type.

Private eye R.J. Decker is hired to investigate a bizarre multi-million dollar racket in the professional bass fishing circuit in Florida. Hiaasen is also the author of Tourist Season.

Spring has arrived at the Green Meadow and Johnny Chuck is strangely discontent. On a whim, he offers Jimmy Skunk his house and then wanders off. Along the way, he gets into a fight with a strange woodchuck and, after a bruising battle, chases the intruder off. At that point, Johnny is feeling rather unconquerable — that is, until Polly Chuck uses her feminine charms to capture his heart. Before long, the two are happily keeping house in a burrow in the old orchard.Thornton W. Burgess, the author of many delightful classics for children, draws young readers into a timeless world of woodland creatures, teaching children important lessons about nature by basing the animals\' actions and adventures on actual wildlife behavior. Six charming illustrations by Thea Kliros, based on Harrison Cady originals, enhance a story sure to delight young animal and nature lovers.

Published in 1951, The Sea Around Us is one of the most remarkably successful books ever written about the natural world. Rachel Carson's rare ability to combine scientific insight with moving, poetic prose catapulted her book to first place on The New York Times best-seller list, where it enjoyed wide attention for thirty-one consecutive weeks. It remained on the list for more than a year and a half and ultimately sold well over a million copies, has been translated into 28 languages, inspired an Academy Award-winning documentary, and won both the 1952 National Book Award and the John Burroughs Medal. This classic work remains as fresh today as when it first appeared. Carson's writing teems with stunning, memorable images--the newly formed Earth cooling beneath an endlessly overcast sky; the centuries of nonstop rain that created the oceans; giant squids battling sperm whales hundreds of fathoms below the surface; and incredibly powerful tides moving 100 billion tons of water daily in the Bay of Fundy. Quite simply, she captures the mystery and allure of the ocean with a compelling blend of imagination and expertise. Reintroducing a classic work to a whole new generation of readers, this Special Edition features a new chapter written by Jeffrey Levinton, a leading expert in marine ecology, that brings the scientific side of The Sea Around Us completely up to date. Levinton incorporates the most recent thinking on continental drift, coral reefs, the spread of the ocean floor, the deterioration of the oceans, mass extinction of sea life, and many other topics. In addition, acclaimed nature writer Ann Zwinger has contributed a brief foreword. Today, with the oceans endangered by the dumping of medical waste and ecological disasters such as the Exxon oil spill in Alaska, this illuminating volume provides a timely reminder of both the fragility and the importance of the ocean and the life that abounds within it. Anyone who loves the sea, or who is concerned about our natural environment, will want to read this classic work.

PADDY THE BEAVER BEGINS WORK Work, work all the night While the stars are shining bright; Work, work all the day; I have got no time to play. HIS little rhyme Paddy the Beaver made up as he toiled at building the dam which was to make the pond he so much desired deep in the Green Forest. Of course it wasn\'t quite true, that about working all night and all day. Nobody could do that, you know, and keep it up. Everybody has to rest and sleep. Yes, and everybody has to play a little to be at their best. So it wasn\'t quite true that Paddy worked all day after working all night. But it was true that Paddy had no time to play. He had too much to do. He had had his playtime during the long summer, and now he had to get ready for the long cold winter. Now of all the little workers in the Green Forest, on the Green Meadows, and in the Smiling Pool, none can compare with Paddy the Beaver, not even his cousin, Jerry Muskrat. Happy Jack Squirrel and Striped Chipmunk store up food for the long cold months when rough Brother North Wind and Jack Frost rule, and Jerry Muskrat builds a fine house wherein to keep warm and comfortable, but all this is as nothing to the work of Paddy the Beaver. As I said before, Paddy had had a long playtime through the summer. He had wandered up and down the Laughing Brook. He had followed it way up to the place where it started. And all the time he had been studying and studying to make sure that he wanted to stay in the Green Forest. In the first place, he had to be sure that there was plenty of the kind of food that he likes. Then he had to be equally sure that he could make a pond near where this particular food grew. Last of all, he had to satisfy himself that if he did make a pond and build a home, he would be reasonably safe in it. And all these things he had done in his playtime. Now he was ready to go to work, and when Paddy begins work, he sticks to it until it is finished. He says that is the only way to succeed, and you know and I know that he is right. Now Paddy the Beaver can see at night just as Reddy Fox and Peter Rabbit and Bobby Coon can, and he likes the night best, because he feels safest then. But he can see in the daytime too, and when he feels that he is perfectly safe and no one is watching, he works then too. Of course the first thing to do was to build a dam across the Laughing Brook to make the pond he so much needed. He chose a low open place deep in the Green Forest, around the edge of which grew many young aspen-trees, the bark of which is his favorite food. Through the middle of this open place flowed the Laughing Brook. At the lower edge was just the place for a dam. It would not have to be very long, and when it was finished and the water was stopped in the Laughing Brook, it would just have to flow over the low open place and make a pond there. Paddy\'s eyes twinkled when he first saw it. It was right then that he made up his mind to stay in the Green Forest. So now that he was ready to begin his dam he went up the Laughing Brook to a place where alders and willows grew, and there he began work; that work was the cutting of a great number of trees by means of his big front teeth which were given him for just this purpose....

The twelfth in the fun 12-book collectible series for young readers from survival expert and Chief Scout BEAR GRYLLS.Mia loves to take charge and be a leader - she's not lacking in confidence and throws herself into every experience. Except she's terrible at taking a back seat and letting others have their say. A mysterious compass leads her to an unexpected adventure with Bear Grylls sailing the high seas. Can Bear show Mia the importance of teamwork and how dangerous the ocean can be if the captain doesn't have a crew who will work together?Each book in this fun new 12-book series from BEAR GRYLLS follows a different child on the outdoor activity camp. Once they are given the magical compass, they meet the inspirational adventurer in an amazing place and learn new skills and facts they can take with them back to their real life.

Joe Simpson has experienced a life filled with adventure but marred by death. He has endured the painful attrition of climbing friends in accidents, calling into question the perilously exhilarating activity to which he has devoted his life. Probability is inexorably closing in. The tragic loss of a close friend forces a momentous decision upon him. It is time to turn his back on the mountains that he has loved. Never more alive than when most at risk, he has come to see a last climb on the hooded, mile-high North Face of the Eiger as the cathartic finale. In a narrative which takes the reader through extreme experiences, from an avalanche in Bolivia, ice-climbing in the Alps and Colorado and paragliding in Spain - before his final confrontation with the Eiger - Simpson reveals the inner truth of climbing, exploring both the power of the mind and the frailties of the body. The subject of his new book is the siren song of fear and his struggle to come to terms with it.