In addition to describing the kangaroo’s physiology and lifecycle, Simons describes their role in indigenous Australian culture, their ill-fated first contact with Europeans, and their subsequent capture for zoos and relocation to establish wild populations in Japan and the United States. Simons also explores the connections between visual and cultural representations and the current controversy in Australia surrounding kangaroo hunting and eating. Demonstrating how the true diversity of the kangaroo population has frequently been reduced to a single stereotype, this book reveals how such misrepresentations now threaten the future of the species. A book for anyone concerned with animal welfare and conservation, Kangaroo is a pouch-sized and fascinating look at these unusual creatures.

This set of four books offers engaging, easy to read stories in this set reinforce good health and nutrition for young children.
Stories include: Treats for Barney, Fingers, Fork, or Spoon?, Just One Bite, & Sundaes for Breakfast.
Age Level: 5-6
Grade Level: Beginning First
Reading level: C-D/4-7
KEEP BOOKS digital editions include text features and design elements that give beginning readers what they need to start reading on their own with high interest titles that they can easily manage.

This set of four books offers engaging stories with simple repeated language and related pictures, one or two lines of print per page, and ample space between words. 
Stories include: Balloons, The Farm, Dinosaurs, & Traffic. 
Age Level: 3-5 
Grade Level: preK-Kindergarten 
Reading level: A-B/1-2
KEEP BOOKS digital editions include text features and design elements that give beginning readers what they need to start reading on their own with high interest titles that they can easily manage.

This set of four books include traditional nursery rhymes and are formatted with clear text and engaging illustrations.
Stories include: Jack and Jill; Old Mother Hubbard; Humpty Dumpty; & One, Two, Buckle My Shoe.
Age Level: 3-5
Grade Level: preK-Kindergarten
Reading level: not leveled
KEEP BOOKS digital editions include text features and design elements that give beginning readers what they need to start reading on their own with high interest titles that they can easily manage.

It was 1978, and gray wolves had been extinct in Wisconsin for twenty years. Still, there were rumors from the state's northwestern counties that they had returned. Dick Thiel, then a college student with a passion for wolves, was determined to find out. Keepers of the Wolves is his engrossing account of tracking and protecting the recovery of wolves in Wisconsin. Thiel conveys the wonder, frustrations, humor, and everyday hard work of field biologists, including the political and public relations pitfalls they regularly face.

This new edition brings Thiel's story into the twenty-first century, recounting his work monitoring wolves as they spread to central Wisconsin, conflicts of wolves with landowners and recreationalists, changes in state and federal policies, the establishment of a state wolf-hunting season in 2012, and Thiel's forecast for the future of wolves in Wisconsin.

It was 1978, and there had been no resident timber wolves in Wisconsin for twenty years. Still, packs were active in neighboring Minnesota, and there was the occasional rumor from Wisconsin’s northwestern counties of wolf sign or sightings. Had wolves returned on their own to Wisconsin? Richard Thiel, then a college student with a passion for wolves, was determined to find out.
    Thus begins Keepers of the Wolves, Thiel’s tale of his ten years at the center of efforts to track and protect the recovery of wolves in Northern Wisconsin. From his early efforts as a student enthusiast to his departure in 1989 from the post of wolf biologist for the Department of Natural Resources, Thiel conveys the wonder, frustrations, humor, and everyday hard work of field biologists, as well as the politics and public relations pitfalls that so often accompany their profession.
    We share in the excitement as Thiel and his colleagues find wolf tracks in the snow, howl in the forest night and are answered back, learn to safely trap wolves to attach radio collars, and track the packs’ ranges by air from a cramped Piper Cub. We follow the stories of individual wolves and their packs as pups are born and die, wolves are shot by accident and by intent, ravages of canine parvovirus and hard winters take their toll, and young adults move on to new ranges. Believing he had left his beloved wolves behind, Thiel takes a new job as an environmental educator in central Wisconsin, but soon wolves follow. By 1999, there were an estimated 200 timber wolves in 54 packs in Wisconsin.

This is a sequel to Dick Thiel's 1994 book, The Timber Wolf in Wisconsin: The Death and Life of a Majestic Predator. That book traced the wolf's history in Wisconsin, its near extinction, and the initial efforts to reestablish it in our state. Thiel's new book looks at how successful that program has been.

Two thousand miles is a staggering distance for any kind of journey. But imagine making it not by car or even foot—but by fin. That’s what faces Chinook, a female king salmon, as she takes a dramatic trip to safely deliver her eggs. From the Bering Sea, up the Yukon River, and on to the Nisutlin River, A King Salmon Journey takes young readers on an engaging ride through the waters of Alaska and Canada, bringing to life the biology—and mystery—of one of the world’s most popular fish. Based on the story of a real-life Chinook, this beautifully illustrated book deftly combines science with a fast-paced tale of survival and perseverance.

Kingfishers are a stunning sight to behold. The dash and verve of these cosmopolitan birds has been admired for millennia, appearing in creation myths, imperial regalia, and cultural iconography, and they were once valued as highly as gold. Artists used their iridescent feathers in Tian-tsui, an iconic style of Chinese fine art, for more than 2,400 years. The magnificent temples at Angkor Wat in Cambodia owe their existence in part to the great wealth generated by the live kingfisher trade from the Indochina Peninsula. As well, as a muse, kingfishers have influenced philosophers, playwrights, and artists, from the Roman poet Ovid to Carl Jung, Charles Darwin, and others, while more recently, bio-mimicry engineers have turned to kingfishers for inspiration.

This lavishly illustrated book delves into the origins and diversity of the more than 120 species of kingfishers, from the burly kookaburras to the diminutive birds that daringly pluck spiders off webs, defining their characteristics, their differences, their lifestyles, and their cultural significance around the world.

At a time when the world is seeing its species rapidly go extinct, the Kirtland's warbler is not just a survivor, it's a rock star. The Kirtland's warbler is the rarest warbler species in North America and will always be rare because of its persnickety nesting preferences. But when the total population fell below 400 birds in the 1970s and 1980s---driven largely by a loss of habitat and the introduction of a parasite---a small group of dedicated biologists, researchers, and volunteers vowed to save the Kirtland's warbler despite long odds. This is the story of the warbler's survival and gradual recovery, the people and policies that kept it from extinction, and the ongoing challenges that may again jeopardize the bird's future.

In The Kirtland's Warbler, William Rapai explores the bird's fascinating natural history as well as the complex and evolving relationships between the warbler, its environment, its human protectors, and state and federal policies that today threaten to eradicate decades of work done on the species' behalf. Beginning with an account of the warbler's discovery in the mid-nineteenth century and ornithologists' desperate hunt for information on the elusive new species, the book goes on to examine the dramatic events that quickly led to the warbler's precarious status and its eventual emergence as a lightning rod for controversy.

The Kirtland's warbler is often described as a "bird of fire" for its preference for nesting in areas cleared by wildfire. But it also warrants the name for the passion it ignites in humans. Both tragic and uplifting, the story of this intriguing bird is a stirring example of how strong leadership, vision, commitment, sustained effort, and cooperation can come together to protect our natural world.