A boy grows up to make positive change in his community. After suffering much heartache, Sundar decides change must come to his small Indian village. He believes girls should be valued as much as boys and that land should not be needlessly destroyed. Sundar’s plan? To celebrate the birth of every girl with the planting of 111 trees. Though many villagers resist at first, Sundar slowly gains their support, and today, over a quarter of a million trees grow in his village. A once barren, deforested landscape has become a fertile, prosperous one where girls can thrive. Sure to plant seeds of hope in children. Improving the world is within everyone’s reach.

"Finally a guide to the woody plants of wildland California! The easy-to-follow vegetative keys, revealing drawings, crisp color photos, and handy range maps combine to make this a beautiful, reader-friendly resource to the novice and the expert alike. Each species has a page of text, including notes on habitat, morphology, and economic importance."--Michael Barbour, editor of California's Changing Landscapes "I love this book. It is warmly welcome as a guide for California's avid public, a public that includes natural history lovers, conservationists, consultants, agencies, and public and private land managers. It is useful, useable, packed with accurate information, and cannot help but assist us in the difficult job of preserving our natural heritage."--Jake Sigg, President, California Native Plant Society

The classic easy-reference field guide with more than 1500 photographs: “An almost foolproof practical reference book.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) This useful book for botanists, horticulturists, and nature lovers is made up of two parts: Pictorial Keys and Master Pages. The Keys are designed for easy visual comparison of details that look alike, narrowing the identification of a tree to one of a small group—the family or genus. Then, in the Master Pages, the species of the tree is determined, with similar details placed together to highlight differences within the family group, thus eliminating all other possibilities. All of the more than 1500 photographs were made specifically for use in this book and were taken either in the field or of carefully collected specimens. Where possible, details such as leaves, fruit, etc., appear in actual size, or in the same scale.

Trisha loves the eight days of Hanukkah, when her mother stays home from work, her Babushka makes delicious potato latkes, and her Grampa carves wonderful animals out of wood as gifts for Trisha and her brother. In the middle of her family's preparation for the festival of lights, Trisha visits her closest neighbors, expecting to find them decorating their house for Christmas. Instead they are all bedridden with scarlet fever. Trisha's family is one of the few who has been spared from the epidemic. It is difficult for them to enjoy their Hanukkah feast when they know that their neighbors won't be able to celebrate their holiday. Then Grampa has an inspiration: they will cut down trees, decorate them, and secretly deliver them to the neighbors, "But what can we decorate them with?" Babushka asks. Although it is a sacrifice, Trisha realizes that Grampa's carved animals are the perfect answer. Soon her living room is filled with trees -- but that is only the first miracle of many during an incredible holiday season. Based on a long cherished childhood memory, this story celebrates the miracle of true friendship.

The seven stories in Pam Durban's widely praised debut collection are tales of family, of love and loss, of survival and affirmation. Durban's resonant prose subtly obliges her readers to experience the rush of icy water in a stream, the taste of greens freshly snatched from an overgrown garden, the dread weight of confusion and uncertainty. In "This Heat," the opening story, a mill worker faces the long-expected loss of her teenage son when his weak heart finally gives out. In the title story, which concludes the collection, a formidably eccentric woman abruptly leaves her daughter and granddaughter to answer a "calling" to do missionary work in Africa. Framed between these two stories is a gathering of characters made real and consequential by Durban's touch: a country singer more than a few big breaks short of stardom, a preadolescent boy lovestruck over his private swimming instructor, a father cut off from his children by haunting war memories, and others.

The seminal ideas of this book played a key role in the development of group theory since the 70s. Several generations of mathematicians learned geometric ideas in group theory from this book. In it, the author proves the fundamental theorem for the special cases of free groups and tree products before dealing with the proof of the general case. This new edition is ideal for graduate students and researchers in algebra, geometry and topology.

"[The story of] a young prince who grows up giving and receiving seeds (words). He faithfully plants and waters those seeds daily, until they grow to become very powerful trees. Later, with the help of a friend, he is able to cut down and uproot the bad ones and then replant good seeds in their place"--Preliminary page.

This volume contains papers presented by New Zealand and American philosophers of biology during a recent visit to New Zealand by Elliott Sober. Some of the papers reveal a unique local perspective on current debates. Robin Craw's highly original contribution to the `evolutionary' philosophy of science initiated by David Hull, applies to intellectual evolution the strongly biogeographic approach to the evolution of life that is a recognised New Zealand speciality. Other papers reflect past intellectual exchange between the two countries. Susan Oyama and Russell Gray's papers on the `developmental systems' approach to evolution, for example, are the outcome of several years of fruitful exchange. The remaining papers in the volume cover a wide range of topics. In addition to Sober's own discussion of post-sociobiological treatments of cultural evolution the volume includes Kim Sterelny's evaluation of `macroevolution', Paul Griffiths' analysis of adaptation and vestigiality, John Morss on the notion of ontogeny and Timothy Shanahan on the concept of drift.

Schnitzel von Krumm is a dog of many talents. But everyone knows that dogs never climb trees.