In this short chapter book, readers will discover operatic dreams of three wonderful French felines. Silhouette, Eugene, and Minuet are on a mission to fulfill their dreams of going to the Paris opera. First, they go and sing in front of the opera building to earn money for their tickets. When the cats realize that the tickets are sold out, they've got to find a more creative way to watch the show. Before they know it, they find themselves on the opera stage with a giant crowd cheering them on. Readers will love the silly illustrations and the inspiring story about loud-mouth Eugene finding a place where he fits in purrfectly. This 6-Pack includes six copies of this title plus a lesson plan.

In this short chapter book, readers will discover operatic dreams of three wonderful French felines. Silhouette, Eugene, and Minuet are on a mission to fulfill their dreams of going to the Paris opera. First, they go and sing in front of the opera building to earn money for their tickets. When the cats realize that the tickets are sold out, they've got to find a more creative way to watch the show. Before they know it, they find themselves on the opera stage with a giant crowd cheering them on. Readers will love the silly illustrations and the inspiring story about loud-mouth Eugene finding a place where he fits in purrfectly. This 6-Pack includes six copies of this Level M title and a lesson plan that specifically supports Guided Reading instruction.

Kingii is a frilled lizard who narrowly escapes danger throughout this intense reader. Children will learn about different predators and the lifestyles of frilled lizards in this exciting story. Kingii escapes fire, wins a territory battle, and eventually secures the love of his mate. Wonderful wildlife illustrations accompany this story of Kingii the frilled lizard and his search for a safe home in the savanna. This 6-Pack includes six copies of this Level M title and a lesson plan that specifically supports Guided Reading instruction.

Kingii is a frilled lizard who narrowly escapes danger throughout this intense reader. Children will learn about different predators and the lifestyles of frilled lizards in this exciting story. Kingii escapes fire, wins a territory battle, and eventually secures the love of his mate. Wonderful wildlife illustrations accompany this story of Kingii the frilled lizard and his search for a safe home in the savanna. This 6-Pack includes six copies of this title plus a lesson plan.

The clock is relentlessly ticking! Our world teeters on a knife-edge between a peaceful and prosperous future for all, and a dark winter of death and destruction that threatens to smother the light of civilization. Within 30 years, in the 2030 decade, six powerful 'drivers' will converge with unprecedented force in a statistical spike that could tear humanity apart and plunge the world into a new Dark Age. Depleted fuel supplies, massive population growth, poverty, global climate change, famine, growing water shortages and international lawlessness are on a crash course with potentially catastrophic consequences. In the face of both doomsaying and denial over the state of our world, Colin Mason cuts through the rhetoric and reams of conflicting data to muster the evidence to illustrate a broad picture of the world as it is, and our possible futures. Ultimately his message is clear; we must act decisively, collectively and immediately to alter the trajectory of humanity away from catastrophe. Offering over 100 priorities for immediate action, The 2030 Spike serves as a guidebook for humanity through the treacherous minefields and wastelands ahead to a bright, peaceful and prosperous future in which all humans have the opportunity to thrive and build a better civilization. This book is powerful and essential reading for all people concerned with the future of humanity and planet earth.

A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.

'Catastrophe Risk Financing in Developing Countries' provides a detailed analysis of the imperfections and inefficiencies that impede the emergence of competitive catastrophe risk markets in developing countries. The book demonstrates how donors and international financial institutions can assist governments in middle- and low-income countries in promoting effective and affordable catastrophe risk financing solutions. The authors present guiding principles on how and when governments, with assistance from donors and international financial institutions, should intervene in catastrophe insurance markets. They also identify key activities to be undertaken by donors and institutions that would allow middle- and low-income countries to develop competitive and cost-effective catastrophe risk financing strategies at both the macro (government) and micro (household) levels. These principles and activities are expected to inform good practices and ensure desirable results in catastrophe insurance projects. 'Catastrophe Risk Financing in Developing Countries' offers valuable advice and guidelines to policy makers and insurance practitioners involved in the development of catastrophe insurance programs in developing countries.

This publication, Earthquake insurance in Turkey, is an exposition of the dangers faced by Turkey as it is located in one of the most active earthquake (EQ) and volcanic regions in the world on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the efforts that Turkey is making to alleviate the social and fiscal disasters that are caused when these calamities do strike. The persistent potential for large-scale disasters has led to the establishment of the Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool (TCIP) in 1999. The main rationale for the creation of TCIP was a very low level of catastrophe insurance penetration among households. The authors stress that the four principal objectives of the program are to (1) provide earthquake insurance coverage at affordable but actuarially sound rates for all registered urban dwellings, (2) limit the government's financial exposure to natural disasters, (3) build long-term catastrophe reserves to finance future earthquake losses, and (4) encourage risk reduction and mitigation practices in residential construction. The book points out that the program has reduced significantly the government's fiscal exposure to EQ risk. In five years, the TCIP transformed itself from an unknown and controversial government-sponsored program to one of the most trusted brand names in the Turkish insurance industry. Moreover, it has led the World Bank to rethink the roles of ex-ante risk management relative to ex-post donor support. In this context, the World Bank supported Turkey's earthquake insurance program to establish and expand national catastrophic risk management and risk transfer capabilities. The authors conclude that the TCIP's success has brought it worldwide recognition. Inspired by the TCIP's example, more than a dozen countries, including China, Colombia, Greece, India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Italy, the Philippines, Romania, and nine island states of the Caribbean have begun technical and legislative preparation of catastrophe insurance programs.

After the collapse of civilization, when the social fabric of America has come apart in bloody rags, when every man's hand is raised against another, and only the strong survive. "Jeebee" Walther was a scientist, a student of human behavior, who saw the Collapse of the world economy coming, but could do nothing to stop it. Now he must make his way across a violent and lawless America, in search of a refuge where he can keep the spark of knowledge alive in the coming Dark Age. He could never make it on his own, but he has found a companion who can teach him how to survive on instinct and will. Jeebee has been adopted by a great Gray Wolf.