Blair can't wait for her first duck hunt, but two massive storms collide and change what was to be an exciting hunt into a desperate struggle for survival. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Chapter Books is an imprint of Spotlight, a division of ABDO.

Back Cover Reading: Blair Thomas lives in the friendly, lakeside town of Lainey, Michigan, on the beautiful shores of Lake Huron. Lainey boasts superb hunting opportunities and offers visitors miles of sandy shoreline and weekend tours of the historic Tesla Lighthouse.It's the beginning of the fall, duck hunting season, and Blair and her dad are busy preparing for her very first duck hunt. The forecast is calling for extremely high winds and rain, absolutely perfect weather for duck hunting-it doesn't get any better than this!Excitement mounts as Blair, her dad, and their faithful chocolate lab, Mac, head in their john-boat toward Edmond Island, four miles offshore. But things start to spiral out of control quickly as two massive storms collide, creating an historic storm directly overhead. Storms like this are dangerous, and this one turns out to be much worse than Blair or her dad could ever have imagined.The storm takes control of the lake, hammering them with huge waves, and changes what was to be an exciting duck hunt into a desperate struggle for survival. Amidst all the chaos, however, the storm has a special gift for Blair. But will she survive long enough to get it?

Hometown-Hunters presents:A Bronze Moonbeam Children's Book Award Winning Series (6 Books). Accelerated Reader approved and Lexile Measure for reading points if offered at your school. Hometown Hunters books each contain a new adventure, main character, and life learning lesson for kids to take with them as they finish each book. Lane Walker aims to help kids get back into reading and off video games and technology, while giving them content they can relate to and learn from.Learning Life Lesson(s) From Each Book:Book 1: Friendship, faith, and believing in yourselfBook 2: Forgiveness, and redemptionBook 3: Never give up, stay hopeful in tough situations, resilienceBook 4: Anti-bullying, resilience, there is more to life than video gamesBook 5: Self-respect, never give up, and survivalBook 6: Redemption, life-changing, and hopeParent Feedback:Parents have reached out wit the following remarks:- My kids don't like reading, but they won't put your books down.- Bought the books for my son and ended up finding my daughter enjoying them just as much!- My reluctant reader loves these books, I have never seen him WANT to read.- Great books! I bought them for my classroom, and the kids love them.Book Specifications: Width x Height: 5.25" x 7.5"Average Pages: 150 PagesCover Style: Softcover/HardcoverView Inside Books:Book 1: Legend of the Ghost BuckBook 2: The Hunt For ScarfaceBook 3: Terror at Deadwood LakeBook 4: The Boss Redemption RoadBook 5: The Day it Rained DucksBook 6: The Lost Deer Camp

In this touching memoir of his boyhood on a farm in the Ozark foothills, Harry Middleton joins the front rank of nature writers alongside Edward Hoagland and Annie Dillard. It is the year1965, a year rife with change in the world and in the life of a boy whose tragic loss of innocence leads him to the healing landscape of the Ozarks. Haunted by indescribable longing, twelve year old Harry is turned over to two enigmatic guardians, men as old as the hills they farm and as elusive and beautiful as the trout they fish for with religious devotion. Seeking strength and purpose from life, Harry learns from his uncle, grandfather, and their crazy Sioux neighbor, Elias Wonder, that the pulse of life beats from within the deep constancy of the earth, and from one’s devotion to it. Amidst the rhythm of an ancient cadence, Harry discovers his home: a farm, a mountain stream, and the eye of a trout rising.

As if it will make up for her loss, they bring Hannah a duckling to care for. They were well meaning, and it could have done the trick. However, Hannah’s focus on the duck progressively alienates those around her. As the duck takes over her world, past secrets are exposed. Will Hannah’s life unravel completely? This funny, moving and insightful novel contemplates the chemistry between one person and another: a man and another man’s wife; a woman and a duck; a woman and her dead mother; a drug addict and his drug. Beautifully written, it is a penetrating and compassionate view of marriage, dependency, obsession, addiction, and love.

“Riveting . . . Readers will quickly warm to [Frank] Delaney’s vividly described Ireland of the 1950s, its fully realized inhabitants, and the dynamic political and personal relationships that make for a remarkable story.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “If we’re to live good lives, we have to tell ourselves our own story. In a good way.” So says Ben MacCarthy’s beloved mentor, and it is this fateful advice that will guide Ben through the tumultuous events of Ireland in 1956. The national mood is downtrodden; poverty, corruption, and an armed rebellion rattle the countryside; and although Ben wants no part of the insurrection, he unknowingly falls in with an IRA sympathizer. Yet despite his perilous circumstances, all he can think about is finding his former wife and true love, Venetia Kelly, who after many years has returned to Ireland with her brutish new husband, a popular stage performer. Determined not to lose Venetia again, Ben calls upon every bit of his passion and courage to win her back, while finally reconciling his violent past with his hopes for a bright future. Brimming with fascinating Irish history, daring intrigue, and the drama of legendary love, The Last Storyteller is an unforgettable novel as richly textured and inspiring as Ireland itself. “A colorful, leisurely tale, with dark moments as well as humor and grace.”—The Star-Ledger “A magical tale [that] weaves in a jackpot of Irish myths.”—Bookreporter “Character-rich and dramatic.”—Library Journal

Rivers under Siege is a wrenching firsthand account of how human interventions, often well intentioned, have wreaked havoc on West Tennessee's fragile wetlands. For more than a century, farmers and developers tried to tame the rivers as they became clogged with sand and debris, thereby increasing flooding. Building levees and changing the course of the rivers from meandering streams to straight-line channels, developers only made matters worse. Yet the response to failure was always to try to subdue nature, to dig even bigger channels and construct even more levees-an effort that reached its sorry culmination in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' massive West Tennessee Tributaries Project during the 1960s. As a result, the rivers' natural hydrology descended into chaos, devastating the plant and animal ecology of the region's wetlands. Crops and trees died from summer flooding, as much of the land turned into useless, stagnant swamps. The author was one of a small group of state waterfowl managers who saw it all happen, most sadly within the Obion-Forked Deer river system and at Reelfoot Lake. After much trial and error, Johnson and his colleagues in the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency began by the 1980s to abandon their old methods, resorting to management procedures more in line with the natural contours of the floodplains and the natural behavior of rivers. Preaching their new stewardship philosophy to anyone who might listen-their supervisors, duck hunters, conservationists, politicians, federal agencies-they were often ignored. The campaign dragged on for twenty years before an innovative and rational plan came from the Governor's Office and gained wide support. But then, too, that plan fell prey to politics, legal wrangling, self-interest, hardheadedness, and tradition. Yet, despite such heartbreaking setbacks, the author points to hopeful signs that West Tennessee's historic wetlands might yet be recovered for the benefit of all who use them and recognize their vital importance. Jim W. Johnson, now retired, was for many years a lands management biologist with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. He was responsible for the overall supervision and coordination of thirteen wildlife management areas and refuges, primarily for waterfowl, in northwest Tennessee.

A wonderful meditation on the English landscape in wet weather by the acclaimed novelist and nature writer, Melissa Harrison.Whenever rain falls, our countryside changes. Fields, farms, hills and hedgerows appear altered, the wildlife behaves differently, and over time the terrain itself is transformed.In Rain, Melissa Harrison explores our relationship with the weather as she follows the course of four rain showers, in four seasons, across Wicken Fen, Shropshire, the Darent Valley and Dartmoor. Blending these expeditions with reading, research, memory and imagination, she reveals how rain is not just an essential element of the world around us, but a key part of our own identity too.