WARNING: Slow readers, do not read before bed time! Fast readers, go ahead and dig for that happy(?) ending. The Ice Trader starts this intensely suspenseful and suspensefully intense tale deep in the past of our galaxy where the species were all benevolent. Then an outside force entered and destroyed the peace of the entire galaxy. Thousands of years later, one female alien is left upon Earth. Sickened by Earths viruses, germs and diseases, she struggles against all odds to finish her assignment: to prepare Earth for her kind to invade this blue planet for the sake of its abundant water. She and her friend, who died about a decade earlier, had taken many Earth people captive and made them icy meals. However, at the time the ability of the two was not enough to allow the upcoming invasion force to un-terra-form the Earth for their own kind and to make it into a second frigid home world, turning all humans into icy delicacies for the to trade with other species of the galaxy. Tom Andrews, the Earth-man hero, becomes the hero of not only the Earth, but of all species that remained true to their benevolent beginnings. The evil is eradicated and everything, except for the extinguished specie of extreme evil, returns back to normal in more ways than one. The author would recommend 99.999 percent of this book to the general readership of G-rated science fiction. The remainder, though not sexual, involves one rather intense scene on two pages of chapter eight that involves the alien female upon the lap of the yet-to-be hero, inquisitive as to the so-called romance packages that are vagrantly displayed upon Earth television and movies. One particular kind of a television program has her most intrigued: soap operas. Kids grow up too fast in todays culture, and it may not be suitable for pre-teens and some teenagers. There is no sex portrayed within the book, but the author would suggest that parents carefully read and determine their own childs individual ability before allowing them read it. Its on two pages within Chapter 8. The Ice Trader is full of intensity and suspense, but does not lack moments of humor, love, and romance. This is definitely one book not to be missed, and the ending alone is well-worth the read.

Why do America’s cities look the way they do? If we want to know the answer, we should start by looking at our relationship with animals. Americans once lived alongside animals. They raised them, worked them, ate them, and lived off their products. This was true not just in rural areas but also in cities, which were crowded with livestock and beasts of burden. But as urban areas grew in the nineteenth century, these relationships changed. Slaughterhouses, dairies, and hog ranches receded into suburbs and hinterlands. Milk and meat increasingly came from stores, while the family cow and pig gave way to the household pet. This great shift, Andrew Robichaud reveals, transformed people’s relationships with animals and nature and radically altered ideas about what it means to be human. As Animal City illustrates, these transformations in human and animal lives were not inevitable results of population growth but rather followed decades of social and political struggles. City officials sought to control urban animal populations and developed sweeping regulatory powers that ushered in new forms of urban life. Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals worked to enhance certain animals’ moral standing in law and culture, in turn inspiring new child welfare laws and spurring other wide-ranging reforms. The animal city is still with us today. The urban landscapes we inhabit are products of the transformations of the nineteenth century. From urban development to environmental inequality, our cities still bear the scars of the domestication of urban America.

"This is a collection of free translations from the ancient Greek poet Callimachus, whose surviving work includes the Aitia, a narrative elegy; the Iambi, short poems on occasional themes; and the Hecale, a small-scale epic. The poet and critic Stephanie Burt has written contemporary adaptations of what she calls "Callimachus's lyric, epigrammatic, and narrative genius for our times." These are not literal translations for students of Greek, but instead free translations intended to bring poetry of classical antiquity into modern verse. Considered a major poet in Greek and European readings but not yet in English, Callimachus is remembered for a few sayings, among them 'mega biblion, mega kakon': a big, or long, or great book (an epic, for example) is a great evil, or a big, bad thing. Burt's intention is to make Callimachus' 'miniaturist, irony-loving, anti-macho sensibility' more accessible to Anglophone readers, with the advantage that Callimachus 'speaks without centuries of great English poets who have already adapted him'"--

With shades of When You Reach Me, The Thing About Jellyfish, and Bridge to Terabithia, and a big, timely climate hook at its core, here is a heartfelt middle grade debut about the inevitability of change that will resonate profoundly during these extraordinary times. Spring has arrived, and yet an unyielding winter freeze has left Louisa snowed into her apartment building for months with parents coping with extreme stress, a little brother struggling with cabin fever, and—awkwardly—her neighbor and former close friend, Luke. The new realities of this climate disaster have not only affected Louisa's family, but when Luke's dad has an ice-related accident and it's unclear if he'll recover, both families' lives are turned upside down. Desperate to find an escape from the grief plaguing their homes, Louisa and Luke build a massive snow fort in their yard. But their creation opens up an otherworldly window to what could lie ahead, and sets them on a mission: to restore the universe to its rightful order, so the ice will melt and life will return to "normal". With a deft combination of heartfelt prose and a touch of magic, Monica Sherwood's affecting debut novel is a relatable story of families grappling with—and emerging from—a different kind of quarantine.