HARRY THE CAMEL lives in the sand dunes of Dubai, and he often watches from a distance as the beautifully sleek race horses at the track run their laps. He laments that his back isn't as smooth as theirs and wonders how much faster he could run without his bulky old hump.

An icon of World War I aerial combat, the Sopwith Camel was a superb dogfighter in the hands of a pilot who could master its vicious idiosyncrasies. The first British fighter to be armed with twin machine guns, the Camel packed a considerable punch and was highly successful, notching up a considerable number of aerial victories. The Camel was a remarkable aircraft, and one that could perform in a variety of roles, including as a ground strafer, a night fighter and a carrier-based fighter. As newer, higher performance aircraft types were introduced and began to eclipse it, the dominance of the Camel declined and losses mounted. Nevertheless, Camels appeared over battlefields throughout the war and beyond, notably in the Russian Civil War.

'I am at home with camels. Where others see a dirty, filthy, smelling, kicking beast, I see a thing of pure anatomical beauty, an intelligent and graceful creature...Because of camels I have built a life I never imagined possible. And all this happened because I decided to say yes to adventure whenever it came my way.' When Sydney-born vet Alex Tinson was literally plucked from the Australian outback to become chief vet in charge of the United Arab Emirates President's racing camels, he was given one mission: to make the President's camels the best in the UAE and, indeed, all of Arabia. Thirty years later he is still there, having become the world's leading camel vet while caring for a menagerie of unusual animals along the way. But this is more than a story about camels and monkeys, spiders and snakes, and all sorts of other exotic creatures. It is also about crossing boundaries of race and religion to create a life full of possibility, of being introduced to the reclusive world of the Gulf Royal families and of sharing the rich lives of Alex's Bedouin family and friends. Warm and generous, intriguing and compelling, The Desert Vet takes us to a place few have entered before.

Do you get books from a public library in your town or even in your school library? In many remote areas of the world, there are no library buildings. In many countries, books are delivered in unusual way: by bus, boat, elephant, donkey, train, even by wheelbarrow. Why would librarians go to the trouble of packing books on the backs of elephants or driving miles to deliver books by bus? Because, as one librarian in Azerbaijan says, "Books are as important to us as air or water!" This is the intriguing photo essay, a celebration of books, readers, and libraries.

All Thomas Mirren wants is a simple life. He's an old man now, after all. On his ninetieth birthday, while selling poppies, Thomas interrupts two shoplifters. To get back at him, they start a rumour that the former soldier had never served in the army. Just an old man pretending to be a hero. But who would believe such a thing? Ian Rogers is a journalist. Things are quiet in the office, but then one day, he's handed a story: something about a military imposter. Someone is claiming that Thomas Mirren is a fraud. And it seems there's no record of the old soldier either. Could there be something to it? In a world where perception is reality, does the truth even matter anymore? Does the past matter? Well, it matters to Thomas Mirren, and it looks like his past is about to catch up with him.

New Hard-Boiled Detective Series Uncovers Bones, Bodies and Murder! "A fiercely intelligent crime drama as emotionally sharp as it is historically inventive. Krishtalka's prose is powerfully versatile, alternating between the sort of terse, unsentimental phrasing that one would expect from a detective story and poetical elegance."~ Kirkus ReviewsPaleontologist turned private investigator, Harry Przewalski, excavates the dirty underbelly of people's lives, unearthing sexual betrayals, treachery, fraud and murder buried beneath the science of petrified shards, skin and bones. Ultimately, he must face a brutal killing in his own past, when he fled to a desert war and came back with a gun and a license to detect. A famous, 150-year-old museum diorama is vandalized--it depicts the ferocious attack by two lions on a North African courier crossing the Sahara on a Dromedary. The belly of the taxidermied camel has been sliced open and a bundle removed, shedding bits of flesh from a child. Harry is hired to investigate the macabre history of the exhibit. The taxidermist has a grisly past: a sexual affair, a lover's betrayal, a lurid trial, and graves in Botswana and Tunisia plundered for human dioramas. The camel driver's skull and skin are mounted under his clothing. In a Paris museum, a dead archaeologist, a bloodstained journal, and the theft of a Neanderthal child's skull and teeth lead Harry to the stolen bundle--a scientific bombshell worth killing for in a murderous race for fame.

The U.S. Army's oddest recruits: Camels! In this strange but true historical tale, 34 camels were imported to Texas to work as pack animals for the army in 1856. Many people had never seen such strange animals; they didn't believe that these smelly beasts could possibly be useful. Despite many Texans' initial doubts, the camels thrived in the state's desert and transported important military messages and supplies.

Laugh and learn with fun facts about mammals, from the land to the sea, the smallest (pygmy shrew) to the largest (blue whale), and more—all told in Dr. Seuss’s beloved rhyming style and starring the Cat in the Hat! “Yes, people are mammals—amazing but true! Oh, and cats in tall hats? Well...yes. We’re mammals, too!” The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library series combines beloved characters, engaging rhymes, and Seussian illustrations to introduce children to non-fiction topics from the real world! Journey around the world and discover: what makes an animal a mammal what the world’s smallest and largest mammals are how different mammals take care of their babies and much more! Perfect for story time and for the youngest readers, Is a Camel a Mammal? All About Mammals also includes an index, glossary, and suggestions for further learning. Look for more books in the Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library series! High? Low? Where Did It Go? All About Animal Camouflage The 100 Hats of the Cat in the Hat: A Celebration of the 100th Day of School A Great Day for Pup: All About Wild Babies Would You Rather Be a Pollywog? All About Pond Life Happy Pi Day to You! All About Measuring Circles I Can Name 50 Trees Today! All About Trees Fine Feathered Friends: All About Birds My, Oh My--A Butterfly! All About Butterflies Oh Say Can You Seed? All About Flowering Plants Inside Your Outside! All About the Human Body Ice is Nice! All About the North and South Poles

Stone Cold by David Baldacci is the third exhilarating thriller in the bestselling Camel Club series. Oliver Stone and the Camel Club are back. Set on exposing the real story behind the closed doors of America’s leaders, they draw upon their vast experience to seek justice and the truth. Now they must face their most dangerous adventure yet – a war on two fronts. Casino king Jerry Bagger is hunting Annabelle Conroy, the elite con-artist who cheated him out of millions. Stone and his colleagues must draw on all their resources if they are to protect Annabelle from a terrible fate. Yet all their skills may not be enough when a deadly new opponent rips off the veneer of Stone’s own mysterious past. An unstoppable killer intent on one goal: the death of Oliver Stone. Stone Cold is followed by Divine Justice and Hell's Corner.

In the early 1800s the Great Australian Unknown would be slowly revealed, in part by formal government expeditions, but also by runaway convicts, little known and privately funded explorers, and pastoralists seeking both knowledge of what lay beyond and land to occupy. Through extensive research, and with engaging storytelling, The Other Side of the Mountain brings three of these men’s stories together into a single enthralling narrative: Ralph Entwistle, runaway convict and bushranger who led a brief and briefly successful rebellion against the brutality of the convict system on the fringes of New South Wales’ western plains; John Horrocks, an English textiles magnate who brought most of his village from the north of England to Adelaide and beyond, and who was the first to explore Australia’s parched interior by camel - a decision that cost him his life; and Horace Wills, a printer, rebel, overlander, pastoralist and politician who gave up everything to push the frontier back in the far north of the continent. While our history books recount the momentous advances made when Europeans spread across the continent, the stories of Ralph Entwistle, John Horrocks and Horace Wills are a reminder that those advances were almost always built on smaller endeavours, often made by people whose names we rarely hear today but whose impacts were often of the greatest significance.