Over the past 20 years dramatic declines have taken place in UK insect populations. Eventually, such declines must have knock-on effects for other animals, especially high profile groups such as birds and mammals. This authoritative, yet accessible account details the current state of the wildlife in Britain and Ireland and offers an insight into the outlook for the future. Written by a team of the country's leading experts, it appraises the changes that have occurred in a wide range of wildlife species and their habitats and outlines urgent priorities for conservation. It includes chapters on each of the vertebrate and major invertebrate groups, with the insects covered in particular depth. Also considered are the factors that drive environmental change and the contribution at local and government level to national and international wildlife conservation. Essential reading for anyone who is interested in, and concerned about, UK wildlife.

Danielle Washington has experienced one of the greatest losses in life. And the last three words she says to her mother are the final ones she speaks aloud. Stuck in grief, Danielle and her brother go to spend a summer with their grandmother in Calm Beach. Trevor Williams plans on enjoying the summer before college with no attachments … until he literally runs into Danielle. He quickly learns that she doesn’t speak, and they find other ways to communicate. The more he discovers about her, the more his feelings grow for her as he realizes that she’s unlike any other girl he’s ever known. But can their newfound relationship survive the silent summer?

When no one listens, what's the point of talking?Kyle McGinley doesn't say a word. Fed up with being shuttled from one foster care home to another, he has stopped speaking. But at the home of Scott and Jill Wardman, with the help of a crow, and a swamp, and an excess of blank paint, he begins to think that maybe, just maybe, life could be better.As long as his frigging dad doesn't mess things up.

That Silent Summer is a warmhearted middle-grade book set in a season of discovery, friends and family.

Danielle Washington has experienced one of the greatest losses in life. And the last three words she says to her mother are the final ones she speaks aloud. Stuck in grief, Danielle and her brother go to spend a summer with their grandmother in Calm Beach. Trevor Williams plans on enjoying the summer before college with no attachments ? until he literally runs into Danielle. He quickly learns that she doesn't speak, and they find other ways to communicate. The more he discovers about her, the more his feelings grow for her as he realizes that she's unlike any other girl he's ever known. But can their newfound relationship survive the silent summer?

People are born in one place. Traditionally humans move around more than other animals, but in modernity the global mobility of persons and the factors of production increasingly disrupts the sense of place that is an intrinsic part of the human experience of being on earth. Industrial development and fossil fuelled mobility negatively impact the sense of place and help to foster a culture of placelessness where buildings, fields and houses increasingly display a monotonous aesthetic. At the same time ecological habitats, and diverse communities of species are degraded. Romantic resistance to the industrial evisceration of place and ecological diversity involved the setting aside of scenic or sublime landscapes as wilderness areas or parks. However the implication of this project is that human dwelling and ecological sustainability are intrinsically at odds. In this collection of essays Michael Northcott argues that the sense of the sacred which emanates from local communities of faith sustained a 'parochial ecology' which, over the centuries, shaped communities that were more socially just and ecologically sustainable than the kinds of exchange relationships and settlement patterns fostered by a global and place-blind economy. Hence Christian communities in medieval Europe fostered the distributed use and intergenerational care of common resources, such as alpine meadows, forests or river catchments. But contemporary political economists neglect the role of boundaried places, and spatial limits, in the welfare of human and ecological communities. Northcott argues that place-based forms of community, dwelling and exchange – such as a local food economy – more closely resemble evolved commons governance arrangements, and facilitate the revival of a sense of neighbourhood, and of reconnection between persons and the ecological places in which they dwell.

An enchanting--and twisted--tale of two sisters' quest to find their parents When their parents disappear in the middle of the night, young sisters Summer and Bird set off on a quest to find them. A cryptic picture message from their mother leads them to a familiar gate in the woods, but comfortable sights quickly give way to a new world entirely--Down--one inhabited by talking birds and the evil Puppeteer queen. Summer and Bird are quickly separated, and their divided hearts lead them each in a very different direction in the quest to find their parents, vanquish the Puppeteer, lead the birds back to their Green Home, and discover the identity of the true bird queen. With breathtaking language and deliciously inventive details, Katherine Catmull has created a world unlike any other, skillfully blurring the lines between magic and reality and bringing to life a completely authentic cast of characters and creatures.

"There's something strange going on at Camp Rivkah...On their second day at camp, puzzling events begin when Bracha and Sara overhear an elderly lady named Tante crying about diamonds in her garden. Cars come and go at all hours of the day and night, and strange noises can be heard through the window of her cottage. What's going on? If that mystery isn't enough to keep the irrepressible duo on their toes, the action intensifies when Aviva, a beautiful young girl who hasn't spoken a word for years, joins the camp. Will our heroines be able to help her? Join Bracha and Sara as they plant, sing, and sleuth their way through the summer."--Amazon.com.