The Arctic is a land of ice and snow, a harsh world that seems ill-suited to young animals. Yet it is here that harp seal pups are raised. They must quickly learn how to fend for themselves, for in less than two weeks after birth they are weaned from their mothers and are forced to live on their own. Matthews and Guravich trace the life cycle of these fascinating animals who are true Arctic survivors. Full-color photos.

Seal Wars: Twenty-Five Years on the Front Lines is the bold and sprawling memoir of Canadian rebel Paul Watson. To some a hero, to others a 'fokking seal-loving piece of merde,' Sea Shepherd Captain Paul Watson recounts his 25 years on the front lines in the war to stop the slaughter of the Canadian harp seal. The memoir begins with an incident in 1995 when Watson was holed up in a hotel in the Magdalen Islands with actor Martin Sheen. An angry mob of sealers stormed the hotel and Watson had to be taken out by police and airlifted to safety. Watson then remembers the childhood experiences that shaped his adult consciousness. He runs through a history of the seal hunt, and moves into the campaigns he has fought in, starting in 1976 with a Greenpeace crew off Laborador, including forays onto the ice floes with Brigitte Bardot, Farley Mowat and Pierce Brosnan. Captain Paul Watson grew up on Canada's east coast. He was a founding member of Greenpeace, is an active supporter of North American native peoples and a veteran of Wounded Knee. He is the founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. And he has been the captain of a succession of ships dedicated to the protection of the world oceans, most recently Whales Forever.

There you are with your grande latte and designer sunglasses pushed up in your hair, wondering what book to buy. Are you ready if the sh*t hits the fan? Your supercomputer cell phone will either set you on $re or won't work at all, and your total lack of preparedness will make you one of the $rst victims. Just put this one back on the shelf because you don't really believe in this 'Apocalypse' garbage anyway. Your soft hands and sad excuse for a desk job have left you utterly worthless in a survival sense, and the fact that you just looked at your hands con$rms it. There are plenty of safe picture books, with large, simple words that will not intimidate you. Just keep droning on mindlessly at your meaningless job and forget that our existence on this planet could end at a moment's notice.

A delightful and amusing collection of the personable baby harp seal.

Did you know that mother seals give birth to only one seal pup? Watch how seal pups eat and grow until they set out on their own.

Learn all about seals.