"The Max Hamby series is perfect for readers of Harry Potter, Fablehaven, Unwanteds, Septimus Heap and Charlie Bone. A mix of magic, adventure, humor, friendship and family that draws you in." “You’re such a little moron, aren't you? They will hunt you down to the ends of the earth. It’s nothing personal, just business. It’s all about survival, dear boy." Twelve-year-old Max Hamby lives a quiet life just outside of town in the small community of Pleasant Seas and that's just the way he likes it... until the day he crashes into an odd exhibit at the local museum. Strange things begin to happen and even stranger people want Max all to themselves. It begins with the disappearance of his mother and a mysterious text message that takes him to the edge of the Downs; a dark forest where no one dares to go. He'll need to get past his eccentric neighbor first, but she has her own plan and reveals more than he ever thought possible. These new discoveries take him to Merrihaven and a land filled with unbelievable creatures, magic and a longstanding battle for power. Someone has resurrected the Shadowstone to free the evil imprisoned inside. With the help of some unlikely allies, Max must summon the courage to find seven magical stones to save his mother before it's too late. Max Hamby and the Blood Diamond is the first book in Kathy Cyr’s Max Hamby series; a middle grade fantasy series.

The first book in the children's fantasy series - Max Hamby It's the end of the school year and the day of the class field trip. Twelve year old Max Hamby gets locked in a strange room at the museum. It sets off a string of events that sends his life into a tailspin. An unwitting recipient of a magical stone as a baby, the Blood Diamond has awakened. Witches. Wizards. Gnomes. Dwarfs. Trolls. Giants. Max is left reeling when his mother disappears. The Shadow Stone is to blame. The key to a wasteland for the dead and a prison for a five hundred year old witch. It was never meant to be found. Now someone is using it to free the witch and has marked Max for death. In a good versus evil battle, he must use his power to fight for his life and find his mother before it's too late

Twelve year old Max Hamby, a shy loner whose fierce need to find his missing mother is threatened by a powerful stone and the man intent on releasing the evil imprisoned inside.A school field trip and visit to the principal's office lead to the police showing up and Max's day takes a turn for the worse. His mother is missing. The police have no leads, but his neighbors do.When he's left in the care of his eccentric neighbor, Mrs. Pitt,Max learns that magic is real and not at all like the fairytales his mother used to read to him. Someone has resurrected the Shadow Stone and is using his mother as bait to gain the Blood Diamond. The secrets his mother's been keeping are piling up and turning deadly. His only hope in saving her is with the help of a handful of witches, a dwarf, a troll and a couple of quirky aunts he never knew existed.

Scores of talented and dedicated people serve the forensic science community, performing vitally important work. However, they are often constrained by lack of adequate resources, sound policies, and national support. It is clear that change and advancements, both systematic and scientific, are needed in a number of forensic science disciplines to ensure the reliability of work, establish enforceable standards, and promote best practices with consistent application. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward provides a detailed plan for addressing these needs and suggests the creation of a new government entity, the National Institute of Forensic Science, to establish and enforce standards within the forensic science community. The benefits of improving and regulating the forensic science disciplines are clear: assisting law enforcement officials, enhancing homeland security, and reducing the risk of wrongful conviction and exoneration. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States gives a full account of what is needed to advance the forensic science disciplines, including upgrading of systems and organizational structures, better training, widespread adoption of uniform and enforceable best practices, and mandatory certification and accreditation programs. While this book provides an essential call-to-action for congress and policy makers, it also serves as a vital tool for law enforcement agencies, criminal prosecutors and attorneys, and forensic science educators.

Based on previously unexamined historical documents found in archives in Belgium, England, Israel, the Netherlands, and the United States, this book is the first in English to tell the story of the formation of one of the world's main strongholds of diamond production and trade in Palestine during the 1930s and 1940s. The history of the diamond-cutting industry, characterized by a long-standing Jewish presence, is discussed as a social history embedded in the international political economy of its times; the genesis of the industry in Palestine is placed on a broad continuum within the geographic and economic dislocations of Dutch, Belgian, and German diamond-cutting centers. In providing a micro-historical and interdisciplinary perspective, the story of the diamond industry in Mandate Palestine proposes a more nuanced picture of the uncritical approach to the strict boundaries of ethnic-based occupational communities.

The Real Buzz on Bees What a promise! Actually, promises. First, here’s a book that teaches kids all about the fascinating world of bees. Second, fun exercises, activities, and illustrations engage the imagination and offer a deeper understanding of bee life and bee behavior. Third, by following a few simple steps including removing the book’s cover and taping it together, readers can transform the book into an actual living home for backyard bees. Fourth, added all together, Turn This Book Into a Beehive! lets kids make a difference in the world—building a home where bees can thrive is one small but critical step in reversing the alarming trend of dwindling bee populations. Written by Lynn Brunelle, author of Pop Bottle Science, whose gift for making science fun earned her four Emmy Awards as a writer for Bill Nye the Science Guy, Turn This Book Into a Beehive! introduces kids to the amazing mason bee, a non-aggressive, non-stinging super-pollinator that does the work of over 100 honeybees. Mason bees usually live in hollow reeds or holes in wood, but here’s how to make a home just for them: Tear out the perforated paper—each illustrated as a different room in a house—roll the sheets into tubes, enclose the tubes using the book’s cover, and hang the structure outside. The bees will arrive, pack mud into the tubes, and begin pollinating all the plants in your backyard. Twenty experiments and activities reveal even more about bees—how to smell like a bee, understand the role of flowers and pollen, learn how bees communicate with each other through “dance,” and more. It’s the real buzz on bees, delivered in the most ingenious and interactive way.

From the author of How We Die, the extraordinary story of the development of modern medicine, told through the lives of the physician-scientists who paved the way. How does medical science advance? Popular historians would have us believe that a few heroic individuals, possessing superhuman talents, lead an unselfish quest to better the human condition. But as renowned Yale surgeon and medical historian Sherwin B. Nuland shows in this brilliant collection of linked life portraits, the theory bears little resemblance to the truth. Through the centuries, the men and women who have shaped the world of medicine have been not only very human, but also very much the products of their own times and places. Presenting compelling studies of great medical innovators and pioneers, Doctors gives us a fascinating history of modern medicine. Ranging from the legendary Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, to Andreas Vesalius, whose Renaissance masterwork on anatomy offered invaluable new insight into the human body, to Helen Taussig, founder of pediatric cardiology and co-inventor of the original "blue baby" operation, here is a volume filled with the spirit of ideas and the thrill of discovery.