Habitat for Bats encourages young learners to build reading comprehension skills with grade-appropriate vocabulary, extension activities, and an engaging story. Featuring reading activities and a Comprehension & Extension section, this 24-page title introduces transitioning readers to teacher-focused concepts that will help them gain important reading comprehension and learning skills. The vibrant illustrations and engaging leveled text in the Little Birdie Books’ Leveled Readers work together to tell fun stories while supporting early readers. Featuring grade-appropriate vocabulary and activities, these books help children develop essential skills for reading proficiency.

Rising from sandbars on the Platte River with clarion calls, the sandhill crane (Grus canadensis) feels the urgency of spring migration. Elegant, noble, and spiritual, the sandhill crane is one of the most ancient of all birds. More than a half-million strong, flying in squadrons, these majestic creatures point northward to their Arctic and sub-Arctic breeding ranges. Theirs is an epic story of endurance through the ages. With 153 stunning color photographs, On Ancient Wings presents sandhill cranes in their wild but increasingly compromised habitats today. Over the course of five years, Michael Forsberg documented the tall gray birds in habitats ranging from the Alaskan tundra, to the arid High Plains, from Cuban nature preserves to suburban backyards. With an eye for beauty and an uncommon persistence, the author documents the cranes' challenges to adapt and survive in a rapidly changing natural world. Forsberg argues that humankind, for its own sake, should secure the cranes' place in the future. On Ancient Wings intertwines the lives of cranes, people, and their common places to tell an ancient story at a time when sandhill cranes and their wetland and grassland habitats face daunting prospects.

Habitat for Humanity is a worldwide organization that builds homes with volunteer labour for needy people. Without volunteers to build these homes, Habitat for Humanity wouldn't exist; and ON THE WINGS OF HABITAT is a novel that explores the unique character of one specific Habitat volunteer, a mystery man called Tom Hudson; and in so doing, the story sheds light on the spiritual benefits of volunteerism. The three questions that this novel seeks to answer are: 1. Why do people volunteer their time to a cause? 2. What's in it for them? 3. What kind of people are volunteers? The narrator of ON THE WINGS OF HABITAT is a man who is not only a tradesman (a housepainter and drywall taper), but a seeker-writer; and it is his eclectic spiritual perspective on life that gives this novel its mystery, tension, and page-turning excitement. ON THE WINGS OF HABITAT is a love story. Two volunteers fall in love during the blitz build, Tom Hudson and Lorie Maki; but as critical as this love may be to carry the story along, it is Tom Hudson's profoundly disturbing Christian dilemma that gives the story its drama. Tom Hudson strikes a friendship with the narrator, Oriano DiFelice; and through this friendship his dilemma is given some measure of resolution, but only upon the condition that he rethinks some of the fundamental Christian premises that he holds dear. Because of the narrator's unique spiritual perspective on life, tensions arise between Tom Hudson's Christian beliefs and Oriano's belief in the Spiritual Laws of Karma and Reincarnation. This tension between traditionally held Christian beliefs and individual spiritual beliefs is also poignantly revealed in the character of Norman James Gauthier, a gay Roman Catholic Habitat volunteer who plays an important part in carrying the story to a happy resolution. The central character of ON THE WINGS OF HABITAT is the narrator. What makes him so fascinating is his profound grasp of the spiritual life. Through him the reader is led into the mysteries of Christ's mind-boggling teaching of spiritual rebirth, and how Oriano DiFelice came to grasp the secrets of this misunderstood teaching is what makes this novel such a unique memoir, and fascinating read. "The purpose of life," writes Orest Stocco, "is to become a giver, not a taker." And in his novel memoir he explores the nature of goodness which defines the volunteer. A captivating story woven into the Habitat for Humanity millennium blitz build in Thunder Bay, Ontario, ON THE WINGS OF HABITAT will awaken you to your own potential for goodness. It is a story that goes against the currents of contemporary literature and dares to speak the truth about man's spiritual purpose in life. ON THE WINGS OF HABITAT is a daring, provocative love story that will inspire you to rethink your priorities and connect you with your inner self, and fellow man.

A visual guide to how birds have become the masters of the air

Presents color photos of more than 150 bird species in the wild, accompanied by descriptions of their habitats and behavior. Arranged in habitat categories, including arctic tundra; forest and field; marsh, lake, and river; desert, scrub, and prairie; ocean and sea; and seashore.

Wings carry tiny insects, fluttering butterflies, and backyard birds, and they even once propelled some dinosaurs up and through the skies. Find out how, when, and why birds and beasts have taken to the air, and discover how wings work in this informative and brilliantly illustrated book about flight.