A six-volume set that centers around four kids who suddenly find themselves alone after millions around the world disappear.

Patrick Brantlinger here examines the commonly held nineteenth-century view that all "primitive" or "savage" races around the world were doomed sooner or later to extinction. Warlike propensities and presumed cannibalism were regarded as simultaneously noble and suicidal, accelerants of the downfall of other races after contact with white civilization. Brantlinger finds at the heart of this belief the stereotype of the self-exterminating savage, or the view that "savagery" is a sufficient explanation for the ultimate disappearance of "savages" from the grand theater of world history.Humanitarians, according to Brantlinger, saw the problem in the same terms of inevitability (or doom) as did scientists such as Charles Darwin and Thomas Henry Huxley as well as propagandists for empire such as Charles Wentworth Dilke and James Anthony Froude. Brantlinger analyzes the Irish Famine in the context of ideas and theories about primitive races in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere. He shows that by the end of the nineteenth century, especially through the influence of the eugenics movement, extinction discourse was ironically applied to "the great white race" in various apocalyptic formulations. With the rise of fascism and Nazism, and with the gradual renewal of aboriginal populations in some parts of the world, by the 1930s the stereotypic idea of "fatal impact" began to unravel, as did also various more general forms of race-based thinking and of social Darwinism.

Contains fascinating facts about disappearances, including missing persons, lost worlds, extinct species, and more.

Mysterious Vanishings checks out the weirdest vanishings in the world--stories too strange to be made up! The book is written with a high interest level to appeal to a more mature audience with a lower level of complexity for struggling readers. Clear visuals and colorful photographs help with comprehension. Fascinating information and wild facts that will hold the readers' interest are conveyed in considerate text for older readers, allowing for successful mastery of content. A table of contents, glossary, and index all enhance comprehension and vocabulary.

Vanishings is a stunning collection of autobiographical narratives that propel us into the life and mind of a literary genius. "Yams were in stories about Africa that I read in Sunday school. Tribes ate them, villagers who still carried spears and stared at missionaries who visited them to explain Jesus. I was out of college before I willingly ate a yam, filling a groove I cut in its skin with butter and brown sugar a minute before I took it from the oven. A few years later, when I had children of my own who complained about yams, wishing for French fries or mashed potatoes with gravy, the milk carton that sat on the table during dinner always featured the face of a missing child. "Have You Seen Me?" its caption read, and those faces reminded me to be thankful even as my children yammered their petty complaints. As the three of them poked at their half-eaten yams, wasting what was left after a half hour of whining, those milk carton faces kept my anger in check." --from the book

Four former Christian teenagers find themselves alone and afraid following the Rapture when God spirits His followers away to Heaven.

Presents researched and documented cases of supernatural vanishings, including stories of appearances and disappearances, animal entrances and exits, teleportation and bilocation, and other mysterious comings and goings.