Hop aboard Wind Rider, a magical sailboat, with Max and Sofia, two kids trying to save the environment one problem at a time. Their second mission? Protecting majestic scarlet macaw chicks in the most biodiverse place on Earth, the Amazon rain forest. Max and Sofia are ordinary kids whose lives are changed when they discover an abandoned sailboat. They’re given the chance to make a real impact when the boat magically transports them to a different corner of the world to help other kids save their environment. Wind Riders: Search for the Scarlet Macaws is the second book in an illustrated chapter book series about Max and Sofia’s adventures tackling real world problems. Each story visits a new location and introduces a human-made problem endangering animals and the environment. With nature’s highest stakes and environmental activism baked into each book, as well as fun scientific facts included at the end, Wind Riders promises to be the chapter book series for newly independent readers who love nature documentaries and are hungry to learn about the world around them. There is beautiful two-color art throughout and an emphasis on collaborative problem-solving, compassion for the Earth and all its inhabitants, and friendship. Wind Riders is the perfect STEM chapter book series for fans of Magic Tree House, The Magic School Bus, and Zoey and Sassafras.

“The first time we came here I didn’t know what to expect,” she told me as we paddled upstream. “What we found just blew me away. Jaguars, pumas, river otters, howler monkeys. The place was like a Noah’s Ark for all the endangered species driven out of the rest of Central America. There was so much life! That expedition was when I first saw the macaws.” As a young woman, Sharon Matola lived many lives. She was a mushroom expert, an Air Force survival specialist, and an Iowa housewife. She hopped freight trains for fun and starred as a tiger tamer in a traveling Mexican circus. Finally she found her one true calling: caring for orphaned animals at her own zoo in the Central American country of Belize. Beloved as “the Zoo Lady” in her adopted land, Matola became one of Central America’s greatest wildlife defenders. And when powerful outside forces conspired with the local government to build a dam that would flood the nesting ground of the last scarlet macaws in Belize, Sharon Matola was drawn into the fight of her life. In The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw, award-winning author Bruce Barcott chronicles Sharon Matola’s inspiring crusade to stop a multinational corporation in its tracks. Ferocious in her passion, she and her confederates–a ragtag army of courageous locals and eccentric expatriates–endure slander and reprisals and take the fight to the courtroom and the boardroom, from local village streets to protests around the world. As the dramatic story unfolds, Barcott addresses the realities of economic survival in Third World countries, explores the tension between environmental conservation and human development, and puts a human face on the battle over globalization. In this marvelous and spirited book, Barcott shows us how one unwavering woman risked her life to save the most beautiful bird in the world. "Barcott’s compelling narrative is suspenseful right up to the last moment." –Publisher's Weekly "An engrossing but sad account of a brave and quirky champion of nature."–Kirkus “…A riveting account of one woman’s fight to save one of the last bastions of an endangered Species. . . Barcott writes of international politics, ecology and endangered species, and human relations with equal facility. This real page-turner of narrative nonfiction is hard to put down.” –Booklist

"The multiple, vivid colors of scarlet macaws and their ability to mimic human speech are key reasons they were and are significant to the Native peoples of the southwestern U.S. and northwest New Mexico. Although the birds' natural habitat is the tropical forests of Mexico and Central America, they were present at multiple archaeological sites in the region. Leading experts in southwestern archaeology explore the reasons why"--

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2020 "In this superbly articulate cri de coeur, Safina gives us a new way of looking at the natural world that is radically different."—The Washington Post New York Times bestselling author Carl Safina brings readers close to three non-human cultures—what they do, why they do it, and how life is for them. A New York Times Notable Books of 2020 Some believe that culture is strictly a human phenomenon. But this book reveals cultures of other-than-human beings in some of Earth’s remaining wild places. It shows how if you’re a sperm whale, a scarlet macaw, or a chimpanzee, you too come to understand yourself as an individual within a particular community that does things in specific ways, that has traditions. Alongside genes, culture is a second form of inheritance, passed through generations as pools of learned knowledge. As situations change, social learning—culture—allows behaviors to adjust much faster than genes can adapt. Becoming Wild brings readers into intimate proximity with various nonhuman individuals in their free-living communities. It presents a revelatory account of how animals function beyond our usual view. Safina shows that for non-humans and humans alike, culture comprises the answers to the question, “How do we live here?” It unites individuals within a group identity. But cultural groups often seek to avoid, or even be hostile toward, other factions. By showing that this is true across species, Safina illuminates why human cultural tensions remain maddeningly intractable despite the arbitrariness of many of our differences. Becoming Wild takes readers behind the curtain of life on Earth, to witness from a new vantage point the most world-saving of perceptions: how we are all connected.

Hop aboard Wind Rider, a magical sailboat, with Max and Sofia, two kids trying to save the environment one problem at a time. Their first mission? Rescuing baby sea turtles in the beautiful waters of Hawaii. Max and Sofia are ordinary kids whose lives are changed when they discover an abandoned sailboat. They’re given the chance to make a real impact when the boat magically brings them them to a different corner of the world to help other kids save their environment! Wind Riders: Rescue on Turtle Beach is the first book in an illustrated chapter book series about Max and Sofia’s adventures tackling real world problems. Each story visits a new location and introduces a human-made problem endangering animals and the environment. With nature’s highest stakes and environmental activism baked into each book, as well as fun scientific facts included at the end, Wind Riders promises to be the chapter book series for newly independent readers who love nature documentaries and are hungry to learn about the world around them. There is beautiful two-color art throughout and an emphasis on collaborative problem-solving, compassion for the Earth and all its inhabitants, and friendship. Wind Riders is the perfect STEM chapter book series for fans of Magic Tree House, The Magic School Bus, and Zoey and Sassafras.

On their second adventure aboard Wind Rider, Max and Sofia travel to the Amazon rain forest to protect scarlet macaws from poachers and deforestation.

Hop aboard Wind Rider, a magical sailboat, with Max and Sofia, two ordinary kids trying to save the environment one problem at a time. Their third mission? Saving harbor seals from an oil spill! You never know where Wind Rider will take you... Max and Sofia's summer vacation gets wild when they stumble upon an abandoned sailboat in the mangrove forest. They’re given the chance to make a real impact when the boat magically transports them to a different corner of the world to help other kids save their environment! Wind Riders: Shipwreck in Seal Bay is the third book in an illustrated adventure chapter book series. Each story visits a new location and introduces a human-made problem that's endangering animals and the environment. With nature’s highest stakes and environmental activism baked into each book, as well as fun scientific facts included at the end, Wind Riders is a great chapter book series for newly independent readers who love nature documentaries, taking action, and learning about the world around them. There is beautiful two-color art throughout and an emphasis on collaborative problem-solving, compassion for the Earth and all its inhabitants, and friendship. Wind Riders is the perfect STEM chapter book series for fans of Magic Tree House, The Magic School Bus, and Zoey and Sassafras.