Download or read book A Game for Swallows written by Zeina Abirached and published by Graphic Universe ™. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Zeina was born, the civil war in Lebanon had been going on for six years, so it's just a normal part of life for her and her parents and her little brother. The city of Beirut is cut in two, separated by bricks and sandbags and threatened by snipers and shelling. East Beirut is for Christians, and West Beirut is for Muslims. When Zeina's parents don't return one afternoon from a visit to the other half of the city, and the bombing grows ever closer, the neighbors in her apartment house create a world indoors for Zeina and her brother where it's comfy and safe, where they can share cooking lessons and games and gossip. Together they try to make it through a dramatic day in the one place they hoped they would always be safehome. Zeina Abirached, born into a Lebanese Christian family in 1981, has collected her childhood recollections of Beirut in a warm story about the strength of family and community.
Download or read book Return of the Swallows written by Dorothy Eva Praschma and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-08-19 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of a remarkable life - of love, courage and survival in the dark days of World War II. Dorothy Eva Ferreira grew up on a remote farm in South Africa, but in 1930, she met and married Engelbert, Count Praschma, Baron von Bilkau, an adventuring German aristocrat. Upon the death of his father in 1933, Engelbert took his wife and children to Germany to claim his rightful inheritance - only to be rebuffed by his status-conscious siblings. The family castle and estates were held in a fideicommiss which stated that the oldest son would be the sole heir. But the family maneuvered to have Engelbert disinherited as he was deemed a black sheep, an irresponsible profligate who married an African peasant while his younger brother had married a princess. The war raging about them, Dorothy and her children found refuge with an aunt and uncle, Count and Countess Stolberg, in Czechoslovakia. The aristocrats soon found it useful to have someone around who knew how to gather berries... how to slaughter a chicken... how to stand up to wave after wave of overbearing Russian soldiers and above all was not German. Her only proof: a small tattered South African flag and stamps of King George on her marriage certificate. In the horrific aftermath of the war, she retrieved her small children from distant boarding schools... and missing relatives from Soviet labor camps. In a world gone mad, she lived by the words, "My heart must never be too small for a woman." *** 31 January, 1941 I know that Engelbert got into financial trouble. He is accused of arms dealing and the family said he was a difficult case but why did they let him be taken to Leubus, this so-called sanatorium where people who are not useful to "the magnificent Third Reich" are sent. Is it possible that the family actually handed him over to the Nazis because he was such a thorn in their sides? Why did his sister Elisabeth who works for the military tell me, ten days ago, heartlessly, that as Engelbert is going to die soon the only thing for me is to go back to Africa and leave the children here to be adopted by suitable families? Leave my children? Never.
Download or read book The Year the Swallows Came Early written by Kathryn Fitzmaurice and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-02-03 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eleanor "Groovy" Robinson loves cooking and plans to go to culinary school just as soon as she's old enough. But even Groovy's thoughtfully—planned menus won't fix the things that start to go wrong the year she turns eleven—suddenly, her father is in jail, her best friend's long-absent mother reappears, and the swallows that make their annual migration to her hometown arrive surprisingly early. As Groovy begins to expect the unexpected, she learns about the importance of forgiveness, understands the complex stories of the people around her, and realizes that even an earthquake can't get in the way of a family that needs to come together. Kathryn Fitzmaurice's lovely debut novel is distinctively Californian in its flavor. Her rich characters and strong sense of place feel both familiar and fresh at first meeting—and worth revisiting, again and again.
Download or read book The Swallow written by Stephen Moss and published by Random House. This book was released on 2020-10-29 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of The Robin, The Wren and The Twelve Birds of Christmas. With around 700,000 breeding pairs, the swallow is one of the most familiar birds in Britain. Though we consider the swallow to be 'our' bird, we also share this beloved creature with millions of others across the globe. Whilst we see it on a daily basis for half the year, the swallow then flies south to Africa, living on only in our memory in the long, dark winter. In The Swallow Stephen Moss documents a year of observing the swallow close to home and in the field to shed light on the secret life of this extraordinary bird. We trace the swallow's life cycle and journey, including the epic 12,000-mile round trip it takes every year, to enable it to enjoy a life of almost eternal sunshine, and the key part the swallow plays in our traditional and popular culture. With beautiful illustrations throughout, this captivating year-in-the-life biography reveals the hidden secrets of this charismatic and beautiful bird. PRAISE FOR STEPHEN MOSS: 'A superb naturalist and writer' Chris Packham 'Inspired, friendly and blessed with apparently limitless knowledge' Peter Marren 'Moss has carved out an enviable niche as a chronicler of the natural world' Daily Mail
Download or read book Swallow written by Angela Turner and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2015-11-15 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Known as heralds of spring and beautiful, elegant flyers, swallows are among the most beloved of familiar birds. Because they return with the spring, swallows, as Angela Turner explains, have long been associated with the renewal of life, love, fidelity, and fertility, while their ability to travel incredible distances has given them associations with freedom and speed. That freedom, however, hasn’t kept them from becoming familiar figures in towns and cities. They often seem to even seek out human company—for example, barn swallows are known for nesting in our buildings and purple martins in our back yards. Destruction of their natural habitat, however, has proved dangerous to some species of swallow, and recent years have seen some populations dwindling to the point of near-extinction. Turner outlines the reasons for these declines as part of her engaging account of the natural and cultural history of this beloved bird.
Download or read book Swallow Journey written by Vivian French and published by . This book was released on 2001-10 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These stories are a wonderful way for children to explore one of nature's most fascinating mysteries--the instinctive compulsion for animals to migrate over large distances. With poetic text and stunning illustrations, these tales evoke the majestic environments that each animal inhabits. Two tiny swallows, Skimmer and Sweet Claw, have flown over a long distance to raise their young brood in the exact same nest they built last year. Now it is time for them to leave the cold, autumnal winds of northern Europe and return to the warmth and plenty of South Africa.
Download or read book Welcome Home Swallows written by Marlene Shigkawa and published by Weatherhill, Incorporated. This book was released on 2001 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A young Japanese American boy's family reunites after World War II ends.
Download or read book Swallow written by Mary Cappello and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-11 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An American half-dollar. A beaded crucifix. Tooth roots shaped like a tiny pair of pants. A padlock. Scads of peanut kernels and scores of safety pins. A metallic letter Z. A toy goat and tin steering wheel. A Perfect Attendance Pin. One of the most popular attractions in Philadelphia's world-famous Mtter Museum is the Chevalier Jackson Foreign Body Collection; a beguiling set of drawers filled with thousands of items that had been swallowed or inhaled, then extracted nonsurgically by a pioneering laryngologist using rigid instruments of his own design. How do people's mouths, lungs, and stomachs end up filled with inedible things, and what do they become once arranged in Jackson's aura-laden cabinet? What drove Dr. Chevalier Jackson's peculiar obsession not only with removing foreign bodies from people's upper torsos but also with saving and cataloging the items that he retrieved? Animating the space between interest and terror, curiosity and dread, award-winning author Mary Cappello explores what seems beyond understanding; the physiology of the human swallow, and the poignant and baffling psychology that compels people to ingest non-nutritive things. On a quest to restore the narratives that haunt Jackson's uncanny collection, she discovers that all things are secretly edible. Combining original research with a sympathetic and evocative sensibility, Cappello uncovers a history of racism and violence, of forced ingestion and hysteria, of class and poverty that left children to bank their family's last quarters in their mouths. Here, the seemingly disparate but equally marvelous worlds of the circus and the medical amphitheater meet in characters ranging from sword swallowers and women who lunched on hardware to the sensitive, bullied boy who grew up to be the father of endoscopy.
Download or read book The Swallows of Kabul written by Yasmina Khadra and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul, this extraordinary novel "puts a human face on the suffering inflicted by the Taliban" (San Francisco Chronicle), taking readers into the seemingly divergent lives of two couples—and depicting with compassion and exquisite details the mentality of Islamic fundamentalists and the complexities of the Muslim world. Mohsen comes from a family of wealthy shopkeepers whom the Taliban has destroyed; Zunaira, his wife, exceedingly beautiful, was once a brilliant teacher and is now no longer allowed to leave her home without an escort or covering her face. Intersecting their world is Atiq, a prison keeper, a man who has sincerely adopted the Taliban ideology and struggles to keep his faith, and his wife, Musarrat, who once rescued Atiq and is now dying of sickness and despair. Desperate, exhausted Mohsen wanders through Kabul when he is surrounded by a crowd about to stone an adulterous woman. Numbed by the hysterical atmosphere and drawn into their rage, he too throws stones at the face of the condemned woman buried up to her waist. With this gesture the lives of all four protagonists move toward their destinies. Yasmina Khadra brings readers into the hot, dusty streets of Kabul and offers them an unflinching but compassionate insight into a society that violence and hypocrisy have brought to the edge of despair.
Download or read book Garfield Swallows His Pride written by Jim Davis and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collects the early years of the cartoon Garfield in a larger, full-color format.
Download or read book The Swallows Flight written by Hilary McKay and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A triumph.” —Philip Pullman, bestselling author of the His Dark Materials saga Four young lives are forever changed at the dawn of World War II in this “stirring and unforgettable” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) novel from award-winning author Hilary McKay. In England, Ruby has no friends because of the speckled blotches on her face that kids say look like dirt. And Kate is sickly all the time, her older siblings each taking turns looking after her. Ruby and Kate’s first meeting is nearly disastrous, but the two lonely girls soon strike up a friendship. Their connection becomes all the more important when England joins the war against Germany and the blitz begins overhead. In Germany, Erik and Hans are best friends filled with plans for their future: Erik taking over their beloved local zoo, and Hans serving pastries right outside the gates. They never expected to be forced to join the national service, training as pilots and tasked with hurting people. And in London a mistreated dog roams the streets looking for handouts, and for a friend. All of these lives will cross in the most surprising ways in this heartrending tale of war and compassion, and hope that can be found in even the most unexpected friendships, brought to life by award-winning author Hilary McKay.
Download or read book The Swallow A Ghost Story written by Charis Cotter and published by Tundra Books. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic ghost story with twists and turns: a spooky house, a malevolent spirit and two plucky heroines. In 1960s Toronto, two girls retreat to their attics to escape the loneliness and isolation of their lives. Polly lives in a house bursting at the seams with people, while Rose is often left alone by her busy parents. Polly is a down-to-earth dreamer with a wild imagination and an obsession with ghosts; Rose is a quiet, ethereal waif with a sharp tongue. Despite their differences, both girls spend their days feeling invisible and seek solace in books and the cozy confines of their respective attics. But soon they discover they aren't alone--they're actually neighbors, sharing a wall. They develop an unlikely friendship, and Polly is ecstatic to learn that Rose can actually see and talk to ghosts. Maybe she will finally see one too! But is there more to Rose than it seems? Why does no one ever talk to her? And why does she look so ... ghostly? When the girls find a tombstone with Rose's name on it in the cemetery and encounter an angry spirit in her house who seems intent on hurting Polly, they have to unravel the mystery of Rose and her strange family... before it's too late.
Download or read book Swallows and Settlers written by Thomas R. Gottschang and published by U OF M CENTER FOR CHINESE STUDIES. This book was released on 2021-01-19 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between the 1890s and the Second World War, twenty-five million people traveled from the densely populated North China provinces of Shandong and Hebei to seek employment in the growing economy of China's three northeastern provinces, the area known as Manchuria. This was the greatest population movement in modern Chinese history and ranks among the largest migrations in the world. Swallows and Settlers is the first comprehensive study of that migration. Drawing methods from their respective fields of economics and history, the coauthors focus on both the broad quantitative outlines of the movement and on the decisions and experiences of individual migrants and their families. In readable narrative prose, the book lays out the historical relationship between North China and the Northeast (Manchuria) and concludes with an examination of ongoing population movement between these regions since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949.
Download or read book Swallow s Dance written by Wendy Orr and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2018-06-27 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I wonder if the first day of Learning is always like this - do the girls on the hill always feel the ground tremble under their feet? Leira is about to start her initiation as a priestess when her world is turned upside down. A violent earthquake leaves her home - and her family - in pieces. And the goddess hasn't finished with the island yet. With her family, Leira flees across the sea to Crete, expecting sanctuary. But a volcanic eruption throws the entire world into darkness. After the resulting tsunami, society descends into chaos; the status and privilege of being noble-born reduced to nothing. With her injured mother and elderly nurse, Leira has only the strength and resourcefulness within herself to find safety. A thrilling Bronze Age survival story from the acclaimed author of Dragonfly Song.
Download or read book Falcon Freeway written by Christian Hagenlocher and published by Bookbaby. This book was released on 2019-10-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2016, Christian Hagenlocher became the youngest birder to see over 750 species of birds in North America. Inspired by the journeys of Kenn Kaufman's book Kingbird Highway, Christian embarked on an epic road trip, car-camping his way across the continent in Wal-Mart parking lots. Subsisting on fruit snacks and Ramen noodles, Christian interviewed hundreds of birders in a large-scale effort to understand the emerging role technology plays in connecting people with nature. He describes the trials and triumphs of birding on a budget in his year-long quest for birds, detailing his run-ins with bears, bad weather, and a nudist cowboy, observing firsthand many of the challenges birds face in a rapidly-changing world.
Download or read book White Feathers written by Bernd Heinrich and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-02-18 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The surprising, rich life of tree swallows in nesting season—with Heinrich’s beautiful illustrations and photographs—by the acclaimed naturalist. Heinrich is sparked one early spring day by a question: Why does a pair of swallows in a nest-box close to his Maine cabin show an unvarying preference for white feathers—not easily available nearby—as nest lining? He notices, too, the extreme aggressiveness of “his” swallows toward some other swallows of their own kind. And he wonders, given swallows’ reputation for feistiness, at the extraordinary tameness and close contact he experiences with his nesting birds. From the author of the beloved books Ravens in Winter and A Naturalist at Large, this richly engaging view of the lives of wild birds, as always with Heinrich, yields “marvelous, mind-altering” insight and discoveries. —Los Angeles Times
Download or read book They Came Like Swallows written by William Maxwell and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-02-15 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover William Maxwell’s classic, heart-breaking portrait of an ordinary American family struck by the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic 'A story of such engaging warmth that it would thaw the heart of any critic... Will melt many a reader to tears’ TIME Elizabeth Morison is an ordinary woman. Yet, to eight-year-old Bunny, his mother is the centre of his universe. To Robert, her elder son, she is someone he must protect against the dangers of the outside world. And to her husband, James, she is the foundation on which his family rests and life without her is unimaginable. As the dark winter of 1918 dawns and the shadow of Spanish flu starts to disturb day-to-day life, a moving portrait of Elizabeth takes shape, set against the lives and fate of the Morison family. ‘As you read They Came Like Swallows, you catch yourself from time to time being astonished at how tightly you're gripping the pages... There isn't a word that has dated. It could have been written yesterday, or tomorrow’ Nicholas Lezard, Guardian
