Nature Myths

When a tiger plays a trick on a wise man, how will he escape being eaten, especially when it seems that all the animals are against him? Will the jackal help him, or is it simply another trick? This traditional Indian tale, retold with a twist by Andrew Fusek Peters, provides an opportunity for talking about man's impact on the natural world.

When Ameerah Monkey wants to cross the river, she hatches a plot to trick crocodile into helping her. But how will she escape being his next meal? And will Crocodile ever get his pot of Monkey Tail Soup?

Everyone knows how rude and grumpy bears can be if they don't get enough sleep! When a bad-tempered bear trips over a tiny turtle, no one can foresee the consequence. When Turtle challenges Bear to a race along the lakeshore, Bear is confident about the outcome. But Turtle is smarter than Bear can imagine.

Badger is happy living in his neat and tidy burrow - until Big Bad Bully Goat decides to move in! Bully Goat has such a fearsome reputation that even Badger’s biggest friends are too scared to help. All seems lost until help arrives from a very unexpected quarter and Badger realizes that size isn't everything. This traditional Iberian tale is retold with a twist by storyteller, poet, and anthologist Andrew Fusek Peters.

Could griffins have been real? When Adrienne Mayor carefully read the ancient Greek and Roman descriptions, this mythic hybrid of a lion and an eagle sounded like something people had actually seen. What could explain that evidence? After a decade of hunting through myths, poring over old maps, and tracing the discoveries of modern dinosaur hunters, she found the answer: awesome dinosaur fossils observed by ancient gold hunters in the Gobi desert.

Is there really such a thing as a midlife crisis - a true crisis in a person's life that happens in midlife? Yes, there is. But fortunately for most of us, it is a fairly rare event. Unlike the midlife crisis, a midlife transition is a quasi-universal reaction to the major changes that take place in midlife, mentally, physically and in relationships. This book describes the powerful, dynamic forces that underlie both the midlife crisis and midlife transition and provides, through clinical case material, a detailed description of each.